CASE STUDIES
THEY CAME FOR ONE THING. THE NUMBERS HAD OTHER IDEAS.
You won’t find dollar figures here. Those belong to my clients, not my website. The percentages tell the story perfectly well.
Every business on this page arrived with a theory about what was wrong. Most of them were partly right. The interesting part was always the bit nobody had looked at.
No dollar figures here, those belong to my clients. And no numbers floating on their own. Every figure below is measured against a target or an industry benchmark, because a percentage with nothing behind it could mean anything.
Florist, retail and online
Their most profitable opportunity was already sitting in their account.
THE RESULT
No new platform. No elaborate funnel. No money spent finding an audience they already had.
WHAT THEY CAME FOR
Growth. The assumption was that it would come from spending more on ads, or from a channel they were not on yet.
WHAT WAS ACTUALLY GOING ON
Flower Bowl were already doing the hard part well. Attracting real customers, giving them a reason to come back, and collecting permission to stay in touch.
There were 6,700 subscribers sitting quietly on the list. That is not a small audience. It is, however, remarkably unproductive when nobody sends it anything.
The business did not need another channel. It needed to wake up the one it had spent years building.
WHAT I DID
Reactivated the list gradually, rather than blasting 6,700 people at once
Built eight campaigns across the first quarter, planned around what people buy and when
Wrote them to sound like the shop, not like an email template
Kept the paid advertising running alongside, because it was already doing its job
It is rarely another channel people need. Usually it is the one they have been politely ignoring.
Retail and ecommerce
After two years, I told them to hire someone else.
THE RESULT
62% of customers returning, and June revenue up 22% year on year at 106% of target.
WHAT THEY CAME FOR
A CMO. Strong repeat trade across retail and ecommerce, a loyalty program that looked healthy, and a feeling that it should be doing more than it was.
WHAT WAS ACTUALLY GOING ON
The loyalty program was a discount scheme wearing a loyalty badge.
Sign-ups were climbing, which looked like progress. But nobody had asked the only questions that matter: were members buying more often, and were they spending more when they did? Or were we handing money to people who would have bought anyway?
Membership was never the goal. Better customers were.
WHAT I DID
Rebuilt the program around revenue rather than sign-ups
Changed what we measured to purchase frequency and customer value
Designed it around how members actually shopped, not how we hoped they would
Gave the team clear numbers so they could see what was earning its keep
Two years in, the strategic work had done its job. What they needed next was hands-on Klaviyo optimisation from a specialist, not ongoing direction from me. So I said so, and helped them find the right person.
Good advice includes knowing when you are no longer the answer.
NATURAL SUPPLY CO
A LOYALTY PROGRAM THAT ACTUALLY PAYS.
Sign-ups were never the point. These three moved together, which is what tells you the program changed behaviour rather than just handing out discounts.
Loyalty program growth, March to December against the same months the year before.
Ecommerce, candle and soap making supplies
They asked for a tune-up. They got a marketing function.
THE RESULT
Then a record quarter, and their biggest sales day ever with no ads running.
WHAT THEY CAME FOR
A Klaviyo tune-up. Email was underperforming and they wanted someone to fix it.
WHAT WAS ACTUALLY GOING ON
Email was part of the opportunity. It was not the whole answer.
The website, the agencies, the reporting and the internal team were all doing their bit competently, and none of it was working from one plan. Everyone was busy. Nothing was pulling in the same direction.
That is how perfectly capable people end up doing plenty of work without moving the business forward.
WHAT I DID
Built one marketing plan with the team, paced to what the business could actually carry
Put the priorities in order, and was clear about what to stop
Oversaw the Klaviyo and paid media agencies, wrote the briefs, checked the work before it went live
Set KPIs so everyone could see what was working
Rebuilt the Shopify site around how their customers actually shop
Nobody needed to work harder. The work just needed to point the same way.
PURE CANDLE SUPPLIES
SIX MONTHS, MONTH BY MONTH.
The growth was not one good month. It compounded, and it held while the plan stayed the same.
Net revenue by month, indexed so last-year January = 100.
THE SHORT ONES
GOOD ADVICE SHOWS UP IN THE NUMBERS.
Three more, with less of the story and none of the build-up.
Barwon Health Foundation
Not for profit, fundraising
A first event with no history to sell against, and a room to fill. I delivered the whole campaign: email, web, social and on the night.
1,017 guests sold out two months before the night
$10.06M raised for the Barwon Women's and Children's Appeal
68% open rate on the guest emails, against a 21% benchmark
Nobody was buying a product. They were buying in.
Tourism Greater Geelong & The Bellarine
Destination marketing
I ran their social media, but the strategy came first. Once we knew who the summer campaign was talking to, the content had something to do.
2 million+ organic views across the summer
241% growth in engagement and 317% in followers, against the summer before
Three months extended to nine
Strategy first. Then the posting has a job.
Studio Fondue
Pilates studio and retail, Uluwatu, Bali
Six months of CMO retainer. I set the direction and check the work, their team runs it, and I spend an hour a week with their marketing manager.
9.6x return on ad spend, against a 5x goal
2.74 visits per customer, against a goal of 2.5
105% of the weekly retail target
Every channel has a target now. Every month, they hit it.
YOU PROBABLY HAVE A THEORY.
Most business owners do. You’re inside the business every day; of course you have a view on what isn’t working.
You might be right.
Or the numbers might point somewhere cheaper, simpler or mildly inconvenient.
Let’s have a look before you spend money fixing the wrong thing.
Thirty minutes. No charge, no pitch.
