McDowells Herbal Undergoes a Health Check
“An independent audit helps eliminate internal divisiveness and indecision. It provides clear and unbiased direction.”
Leah Moulden, McDowells Herbal, Head of Marketing
About McDowells Herbal
Founded in 1987, McDowells Herbal is a regional Australian business that has been in the forefront of pet herbal medicine for the past 30 years. Initially earning an exceptional reputation through herbally treating humans, the business has expanded to include the treatment of horses, dogs and cats. To meet the customisation demands of their industry, McDowells Herbal offers free email and telephone consultations in conjunction with their online store.
McDowells Herbal has a factory storefront in Bathurst, however, the vast majority of customers utilise its eCommerce website. The McDowells Herbal team explains, “when we first launched, our customers relied solely on phone consultations and orders. The original website is an educational resource. We have subsequently added a separate eCommerce site, which is an imperative part of today’s business. More than 70% of our business is done online.”
McDowells Herbal internally manages the day-to-day operations of the website and digital strategy. A contract IT developer performs major website changes and provides SEO advice. Google Ads is managed by an external company.
Website : https://www.mcdowellsherbal.com/
Category
Health and Wellbeing
Size
20+ ppl
Region
Global
E-commerce
Yes
Website
WordPress
Years in operation
30+ years
Category
Health & Wellbeing
Size
20+ ppl
Region
Global
E-commerce
Yes
Website
WordPress
Years in operation
30+
Challenge / Goal
McDowells Herbal faced challenges with their digital strategy, and sought clarity about whether, and to what extent, these issues were impacting the business. “The audit was a really great way of confirming our suspicions.”
The company’s multiple websites / subdomains adds complexity to keeping abreast of analytics and managing its digital strategy.
“With two websites, Google Analytics is not that easy. There are just so many layers that, unless you’re in it constantly, it’s hard to know what’s actually going on.”
“We were spending money on advertising, without understanding the outcomes and whether our approach was bringing in the best return on investment. Our visitors weren’t converting. We knew that tweaks to our approach would help, but it was hard to find the time for in depth analysis and for the creation of a new plan. Constantly reviewing and managing analytics is very time consuming, which is challenging for a small business.”
Key Findings / Results
The McDowells Herbal team understands the benefits of having an independent organisation review the business’s digital footprint. “It was great to hand the audit over to someone with an independent, third party perspective. We know our stuff, but independence gives weight to the findings. We can bring the findings back to all team members and work together to make improvements in a strategic, prioritised and organised way.”
The audit gave the McDowells team concrete findings, motivation to drive their projects forward, and solutions to help achieve their goals. “The audit was a really great way of confirming some of our suspicions and identifying focus areas for improvement. It validated what we thought wasn’t working, and helped us commit to a prioritised plan.”
Despite having a strong idea of their audience, the company found the Audience Profile interesting and insightful. “We hadn’t looked at location-based demographics in such depth before”.
The audit validated the company’s concerns about having multiple websites. As such, it expedited the process of upgrading and merging sites. A number of other recommendations have been implemented too. These include improving webspeed performance, improving landing pages, optimising the website for mobile, developing a style guide to help improve download speeds and user experience.
“We have also made changes to our Google Ads strategy. We weren’t utilising Google Ads as well as we could have been. The audit report indicated that we were overspending with underwhelming results. Since prioritising and implementing the recommendations we have seen great improvements, even within the first week.”
McDowells Herbal recommends an Independent Digital Audit to businesses looking to boost sales, improve growth, build unity within their team, and set clear goals. The company sees value in, and looks forward to running a follow-up audit in the future to review the outcomes of their changes, and continue to find new ways to optimise their growth.
