Digital strategy for Dunedin businesses, before you spend a dollar
Website, SEO, ads, social, email. Before you commit a budget to any of them, we map out exactly what your Dunedin business needs online, what to do first, and what to skip. You walk away with a clear, costed plan built on research, not guesswork.
Trusted by businesses since 2018
Who this is for
If any of these sound like your Dunedin business, a strategy is the right place to start.
Launching a new venture
You need a website, maybe ads, maybe social. But you do not know where to start or how much to budget before you commit.
Taking your business online
You have been running offline and want to set up your digital presence properly from the start, not bolt it on piece by piece.
Selling to the student market
Your customers come and go with the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic. You need a plan that accounts for a market that turns over every year.
Tourism or hospitality with a season
Visitor demand around the Otago Peninsula and Port Chalmers rises and falls. You want to capture it when intent peaks, not spend flat all year.
A local trade or service
You win or lose on local search and word of mouth. You want the right local plan without overspending against national competitors.
Spending across scattered channels
You have a website, maybe some ads, a social page. But nothing connects and you cannot tell what is actually working.
Think of it as a plan for your digital setup
You would not build a house without a plan. The same goes for your digital presence. Before you invest in a website, ads, or anything else, you want someone who can look at your business and tell you what is actually going to move the needle.
That is what a digital strategy is. We learn your business, research your market, and hand back a prioritised plan covering which channels to use, how to split your budget, what content to create, the tools you need, and the order to do it all in.
You walk away knowing exactly what your business needs online, roughly what it should cost, and what to do first. If SEO, paid ads or a new website turn out to be the right moves, we can run those too, or you can take the plan elsewhere.
We look at everything
The Dunedin reality
Dunedin is a smaller market than Auckland or Wellington, and that changes the maths. Word of mouth still carries real weight here, but the moment a customer opens Google you are in the same results as national brands and franchises spending far more than you can. A plan that picks the few channels you can win beats spreading a small budget across all of them.
It is also a city shaped by the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic. A large student population searches, behaves and buys differently to permanent residents, and it turns over every year. If students are part of your market, your strategy has to account for that churn and the academic calendar that drives it.
Then there is tourism and a local tech and software scene that punches above its weight. Visitor demand around the Otago Peninsula and Port Chalmers is seasonal, so a tourism-adjacent operator needs to capture high-intent search when people are planning and arriving, not run a flat spend all year. And a digitally literate local market judges your website and funnel accordingly.
What this means for your plan
Pick your battles
Spend where you can actually win, not a little on every channel against budgets you cannot match.
Plan around the student calendar
If students are your market, build for annual churn and the academic year that drives it.
Capture seasonal demand
Time tourism and visitor spend to when search intent peaks, then ease off when it does not.
Reach the wider Otago region
Target customers beyond the city centre without wasting budget on people who will never buy.
The questions we answer for you
You leave the engagement knowing exactly what your business needs online, and what it does not.
Do I need a website?
We tell you whether you need a new site, a few fixes, or nothing new yet, what to build it on, and what it actually has to do to win you customers.
Where should I advertise?
Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok. We work out where your Dunedin customers actually spend their attention and which channels are worth your money.
Do I need SEO?
We assess whether organic search is a realistic channel for your business and what it would take to rank for the terms that bring in enquiries.
What about social media?
Which platforms earn their keep for your business, what to post, and where social is honestly a waste of your time. Straight answers, no filler.
What tools do I actually need?
CRM, email, booking systems, analytics. We cut the noise and name only the tools you will genuinely use and that pay you back.
How do I launch this?
A step-by-step plan with clear priorities and a budget, so you know what to do first, what can wait, and what to skip entirely.
Guessing vs having a plan
The difference between a business that grows and one that just stays busy.
Guessing
- Random activity, posting, ads and updates with no clear purpose
- Budget spread thin, money going to channels nobody is measuring
- No measurement, you cannot tell what is working and what is not
- Reactive decisions, always firefighting instead of building
A clear plan
- Clear priorities, you know exactly what to focus on and what to ignore
- Budget tied to outcomes, every dollar pointed at something you can measure
- Goals you can track, so you know whether it is paying back
- Proactive growth, building towards goals instead of reacting
What you walk away with
Not a generic template. A custom strategy document built specifically for your Dunedin business.
Research and insights
- Competitor breakdown
- Who your customers really are
- What is and is not working now
Your game plan
- Which channels to use
- What content to create
- How to split your budget
Action roadmap
- Step-by-step action plan
- Prioritised next steps
- What to do first vs later
Tracking and goals
- How to measure success
- Analytics setup
- A simple review framework
Strategy that paid off, proven across New Zealand
We are Auckland-based and have not published a Dunedin client yet, so here is real work for businesses across New Zealand. Each result is tied to the client that earned it, from a finance brand and an e-commerce retailer to a property team, a transport operator and a trades business. It is the strategic thinking we would bring to your Dunedin plan.
SEO Finance
Fundmaster: 13x monthly organic traffic
Now outranking national brokers for local mortgage searches
SEO New ZealandE-commerce
TSB Living: 298% organic traffic growth
Now competing for the same searches as Kmart and Briscoes
Google Ads New ZealandReal Estate
Austar Property Services: 66% lower cost per appraisal lead
Paul reports a 66% reduction in CPA and improved lead quality
Web Design New ZealandLogistics
GetATaxi: 643% organic traffic growth
Now ranking alongside the big rideshare names for airport transfers
Local SEO Trades & Services
Clean Windows: 143% more enquiries
A steady place in the map pack that keeps enquiries coming
Want results like these for your business?
Book Free Strategy CallHow we build your strategy
A clear, repeatable process that gives you a plan and a path forward.
Learn your business
We get to know your business, your goals, your customers, and what you have already tried.
Research your market
We study your competitors, your industry, and where your Otago customers actually spend time online.
Build the plan
We put together a clear plan that says exactly what to do, in what order, and how much to budget.
Map the roadmap
We sequence the work into clear priorities so you always know what comes next, without busywork.
Set up tracking
We make sure you can measure what is working from the start. No guessing, just data.
Walk you through it
We take you through the whole plan. Then you choose: run it yourself, run it with us, or hand it to us entirely.
Our digital strategy services
Explore the specialist parts of strategy we run for Dunedin and Otago businesses, from the full marketing plan to competitive positioning.
What our clients say
Real reviews from the businesses we have built, ranked and run campaigns for.
“Our CPA dropped by 66% and lead quality increased 200-300%. Not only almost immediately, but consistent for the last few months.”
We’ve been working with Jason from Lucid Media and couldn’t recommend him more. He’s been a fast communicator, proactive, and always willing to help. Jason goes above and beyond with providing recommendations and support.
The websites he’s built and implemented for us have been excellent. He has captured our business perfectly and ensured that it is user friendly on both desktop/mobile. Fantastic service!
Jason and his team have been fantastic to work with from the initial website design and with the ongoing maintenance. They built us a really professional and well-designed site that represents our business well and it has been great having their continued support.
It is nice to know someone reliable can manage our website and make sure it stays ranking on Google. They are always responsive when we need updates or changes made, and their technical expertise gives us peace of mind.
“I’ve had around 10 websites developed over the years, and Jason is by far the best web developer I’ve ever worked with.”
I have been working with Jason for a year now and he is absolutely brilliant, honest and reliable. His client first approach has meant his work is always on time and to a high standard.
Most of all he actually gets the results he says he will.
Communication with him is always smooth and effortless. The website he created for me exceeded my expectations in every way. I’m genuinely impressed with both the design and the overall structure.
I’m looking forward to seeing what else the website can bring to me. If you’re thinking about building a website, Jason is definitely the person to go to.
“Absolutely great in delivering our e-commerce website. A great experience from start to finish, and even beyond.”
Working with Jason @ Lucid Media on our website was a great experience from start to finish. Jason brought our vision to life with creativity and professionalism; he understood what we were after, and this could be seen in the result.
The design is clean and modern, and the functionality is exactly what we needed. Communication was smooth throughout the entire process, and deadlines were always met. Highly recommend to anyone looking for top-tier web design and development.
I had Lucid Media do some SEO work for us and I'm super impressed with the results. Jason also took the time to educate me deeply on the topic so I didn't feel like everything was smoke and mirrors like I have had with previous agencies.
Working with Lucid Media was an excellent experience from start to finish. They took the time to thoroughly analyse our previous website, understand our product, and align with our company goals before creating a new, professional layout and copy.
They truly went above and beyond, exceeding expectations at every step. I genuinely enjoyed the collaboration and look forward to working with them again in the future.
I had a call with Jason and was so impressed by how in-depth it was. He really listened, understood where I’m at, and gave me a clear action plan that I can actually use.
It was practical, straightforward, and made me feel confident moving forward with my ads. I couldn’t recommend working with him enough.
“We wanted to bring our idea for an app to life. He turned our ideas into reality.”
Lucid Media provides great service, quickly establishing and refining our website. They are always available to us when we need changes made.
Expert in SEO which is critical, our company now ranks at the top of Google searches, alongside our international suppliers but ahead of other agents around the world. We totally recommend Lucid as a highly competent and committed website developer and manager.
We had previously used another digital company for our website and digital marketing… things went downhill quickly, and our business suffered badly.
Within 30 minutes, we were on a Teams meeting discussing the problems we were facing. By 2am, Jason had sent us a detailed report… By 4pm, our Google Ads were back up and running.
Everything was turned around in less than 24 hours… seeing results that quickly was honestly incredible.
Jason and the team at Lucid Media have helped get our business back on solid ground… Young, full of energy, passionate, and genuinely driven to help businesses succeed.
Jason created our JunkBoss company website from start to finish. He always responded immediately, shared great ideas, and the final site looks spectacular!!
Highly recommend to anyone looking to get their website done.
“They took the time to understand our vision and business needs, translating them into a stunning, user-friendly website.”
Communication was insanely good, the work Jason provided me with was on a new level and blew me away. If you’re looking for someone who will go above and beyond for you then he is your man.
From the start, Jason has taken the time to understand my business properly rather than just pushing a generic marketing setup. We’ve built out a new website, landing pages, CRM integration, Google Ads and Meta campaigns, and the attention to detail across everything has been excellent.
What stands out most is his responsiveness and willingness to adapt quickly. Any time we’ve needed changes or seen something in the data, he’s on it straight away and is always looking for ways to improve performance rather than just letting campaigns run.
The key difference is that he genuinely feels invested in the success of the business, not just running ads in the background.
“He was really acting in our best interests and went beyond what we were expecting him to achieve.”
When the finance company I manage, Fee Funders, changed ownership, Lucid Media took over all aspects of our IT and technology, and the impact has been outstanding. Jason quickly learned our legacy systems, implemented critical changes during the transition, and then led the development of our new software platform and reporting systems.
Jason is exceptional across all areas of technology, both front-end and back-end. He’s practical, solutions-focused, and genuinely understands business needs as well as the technical side.
Jason has been awesome to work with over the last few months. Whenever we've had any sort of issue with our website, he is extremely prompt in resolving it. Very professional and helpful, I highly recommend.
“Jason is exceptional, excellent communications, a highly motivated individual. Such rare traits - very happy with his development work for us!”
Jason has been awesome in the work he has done for us. He is fast, very responsive and professional. Would highly recommend.
The team at Lucid Media have provided excellent service while recently coming in to help position J-Tip It to where they need to be!
We are absolutely blown away with their quick responses, smooth customer service and their initiative to stay 10-steps ahead at all times. Results are immediate and the cost is undeniably justified.
If you want to be in safe hands, choose Lucid!
“The site looks clean, professional, and easy to use. He made the whole process super simple and stress-free.”
Strategy across Dunedin and Otago
We work with businesses across Dunedin and the wider Otago region, delivered remotely over video calls so you get senior people on your account wherever you are based. From the city centre out to Mosgiel, Port Chalmers and the coast, the plan is built around how your customers actually search and buy.
Want the channels mapped out too? See how we approach conversion rate optimisation and funnel building once the plan points the way.
Dunedin digital strategy questions, answered
Got questions? We have got answers. Here are some common questions about working with us.
Ask a QuestionReady to know exactly what to do next?
Book a free strategy session. We will map out your priorities and show you what to do next for your Dunedin business, with no pressure and no lock-in.
