SME Growth

SME Growth We help businesses grow. Profitably.

29/07/2026

People sometimes ask why I love helping small businesses.

I think of a client I met 7 years ago.

He ran an earthworks company. When we sat down, he didn't talk about market share. He looked me in the eye and said: "I've got about two months left before I go under. I've got nothing left to lose."

No pressure then.

We didn't do a rebrand or a strategy workshop. We built a Google Ads campaign to get the phone ringing immediately.

He couldn't afford the website upfront. So we let him pay it off over three months.

Within a month of the new site going live, he called me: "You legends! I'm booked solid for the next 3 months!" — I've edited out the sweary words.

Two years later? Fleet of new diggers and trucks. Seven staff on the payroll.

Seven people supported by a business that almost didn't make it.

I've got advertising awards from my old agency days. They don't mean half as much as that phone call.

If your business is under pressure right now, this is exactly the conversation worth having. No pitch, no commitment and just honest advice — link in first comment.

Can AI actually build a proper website?Fair question. Here's our answer: go to smegrowth.ai/nz. Then run it through any ...
27/07/2026

Can AI actually build a proper website?

Fair question. Here's our answer: go to smegrowth.ai/nz. Then run it through any website SEO audit tool on the internet.

You'll get a 99% score.

We built that website using the same AI technology we offer our clients. Not a human painstakingly coding every page. An AI system we've trained, guided, and refined — built on the same framework as Fortune 500 companies.

For context: previously our best result on Squarespace, built by experienced humans, was 85%. The AI gets to 99%.

The site also identifies its own errors and fixes them automatically. A client can brief a new service, the AI builds the page, they preview it, click go-live — done.

Half the cost of a traditional build. Half the time.

We didn't ask clients to trust this technology. We used it on ourselves first.

See it live — link in first comment.

David Ogilvy said it best: "Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy."That was 1965. It's even ...
20/07/2026

David Ogilvy said it best: "Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy."

That was 1965. It's even more true today.

I see marketers spend days on a video, then 30 seconds on the caption. That's backwards.

The first sentence is the gatekeeper. If it doesn't stop the scroll, nothing else matters.

Write the headline first. Write 10 versions. Pick the best one.

Don't let a $100 piece of content fail because of a 5-cent headline.

Get more from your Marketing - Link in first comment.

☕ 10 Marketing Lessons Every Business Can Learn From a Café✅ Great products don't sell themselves. The best coffee in to...
15/07/2026

☕ 10 Marketing Lessons Every Business Can Learn From a Café

✅ Great products don't sell themselves. The best coffee in town still needs people to find it.

✅ First impressions matter. People decide within seconds whether to stay or leave.

✅ Make it easy to buy. A simple menu is like a simple website—if customers can't find what they need, they'll go elsewhere.

✅ Regulars are more valuable than one-off customers. Loyalty is built through great experiences.

✅ Word of mouth is earned. Happy customers become your best marketers.

✅ Consistency builds trust. Customers return because they know what to expect every time.

✅ Answer questions before they're asked. The easier you make it for customers to get answers, the more likely they are to choose you.

✅ Be known for something. Businesses that stand out are the ones people remember.

✅ Visibility matters. Even the best café needs people to know it's there. The same applies to your business.

✅ People buy experiences, not just products. Marketing gets customers through the door—your customer experience keeps them coming back.

💬 Which lesson do you think most NZ businesses overlook?

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It's SEO's successor and it's already reshaping how customers find businesses...
01/07/2026

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It's SEO's successor and it's already reshaping how customers find businesses like yours.

Here's the difference:
SEO = get your website ranked on Google
AEO = get your business recommended by AI engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude)

Why does it matter? Because AI-referred traffic converts at 14.2% versus 2.8% for traditional organic search. Five times better.

The businesses being recommended by AI aren't necessarily the biggest or the oldest. They're the ones whose websites are structured the right way:

- Clear answers to real questions
- Proper schema markup
- FAQ content
- Consistent information

Do you need it? Yes.

73% of NZ and AU businesses are invisible in AI search right now. That won't be true in 12 months. The question is which side of that line you're on.

We explain exactly what this means for your business — link in first comment.

"We got 500 likes on that post!""Great. How many enquiries did it generate?"Silence.In the early days of social media, w...
29/06/2026

"We got 500 likes on that post!"

"Great. How many enquiries did it generate?"

Silence.

In the early days of social media, we all got hooked on likes, shares and follower counts. But after 25 years in marketing, one thing remains true: vanity metrics don't pay the bills.

I'd rather have 100 followers who become customers than 10,000 who simply scroll past.

Likes and engagement have their place, but they should support your business goals, not become the goal.

That's why every campaign we run at SME Growth is measured against what matters most: enquiries, conversions and sales.

You can see how that approach delivers real results for NZ businesses — link in first comment.

I promised to explain SEO without the waffle. So here it is.SEO isn't magic. It's essentially a filing cabinet.Google is...
24/06/2026

I promised to explain SEO without the waffle. So here it is.

SEO isn't magic. It's essentially a filing cabinet.

Google is the world's strictest librarian. When someone asks for a "Plumber in Christchurch," the librarian looks for the file that is:

a) Most clearly labelled "Plumber in Christchurch"
b) Has the most people vouching for it (links and reviews)

That's it. You don't need to trick the robot. You just need to label your files correctly.

Stop trying to game the system. Create content that actually answers the questions your customers are asking. Be helpful. The librarian will notice.

The filing cabinet logic is exactly what we apply and in 2026 there are now more librarians: Google, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity to name a few.

It is important to optimise your content for all of them — link in first comment.

So why are your leads down?This is the most common question we're hearing from NZ and AU business owners right now. And ...
23/06/2026

So why are your leads down?

This is the most common question we're hearing from NZ and AU business owners right now. And the answer isn't what most people expect.

Here's what's happening:

— AI Overviews now appear in 48–60% of Google searches
— When they appear, the #1 ranked result loses 61% of its clicks
— 60% of searches now end without anyone visiting any website at all

Your ranking hasn't dropped. The value of that ranking has.

The businesses gaining ground right now are being cited by AI engines...not just ranked by Google. That's a fundamentally different game.

It's called AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation and most businesses haven't started playing yet.

73% of NZ and AU businesses are invisible in AI search right now. The ones who fix this in the next 90 days will have a significant head start.

Case study 👇 link in first comment

And for the traffic that does reach your page — make sure it's not leaking. Every visitor is worth more than ever now. Our free AI audit shows you exactly what your landing page is costing you in enquiries. Inbox in 5 minutes.

Free landing page audit 👇 link in second comment

22/06/2026

You can have the most beautiful shop window in Ponsonby, but if the door is locked, you won't sell a thing.

Same with websites.

I've seen owners spend $10k+ on a site that looks beautiful but confuses mosts visitors. They might obsess over logo colours and then something like the, "Book Now" button can be hard to find.

A website has two jobs:
1. Tell people they're in the right place.
2. Tell them what to do next.

3 seconds of confusion and they're gone.

Does your site look good and does it work?

We built a free landing page audit tool - link in comment below.

If I had a dollar for every time a business owner asked me "Should I be on TikTok?" before they could tell me who their ...
18/06/2026

If I had a dollar for every time a business owner asked me "Should I be on TikTok?" before they could tell me who their customer was, I'd be retired on a vineyard in Central Otago.

Here's the mistake I see constantly. We obsess over the channel (TikTok, SEO, Facebook, Email) and ignore the message.

Before you spend a cent on digital advertising, ask yourself three questions:

1. Who exactly am I helping?

2. What problem am I solving that keeps them awake at night?

3. Why should they trust me over anyone else?

If you can't answer those clearly, being on any channel just means you're broadcasting your confusion to more people.

Nail the message. Then choose the medium.

Answering those three questions is the first thing we do with every new client at SME Growth — link in first comment.

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