Hey, thanks for tuning in to another Partner Interview at EcomBalance. At EcomBalance, we’re all about creating win-win partnerships where we are able to grow with other companies in the eCommerce space.
In this exclusive interview, we interview Max Hertan from Megaphone Marketing, one of Australia’s largest privately owned digital agencies.
We hope that you enjoy the interview and that it brings value to you as an eCommerce business owner.
Connor: Hey Max, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today. As a company, one of our goals is to highlight our partners so that our clients can benefit where it makes most sense. To get started, can you give us a high-level introduction to Megaphone Marketing and a little bit about how the company got started?
Max: From a tiny startup in 2013 to a now internationally recognised brand that sets the benchmark for employee satisfaction and client results, Megaphone’s rise to the top has been swift, dramatic, and full of success for clients and team members alike.
Megaphone is a Melbourne-headquartered full-service digital marketing agency with a proudly unique culture that has continually striven toward two goals: one, to become the world’s best marketing agency, and two, to be Australia’s best place to work (and then the world’s).
As Australia’s #1 Social Media Agency, Megaphone does things differently from most businesses. On paper, we exist to grow clients’ businesses. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find that our mission extends so far beyond that. Every day, the learning-obsessed Megaphone team come to work to help our 350+ clients achieve, and then surpass, their goals. We work alongside a slew of brands of all shapes and sizes across diverse industries – from international apparel brands to boutique fashion start-ups, and everything in between.
You can dive into the specifics of the full Megaphone growth story — from being a one-man-show where Max would walk around trade shows pitching every client and losing his voice by day’s end, to a multiple-award-winning agency, here.
Connor: Thanks for sharing that! Can you dive a bit more into the services that you offer to help drive more sales? Our audience is always looking for reputable companies that they can lean on for specific parts of their eCommerce businesses.
Max: What we do is grow clients’ businesses holistically through strategy and action. Sure, we specialise in a range of digital fields – Google, Facebook, TikTok, SEO, Lead Generation, Email Marketing, and Content Creation, to name a few – but these are simply tools in our arsenal to help us achieve our overarching client-first objective: grow the business in all facets, holistically, and (most importantly) for the long-term.
While other agencies might search for a quick return on ad spend, it may come at the expense of brand image, customer loyalty, or long-term prospects. At Megaphone, we start from the ground up, looking at overarching marketing that can build customer loyalty, brand recognition, and long-term profitability, all while improving the core marketing and sales metrics along the way. We’re not a Facebook Ads or TikTok Ads agency, we’re a “Grow your business and get you results” agency.
Led by Director and Melbourne Young Entrepreneur-winner, Max Hertan; trailblazing CEO, Lauren Oakes, and 30-Under-30-Nominee and CMO Josh Gowing, Megaphone’s beating heart is its radical focus on self-development. By creating a culture that inspires learning and innovation throughout each department (Accounts, Sales, Acquisitions, and Operations/HR), Megaphone’s team are able to continually upskill and grow, which allows not only for substantial career progression, but substantial success for clients — Megaphone has an industry-leading 96% client retention rate, indicative of the stellar growth metrics provided to its clients.
Internally, we have created an environment where our team is constantly learning and developing their skills. This allows us to face challenges head-on, viewing them not as hurdles or roadblocks but as opportunities.
Connor: Jumping off of that…when you’re thinking about your ideal customer, who is that? Where are they selling online? Where are they located in the world? How much sales do they typically have in a year? If there’s any other qualities, please include them as well. We’re all about making introductions where it benefits both parties.
Max: The ideal Megaphone customer is a business owner (or marketing POC) who is eager, able, and willing to grow their brand online. They may have worked with an agency before and been disappointed by a lack of results or a lack of communication (by contrast, Megaphone is award-winning in both customer service and results), and want to find a partner who can scale their business for the long-term; or they may have kept their marketing in-house until this point and wish to level-up their online presence and boost sales.
We service all kinds of businesses across both the ecommerce and service industries. From homegrown skincare brands to internationally renowned fashion labels, local medical clinincs, start-up SaaS types, and more. We firmly believe that with the right foundations and right strategy, any business can grow – and we provide the tools and teamwork to help get there. For the mostpart, businesses we work with have $100k+ in yearly revenue – however there are exceptions to this, and each business is evaluated on a case-by-case basis to ensure a) their needs and goals match with the services we provide, and b) they have the budget for ad-spend and servicing.
Megaphone isn’t an executor agency that simply presses play on every client request; Megaphone is a partner and strategiser agency. We work transparently alongside clients to find the best solutions to grow their business for the long-term; with that in mind, we look for clients who are willing to be adaptable, understand that a partnership requires expertise and execution from both parties, and seek open-minded business partners who embrace innovation and new platforms/technologies.
And while our offices are based in Australia, the USA, and the UK, we currently work with other clients in Asia, Africa, and Europe — we are not geographically limited in the digital world, but it’s always nice to buy our clients lunch and a coffee from time to time!
Connor: For our audience to truly understand what makes you stand out from other companies in the digital marketing space, can you share a story of how Megaphone Marketing truly helped one of its customers?
Max: Let’s look at Rochway, a client of ours.
“When we launched our new product, it was a challenge. We didn’t know where it sat within the market or why people would buy this over others. But with Megaphone — when strong creative, sound messaging, and continuous offer testing was implemented — we saw results skyrocket and they’ve been improving ever since.”
The details of how we overcome these issues for Rochway and scaled their business can be found here. More detailed examples with diverse businesses are available here.
Taking a step back, I’ll touch on what makes us stand out from an umbrella perspective:
What makes Megaphone one of the fastest-growing marketing agencies in the world is our approach to never solve the same problem the same way twice. We understand that no business is the same – every company has their own mission, community, selling points, hurdles, and objectives. To treat every business as similar would be detrimental to achieving long-lasting growth – that’s why we position ourselves as more than just a digital marketing agency; we’re an extension of your brand and we get to know every client on an individual level.
By undergoing extensive market research on target audiences, competitors, trends, and business development – not just in marketing but in everything from manufacturing to branding and customer relationship – Megaphone’s team is able to scale businesses beyond just their marketing; a core differentiator is our ability to assess a business on its merits, identifying fundamental areas for growth and improvement, and then doubling-down on successes.
Across our diverse client portfolio of businesses based in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S.A., the U.K., South Africa, and more, we’ve gleaned 100s of millions of dollars worth of advertising learnings. This extensive collection of data paves the way for us to make more informed decisions, taking much of the guesswork out of marketing and focusing on honing in on initiatives that move the needle and grow the business for the long term.
Connor: As you and your company think about the next year ahead, what does it look like? Are there any specific initiatives that you’re working on as a team to better your product or service for your customers?
Max: Following phenomenal success in Australia and the USA, recently, we officially announced an expansion to the UK. With this exciting expansion, Europe-based businesses can now access the innovative minds, award-winning management, and industry-first MegaVortex© which has helped hundreds of diverse Australian, New Zealand, and American businesses achieve 100s of millions of dollars worth of business growth across an average 500% revenue increase.
With this in mind, after achieving the goal of being the #1 agency in Australia, we set our sights on a bigger goal: transition our industry-leading results and award-winning culture onto a truly global stage, and earn the title of the world’s best marketing agency.
Across all of our locations, we’ll continue to seek out opportunities as they come; be those international offices to reach new clients, new services to adapt to an ever-changing landscape or new internal departments sparked by proactive innovation and passion at the hands of our team.
And, along the way, we’ll innovate constantly to stay relevant. We are performance marketers that deliver results and need to constantly evolve. Today we can see success across platforms like TikTok and Google, tomorrow it might be something new. Expansion is about being able to create change and innovation constantly so we don’t get left behind.
To ensure we’re always ahead of the curve, we’ve recently launched our very own Innovation Team. Made up of a near-dozen of our more forethinking minds, this team is always on the forefront of trends and techniques – capitalising on our status as Top 3% Google Preimer Partner and Premier Meta Partner.
Connor: How about this…everyone loves a company’s growth story. We all naturally go through ups and downs as a company. What was one of the biggest challenges that the company faced in its growing stages?
Max: Our fast growth from 2020 onwards – team members, clients, and revenue – meant that we had to ensure our continued focus on excellence and quality control was scalable across a bigger team. This was a challenge we hadn’t faced before; and as a company that prided itself on its culture, maintaining both the culture and the quality were hurdles we needed to overcome if we wanted to continue growing Megpahone while maintaining what made us so special. In short, adapting to rapid change was perhaps the biggest challenge we’ve faced.
To kickstart further positive change and ensure our glowing track record remained intact as we scaled, we appointed a dedicated Head of strategy and a dedicated Head of Operations — two talented individuals who had been part of Megaphone for 3+ years each and who quickly developed new and improved tools and processes that would prove pivotal to our sustained growth.
Now, with superbly talented individuals in roles dedicated to innovation and quality control, it caused a chain reaction of even-better systems! Moreover, Megaphone invested heavily in its staff, promoting 60+ people in 6 months (over 50% of the company), with 73% of leadership roles now held by women. Meanwhile, more resources are being put into the hiring process to ensure we find trailblazers from the outset who are eager to grow alongside Megaphone.
Other challenges that we face every day include adapting to new platforms, trends and consumer behaviours; dealing with an audience that has more knowledge of marketing tactics than ever before (the key to winning here is being authentic), and continuing to deliver industry-leading results for our clients as more competition pops up daily in the ecommerce landscape.
Connor: Thanks! Let’s talk some eCommerce! Where do you see the industry heading in the next 1-2 years? Any big changes that you’re predicting for the industry? How can eCommerce companies prepare for it?
Max: Now that we live in a fast-pased consumer-centric world, all signs point to the ecommerce landscape being more and more controlled by the customer, not the business.
There’s so much competition out there. So many knock-off brands. And audiences are smarter than ever – they know that we have their data, they know all about targeted ads, and they’re becoming far more conscious of their own reasons for buying beyond just the product itself. Not to mention that attention spans are getting shorter, so you need to be able to communicate your benefits lickity-split.
So, for businesses to succeed and grow, they need to connect with their audience and their customers on a deeper level. They need to create that “wow” moment, and it goes so far beyond just the product itself. It’s the packaging, it’s the feeling of community, its the sense of ownership of the brand, and probably most importantly, its an alignment with company values. Collectively, doing these things right is what will separate you from the herd.
How can we prepare for this? It’s not rocket science. Talk to your customers. Send out surveys (incentivisitng with a $20 gift voucher). Why did they buy from you? How are they using your product? How does it make them feel? How could you improve? What products do they want to see next?
Sure, you could assume you know what your audience wants – but hearing from the horse’s mouth will save you time, hassle, and money.
Across the ecommerce world, trust will become pivotal – even more so than now. With high competition and ample choice, creating a brand that the customers love (with a strong why behind the brand) will create loyalty. Investing in the long-term value of customers as opposed to relying on one-off purchases is very important to stay afloat as users consolidate their online shopping to brands with excellent customer service.
Diving more specifically into advertising for ecommerce, over the past 12 months we’ve seen a big shift in content — from high–quality studio-style videos and upscale ads to low-fi, relatable UGC (user-generated content).
With the advent of TikTok, and Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts following suit (not to mention whatever Meta has in store for short-form video, all signs point to the fact that good content — content that will drive sales — will be authentic, relatable, and engaging. Ads will need to blend into the feed, not stand out. This trend is set to continue, so being adaptable is – for what has already come and what will come next – is paramount.
Connor: Changing gears a little bit…When it comes to bookkeeping and accounting, what do you think the biggest pain points for eCommerce business owners are? Feel free to speak from personal experience as well.
Max: If they sell goods:
- Managing Stock/Inventory Levels (if selling goods);
- Assessing margins of individual products
- Handling returns/refunds
If its a service business:
- Revenue recognition/Managing client subscription plans
- Debt collection
- Handling refunds
Connor: Okay, here’s an open mic opportunity. If there’s one thing that you’d want the EcomBalance community to hear from you, what would it be?
Max: Our long list of awards – highlighted by the #1 Social Media Agency in Australia accolade – speaks for itself.
We’re always looking to push boundaries, as exampled by our industry-first MegaVortex© marketing methodology. Through this methodology, as well as a conscious focus on self-development, we’ve been able to achieve an industry-leading ROAS and successfully expand our operations internationally. We have a ‘results at all costs’ mentality, which forces us to leave emotion at the door, understand the clients’ goals, and approach each case with a holistic lens that will not just create strong ROAS, but pave a path for sustained growth and longevity.
Development-focused Megaphone isn’t like other marketing agencies, and we’re not trying to be. It’s the intrinsic craving to better ourselves which is the springboard for everything we do, and the rewards then come naturally for both employees (career progression) and clients (sales and profits).
Connor: As we close this out, I just have one more question. Where is the best place to find and follow you and the company online? Also, if you have one, is there any special offer that you’ll be offering to the community today?
Max: Find me on:
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellhertan/
Megaphone Website: www.Megaphone.com.au
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MegaphoneMarketing
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/megaphonemarketing
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megaphoneaus/
