Nick Dunse

I did an agency retrospective today and wanted to share my answers: 1. **If you could go back in time with the knowledge and experience you have now, what would you do differently to help ensure you didn’t have to close Mawla’s doors?** 1. **Niche** 2. Focus on recurring revenue 3. Productize service 4. Sell a service in high demand 5. Sell a service with high value 3. **At what point were you able to hire a engineering manager or strategist to help scale you out of every day involvement in projects?** 1. I began only working with seniors and agencies with tech leads or eng management 2. I then decided to hire a lead eng after 3-4 years 4. **What was the most effective channel when it came to lead generation?** 1. Local agencies 2. Word of mouth 3. LinkedIn content 4. Conferences 5. **4a Was cold email outreach effective for higher price point projects?** 1. Not at all 6. **What were your learnings and take aways from trying to Productize a headless CMS template** 1. Rebuilding WordPress is hard and expensive 2. Selling code isn't a good business model 3. Selling to SaaS or agencies wasn't a good model. 4. The model wouldn't scale as sanity, storybloks etc continued to evolve. We wouldn't be able to implement all their features 5. Especially if they diverge with websites 7. **Why did you choose to Niche down on Sanity instead of giving your customers what many of them wanted (webflow, WP, Hubpost)?** 1. I wanted something I would white label and productize 2. Wanted the performance 3. Wanted the better CMS user experience 4. I thought the quality would speak for itself 5. However the implementation, support costs and lack of ecosystem of plugins doesn't live up 6. It works better for large companies managing tons of products and stock not marketing 8. **If you could have a job you’re stoked on making $200 - $300k versus running an agency bringing that same income for yourself, what would you choose?** 1. Working for myself all day 9. **Looking back, what would you say were the biggest successes and failures in your journey with Mawla?** 1. **Successes** 1. Brought a brand from 0 - 1 2. Shipped 50+ sites and apps 3. Made millions in revenue over the years 4. Hired and worked with some of the smartest people I've ever met 5. Became a peer to executives and C-suite clients id never have had access to before 6. Took risks and pivoted the business 3 times 2. **Failures** 1. Bad hires 2. Bad client fits 3. Not having hard conversations earlier 4. Not doing better market discovery and research 5. Falling into sunk cost fallacy traps 6. Not budgeting more rigidly 7. Not productizing our flow earlier 8. Not adding notion or similar wiki style operations earlier 9. Speculated on some bad business ideas

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So I launched a rebuild of my website today. Nothing strange about that. However, I know it is not finished. In fact I know things are broken on it. So why did I launch it? Well I don't believe in waiting until a website is perfect, because it will never be perfect. Instead I launch when what I have is better than what is live. I can then iterate from there. Launching a website is not like going to print where things are then set in stone. Launching the website is just one step in its lifecycle and a relatively small one at that. Want to see whats broken - https://buff.ly/2L7Wz6w

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“Can you help me clarify what I’m saying on my website?” This is one of the questions I get asked most by clients. And I understand why - after all, it is the distillation of your entire offering into a few digital pages - eeeek! Creating clear and succinct messaging is very hard when you’re so close to the business. And, it’s easy to focus on what you’re trying to say and forget the needs of your audience. Visitors have about 7 seconds to work out if they’re on the right site, establish what you do, and determine whether you can help. (There's no pressure then!..) Only if that information is clear and compelling will they invest more time clicking through for more information. Here are my ‘top tips’ for creating a homepage that clearly describes who you are and what you do. And considers the needs of the audience you want to attract.

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Last week at Substrakt we launched our first Cultural Website Performance Benchmark Report (which you can download via the link in the comments). We looked at the 2023 website traffic data for 76 cultural websites (encompassing over 110 million user sessions). I am doing a couple of webinars over the next two Wednesdays (tomorrow - Weds 8th May at 2pm BST, and next week - Weds 15th May at 11.30am ET / 8.30am PT) to walk through the background to the report, and some of our main findings. Book your place here: https://lnkd.in/eeaHnrun For example, our analysis found that: - On average, mobile devices are now responsible for more than 69% of traffic to cultural websites. However mobile conversion rates are on average 68% lower than desktop traffic. - Cultural homepages are the entry point for just 16% of traffic to cultural websites. - Traffic from email converts at a higher rate than any other source. - Basket abandonment rates on cultural websites are 52% better than other ecommerce sites. - The average value of mobile donations increased by over 70% in 2023. - 'Engagement rates' for cultural websites are 40% lower than other sectors.

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Five Ways to Optimise ROI on Ad Spend (ROAS) for Your Business Learn the secrets to maximising your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) with this guide. Here's what you'll learn: 1️⃣ The importance of ROAS: Understand why ROAS is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and driving business growth. 2️⃣ Five proven strategies: Dive into actionable tactics such as data-driven advertising, audience segmentation, long-tail keywords, multi-platform ad usage, and integrating paid and organic campaigns. 3️⃣ Expert tips for success: Get insights on collecting essential data, refining audience targeting, leveraging keyword strategies, diversifying ad formats, and balancing paid and organic efforts. Read the guide to improve your digital marketing approach and achieve maximum ROI on your ad spend. #DigitalMarketing #ROI #AdvertisingStrategy

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🚀 How Do I Launch a New Product or Service? | Step-by-Step Guide with Matthew Ruddle 🚀 https://lnkd.in/eY-cc7_X Launching a new product or service can be an exhilarating yet daunting task. The path to success requires careful planning, execution, and keen attention to detail. In this comprehensive video, Matthew Ruddle, the Founder of Ruddle Digital, walks you through the process of launching your next big thing. Known for working with businesses of all shapes and sizes, Ruddle Digital offers unmatched expertise in SEO, PPC, and multifaceted marketing. They've mastered the art of crafting marketing strategies that attract, convert, retain, and upsell customers. 🎉 In this invaluable video, you'll discover: 🎉 - The foundational principles of a successful product or service launch - How to identify and reach your target audience effectively - Strategies to create buzz and anticipation prior to launch - Tools and techniques to monitor and assess launch performance - Post-launch activities to maintain momentum and drive sales Whether you're a fledgeling entrepreneur or an experienced business owner, Matthew's step-by-step guidance will equip you with the insights needed to make your next launch a resounding success.

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🚀 How Do I Launch a New Product or Service? | Step-by-Step Guide with Matthew Ruddle 🚀 https://lnkd.in/eY-cc7_X Launching a new product or service can be an exhilarating yet daunting task. The path to success requires careful planning, execution, and keen attention to detail. In this comprehensive video, Matthew Ruddle, the Founder of Ruddle Digital, walks you through the process of launching your next big thing. Known for working with businesses of all shapes and sizes, Ruddle Digital offers unmatched expertise in SEO, PPC, and multifaceted marketing. They've mastered the art of crafting marketing strategies that attract, convert, retain, and upsell customers. 🎉 In this invaluable video, you'll discover: 🎉 - The foundational principles of a successful product or service launch - How to identify and reach your target audience effectively - Strategies to create buzz and anticipation prior to launch - Tools and techniques to monitor and assess launch performance - Post-launch activities to maintain momentum and drive sales Whether you're a fledgeling entrepreneur or an experienced business owner, Matthew's step-by-step guidance will equip you with the insights needed to make your next launch a resounding success.

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🚀 How Do I Launch a New Product or Service? | Step-by-Step Guide with Matthew Ruddle 🚀 https://lnkd.in/eY-cc7_X Launching a new product or service can be an exhilarating yet daunting task. The path to success requires careful planning, execution, and keen attention to detail. In this comprehensive video, Matthew Ruddle, the Founder of Ruddle Digital, walks you through the process of launching your next big thing. Known for working with businesses of all shapes and sizes, Ruddle Digital offers unmatched expertise in SEO, PPC, and multifaceted marketing. They've mastered the art of crafting marketing strategies that attract, convert, retain, and upsell customers. 🎉 In this invaluable video, you'll discover: 🎉 - The foundational principles of a successful product or service launch - How to identify and reach your target audience effectively - Strategies to create buzz and anticipation prior to launch - Tools and techniques to monitor and assess launch performance - Post-launch activities to maintain momentum and drive sales Whether you're a fledgeling entrepreneur or an experienced business owner, Matthew's step-by-step guidance will equip you with the insights needed to make your next launch a resounding success.

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A professional services business (or any business for that matter) that has a 💩 website that is... 👴🏼 Outdated, old, and untouched for years 😞 Has a horrible UX 🐑 Full of fluff 🚫 Has zero thought to playing well with search engines ...is the same thing as sending online traffic to what amounts to a closed storefront. Think about it. How many times have you been searching for a company to help you with X and one or more of the sites you land on are slow to load, impossible to contact in one click, or annoy you with pop-ups, etc.? It's why I can't in good conscience ask someone to spend ad 💰 on running traffic to a closed storefront. The website has 👏 to 👏 be 👏 in 👏 order! The 3 major things your website needs so you can best leverage it? ✅ Optimize it for search engines ✅ Every service page must be its own, indexed with Google, and serve a purpose ✅ Prominent but not annoying Calls To Action [Mobile clickable phone #, Contact us button, and About us/Gallery button front and center on each page and NO immediate pop-ups that piss the visitor off] Does your website serve your prospects and customers or does it serve you? #webdevelopment #webdesigntips

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