Case Studies
Real World Case Studies
Over the first 4 years of Web Marketing Outlaw I've acted as a bit of a lone wolf. This means I operated mostly alone (outside of a few outsourcers) and did the work myself. It also meant I only worked with a handful of clients to deliver them results.
My philosophy has always been one of partnership and long term relationships over the common "wham bam thank you ma'am" that offer occurs with online services and particularly internet marketing. Having an effective website and marketing your business online is not a quick fix solution but a constantly evolving process. To stay ahead of the game you need someone who is actually playing the game on a daily basis... and actually winning!
That's why when I work with a business I become part of the team. Just because I work in a different location doesn't mean I'm not committed to your success and always looking for ways to improve your business. This often comes in forms that are outside web marketing as well because of my general passion for business and marketing. Now that I have a team to back me up I don't see this philosphy changing one bit.
Now Even More Knowledge...
Which Equals Even Better Results For You
I've teamed up with other experts in their fields to provide you with a one stop shop when it comes to internet marketing that does one thing... brings you results. If I don't have a member on my team yet for what you need then we'll find someone. Because let's face it... I'm going to be able to spot the dodgy cowboys online and make sure we get a quality person that delivers you results.
With that being said here is a collection of case studies from clients I've worked with over the last 4 years and the results I've brought them. To be honest I haven't been the best with collecting testimonials since much of my work has spread by word of mouth but I'll try to add to this collection as we grow. I hope these give you a feel for why we are unique and the results we can bring you.
Jan Maree Vodanovich Photography and Art
Award Winning and Unique Photography and Art
What Craig says:
Jan Maree is a unique and gifted photographer and artist who just needed to learn how to market herself more effectively. Her uniqueness is in her 30+ years experience in art and she continues to win awards for her art, wedding and portrait photography. However it took an outsider looking in to identify this uniqueness and understand how valuable it was.
So our first stage was to capture this uniqueness and then communicate it on her website. We also improved the way information was structured on her website although we were restricted by the template website she was using.
She's now getting more contacts from the website and we're working on her conversion from the phone into meetings. We're also starting to build traffic to her website using Google Adwords and starting on a Search Engine Optimisation campaign since she is nowhere to be found at the moment.
Additional help is being provided as she markets her services at upcoming expos and we're involved in designing her marketing, creating a free offer, booth layout and writing emails to follow up with prospective clients.
Jan Maree is a great example of how we don't just focus on your website but partner with you to make your entire business more successful. Because at the end of the day there are many factors that help to increase your website sales that most people overlook. And sometimes it's those little tweaks that can make all the difference to your business' results.
Lisa Dudson
Your Financial Sounding Board
What Craig says:
For Lisa I set up her online strategy including the creation of the www.moneyblog.co.nz which feeds into a free membership website www.moneyclub.co.nz that delivers a popular 7 week course. We’ve seen a very high sign up rate for the course and have built a good email list solely based on word of mouth.
Unfortunately due to difficulties with her web designers Lisa’s new Acumen business website isn’t live yet but we’re getting closer with a new designer on the job.
This project was more about how Lisa could present her expertise online due to her large media profile where she writes for a large number of publications (like Woman’s Day, xtraMSN etc) and appears on TV as a money expert (she was the financial expert behind the Money Man TV show that was quite popular).
There was also a lot of discussion and development around her brand. Because Lisa has such a wide range of knowledge and skills it's always been hard to pin down exactly how she should present herself. I believe we've got a lot more clarity around this with her new website and the branding we developed.
Things have slowed down a bit as Lisa started participating in other business opportunities and her online stuff was put to the background. However she’s refocused on her websites now and in the finishing stages with the web designer so you’ll soon be able to see her awesome new business website with all its wonderful copywriting.
Care Training Online
Bringing The Care Back Into Caregiving
What Craig says:
Leigh wanted to take her existing training business for eldercare workers and put it online somehow so I helped her with the entire strategy and implementation for her site. We’ve done this project on a tight budget in order to make sure we were creating a product people actually wanted to buy before investing large amounts of money. Now the concept is proven we’re moving her on to a new membership system that looks prettier and will create a better overall user experience.
This was mainly about how to package her knowledge and sell it to her existing client base. There’s also been a lot of work on Leigh’s business as a whole to move her from a seminar base to an online base due to shifts in the market.
The site only went live a few months ago but she got sales quite quickly. Because her market isn’t extremely wired into the Internet there’s been a lot of offline promotion for it. They all seem to love the idea but committing to it with everything else going on is another matter but Leigh is making good progress.
Great things are happening for her though and we’re both very excited with the potential her website has to change the caring industry. Once we change to the new membership system we’ll also start marketing her online to potential clients in Australia and the UK.
Spit Roast Catering Company
Hassle-Free Spit Roast Catering With The World's Only Compliment Guarantee
What Craig says:
For this website I emphasised their market positioning of being the original spit roast catering company in NZ. I also created the Compliment Guarantee for them (which they loved) and did the complete copywriting on the website.
Another big part was bringing their wedding catering options out from the mess and presenting them in a new section. Basically simplifying how they presented their packages a lot in general. This involved working with the web designers to make it all happen the way I wanted.
Some of the structure and design couldn’t be changed because of the web programming restrictions but generally I am happy how the website sounds and flows towards getting the order.
I just emailed Graham to see how he was getting on since the changes were finished and the news was positive. The wedding orders have increased a lot and helped out as the corporate market has been difficult in the economic climate.
They also managed to dramatically decrease their Yellow Pages spending (they had 1 spine ad and multiple 1 page ads) thanks to a more effective website and have not seen any drop off in business at all. During 2011 the business has been growing and they’re excited about the upcoming Rugby World Cup potential.
TtMadrid
Your Spanish Adventure Awaits You
What Craig says:
TtMadrid were my very first clients who heard me talking about websites and asked if I could search engine optimise their website. I took them from position 20 to position 4 for their main keyword in about a week and they’re now number 1 after a long battle. After the fast results they asked what I could do next.
I ended up completely restructuring and rewriting the website to make it more personal, friendly and flow towards their Most Wanted Response. It basically involved taking the personal voice of the business owners – Tash and Tem – and putting that online. Once the website got visitors to call then they could easily build on the relationship and turn the callers into clients.
This website was probably the most difficult one I’ve ever had to do. We were selling a course that taught English speakers how to teach English in a foreign country. So not only did we have to get them to spend a few thousand euros with us but in order to do the course they had to leave their home and move to Spain!
Down the track we also built a large adwords campaign for their business and got them started in using social media to promote their business. You also have to remember this was a few years ago when social media marketing was brand new and they were doing the cutting edge stuff. Tash has continued on to become quite the social media expert thanks to her wonderful skills in networking.
What Natasha says:
"We have reduced our marketing budget by 40% whilst our conversions have gone up year on year by about 60%. We used to have immense competition in Madrid and now we have very little competition in our market here. We do believe that this is because Craig has helped us to tap into our target market so effectively. Time and time again we hear how we were chosen because we stand out from the crowd – not an easy task in a very crowded market place.
Craig has saved us time and money and has ensured our businesses survival through one of the worst global recessions to date. He was very aware of the time we had available to spend on these tasks (very little!) and therefore made sure that each project was worthwhile and had an excellent time v return ratio.
We cannot recommend Craig's services highly enough. We believe that the success we have had and our continued success is in no small part to having Craig support our marketing initiatives."
Natasha Mason, Director, TtMadrid
Hot English Magazine
The Fun And Easy Way To Learn English
What Craig says:
Hot English publishes a fun and funky magazine for English learners. When we met they knew they had an international product but just weren’t getting the sales online despite having quite a bit of traffic. It was my job to get their website selling.
I started by rewriting and restructuring the website so visitors actually knew what was for sale and how to buy it. By simplifying the website we saw an instant bump in sales.
When we met Hot English had a 6000 person email list but it had been poorly maintained and marketed to over the years so no-one was reading the few emails they sent. So I started from scratch by introducing a weekly lesson that subscribers were excited to receive. By balancing commercial with informational messages the subscribers were much happier... and they wrote to tell us.
I personally grew this list to 14,000 subscribers before handing it off to a staff member and the effectiveness of the email list was amazing. At one stage we tested something that accidentally stopped people signing up with their email... and sales stopped dead. The day we fixed the problem the sales started to pour in again... the effectiveness of the email list never needed to be questioned again!
Amongst many other things we did a website redesign, creating an automated email follow up sequence, launched new products and got them started with social media. Facebook has proved especially popular and they’re about to hit 4,000 fans over quite a short space of time.
What Andy says:
"He is constantly adding value to our business whether it's a creative way to package our products or his sales writing skills. He also works well independently to sell our products which allows us time to focus our core skills of creating our fun and interesting English magazine and other English learning materials that are sold around the world. We're glad Craig was recommended to us and we highly recommend him to help you market your business as well."
Andy Coney, Director, Hot English Magazine
Shaolin Kung Fu Nam Pai Chuan
Strengthen The Will
What Craig says:
As a personal project I’ve also been involved in the Shaolin Kung Fu Nam Pai Chuan website for many years now. I started doing kung fu back in January 2004 and it wasn’t long before I became involved in the website. While I don’t always get to give it the time and attention I like it has achieved some great results for us.
Firstly it’s the undisputed champion of ranking for “kung fu” in New Zealand. If you Google “kung fu” you find it right after Wikipedia and YouTube (but I will beat them one day!) and also ranks our classes number one in every city we have them apart from Auckland which is number 2 for now. We just added a class in Hamilton and it ranked on the first page in the first week.
To be honest not a lot of effort has gone into this as I’m not big on the grunt work involved for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). However now we have a SEO team in place we’ll be really focusing on our rankings and also going after “martial arts” soon so stay tuned! I’m also playing with some Google Places optimisation for us as well.
The copywriting and structure was also all done by me outside of the history pages. Needless to say the website is our biggest way of attracting students throughout New Zealand and continues to be the main marketing avenue we use. The design needs a makeover and the site is probably due for a refresh soon it’s just finding the time to do it.
Really I like to use it as an example of how effective web marketing can help you dominate in your niche. We’re a school where no-one profits from teaching or running the system yet we dominate against schools that are in it to make money. It just goes to show how powerful the Internet can be when you get it right.
And to save you asking yes I am a Black Belt and the Senior Student at the Remuera Auckland club. I support the nstructor as the main assistant instructor and run the administration for the club.
Even More Testimonials
"Most of your marketing and advertising isn't working, and you know it. It's time to stop just accepting that as "just the way business is", and make changes. But what changes? That's where Craig comes in. He knows his stuff inside out and will specify the changes you need to make to generate measurable results (and he guarantees those results or you pay nothing). Now, are you going to nod politely and click away or are you going to take the first step and talk to Craig?"
Sheldon Nesdale, Marketing Consultant, Marketing First
"Craig positioned Windsor Idiomas as experts in its field and gained us invaluable press coverage. He possesses a rare quality when it comes to writing for marketing purposes– he gets right to the point and gives value on every line. His knowledge of the latest marketing techniques is impressive and his knowledge around social marketing strategies is second to none. I would have no hesitation in recommending his services.
Janice Haywood, Director, Windsor Idiomas
"As a marketer, Craig's knowledge is superb. He has an insatiable thirst for learning and is always at the cutting edge of marketing trends. And I should know, as I often speak at internet marketing conferences and fly around the world to take part in millionaire mastermind groups that consist of some of the world's leading marketing experts.
If your business has an opportunity to take advantage of Craig's marketing brain or copywriting skills, I suggest you don't think twice about it. He's been a pleasure to work side-by-side with, and I fully endorse his work."
Dean Hunt, Buzz Marketing Guru and Online Attention Seeker
"In the end, both my business partner and I
ended up putting our complete faith in Craig, leaving the project in his hands, as we built up a very strong trust in his work and methods. On a continuing basis for more than a year after he finished our website, Craig continued to implement our marketing programme, setting up a very good social marketing programme amongst many things, and saved us a lot of time and energy by taking those issues off our plate."Mark Laurence, Director, MadridMAS
I can't believe you read all that... you're obviously committed to your website's success. Now watch our free webinar "Seven Ways To Turn More Website Visitors Into Paying Clients"
