Rebuilding Digital Marketing from the Ground Up

The Challenge

When I joined, digital marketing at Enhesa was a one-person operation with no dedicated SEO function, no shared source of truth for the team to work from, and no strategy for showing up in AI-generated search. The paid media programme was burning budget on low-intent retargeting that inflated conversion counts without producing real sales-accepted leads. The email programme relied on legacy mass-sends that were degrading domain quality. The opportunity was to rebuild the function properly, then scale it.

What I Did

Rebuilt the team and the foundations

Hired two senior specialists and now lead two direct reports, growing the digital function from a one-person operation to five. Ran a full platform audit, consolidated the email calendar, and scoped the agency and technical work behind a full website rebuild and rebrand, now in delivery for August 2026.

Built the SEO and GEO programme

Owned SEO and GEO (generative engine optimisation) as the business's sole specialist from day one: technical audits, content strategy, off-site work and team training. Took visibility from 7.6% to 17.1% in six months, the fastest gain of any competitor tracked, moving Enhesa from third place to outright #1, now sitting at 20% visibility and 40% share of voice, ahead of Sphera and VelocityEHS on both measures. 75% of tracked keywords (631 of 845) now appear in Google's AI Overviews, and AI tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini actively cite Enhesa, the result of Enhesa becoming the top brand for share of voice across AI model conversations in the category.

Reset paid media

Replaced the underperforming paid agency and rebuilt the programme around an always-on engine. Paused low-intent PMax retargeting that was inflating conversion counts in APAC and the Americas, protected and split out brand search as the most dependable high-intent channel, and relaunched LinkedIn off fresh customer data analysis with the ROI Calculator as the main MQL driver. Post-restructure, cost per SAL fell from $2,898.67 to $1,539.12 and CPA improved from $196.65 to $156.26.

Rebuilt email and lifecycle

Retired a legacy programme built on mass-sends that was degrading domain quality, replacing it with a professionalised newsletter system (Enhesa Horizon) and a new Regulatory Bulletin. Leads grew 399% and lead-per-click rate grew 546% in the first 28 days after launch. Website form fills hit a record month, up from 79 a year earlier to 140, with a record share of those submissions being high-intent.

Scaled the team with AI

Built a company-wide "marketing brain" in Confluence, with a defined taxonomy and folder structure so product marketing could contribute directly. Led the MCP connector rollout with IT and built a Claude Skill library referencing the repository, including chained "sprint" skills. Designed an AI curriculum and ran workshops for the team, and introduced tools including AirOps and Peec AI to scale content production without losing quality, lifting team productivity by around 35%.

The Outcome

Pipeline grew across every channel, not just one

Monthly SQLs (meetings booked) dipped to 25 in March during the team transition, then climbed steadily to 38 by May and held in the high 30s through July, a swing of over 50% from the low point. The growth wasn't carried by a single channel:

• Organic-sourced SQLs roughly quadrupled from a low of 3 in March to a record 15 in June, with June also the strongest month yet for SEO-driven pipeline overall (July trending similarly once late-arriving conversions land, as they typically do after month end)

• Paid Search SQLs ran at a monthly average of 6 across Q1. Since taking over the channel in March, that average has risen to 10.6 a month (Mar to Jul), up 77%

• Direct traffic, now 47% of all sessions and fuelled by AI-search citations, became the fastest-growing channel, with engaged direct sessions up 35% year on year

SEO and GEO visibility

• Visibility: 7.6% to 17.1% in six months (+125%), now outright #1 in category at 20% visibility and 40% share of voice, ahead of Sphera (20% visibility, 25% SOV) and VelocityEHS (19% visibility, 20% SOV)

• Latest snapshot has the gap widening further: Enhesa 21.7% visibility versus Sphera's 18.1% and VelocityEHS's 17.4%

• 607 new keyword rankings added, top-3 rankings nearly doubled (155 to 298)

• 75% of tracked keywords now appear in AI Overviews

Paid media efficiency

• Cost per SAL down from $2,898.67 to $1,539.12

• CPA improved from $196.65 to $156.26

• In the six weeks after the always-on engine went live (versus the prior six weeks): SQLs up 100%, cost per SQL down 44%

Email and website

• Leads +399%, lead-per-click rate +546% in 28 days

• Website form fills at a record month (140), with a record high-intent share

• Engagement rate up 10.1 points to 38.6%, engaged direct sessions up 35%

Team and productivity

• Digital team grown from one person to five: two senior hires, two direct reports, plus the director

• Team productivity up around 35% through new AI workflows and tooling