Real customer insights. National media coverage. Months of SEO trust.
After months of lockdowns, many Australian small business owners were burnt out — and Crazy Domains, Australia’s biggest web hosting brand, was starting to lose momentum.
Instead of running more ads, we led a national research campaign that turned real business insights into press coverage, renewed trust, and months of reusable content.
My role
(Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Crazy Domains)
Campaign Type
Core Deliverables
Business Impact
Challenge
The Problem
By late 2020, something had shifted. In the early days of COVID, Crazy Domains (like many others) saw a surge of Australian small businesses scrambling to get online.
But as lockdowns dragged on, digital lost its shine. Business owners were overwhelmed by mixed signals: more tools, more webinars, more noise.
What they really needed was clarity. Everyone was asking: What happens next? Will we survive when the grants run out? What does the post-COVID world even look like?
Key issues included:
- The urgency to go online had faded. Most businesses had already shifted but weren’t seeing clear results.
- Promo fatigue had set in. Discounts and offers were no longer moving the needle.
- The market was saturated with lookalike web hosting services, making differentiation harder than ever.
- Generic marketing wasn’t cutting through. Business owners wanted grounded insights, not vague advice.
Crazy Domains needed a way to protect its SEO edge and defend its leadership position, without sounding like every other provider.
Strategic Approach
As the lead for this project, I spearheaded a national research initiative to:
- Uncover actionable insights from both small business owners and consumers
- Anchor an extended PR and content strategy with original, verifiable findings
- Boost long-term SEO visibility through non-replicable authority content
- Reinforce our market leadership by offering clarity and guidance (not hard-sell pitches)
Key strategic moves I led:
- Structured the team for efficiency: external research, freelance writing, in-house editing—with me driving editorial, stakeholder alignment, and final approvals
- Conducted live focus groups to identify themes of trust, credibility, and post-COVID uncertainty
- Designed the survey and report with modular reuse in mind (blogs, webinars, decks, sales enablement)
Process & Deliverables
Want a repeatable system like this?
Stakeholder & Project Leadership
- Led all coordination across 12 time zones (incl. Singapore, Toronto, Sydney, Kyiv and Cebu)
- Managed internal and external contributors: researchers, writers, designers, PR
- Oversaw final handoff and internal transition to content team
Research & Discovery
- Oversaw focus groups with 15 Australian small business owners across industries
- Managed two national surveys:
- 752 SMB owners (geographically and demographically distributed)
- 1,001 consumers (cross-generational data)
- Identified and corrected questionnaire logic flaws from our research partner
Consumer & SMB Surveys
Worked with GrowthOps to run two large-scale surveys across generations and regions.
Report Development
- Co-wrote and edited the full 40+ page whitepaper
- Owned editorial voice, structure, and data clarity across every draft
- Reconciled PR tone with brand tone for multiple use cases
PR & Media Outreach
- Secured national press coverage in The Australian, Inside Small Business, and others
- Developed and refined media angles with external PR strategist
- Report content used in CEO quotes, interviews, and leadership-level comms
Content Repurposing
- Turned research into SEO blog posts, email sequences, webinar decks, and sales materials
- Provided foundation content for the Crazy Domains Online Academy
- Created a scalable template for future thought leadership pieces
Online State of Australia’s Small Businesses 2021
Results
This one project delivered national media coverage, SEO lift, a boost in brand trust, and sparked a full year’s worth of content and campaigns.
Beyond numbers, it rebuilt relevance and gave Crazy Domains a voice that resonated post-COVID.
Featured in The Australian, Inside Small Business & other top outlets
Strengthened SEO through original, non-replicable content
Enabled a year’s worth of PR, content, and sales material reuse
Used in CEO media interviews and executive decks
What This Could Mean for You
Want to Build One for Your Business?
This wasn’t just a research project.
It became a trust-building engine that helped Crazy Domains position themselves as the go-to voice for Australia’s post-COVID small business recovery.
Today, I use a scaled-down version of this strategy to help expert-led businesses and service providers build long-term credibility.
Whether you’re a founder, coach, or trades-based brand, this model helps you stand out, build trust, and get found, by people, search engines, and AI.
Let’s Talk About Your Trust Engine
I help coaches, SaaS founders, and service businesses turn customer insights into visibility, trust, and lead-generating content… not just another PDF.
