In 2014, Carolyn Tait founded No Fuss Business, an accounting and bookkeeping firm. To help expand their services, her husband Steve joined in 2018. Steve is a tech-savvy guy, but marketing tasks were eating up almost 20% of his working hours—time he could have spent building relationships and closing sales. Steve wanted No Fuss to grow but didn’t have the time or know-how to do it himself. He needed marketing support. That’s where Mailchimp partner Jonathan Cook, founder of Neon Hive, came in. Here’s how Jonathan helped Steve get back to what he loves: innovating accounting and management solutions for modern businesses.
How No Fuss Business Got Back to What They Love: Bookkeeping, Not Fussing Over Marketing
This accounting firm hired a Mailchimp partner so they could dedicate time to growing their business—now they have two.
Steve, what was your marketing strategy like before hiring Jonathan?
Steve: No Fuss Business grew organically over the first couple of years. Early on, we had developed our website, and it looked nice. But it didn’t do anything and wasn’t generating traffic.
When it came to updating and upgrading your website, what was on your wishlist?
Steve: We wanted to implement a digital strategy that would get us more leads, but you can’t do everything as a business owner; you need to focus on your strengths. Our business is bookkeeping and accounting—that’s our skill set, not developing websites, digital strategy, running marketing funnels, and driving leads. So we hired Jonathan.
Jonathan, how did you address No Fuss’s marketing challenges?
Jonathan: The key issues with No Fuss’s existing strategy were related to conversion. They had this lovely-looking website, but there were no forms, you couldn’t click on email addresses, and you couldn’t contact anyone! I also identified an issue with their brand messaging, which led me to run an audit of their existing marketing. After that evaluation, I created a 90-day plan to tackle these crucial issues and develop ongoing actions and strategies.
“No Fuss is very much for small businesses. We stood back and decided they needed to be treating their client as Batman and themselves as Robin.”
What was the issue you identified in their brand messaging?
Jonathan: Their previous copywriter wrote nicely, but the copy didn’t suit their brand. No Fuss is very much for small businesses. We stood back and decided they needed to be treating their client as Batman and themselves as Robin. This shift in player mentality established them as the ultimate support, rather than the Batman of accounting.
Steve, how has hiring Jonathan helped you?
Steve: Time is the key. You don’t have time to do everything. I wanted to focus on networking, relationship building, closing sales, and building the operational side of the business. That’s where my skill set is. With that focus, we didn’t have the time to learn what Jonathan does. But now, after hiring him as our partner, I don’t have to! More importantly, having a partner allowed us to develop No Fuss Cloud, our newest company.
Jonathan: When Steve and I first met, our conversation focused around the vast number of business applications out there and what we found worked best. So from Day 1, our relationship was very focused around apps. By giving Steve more time, he was able to develop ideas further until No Fuss Cloud came to fruition.
Can you tell us a bit about what No Fuss Cloud does?
Steve: No Fuss Cloud does app advisory, implementation, and cloud migration services. I worked my whole life for big corporations doing IT development, system design, software support, and business management. Now, with No Fuss Cloud, I’m bringing that corporate and global experience to small and medium enterprises here in New Zealand.
You’ve been working together for a little over a year now. What has Jonathan done for No Fuss?
Steve: Jonathan has helped us grow our business through his work on our website and marketing processes. The immediate action items he tackled—like the website, SEO, contact form, and converting leads in Mailchimp—were crucial. Then, we started on restructuring, fixing processes, driving traffic, and getting content out there. But most importantly, having him as our partner has allowed us to develop other services and markets.
How quickly did you see results?
Steve: Oh, immediately! It took around a month to develop our action plan, and I would say within 2 months, the first leads from that work came in.
And what were those results?
Jonathan: They were pretty darn good. Over the past 6 months, we’ve seen a 109% increase in website visitors, a 377% increase in organic search rankings (with multiple first-spot ranking keywords), and a 108% increase in organic search traffic. There have also been 85 website conversions, which is a massive increase from zero conversions they saw before.
Jonathan, now that you’ve overhauled the website, what do you plan to tackle next?
Jonathan: We’re now working on industry-specific marketing campaigns. The strategy is 4-pronged. First, we’re building industry-specific landing pages. Second, we’re developing engaging top-, middle-, and bottom-of-funnel content (articles, resources, and case studies, respectively). Third, I’m developing paid search campaigns and improving SEO around each industry. And finally, we’re working on segmenting email marketing campaigns, automation sequences, and resource downloads.
Steve, in the last 6 years you and Carolyn have launched 2 companies. That’s huge! What’s up next for No Fuss?
Steve: Our spin-off, No Fuss Cloud, is in its infancy. There’s a lot of opportunity in that space for us, so while Jonathan keeps taking the load for our digital brand and marketing, I’ll be focused on closing sales and building operational capability to support that growth.