Oct 2022 – May 2024
Updraft WP Software is the business behind a suite of WordPress plugins used by designers and developers to back up, optimise and secure their WordPress websites.
- Managed a team including an SEO Manager, a UX Manager, and a Marketing Executive.
- Identified the need for and led a 12-month project to unify three individual brands under a new parent brand and website. Responsible for delivering a new site architecture, improved user flow, migration of over 3,000 webpages, UX and conversion rate optimisation.
- Google PageSpeed Insights scored the new parent website 100/100 across performance, SEO, accessibility and best practices for both desktop and mobile.
- Website relaunch delivered early success – new feature pages optimised for search drove an additional $10,687 in revenue and 19,340 sessions within the first few months.
- Developed a content strategy designed for humans as well as search engines to drive traffic and conversions and achieved top 3 search positions for competitive non-brand terms such as ‘WordPress backup plugin’ and ‘How to back up a WordPress website’ for the first time.
- Owned annual Black Friday campaigns, leveraging email, social media, web banners and partnerships. Delivered $20k revenue in my first year leading the campaign, a 2.4x increase from the previous year.
Apr 2019 – Feb 2022
The Tertiary Education Commission is a New Zealand crown agency that leads the government’s relationship with the tertiary education sector and provides career services. As Principal Advisor of Performance I reported directly to the Deputy Chief Executive.
- Led the TEC’s flagship Inspiring the Future project, a nationwide initiative which aims to broaden young people’s aspirations by connecting schools with volunteers from the world of work through an online platform and events.
- Owned a large-scale research project (Drawing the Future) to understand young people’s career aspirations. Distributed research packs to over 7,000 schools, managed agency procurement and delivery, and edited the research report. Organised high-profile launch event at Parliament whcih was attended by media and the Minister of Education.
- Led market research with schools and volunteers to understand how to adapt the UK programme for New Zealand. Coordinated cross-functional teams including UX/UI designers to shape the online product and event format.
- Organised and ran the first pilot school event to test the format. Commissioned a flagship video that remains a core part of the programme’s outreach toolkit.
- Attracted volunteers through a campaign which nominated for a TVNZ marketing award. A video asset to capture hearts and minds generated 8 million+ views and 1,000+ signups in 12 months.
- Planned and wrote content for onboarding packs used by schools and volunteers when signing up to events.
Sept 2018 – Apr 2019
ComplyWith is the author of a cloud software solution that supports audit and risk professionals to run a more effective risk and legal compliance programme.
My principle responsibility in this role was to support the business to grow annual reoccurring revenue from $1.74m to $5m by end of March 2021.
- Recommended an approach to support acquisition, retention and development of existing accounts in support of business objectives.
- Managed a project to improve the organisation’s instance of Salesforce CRM. I worked closely with users to understand their needs, involving them at each stage in the process to ensure the new system was fit for purpose.
- Organised three user groups which attracted more than 70 attendees resulting in more than 30 opportunities for expansion revenue from existing clients and two new business opportunities.
Jan 2017 – Aug 2018
Consumer NZ is a not-for-profit funded largely through membership revenue. They independently test products and services and publish results online and in a monthly magazine. Consumer also operates a consumer rights advice line and advocates for consumer rights.
- Managed a Senior Marketing Executive and the marketing budget.
- The brief to me was to identify the ‘step change’ needed to grow membership revenue. I quickly identified a relevancy challenge: 42% of members were 65+ and cancelling. Younger consumers weren’t joining to replace them.
- Led a market research project to understand what needed to change. Key findings: older consumers are confident making decisions and less willing to pay for advice; 25-34 year-olds have the lowest confidence and highest willingness to pay, especially for first-time purchases like homes, cars and insurance.
- Research findings began to change how the business operated. The magazine pivoted to bi-monthly specialist issues instead of general monthly content.
In parallel to the longer-term strategy work, I drove short-term revenue growth:
- Optimised the company’s SEM budget, reducing cost per acquisition by 72.7% while increasing conversions by 272.5%.
- Worked with a UX agency to overhaul the website, improve information architecture and optimise the paywall experience, increasing online transactions by 25% year-over-year.
- Ran a digital advertising campaign to disseminate content in culturally relevant spaces, for example by promoting baby content in mum’s forums.
- Launched a digital pass product that would allow consumers to buy a one-off test result. The campaign received 5 million impressions in just a few weeks and sold 3,447 digital passes in just two months.
- Increased magazine sales 6x through PoS marketing.
Started an eDM series that reminded supporters of Consumer’s wins and asked for donations. Drove $2,000 in revenue through a single donation.