Marketing consultant for NZ retail: SEO, SEM, GEO and social

Where it leaks

Nine places marketing quietly costs you money.

Each is a question you can put to your own numbers. The answers show whether the marketing paid, not whether it was busy.

Spend by channelWhat does each marketing dollar return, channel by channel, once the cost of the product is taken out?
Search you pay for (SEM)Which paid search terms bring sales you would not have had anyway, and which are buying clicks on your own name?
Search you earn (SEO)Which pages bring buyers from search without an ad, and what would it cost to replace that traffic if it stopped?
AI search (GEO)When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI answers for what you sell, does your business come up, and is what it says right?
SocialWhich social activity can you trace to a sale, and which is done because everyone else does it?
Email and mailersWho are you mailing and emailing that would have bought anyway, and who never buys at all?
Promotions judged by sales, not marginAfter the discount and the cost of promoting it, did the last promotion earn more than you would have made without it?
Prices and discount depthWhen was each category's price last checked against what it costs you and what customers will pay, and does a deeper offer win new customers or hand margin to ones who would have bought?
Costs nobody has re-tenderedWhen were print, mail, agency and media costs last put out for quotes?

Most of these can be answered from your sales and margin records, your advertising accounts and your invoices.

Where I've done it

The record behind this page.

I managed marketing at Briscoe Group, alongside fulfilment and the contact centre.
Ran a print tender for promotional mailers, a spend of about $5m, that cut costs by 18%, about $936,000 a year, and shortened lead times.
At Briscoe Group, A/B tested price changes by category in a controlled way. The tests did not work as expected, and what they showed informed later pricing.
For All About a Girl, built an AI assistant that writes the owner's emails and Facebook posts in minutes.
Tenders and freight reviews took more than $2.7m out of costs.

The first conversation

What the first 45 minutes covers.

You tell me what you spend on marketing and where it goes, and I tell you where I'd look first. On pricing, the most important thing is understanding its influence on your first and final margins, so the first thing I pull is margin by category. You get a one-page readback of where the money is most likely being lost. Any work after that is scoped with you before it starts.

FAQ

Questions

How do I know if my marketing is working?

Compare the margin dollars a campaign earned with what you would have earned without it, after the discount and the cost of running it. Sales going up does not show that it paid.

What is GEO?

Generative engine optimisation: making sure AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google's AI answers can find your business and describe it correctly. SEO does the same job for ordinary search results, and SEM is the search advertising you pay for.

Do you run pricing tests?

I've used A/B tests and experiments on pricing at Briscoe Group. Whether a test suits your business depends on how many sales you have to measure it with, and I'd check that in the first chat.

Who will I work with?

Me, Dave Hughes, from the first chat to the fix. I was GM at EziBuy and Briscoe Group. I've owned the number and still have the scars to prove it.

What does it cost to get started?

The chat's free. After that my time costs money, and if the results don't come, you'll know why and we'll sort it out.

Does your marketing pay for itself?

Nine places marketing quietly costs you money.

The record behind this page.

What the first 45 minutes covers.

Questions

Other places I look

Tell me about your business.