An Introduction
Scale Badgers Den Membership
We have reviewed the current digital marketing metrics using several free and low cost tools:
1. SERanking an SEO (Search engine optimisation tool) that enables you to research competitors search terms, identify the search volume and import those keywords.
2. Google Lighthouse - which identifies how fast pages load in seconds against Google speed rendering targets (which impacts site authority, traffic shares and user abandonment rates)
3. Google Analytics - determines traffic volumes and which channels are providing traffic effectively and those that do not.
4. Google Search Console that tells us Technically how well the website has been built but also enables us to quickly force Google to rank new pages - especially useful for new websites that are not being visited by Google spiders very frequently.
This gives us data with which we can identify the issues that can be dealt with in a 60-90 day plan and a more strategic plan.
This review is therefore not opinion based but the result of data informed insights.
Objectives
1. Scale membership from 130+ to 400 members rapidly across 2026, using digital marketing tactics to drive traffic to the website
Converting that website traffic to members, with an effective conversion path.
2. Build a digital marketing framework to drive growth from the first store, to 10 stores in the UK.
Effectively, using Market Harborough as blueprint for national tactics.
Any investment is a 10 store learn, investment, not a single store investment.
Findings / Research
Mobile Results
Google Target 3 secs Badgers Den 5.1 secs
In the results it tells you what's wrong and how to fix it.
Relevance:
77.5% Website users are on mobile IOS & Android devices
(see below)
Fix Priority No 1 - owner Caged Fish - timescale 5 days
Why: No 1 traffic medium, Google will send you less traffic if your over 3 seconds page rendering on mobile.
You will be losing customers who do not wait 3 secs
This is just sub optimal technical delivery underlining :
-
Agencies deliver content
-
They do not own performance of that content
(they require policing to extract value, rather than activity)
Fix - Caged Fish
Desktop performance has the same issues although the number of visitors on desktop is 23.4% and the same fixes for mobile will impact desktop performance.
Mobile Devices Page Load performance
= poor
Desktop Devices Page Load performance
= poor
Web Traffic
Google Analytics Traffic figures are a guide, however they have to be put in context:
Highlights would be:
Traffic at 20/30 users a day is low
Events are page views 7 per visitor, which shows the visitors that do enter are interested.
Points to note:
The Traffic is relative to the potential traffic (see SERanking Research)
There are no conversion goals set up in Google analytics:
- Download the app would be a conversion goal i'd recommend
Fix 2 - Caged Fish - 1 day
The Bigger issue is:
If the website is to drive traffic to the app
a) how many app downloads are there a day?
b) How many App downloads become members?
The Report here shows the conversion rate to members from those that register on the APP = 12.46%
With Fix 2 we have two fundamental performance numbers to focus on that drive commercial success:
1. Web Visitors to App downloads
2. App downloads to Members
Google Search Console
The learns from Google Console are the traffic impressions are coming from Search queries that already know "Badgers Den".
We need Traffic for people that don't know Badgers Den?
-
See Demographics
-
See SERanking research
There is virtually no traffic for volume search terms - Why?
"Beard Trim" "men's grooming"
The bulk of web searches top 10 are searching for the Badgers Den
Fix 3. Why stop Google from Indexing Grooming Tips? - sloppy
Google Search Console findings - Low visitor numbers to the website
Strong click thru rate 8.8% however they were searching for badgers den!
Fix 3. Poor Website technical hygiene - Tidy up 0.5 day Caged Fish
SERanking serves multiple functions
1. Website audit - what needs fixing
2. Market research competitors Keywords
3. Track market share of search for your domain
Website Audit - Target 90
Local search terms Badgers Den do not rank for
Search volume per month
Competitor Introduction and Grooming Room
Import local competitor Keywords
Revive Skin and Spar
Import Wellness Keywords
LHomme Grooming Research
SERanking Research
SERanking reports
Let's Start with the website Audit
Fix 4 Clear up this report website audit report
Why?: Google allocates traffic to healthy sites
Should take a week max. workload impact 0.5 days work
Competitors Research
We have mapped the competition Joe pointed as at which we'll cover separately, however here is the process and the findings:
1. We stripped the competitors keywords from their domain research which gave us a cross section of basic keyword terms that traditional "barbers" rank for which is where the current search traffic is.
2. Nationally and locally there is plenty of search traffic from traditional search terms we will quantify in a minute, plus a demographic audience of 51,410 males of which we need 400.
3. That national set of keywords we then imported to a "Local Badgers Den" SERanking project that covers a catchment area of leicestershire.
4. The findings I've put in a short video highlights are:
Market Harborough Search Terms
There are in Market Harborough 2,700 searches a month for competitors offering tradition services.
Badgers Den Share is ZERO
Those keywords are featured over but we would recommend fix 4 & 5 which are:
Fix 4 : Instantly adding content to the website that ranks for these terms to increase traffic, conversions to APP downloads and Members.
Why?:
-
The competition for these terms is 0.02/1 = easy to rank for
-
I'll include a separate report on the website overhaul later
Grooming Search Terms
The same picture exists here, masses of search traffic.
Badgers Den share Zero
Beard Services Search Terms
The same picture exists here, masses of search traffic.
Badgers Den share Zero
Brand Terms Badgers Den Searches are 80 a month
You get 26 of these largely because the website lacks Google Domain authority & Page Authority Plus the fact that in the 37 areas Google wants you to display authority in you feature in 1 "Google Business Profile"
Your Competition although digitally poor feature in 11.
Fix 5 therefore is a Targeted Content Plan aimed at ranking for these terms - See Search Engine Plan
Fix 6 I would seriously consider a short term Google Ads Campaign to drive traffic to your site AFTER you address the conversion factors:
-
Website To APP conversion
-
APP to Membership conversion
Why?
A "Cost Effective" Search Engine Plan (fix 5) would involve 3-6 months work for a young graduate on £137 - £170 a day, guided by an SEO coach (SH).
We will cover in-house inhouse sustained Search Advantage Effort v the cost of an agency, later, however whoever executes the work, its 3-6 months, if you want results faster, the search terms you are after are low cost per click,
ie for a limited budget you'd get instant traffic you can switch off when your Organic Search pages rank and get you the traffic you need.
Toni & Guy
Import national competitor Keywords
Mr Barber Research
Import local competitor Keywords
Member Conversion Short Term
1. Fix 5 for me would be understanding the 12.46% conversion rate from:
Why?
1. You are not loading members efficiently enough at a 12.46% conversion, this conversion number has to be understood.
2. A Sample of 850 folk interested enough to download an APP is a sample size you need to survey and address what comes out of the survey with objective data as a guide.
Fix 6 Requires:
-
A Simple Typeform Survey that can be constructed in a morning
-
An Email Push to The 850 registered folk where we have either mobile number and or email.
-
We then act on the findings.
Conversion aids
As a member who visits once a month there is a fundamental lack of understanding about the Badgers Den premium proposition.
Getting folk into the Den to experience "the value" for me is the Number 8 fix.
How would we achieve that?
An Offer that is run for a trial period of 3 months.
That does not reduce the premium positioning.
That does offer the opportunity to experience the brand and its offering.
Offer Conditions and positioning
Trial Financials
The Trial would need a Non Member Frictionless Booking Route
A Simple Draft Video outline is below for Social Media "Bridging the lack of understanding of the difference between barber and Badgers Den"
With 60% Free capacity at the moment "the cost is sunk in staffing salaries"
Badgers Den In Chair Script
Social Media Draft Video(s)
Concept only
Concepts to illustrate the badgers den - difference
I'd use to get traffic to the site once polished
Summary - Fix 5
The 850 Registered,but not members APP downloads we use as a survey audience - we learn from there feedback feedback - implement a plan.
The same audience we target with "On Us Offer"
We use a polished version of the video options to promote
We create a Landing Page on the site to target "Use Us" Visits.
The QR Code reduces APP download friction
- removing go to the APP Store
- Find the APP
- Download the APP
Replacing it with QR code scan opens the APP Store
Low Friction Badgers Den QR Code
- Opens The App Store
- Badgens Den App
Member Conversion Short Term
Conversion aids
You could activate a Google Ads Campaign in 2 weeks
Why?
1. The Search Terms are Cheap
2. We know the Terms to target - Researched Keywords
3. A High Conversion Landing Page
-
Could be designed and implemented in 2 weeks
-
The measurement would be Google Analytics and Looker Studio
Management of the campaign
We advocate a Google ads Specialist £495 a month
A Single page could be designed in a few hours
Implemented in 2 / 3 days - Caged Fish
We'd incorporate
High Conversion Tools - QR Code scan to download the APP
We'd feed the APP download into a Nurture Progamme
How does that work?
Feed from the APP to either:
-
Hubspot or Email Engine
-
Benefit of HubSpot
-
CRM included
-
Automate Nurture Campaign
-
75% off first year or Starter Pack
-
Email & Mobile Number enter Hubspot
-
Email 1 Short Video
-
Email 2 "On Us" offer
-
Lead Score "Email Opens & Clicks"
Advantages
Quickly find out if the promoted ADs work
Bridges Gap till SEO Organic pages are release and start to rank,
Member Conversion Medium Term Fix 5 detail
Organic Top 3-10 Search Listings - Non Paid
Benefits
-
Investment attitude
-
Once you build the Pages and they rank they, produce traffic on an ongoing basis. Might be a bit of SEO small maintenance work, if competitors wake up.
Advantages
-
Your cost to acquire new customers "drops" dramatically once the page are built & rank.
-
Very Low maintenance Blog Programme to maintain search share.
-
Competition are not digitally savvy unless they are a chain, with digital marketing expertise.
How Would we implement?
We suggest evaluating the difference in cost between an agency implementation with 60-90% staff mark up.
V
Fractional CMO guiding a low cost marketing graduate whose self employed will quickly determine the most cost effective, fastest fix route.
Options
1. Caged Fish produce standard high performance templates
2. The Grad populates and releases
3. The quality is controlled by the fractional CMO
4. SERanking shows the Content Quality & Ranking progress
Management of the SEO (Search Engine Optimised) Organic listing campaign
We'd advocate comparing two cost options:
1. Simon Hunt briefing Caged Fish & measuring technical & commercial performance.
2. Simon Hunt briefing a marketing graduate using standard page templates that are designed to load fast and comply with brand standards.
We'd incorporate
High Conversion Tools - QR Code scan to download the APP
We'd feed the APP download "suspects" data email/mobile into a Nurture Program. That nurture program would nudge then towards either trial or membership by measuring interest, filtering out timewasters.
How does that work?
Feed from the APP to either:
-
Hubspot or Email Engine
-
Benefit of HubSpot
-
CRM included
-
Automate Nurture Campaign
-
75% off first year or Starter Pack
-
Email & Mobile Number enter Hubspot
-
Email 1 Short Video
-
Email 2 "On Us" offer
-
Lead Score "Email Opens & Clicks"
Advantages
Quickly find out if the promoted ADs work
Bridges Gap till SEO Organic pages are release and start to rank,
See below the scores of current Web pages for why Fix 5 is required
These web pages are excellent for brand reinforcement but will never rank to drive traffic.
1. The table lays out the areas they are weak in content
2. Particularly local search terms where you are up against digitally poor competition.
3. A combination of Caged Fish product on brand Templated pages that load quickly on mobile devices
and a graduate with a Simon Hunt coach and this can be fixed in 2-3 months (could be sooner)
Current Website scores to rank organically
(the minimum standard is 9/10)
Search Engine investment - capital investment - do properly once reap rewards for years
This is why the current website is not ranking - From a google search point of view the site is strong on brand, very weak for traffic.
Keywords - The content doesn't cover them.
Titles - They do not match the search query.
Headers - H1 Titles are not a match for the search query.
The content depth is poor.
Internal linking to make "pages" clear obvious as authority pages poor.
Conversion - creating APP downloads and Members - average
Local SEO - extremely poor given local search words with significant volume and poor competition
Technical delivery - typical agency, delivered but hardly top in the class - easy to fix with Search Console and Google Lighthouse
Overall - poor not designed to rank and get traffic - keyword targeting and content depth poor
AI - Each core Services, Membership pages should have JSON LFD Format schemas with breadcrumbs and strong FAQs to dominate local AI traffic
Fixes
The Fixes are all positive moves towards increasing traffic by fixing basic issues
OR
Increase conversion to membership by educating Suspects into the Prospect pipeline and then converting them.
None of this is fluffy marketing everything is measurable again three measures:
1. Search Word ranking growth ie into Top 10 Page 1 positions
2. Conversion of web traffic to prospects (download APP or book Trial)
3. Conversion of prospects to Members - target 300-400 by December 1st
There is an optional 4th if you want to speed up member recruitment via paid ads, Google Ads.
Fix 1-4 - Work with Caged Fish to address - Day rate
Fix 5A - Run survey to ascertain plan to fix 850 people who haven't converted (get the data & insights) - Day Rate
Fix 5b - Work with Caged Fish to create landing page and target registered app users (nurture plan stage 2)
Fix 6 - Google ads - Create High Conversion Landing Page with Caged Fish - Work with know Google ads agency
Fix 7 - SEO investment plan and execution - monthly retainer 3-6 months coaching Grad or Caged Fish
