Top Conversion Optimisation Company Australia 2023

PorterVac Case Study

PorterVac’s Journey Of Growing 500% By Partnering With Business Assist

PorterVac specialises in Gutter Cleaning throughout Melbourne. They were inspired to pursue Gutter Cleaning as their flagship service through observing a lack of service providers in major Australian cities offering this. PorterVac had reached a pivotal point in the business where they had to expand their marketing efforts to further grow the business.

PorterVac’s Challenge

When they commenced in 2013, PorterVac was just a four-person business. However they quickly reached a critical stage where the business needed to achieve substantial business growth to take up a leadership position in their industry. Recognising the business was heavily reliant on lead generation through traditional media such as local newspaper advertisements, and that key competitors were shifting to a digital approach, Portervac made the decision to partner up with a digital marketing agency to lead them through the next phase of their business growth.

I was seeing my competitors moving into digital marketing, and that’s when I approached Steve and the Business Assist team who have helped make PorterVac what it is today.

– Dave Porter, CEO and Founder of Portervac.


Why Business Assist?

Understanding PorterVac Through Collaboration

At Business Assist, we genuinely believe that excellent results require strong client collaboration.

And whilst our focus is on all-things marketing, it is our ability to foster close working relationships with our clients, that truly allows us to help them succeed.

In terms of significant partnerships in our business, one of the strongest examples is our work with PorterVac.

Business Assist has worked side-by-side with PorterVac to help Dave Porter and General Manager Brayden Cameron for over seven years. Together, we have built a range of effective digital marketing strategies and a solid lead-generation machine to help PorterVac access a torrent of leads.

PorterVac’s success with digital marketing has not come from one single source. Nor was it the result of picking a few keywords or throwing together a few digital ads. It was and still is the product of a consistent and ongoing collaboration between our two companies.

Business Assist helps PorterVac push the boundaries of their digital marketing, and through this collaboration, we have come to understand the ins and outs of the PorterVac business.

Constant and continuous communication with the PorterVac team over the years has allowed Business Assist to grow with the business and fully understand how the they operates.

“I call Business Assist our internal marketing team,” Dave said.

“Whilst they’re an external digital marketing firm, it feels like they’ve become part of the furniture in our business.”

Dave Porter

Director

Brayden Cameron

General Manager

Empowering through Education

Defining, executing and refining digital marketing strategies is one thing, however, at Business Assist we place a strong emphasis on helping our clients understand what we do, how we do it and most importantly, why we do it.

According to PorterVac’s General Manager, Brayden Cameron, the time spent by Business Assist on educating the PorterVac team on the ‘why’ and helping them understand key marketing concepts has resulted in more informed decisions and allowed PorterVac to make the most of the leads generated.

“We were looking for someone to streamline our whole digital marketing process, and Business Assist was that team for us,” he said.

“If you’re looking for a business to educate, to get to know you and your business and help your business grow, Business Assist is the right partner.”

Business Assist Account Manager, Peter Mav, said this was a crucial differentiator between Business Assist and other digital agencies.

“We want to be that partner for them” Peter said.

“We go through the journey with our clients. We’ve been with PorterVac for seven years, so we’ve been on that journey of growth together.”

“I co-ordinate our team to ensure everything is delivered promptly. It’s about being proactive and ensuring we’re in constant communication.”

Seven members of Business Assist’s staff work on the PorterVac account in a range of roles, ensuring daily contact with the PorterVac team. Peter also works as a Growth Strategist for Business Assist’s clients, and PorterVac is a key account in Peter’s portfolio.

“My background is mainly working with startups and helping them grow into large organisations, so I’m able to take a step back and look at it from an outsiders perspective and provide our clients advice on growing their business,” he said.

Understanding Portervac’s Customers

Business Assist has developed an intuitive understanding of PorterVac’s ideal client, and the customer journey their clients undertake.

  • How frequently do they get their gutters cleaned?
  • What opportunities does that create for more comprehensive roof maintenance?
  • How long after one gutter clean are customers most likely to enquire about another service?
  • How can PorterVac use these touchpoints to remain top-of-mind with their customers?

The product of this understanding and the answers to these questions mean that Business Assist has been able to guide PorterVac on their digital marketing journey with incredible results.

Business Assist’s Strategy

Digital Channel Strategies

Business Assist digital strategist Pip Baddock helps our clients find the right strategies across the full range of digital marketing channels they pursue.

“It’s about identifying the best strategy for the client and their market, whether that’s an email marketing strategy, utilising campaign landing pages, SEO or marketing automation, our focus it to find the best fit for the client,” he said.

“There’s also an element of gap analysis. That is, looking at what they’re already doing strongly and working out where we need to fill those gaps to ensure a balanced suite of digital marketing campaigns that are right for the client and their customers.”

Digital Brand Perception

After taking over the PorterVac account, we had a good look at their branding and clients’ perception of that brand.

“Even though they had achieved strong growth, their branding and their website made it look like they were still a smallish business. So, we also make sure that their website is updated regularly with the latest design trends and user experience improvements to ensure PorterVac stay ahead of their competitors” Peter said.

“If you look at the business now, they’re a market leader. They’re positioned much more professionally now than in the past, so building the brand and brand awareness as well as improving client perception was key to ensuring they were able to leverage their strong brand to gain access to larger commercial contracts.”

“We built a new website for PorterVac and produced a range of corporate videos and client testimonials. Not only did this really opened up access to those better jobs, but another piece of the puzzle was making them more attractive to potential staff as well, which was crucial in supporting their growth” said Peter.

Marketing Automation

Business Assist’s Marketing Automation is one of the major strategies that delivered a significant boost in quality leads for PorterVac.

“When we started talking to PorterVac about marketing automation, it was based around weather,” Pip said.

“PorterVac knew they get a lot of enquiries when it rains a lot. They wanted to be able to send a communication out to their database when it rained. It was an isolated activity, but we looked at that and their customer list and identified that there was a bigger opportunity than just these ‘point-in-time’ emails blasts.

“In particular, the gutter-cleaning part of their business is the lead-in to more lucrative jobs, such as roof repair or restorations.

“PorterVac had a very long list of people who had their gutters cleaned in the past, but it was not consistently staying in touch and following up these people to reactivate the need for another gutter clean.

“We saw an opportunity for a more structured process to reactivate that need for another gutter clean.” said Pip.

The solution was the development of a series of emails sent out to past clients on a scheduled basis, at predefined points in time after their last gutter clean.

From reminders to have their gutters cleaned twice a year, to educating clients about signs a roof may need repair or restoration, and even a personal message from the CEO, Business Assist helped PorterVac create a range of touchpoints for their domestic and commercial customers.

And the best bit? PorterVac’s sales team barely have to lift a finger. The system is consistently following up ‘cold leads’, allowing the sales team to focus on handling engaged leads.

Google Ads & SEO Strategies

Whilst marketing automation has been a significant addition to the PorterVac digital marketing machine, the implementation of this has not come at the expense of a focus on the overarching strategy.

PorterVac continues to see fantastic results from Google Ads and SEO with both strategies focusing on targeting valuable commercially-focused keywords while building PorterVac’s share of Google searches and converting these to customers through an effective website.

Facebook Strategies

Facebook has been the most recent channel to be explored by PorterVac. Business Assist has designed an effective set of Facebook’s campaigns utilising Facebook’s machine-learning algorithms to generate brand awareness with PorterVac’s ideal customers and employ retargeting to keep the PorterVac brand in front of them – leading to higher conversions and a lower cost per lead.

The Result

Nov 2019 – Oct 2020 vs Nov 2018 – Oct 2019

159%

increase in contact page conversion rates

24%

increase in contact page goal completions

755%

increase in request a call back conversion rates

309%

increase in request a call back form submissions

In 2020, PorterVac is now a 40-person business generating hundreds of leads each week. That’s a powerful transformation in just seven years, even by founder and CEO Dave Porter’s reckoning. That seven-year journey has culminated in PorterVac growing 500 per cent in revenue, and regularly winning large commercial contracts opening up new and significant avenues of growth.

Marketing Automation

The results have been incredible from this strategy, and it’s delivered a tsunami of leads. Before the implementation of this strategy, email marketing accounted for just under two per cent of PorterVac enquiries.

That has since grown to a whopping 15 per cent.

“They’re getting more than 100 enquiries a month, just from email follow up,” Dave said.

Jan – October 2020, All channels, All goals.

 Bounce RatePages / SessionAvg. Session DurationGoal Conversion Rate
Website Average78.72%1.3500:00:485.19%
Marketing Automation60.93%1.6500:01:2921.87%
Performance Comparison-22.60%22.22%85.42%321.39%

Google Ads

“We’ve seen a 60% increase in visitors to the PorterVac landing pages from paid traffic and a 110% increase in enquiries overall from paid search,” Dave said.

Contact Form Submissions – 62.50% increase PoP (Oct 20 vs Oct 18)

Gutter Cleaning LP – 2,200% increase PoP (Oct 20 vs Oct 18)

SEO

“On top of that, we’ve seen a 150% increase in website visits from SEO over the last 12 months, with a 75% increase in enquiries achieved.”

October 2018 – October 2020

Request a call back form submission – 1,316% increase PoP (October 2020 vs 2018)

Users – 213.68% increase PoP (October 2020 vs 2018)

Facebook

Facebook has been one of the latest additions to PorterVac’s digital marketing mix, and has seen MoM growth since launching in April 2020 with Gutter Cleaning enquiries increasing 345% Quarter-on-Quarter.

Gutter Clean LP Enquiries, Jan – October 2020

It all comes back to trust

When reflecting on his 13-year relationship with PorterVac and their CEO Dave Porter, Business Assist Director of Strategy, Steve Foura said more than the fantastic results he and his team had achieved for PorterVac, he has valued the trust and friendship that has developed.

“There’s a lot of trust there,” he said.

“They come to us with ideas, and they trust us enough to ask us questions constantly.

“I met Dave Porter 13 years ago. I was presenting a marketing workshop where I was training tradespeople in how to write their marketing plan and I remember very clearly then thinking, ‘this guy’s gonna go somewhere’.

“He was young, not long since becoming qualified, but he was hungry for growth and hungry to build a business.

“To know Dave for 13 years ago and see where he’s got to, it’s been very rewarding to have shared in that journey.”

And that trust goes both ways.

“I use PorterVac for all of my gutter cleaning,” Steve said.

“In every house I’ve been in, I’ve always used them. I like the security of having qualified roof tilers on my roof, and I trust them to do a great job every time.”

Share this:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Free 25 Page eBook

Download the Influencing Your Digital Marketing Metrics ebook

Growth in numbers translates to growth in business, learn about the digital marketing KPI’s that can dramatically boost your business trajectory.

Free 25 Page eBook

Download the Influencing Your Digital Marketing Metrics ebook

Growth in numbers translates to growth in business, learn about the digital marketing KPI’s that can dramatically boost your business trajectory.

Where to from here?

Related Blog Posts

There’s always more to learn when it comes to digital marketing, continue learning about it by clicking on one of our blogs here

Here's what our clients say

Book Your Digital Strategy Session

Free 45 Minute Digital Strategy Session

We’ll get in touch with you to arrange a time for your session and gain some initial background on your business needs

What you'll get

Website Audit

A strategic look at your website from the inside and out conducted by one of our senior digital strategist’s

Industry Strategies

An insiders view of what unique strategies work for similar businesses in your industry and how you can capitalise on these learnings

Spy on your competitor’s

A sneak-peak at what your competitors are doing online

Success framework

A digital marketing success framework tailored to your business

Niki Patterson

Business Assist help us with the growth of our business, which is what every business wants, and also it really feels like everyone on the team understands and knows your business well. It’s not just one person, everyone is somehow involved and I appreciate that. Thank you so much for all your hard work in fixing our campaigns. We are all incredibly appreciative.

Jo McMillan

Business Assist were a pleasure to work with as we developed our new website. They were responsive, considered and always sought to provide us with the best possible product at a competitive price. We are very happy with the website they produced for us and have had a lot of positive comments on it. Business Assist is also great with follow up and ongoing support, should we need it.

Dean Burns

We only launched Rent Busters Perth in November 2018, so it is incredible that Business Assist generated over 500 leads for us in June 2020!  They helped us with our branding, market positioning and have since worked very closely with us on developing new offers, headings and campaigns every month. And most importantly we are signing a record number of deals every month!

Business Assist are more like our business partner than supplier and we heavily rely on their expertise and the results they deliver are extraordinary – I can’t recommend them more highly.

Lisa Bywaters

We’ve been working with Steve and the team at Business Assist since 2010.  With an information dense website it’s vital for us that our visitors find the information they need, when they need it. The BA team understand that people search for information in an organic way, that it’s not a linear process. By using their expertise, we now have a friendly, welcoming website that allows visitors to find the information they need quickly and easily. They were also extremely helpful when we transitioned to our new name and new website – with everything from developing a new website that incorporated consumer and staff feedback, to developing an SEO strategy and Google Ads campaigns that helped us retain our past users and attract new ones. They’re a professional, friendly team that takes the time to get to know the needs of your organisation and your website users.

Tony Raunic

A few years ago Hunt & Hunt Lawyers decided to put more resources into our SEO.  We interviewed a number of contractors who all promised their services would be superior.  We were struck by Steve Foura and his team’s preparedness to invest time in learning about what was distinctive about our business and what we particularly wanted to achieve.

We appointed Business Assist to focus on SEO improvements for aspects of our property team marketing including our compulsory acquisition advisory services.

The results have been outstanding with web-based enquiries growing exponentially and, critically, the right prospective clients contacting us and invariably converting into fee paying clients.

We certainly recommend Business Assist highly for any professional services business looking to better leverage its internet presence.

Ultimately, Hunt & Hunt asked Business Assist to develop a new website for our national legal group and we are very pleased with the results.

We continue to work with Business Assist today across various teams as we derive great value from Steve’s practical layman’s advice on SEO.  Business Assist also understand our business and genuinely seem to go the extra mile to add value.

Robert Thorpe

It felt that our previous digital agency was not very engaged with our business – there was a real disconnect.  With Business Assist we feel like we’re talking to the people who are actually implementing the campaign, or at least have a very good understanding of it.  We believe this is one of the main  reasons we saw results happen straightaway – increased new customer inquiries from Australia and overseas. But the other thing we get is great advice from Business Assist about things we can and can’t do from a Digital Marketing perspective. We trust really these guys. The other thing we’re getting is the changes we’re asking to make or services we’re changing, it happens really fast – there’s nothing like a 2 week period of waiting.

Amanda Greer

We’re a small business but we try and behave like a bigger company and Business Assist help us lift that bar. They have helped us get ahead of our competitors. We have a strategy meeting soon where we will develop a 5 year plan and we look forward to Business Assist’s input and planning what we should be working with them on for the next 5 years.  Business Assist have a  really good personable team and they tailor to us – we really like the flexibility. We’re very strategic in what we do and Business Assist helps us enhance our competitive advantage by reacting to opportunities quickly. Our position, interests and needs are well aligned.

Dave Porter

Business Assist are responsible for our new leads coming in. Increasingly, we are becoming more and more reliant on digital marketing as the other avenues are either too expensive or deliver little or no return. So we are extremely reliant on Business Assist.  And they have delivered for us for many years and continue to do so in 2020 where we keep having all-time record revenue weeks! We also really appreciate the team at Business Assist and I’ve always enjoyed working with a company that we feel as though they are really part of our team. We have a very healthy working relationship.

Karl Zimmerman

Since hiring Business Assist to take over our in-house Digital Marketing management, our Google Adwords spend has gone down by 75-80% and our traffic has increased by over 150%. To see such a massive drop in spend and yet an increase in traffic has to be one of the biggest and most impressive things I have ever seen.

Also, compared to what we were getting before, we see Business Assist basically as a free investment with the high returns and the increase in traffic we are getting. Not only that, each time we face any problems, the team gives us much valued solutions, not just ‘yes, we can fix that’ but also different options to choose from.

Business Assist gave us the ability to trust them with our money compared to the other 3-4 companies we had before them. We now can see where our money is going and the returns for it. They also take the time to explain details to us and make sure we are given regular updates. As we grow as a business, we see us growing with Business Assist.

Brayden Cameron

We have been using the Business Assist team since 2013. Coming from a trade background in Roofing & Roofing maintenance and jumping into Digital for all that is involved is a daunting task. We know everything worth knowing about our own trade and Digital is such an unknown area. In turn we were so hesitant because we felt like we were getting ripped off from previous attempts with other agencies and any requests for information or advice would have an extra charge or a feel like such an up-sell. Upon working with the Business Assist team we have COMPLETE clarity around the following:

  • Cost Vs Conversion (analytics)
  • Competitor analysis
  • Our target market and how to attract them
  • Brand Strategy Marketing
  • Social Media
  • SEO & so much more.

Providing these services should be a given for any Digital company – however we have found that it is not. Providing this whilst maintaining honesty and transparency even educating us along the way, whilst not making us feel like idiots because we didn’t know certain terms throughout the process is the real benefit working with Business Assist. We have meetings every week / fortnight with the team to report on every aspect of the business on a digital front. We feel the Business Assist team is an extension of our 40 + family. I think we are really fortunate we found a company that propelled us to grow from 2 staff to 40+ in 7 years – they know our company as if it was their own!