Consultancy Projects

Typical work I’m involved with includes …

• Identifying failing parts of websites (and how to fix them).
• Converting product or service page visitors to enquiries and sales.
• Ensuring that people click further to goal pages and actions after landing on the website
• Refining and creating Google Ads campaigns so that they drive the right types of visitors to websites (and convert to enquiries after landing).
• Creating website success strategies that guarantee visitors will make contact, even if they have been to competitors’ websites before or after the visit.
• Actions that increase organic visibility in search engines (and people click further after landing).
• LinkedIn paid advertising strategies and implementation.
• Finding wastage in marketing budget and activities (and how to repair any problems).

I focus on the simplest wins first because it’s very typical for a website to be gaining fewer enquiries than it should be from the existing levels of website visitors.

I’m well-known for ensuring that website weaknesses are fixed before focusing on generating more traffic to the website.  This in itself creates website strength that will guarantee much better results from future marketing activities.

Pricing of consultancy

I work at a rate of £150 per hour and set the expectation that clients easily recoup all spend on my consultancy services.

Each project is priced individually and my knowledge/expertise mean that there’s rarely a need for more than a few hours on any one project.

Client industry – Building scanning services

Time billed – 3.25 hours

Summary of the work

This client had a website that needed minimal strengthening, but were getting very poor results from their £1.2K per month Google Ads spend.

Their agency had set up a large Google Ads account with multiple campaigns but had failed to closely monitor the search terms that triggered the ads.  One example alone identified wastage of nearly £600 per month on being visible for searches for ‘3d baby scan’ because they had a keyword of ‘3d scan’ and no negative keywords.

I helped them to strip back the campaign to the core keyword phrases most likely to convert to enquiries, and implemented a regular review of keywords to add as negatives.

What they said

At first I was spitting feathers that we were paying them for account maintenance and they hadn’t picked up on those (now obvious) wasted clicks.  Now I see that we can’t just rely on someone to do a good job and to routinely check our Google Ads in the way you showed us.

Client industry – Legal services

Time billed – 6.5 hours

Summary of the work

Partners of the legal firm had a perception of who their competitors were.  My work with their marketing manager identified that six of their perceived competitors were poorly positioned in Google and an additional eight other companies were their true competitors placed higher than them in the organic results.

My analysis included insights into the strengths of those competitors websites and resulted in a detailed plan of website development activity that the client could implement in line with time restrictions.

Client time to implement actions was slower than hoped, which resulted in it taking seven months (instead of the recommended four months) to implement all the actions that saw them jump above three of their competitors in Google results and on the path to continue work on further optimization.

What they said

It shows that a fresh pair of eyes is sometimes important and it was your presentation showing our positioning for [keyword phrase omitted] as being below those of [names of competitors omitted] that several in this firm took more notice.

I’m not going to pretend that it’s easy doing all the work needed to beat our competitors in Google but each victory keeps us spurred on to achieve more of the same.

Client industry – Metal Manufacturing

Time billed – 7.75 hours

Summary of the work

This client was getting poor results from Google Ads, caused by a website that was being held back by senior management who were reluctant to focus on what their customers wanted to see: case studies and testimonials from clients of their services.

Initially using website visitors data to prove that the website was failing to convert clicks to enquiries, I worked with the client to re-centre the website around case studies related to each service they provide.

Each service offered was supported by a minimum of nine case studies (some of which were anonymous due to confidentiality requirements) related to that service, demonstrating expertise in those areas.

My involvement was purely at the strategic level, helping shape the mindset of the client and working with their web developer who implemented the recommended changes.

What they said

Less than two months after the website was redeveloped, and changing nothing in the budget or form of the Google Ads, this is what the client said:

“There was a lot of opposition from some of our team, who were reluctant to use any form of case studies, but the combination of identifiable clients and anonymous case studies has clearly got results very fast.   Compared to this time last year our enquiries are up by 24% at a time where our industry is going through economic challenges, which can only be as a result of those changes to the website”.

Client industry – Personalised champagne

Time billed – 2.5 hours

Summary of the work

This business had a weak view of website visitors movement patterns and were frustrated with trying to get to grips with Google Analytics.

My work involved focusing them on the funnels of purchase within their website, working backwards from the checkout to the basket and then to the champagne type page, and finally up the funnel to the summary of all champagne types within each grouping.

The data showed dropouts at each stage of the funnel, with the most significant problems being due to these factors:

1. Lack of clarity about the high quality of the champagne
2. Call to action buttons absent (assumption that people knew to click on the images)
3. The need to make it clear that the price shown initially is the total price they pay, including delivery
4. Lack of testimonials linked to each champagne product type
5. Credit and debit card symbols too low on the checkout page and absent earlier in the buying process
6. FAQs were buried where people couldn’t find them

What they said

You’ve shown how much of a challenge it is to be too close to a business.  I know we have a fantastic product with many customers but the potential customers couldn’t see that shine through.

Most of your recommendations were quite quick to implement and I will come back to you for more analysis when the changes have had time to prove themselves.

Client industry – Tools supplier to tradesmen

Time billed – 1.5 hours

Summary of the work

This supplier of tools used by plumbers and electricians had an information website that doesn’t sell to the businesses but was supposed to encourage them to buy from distributors.

My analysis of website visitors data patterns showed that only 4% of visitors were getting to the page that showed where people could buy the tools from local distributors.  This meant tradesmen wouldn’t buy those products and went to competitors instead.

The solution was easy – creating clearer imagery that encouraged people to click through to the distributors page and then search for suppliers in their local area.

What they said

Such a small thing made such a big difference.  Within days we saw the overall conversions to the distributors page increase to 23% and weeks later we saw a marked increase in distributors reordering our products which means people were asking for them.

Client industry – Web development

Time billed – 3.25 hours

Summary of the work

While you’d expect web developers to fully understand how to convert visitors to enquiries, my experience has been that most of them don’t.  They either don’t provide enough case studies or, in this case, don’t make pricing clear.

They had a pricing page, which had low levels of website visitors getting to it and of those that did, they were greeted with a need to complete a form to get pricing quotes.  Not many forms were completed.

My work focused the client on two actions:

1. Divide the pricing page into sections showing projects delivered within price bandings of a) $1,000 – $3,000; b) $3,000 – $6,000; c) $6,000 – $10,000; d) $10,000 – $15,000. This gave visitors to the page indications of what they could get within certain budget ranges.
2. Creating stronger calls to action buttons (to Pricing) within all the individual service pages.

What they said

Because we were getting some pricing quotations completed, there was internal resistance to changing that strategy.  I’ve got to say though: your strategy has made a huge difference and it’s also something that we’re going to implement on some of our client websites in the future.

Client industry – Health & Safety

Time billed – ongoing £400 per month retainer

Summary of the work

In some cases I take on consultancy work that is a win-win for both me and the client.   This client agreed to pay an ongoing monthly retainer for all the time that they were in the top five organic Google results for their chosen niche keyword phrases.

My work was initially time-intensive on me (at no cost to the client) and it took a few months for the work to take effect, but it was worth it.

The client gets at least two enquiries every day and has now been with me for 18 years consistently getting new business, and has become a great friend as well as client.

What they said

Andy and I have known each other for so many years now and it’s hard to believe that back then we both had tiny businesses and just took a chance on each other.  Fast forward to now and turnover last year was just over £460K and we’re planning how to take the business in new directions.  We all make mistakes in life.  This wasn’t one of them – he knows his stuff and gets results, which has benefited me and the financial welfare of my family.

If you have a website or marketing that’s not getting you the results that you want then it’s extremely likely that I will have the answers.

All you need to do is book in a short Zoom call with me, discussing what you’d like to achieve, and I’ll quote you an accurate price for my involvement in substantially improving your results.