Marketing in the digital age: what works, and what’s stuck
On Monday, we joined around 250 of WA’s small business owners at CCIWA’s Small Business Summit at Pan Pacific Perth. Our workshop took on a question every business owner has asked at some point: what actually works in marketing?
Thank you to CCIWA for having us, and to everyone who reached out afterwards. Here is the short version of what we shared.
Your social feeds make it sound simple (as do some agencies)
One funnel fix. One channel. One prompt. One setting to switch off today. 10x your leads in 3 months.
Some of it is useful, and almost all of it is just best practice you've not heard yet, and which anyone can learn. That makes it a strong baseline but a matchable one. Meaningful growth comes from challenges unique to your business, your category and your customers.
Six areas worth looking at now
We talked to the baseline first, covering things many people would know but that we regularly still see missing or forgotten, as well as things fewer people would be familiar with.
1. SEO remains the foundation. A fast, secure, mobile-friendly site that search engines can crawl comes first. Human-written content comes next, with utility - tools, calculators, and checklists - that serve people, search and LLMs alike.
2. Own a topic. For content. map the questions your customers ask, give each one a page, and link them together. Depth builds the authority that search and AI answers look for.
3. Show up where people ask. AI answers draw on YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn, trade press, PR and any number of external sources. Links and mentions from across the web carry real weight, and small businesses can gain ground quickly because expertise counts - become a useful digital citizen for your category.
4. Show platforms what good really looks like. Feed final sale and transaction data back to platforms like google and Meta so they can find revenue not just leads - value based bidding. Very much baseline but very often overlooked, dedicated landing pages that speak to each search query build relevance that matters; and make the next step obvious for visitors. And don't forget to write ads for the person as well as the keyword.
5. Make creative that belongs where it runs. Meta now finds your audience from your creative, so start broad and let results show who responds. Humour suits TikTok, a useful framework suits LinkedIn, and one big idea suits a billboard. Think about how small an ad might be, or how long someone has to absorb to judge copy and font size.
6. Keep one source of truth for every lead. How they found you, what they did across your funnel, and whether it worked, all in one place.
Then ask what’s stuck
Best practice lifts your baseline. Your headroom sits where your customers get stuck: those who never hear of you, can’t find you, or don’t buy.
Ehrenberg-Bass Institute research shows the biggest brands in any category have the most buyers. To increase your penetration and grow: for as many people as possible, be easy to mind, easy to find (and easy to buy). That maps to three jobs:
Generate demand. Build broad familiarity and associate with things that trigger category consideration, so you come to mind when the need arises. Only about 5% of your buyers are in the market right now and they needed that familiarity before they got there.
Capture demand. Be findable in search and AI answers. It’s the easiest lever to measure, so it attracts the budget, and sometimes the frustration, but it can only capture demand that already exists.
Convert. Remove friction from the buying experience, and look closely at how many enquiries become customers and the reasons why they don't.
Try this on Monday
Honestly answer how many of your market would know who you are and what problem or need you answer. Google and Chat GPT your category's key queries; do you show up, and how prominently? Have performance channels targeting intent stalled in recent times? Have you looked at your online and offline conversion closely?
Two speeds: smaller businesses should focus on a solid baseline first. Established SMEs should be optimising the baseline whilst looking for headroom.
If you can see your headroom but don’t have the time or team to go after it, let’s talk. That’s the conversation we enjoy most.
Contact: Paul Clout
