How to Make Your Business More Successful
Interview with Melina Tringis: head of Digital Marketing at CyHerbia Botanical Park
Young professional Melina Tringis shares some business advice and a few tips to help you deal with business issues and keep your company profitable during these hard times! Enjoy the full interview here! You won’t find ready-made answers here, just the experience of a young and brilliant mind on how she deals with business challenges at CyHerbia Botanical Park.
Melina grew up surrounded with herbs, thanks to her mother Miranda Tringis’s special interest in the healing powers of natural herbal remedies. The family prioritized from the start activities that involved spending time outdoors such as going on scavenger hunts or identifying bugs and wildflowers. So from a young age, she acquired a great deal of knowledge about nature and herbal remedies.
Early evidence of an entrepreneurial spirit
By the time she attended high school Melina was ready to put her knowledge of herbs to work. Whenever her classmates felt unwell, she would sell them herbal teas to help them alleviate their symptoms. This was the beginning of a stellar career as an astute businesswoman. During her high school years she used to offer photo shoots for her classmates who wanted a new Facebook profile picture, having a creative profile picture as a teenager was a must back then. She also did family shoots, and from an early age she learned how to communicate with the client to make them feel comfortable during a shoot, pose them to look at their best and have fun until the very end of the photo shoot. After school, she studied photography in Wales for three years and to this day, uses her creativity skills in her digital marketing and does photo shoots in Cyherbia’s lavender gardens every year.
Challenges that come with business success
The rapid growth of CyHerbia is both rewarding and the greatest challenge. The demand year on year is ever greater as the park increasingly becomes a regular favorite destination for families and nature lovers alike. As a result, all members of Melina’s team are required to switch rapidly from one task to another. The many activities offered on site require everyone to be always alert and available, and ready for hands-on participation and interaction with visitors.
Consequently, on many occasions, Melina is called upon to stand in for her mother, Miranda Tringis, in effect taking on the role of General Manager, on top of her own Digital Marketing duties. She always thinks ahead using a bird’s eye view for Cyherbia’s potential, she comes up with new product ideas, events and workshops too. She is passionate about educating people about environmental issues and to make Cyherbia a leading sustainable business in Cyprus. She gives workshops in schools about how to make your own cosmetics with natural ingredients, as well as composting workshops. The challenge is to keep thinking ahead and she does it effortlessly, because she loves new projects and ideas.
The driving concept behind CyHerbia
The concept behind CyHerbia is to invite people, children as well as adults, to enjoy a day out in nature. Schools often bring children to the park for an immersive experience that is both educational and entertaining. Corporate events are also held at the park, as it is a wonderful setting for team building activities. Whether they are leaving the office or the classroom behind, everyone relishes reconnecting with nature and each other.
The Cyherbia team
The CyHerbia Botanical Park always looks so impeccable, one would assume there is an army of people working round clock to maintain it. But once again the focus is on quality rather than quantity. The team is small but efficiently managed.
Due to COVID-related restrictions, the team has currently shrunk down to just five people. Normally, when the park is open to the public, there are ten members of staff on premises. And during festivals, the number of employees doubles, with as many as 20 people available to look after visitors’ needs.
The CyHerbia customer base is local as well as international
CyHerbia has a steady stream of local visitors but also welcomes thousands of visitors from abroad each year, as it has now been established as a super popular, go-to tourist destination.
Nowadays, through the online store, and their online presence in general, CyHerbia also works with many people on an international level. Given the current climate and the impact of COVID restrictions, CyHerbia fully intends to continue to develop its strong digital presence, addressing the needs of the global market as well as the local one.
The CyHerbia Unique Selling Point
CyHerbia is unique in that it offers the opportunity for visitors to immerse themselves in a world of imagination and fantasy. As well as spend a day in nature, visitors are encouraged to dress up during festivals as their favorite fantasy characters. They get the opportunity to interact with actors and live in a fairy tale world for a few hours.
Having said that, even when there is no festival on, CyHerbia provides visitors with a chance to reconnect with nature, leave the stressors of day-to-day life behind and enter a Cypriot landscape of local trees, herbs, and flowers. They get to learn more about the healing powers of herbs and essential oils as well as relax and have fun.
CyHerbia is also closely collaborating with academic institutions and researchers. They are currently working together with Frederick University on a research program to develop a soap from the native plant Saponaria.
Contributing factors to CyHerbia’s huge business success
CyHerbia has worked hard to create a relationship of trust with their customers by offering creative and fantastical experiences and by continuously innovating.
Repeat visitors are reassured that they will enjoy a unique experience there, such as pumpkin carving, Halloween, the lavender festival etc. Both children and adults know that they will experience something new each time they visit because the experience is never the same.
They also look forward to the escape the park provides. Parents are grateful to have a place to take their children that is free of tablet screens and online games. It represents an opportunity for everyone to enjoy returning to a simpler lifestyle that is more connected to nature.
Handling difficult clients
Melina has a strong intuition and is patient when it comes to difficult clients. She listens to them first and responds with kindness, always asks clients how she can improve their experience and make them feel comfortable, as well as have the best time at Cyherbia.
The impact of the second lockdown
Although not a complete surprise, the second lockdown still felt surreal. The loss of visitors naturally resulted in a loss of revenue. However, it provided CyHerbia with the opportunity to focus on and develop their online presence. With the invaluable help of Elena Jnr Andreou of Go Digital Globally they revamped their website and improved its SEO score. They also developed a much stronger social media presence and worked on their email marketing strategy. With an enhanced online marketing presence, CyHerbia is ready to take its business model to the next level.
CyHerbia’s current business goals
CyHerbia’s main goal is to be recognized as an authority in the world of natural remedies both online and within their community. They aim to become the go-to source for herbal wellness education and powerful, healing products.
CyHerbia’s Contribution to the community
CyHerbia offers children the opportunity to participate in outdoors activities that don’t involve electronic devices. This helps activate their imagination and creativity and teaches them healthy habits in a fun way. This is radically different to what any other company offers as children’s entertainment.
CyHerbia is a haven away from day-to-day stress, for both young and old. And it is also a reliable source of information about the healing powers of the herbs of Cyprus.
CyHerbia is simply the healthiest, most fun, and most educational option for a great day out with the whole family.
Melina’s words of advice to young entrepreneurs
Find something you are passionate about that is going to benefit other people too. Think about how you can improve somebody’s life.
Also, being a successful business owner is not a destination but a journey. So, always be prepared to learn, adapt, and change, and always work well with others. This will ensure long-lasting success!
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About the author!
Des Telemachou is an experienced film maker and photographer, with hundreds of videos in the public domain. She specialises in corporate video marketing with an emphasis on branding, promotional and social responsibility videos, as well as client testimonials.
In addition, Des is an experienced social media content creator, including graphic posts and articles. She can also provide scripting, content editing and content writing services as part of a package.
Des is bilingual in Greek and English. She holds a B.A. (Hons) in English and an M.Phil. in Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, in the UK.