Behind the Scenes: The Good, the Bad, and Success Stories of Digital Marketing Services in Brisbane
Trades and professional services to distributors and membership-based organisations seek to leverage digital marketing services in Brisbane to achieve their organisation’s goals.
There is a right way and a wrong way to invest in digital marketing services in Brisbane. This article draws up our 16 years of experience to share our learnings and behind-the-scenes of some of our success stories.
The Bad: Learning from Mistakes.
The common mistakes we’ve seen companies make over the years in their digital marketing can be categorised into three key areas:
1. Website design
- No Web Brief: Not preparing a web brief for the web developer often leads to a new website not reflecting your requirements and failing to achieve your goals.
- Lost Search Rankings: Building a new website without protecting the rankings of the previous website and then wondering why the phone has stopped ringing.
- Micromanagement: Controlling every detail of the website’s development without leveraging the expertise of your web developer is likely to result in a new website not delivering the best possible ROI.
If there are significant issues with your website, whether it's related to design, user experience, or Google compliance, any investment you make in online promotions or online communications will receive a low return on investment. In effect, it's like pouring water into a leaky bucket; no matter how much effort you put in, much of it will be wasted.
2. Online Promotions
- Inadequate SEO setup: A new website being invisible to a Google search, even for its company name, is like opening a shop without a sign.
- Insufficient Online Promotion: With no online promotion, your website will be invisible to your audiences.
- Channel Misalignment: Investing in the wrong digital channels or focussing too narrowly on one will lead to a low return on your investment.
If you have insufficient online promotion or the wrong balance between digital channels, it's like trying to swim upstream; you'll find yourself exerting more effort and progress will be slower in reaching your goals.
3. Online Communications
- Neglected Brand Story: Not communicating about your brand story and why people should choose you will result in potential customers going elsewhere.
- Poor Content Quality: Whether it’s your website, Google Business or social media, content that is too technical or poorly written will fail to engage your audience and will not influence them to take the next step.
- Content not aligned with Customer Journey: Not creating content relevant for each stage of the customer’s journey (awareness, consideration, conversion and loyalty) will halt their progress towards making a purchase.
Investing in promotions alone isn't sufficient. To engage and guide your audiences through the customer journey, high-quality content marketing tailored to each stage is crucial. Neglecting content quality or solely focusing on content at the conversion stage risks losing 95% of your audience who are not ready to buy today and reduces your conversion rate without sufficient trust-building. Trust moves people through the stages of the customer journey faster.
Example of K&G Automotive website design
The Good: Lessons from Success
Over the last 16 years, Sustainable Marketing Service’s expert team has worked with over 300 businesses across 25 sectors.
In our experience, the difference between successful digital marketing and ones that fails comes down to the following factors:
1. Create a Digital Marketing Plan
Jumping ahead without a plan is like driving to a holiday destination without a roadmap. Skipping this crucial step often leads to a wasted investment that either fails to deliver results or doesn’t achieve the best results. A digital marketing plan includes goals, strategies, tactics, a calendar, a budget and measurements to help you achieve a better outcome.
2. Leverage Expertise to Maximise Results.
Digital marketing is complex, requiring a range of skill sets to succeed. If you rely on a web developer or SEO specialist to do all of the branding, digital, communications, and social media skills, you will be disappointed. Working with a qualified, expert digital marketer with a long history of proven performance will maximise the results you achieve.3. Embrace Collaboration to Leverage Collective Knowledge.
Micromanagement stifles creativity and undermines the potential to leverage collective knowledge. When organisations allow room for their digital marketers and suppliers to contribute their ideas and expertise, the outcomes are significantly enhanced. Collaboration elevates the quality of work and ensures a higher return on investment.4. Approach Marketing as a Marathon, Not a Sprint.
The allure of a quick win and instant results can be tempting, but true marketing success is a journey that takes time. Focussing solely on conversion activities without nurturing other customer journey stages is costly and unsustainable. Patiently following your digital marketing plan will give you a solid foundation that delivers sustainable long-term growth.5. Measure, Adapt and Innovate for Success.
Not measuring your marketing is like throwing a dart blindfolded and hoping for the best. Begin by evaluating at the tactical level, such as social engagement, to assess what works and what doesn’t. Make progressive improvements to strategies and execution. Over time, sales and growth performance at the business level will be assessed.Example of MAAA's digital Wingspan Magazine
Behind the Scene Examples of Success
The success stories for K&G Auto, City Tree Services, Sovereign Lady Charters and the Model Aeronautical Association of Australia share common success factors.
The organisations had an excellent digital marketing plan, personalised strategies and tactics, and the right balance of digital and traditional marketing.
The brand strategy, marketing communications and digital marketing were executed well, and marketing was measured and improved continuously.
The reasons for success came down to a good plan, digital marketing expertise and experience across a range of marketing disciplines and taking a long-term view to marketing success.
K&G Automotive (trade)
What we did: Brand positioning, annual marketing planning, digital strategy, managed rebuild of website, marketing campaigns, awards submissions, social media and Google Business.
Results achieved: K&G Auto receives between 120 and 180 phone calls each month and has had significant growth between 2018 and 2024.
Sovereign Lady Charters (tourism startup)
What we did: Brand positioning, digital strategy, managed build of website, marketing communications, promotion via online aggregators, digital channels and set up social media.
Results achieved: Sovereign Lady receives regular and ongoing bookings and has grown Sovereign Lady Charters into a profitable business.
City Tree Services (services)
What we did: Brand positioning, digital strategy, managed website build, marketing communications and digital promotions.
Results achieved: City Tree Services has grown its income to scale the business, hired a general manager and attract strategic landscaping partners.
Model Aeronautical Association of Australia (membership)What we did: Marketing Planning, Brand Positioning, managed build of new website, creation of new digital magazine, member research, social media, event management and public relations.
Results achieved: The MAAA achieved an 11% growth of membership to 9,653 and higher member retention of 93% in 2017/2018, improved their Net Promoter Score from -11.77 in 2014 to 40 in 2021, growth of Facebook fans from 1,450 in 2014 to 13,083 in 2021 and strong PR coverage across TV, press and radio between 2014 and 2021.
Example of Sovereign Lady Charters' social media
Why work with Sustainable Marketing Services
Sustainable Marketing Services help clients build their brand reputation, boost their online visibility and achieve more sustainable growth.
With over 16 years of experience in digital marketing, public relations, marketing communications, and social media, we have a long history of achieving reliable results across an extensive range of industries.
Book a free digital marketing health check to see how we can improve your digital marketing to achieve more sustainable growth for your organisation.
Sustainable Marketing Services is an award-winning Brisbane digital marketing agency with a long history of delivering sustainable success for our clients.
Book a complimentary meeting on 07 3446 5837 or via email us here.