Surf Lakes Rides the Wave of Smarter Digital Strategy
“I saw value in the audit from day dot. I knew the financial return would be far greater than the initial investment. And it was.”
Wayne Dart, General Manager Global Operations II Media and Sales Manager Surf Lakes International
About Surf Lakes
Surf Lakes is a global, innovative company, using sustainable wave technology to transform lakes and pools into wave surfing venues. Surf Lakes is in both the retail and wholesale spaces. They provide outdoor recreation experiences direct to participants, as well as wholesale opportunities to buy in as a licensee.
Surf Lakes self-manage their website, SEO and social channels. The company actively uses Google Analytics as a resource but were growing aware that more detail and clarity was required to achieve its desired growth.
Wayne explains that “analytics is helpful, but we needed more. The IDA audit gave us what we needed to create a clear 12-18 month marketing strategy, across all platforms, that google analytics couldn’t provide”.
Website : surf-lakes.com
Category
Outdoor recreation
Size
25-30 ppl
Region
Global
E-commerce
N/A
Website
WordPress
Years in operation
5-10
Category
Outdoor recreation
Size
25-30 ppl
Region
Global
E-commerce
N/A
Website
WordPress
Years in operation
5-10
Challenge / Goal
The Surf Lakes website is a crucial component to the overall success of the business.
“Our biggest challenge was understanding how best to reach the retail and licensee markets. We knew that we needed a two-pronged strategy to create brand awareness and attract licensees through market demand… It’s vital that our website successfully crosses all boundaries and targets both audiences.”
Prior to the audit, Surf Lakes felt that they had a rough idea of who their audience was, and felt on top of their in-house strategy. Yet, only upon reading the audit, did they realise how much more potential there was to improve their digital footprint.
Key Findings / Results
“Given that it’s a new space and the website was only 12 months old, there were definitely insights into different segments of the market that we hadn’t thought about.”
Audience targeting was one of the most impactful insights. Strategic shortcomings were affecting the business’ bottom line.
“The audit gave us an understanding about who the existing marketing was reaching, and we could see the gaps in our reach clearly for the first time. The recommendations showed us how to get to the full range of our audience. It gave us a really clear picture of how to modify and optimise.”
Surf Lakes implemented the recommended actions. Many of the changes related to content creation and delivery, and saw improvements right away.
“When we made the changes there was a huge influx of potential licensee enquiries, and many of them converted. It was awesome to see.”
“Working with IDA was awesome from start to finish. The audit was really easy to understand and insightful. It included everything we wanted. We were more than satisfied with what we received, and it helped us achieve our goals”.
