Case studies
A mid-sized UK foreign exchange and international money transfer firm was running two websites for two audiences with one small in-house marketing team, a homepage failing Google's guidelines and most of its digital revenue arriving from a single comparison site. I audited the whole estate over three months, then stayed on an embedded retainer of twelve days a month for four years, rebuilding the CMS, the analytics, the PPC landing pages and the email programme. Organic conversion rose from 0.51% to over 6%, and overall site conversion roughly doubled, from 1.6% to a steady 2.7%.
A mid sized UK foreign exchange and international money transfer firm, with a sister brand handling emigration content for lead generation. Two websites, two audiences, private clients and corporate, and one small in-house marketing team. The firm operated in a crowded category against competitors with much larger budgets, and against comparison sites that owned the top of the funnel.
When I started, the digital marketing was a stack of sticking plasters. The homepage was failing several Google webmaster guidelines. PageSpeed sat at 58 out of 100. Organic conversion was running at 0.51%. PPC was busy but inefficient, with bounce rates above 80% on key landing pages. Email had no measurable activity. The internal CRM didn't push or pull data cleanly.
Most of the digital revenue came from a single comparison site referrer, with all the margin and brand risk that implies.
The brief was straightforward. Look at everything, online and offline. Tell us what's wrong. Then help us fix it.
The first three months were a full audit. I led the programme of works with another consultant supporting digital marketing and a dev team on the new website build. The output was a single document covering quick wins, a roadmap and red, amber and green priorities.
Then the work shifted. Rather than scope another series of projects, I moved into an embedded retainer of twelve days a month, with monthly reporting and conversion linked bonuses. That structure mattered. It meant I was the joining piece between marketing, IT and the dev partners, and could push the slow internal projects through alongside the obvious tactical work.
The work over four years covered:
I also did the dull but useful glue work. Monthly reports the wider business could read. Sign-off processes that survived staff turnover. Documentation that meant the next person in the chair could pick up the thread.
Organic conversion rose from 0.51% to over 6%, and overall site conversion roughly doubled.
| Metric | Before | After | Period | |---|---|---|---| | Organic conversion | 0.51% | over 6% | across the engagement | | Overall site conversion | 1.6% | a steady 2.7%, several months at 4% or higher | across the engagement | | PPC conversion | 0.43% | 1.73%, then roughly quadrupled again | first 18 months, then years 3 and 4 | | Mobile conversions | 323 | 801 | comparison window | | Bounce rate | around 35% | 14% to 18% | across the engagement | | Email conversions | no measurable activity | 175 | a single six month review window | | Facebook ad sessions | 39 | 394 | on a deliberately small test budget |
The site went from failing Google guidelines to a clean technical platform with proper analytics and a CMS the internal team could run.
The harder to measure outcome, and the one I am prouder of, is what the internal team had at the end. A working CMS they understood. A reporting cadence that survived staff changes. A pipeline of work that wasn't a queue of emergencies. That is the difference between fixing things and building something that keeps working when the consultant goes home.
An embedded remit like this is fractional digital leadership. On the goal architecture that made any of it measurable, see Google Analytics was installed but nobody looked at it.
Because the slow internal work was where the value sat, and projects do not reach it. Twelve days a month made me the joining piece between marketing, IT and the dev partners, so the CRM specification and the revenue diversification could be pushed along beside the obvious tactical work rather than waiting for their own scope.
By treating the 301 redirect mapping as part of the migration rather than a task at the end of it. The move to Kentico was planned around protecting organic positions, which is why conversion kept climbing through it rather than dipping.
Work around it in the short term and specify the fix properly for the long one. Here that meant a manual workaround through MailChimp and a preference centre so email became a measurable channel at all, alongside a written specification for a proper email marketing integration, which was signed off by year four.
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