Case Study: Mount Towrong Vineyard
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Running a boutique winery in the Macedon Ranges is not a nine-to-five job. It is a seasonal, unpredictable, all-hands-on-deck operation where the team is small, the demands are constant and time is the rarest resource of all.
For Mount Towrong Vineyard, a family-owned winery on the slopes of Mount Macedon producing Italian varietals from estate and select Victorian fruit, that reality made their digital presence a persistent source of frustration. A clunky WordPress site the team could not update themselves. No SEO strategy in place. A wine subscription function that was practically impossible to set up or manage. Social media that was overwhelming for a small team with limited time. And money being spent on freelance photography with no content strategy behind it, producing images that did not connect to a cohesive brand story.
They came to KGMG Creative for a solution. More than two years later, the relationship is still going strong. The results speak for themselves.
The brief
Mount Towrong needed their entire digital presence rebuilt from the ground up. Not just a new website, but a joined-up strategy across web, social media, email marketing and visual content that would work for a small team with limited time and a business that moves at the pace of the seasons.
The key challenges were clear. The website needed to be genuinely manageable by a small team without technical expertise. It needed to sell wine online, support a growing Wine Club membership, take cellar door bookings and present the Mount Towrong brand with the warmth, authenticity and visual quality it deserved. And it needed to be built on a platform that would not require a developer every time something needed updating.
On the social media and marketing side, the team needed ongoing, strategically led content management that took the burden off them completely, while keeping the brand visible, consistent and genuinely connected to the community they are part of.
What KGMG Creative delivered
Custom Wix Studio build. Kelly built a fully custom Wix Studio website for Mount Towrong from the ground up, replacing the previous WordPress site entirely. The new site is structured around the way visitors actually navigate a winery's digital presence: discovering the story, exploring the wines, booking a cellar door visit, joining the Wine Club and purchasing online.
Every element was built to suit Mount Towrong’s needs. The online wine shop, the Cantina Wine Club membership and subscription system, the cellar door booking integration, the stockists page, the gift voucher pathway and the accommodation listing for Cobaw Views. Nothing templated, nothing retrofitted. A site that works the way the business works.
Critically, the site is genuinely easy for the Mount Towrong team to update themselves if needed. New releases, menu changes, updated hours -- the team can manage all of it without picking up the phone to an agency. For a small, busy team navigating the constant variables of running a hospitality business, that independence is invaluable.
SEO and GEO built in from day one. The previous WordPress site had no SEO strategy in place. Kelly built foundational SEO and GEO into every page of the new site from the start: page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, image alt text, Google Search Console setup and site map submission. GEO considerations, making Mount Towrong visible in AI-powered search tools, were part of the content strategy from the ground up.
Ongoing photography and videography. Before KGMG Creative, Mount Towrong was spending money on freelance photography with no content strategy behind it. Nic now shoots at Mount Towrong regularly as part of the ongoing client relationship. Seasonal shoots capture the vineyard through the year: bud burst, harvest, winter pruning, the cellar door in summer. Ad hoc visits capture the moments a business like this needs to document quickly: new releases, special events, menu changes, community moments.
This is photography with a strategy behind it. Every image is produced knowing where it will live, on the website, in a social media post, in an email campaign, in a Google Business Profile update, and how it fits into the broader brand story. The aerial and landscape footage, product shots of individual bottles and atmospheric cellar door imagery are all a direct result of that planned, ongoing approach.
Social media and Google Business Profile. Matt has been managing Mount Towrong's Meta channels and Google Business Profile for more than two years. Monthly content calendars are built around the rhythm of the vineyard, the seasons, the cellar door program, new wine releases and community events. Everything is created in-house. Copy, graphics and photography all come from the KGMG Creative team, consistent in tone and visual quality across every post.
Matt and Nic are also in regular contact with the Mount Towrong team throughout the month. When Council permits cause disruption, when weather events affect a planned event, when a staffing change needs communicating, the KGMG Creative team can respond quickly and handle communication across all channels. That kind of responsive, on-call support is only possible because the relationship is local and ongoing.
Monthly email marketing. As part of the ongoing retainer, KGMG Creative produces and sends a monthly email to the Mount Towrong subscriber list. Content is created in-house and aligned with the social media calendar and any web updates for that month: new wine releases, cellar door news, seasonal events, Wine Club updates and special offers.
Email marketing sits alongside social media as a direct revenue driver, reaching the existing customer base with timely, relevant content that drives repeat purchases, Wine Club subscriptions and cellar door bookings. All creative is consistent with the broader Mount Towrong brand, ensuring every touchpoint, web, social, email and Google Business Profile, tells the same story.
The results
These figures represent growth over the 12 months following the new site launch, compared to the equivalent period on the previous WordPress site.
Website traffic
1,305% increase in total site sessions
1,098% increase in unique visitors
1,236% increase in sessions from Google Organic search
1,431% increase in direct sessions
2,029% increase in sessions from Facebook Organic
Online store
1,663% increase in online store sales
40% of all store revenue driven by Google Organic search
11% of store traffic from email marketing
Cantina Wine Club subscriptions growing consistently month on month. Average order value strong and sustained across the period.
The Google Organic figures across both traffic and store sales tell the same story: SEO built properly from day one drives both visitors and buyers. Over 40% of all online store revenue coming directly from Google Organic search is the clearest possible validation of building SEO foundations into the site from the ground up rather than adding them later.
Email marketing is also contributing meaningfully to store traffic and sales, reaching an engaged subscriber base with content that is always aligned with what is happening on social media and the website. The consistency across all channels, one team producing everything, is what makes each individual channel more effective.
The Wine Club subscription growth is particularly significant. Recurring revenue from active Cantina Wine Club members represents exactly the kind of loyal, engaged customer base that a well-built e-commerce experience supports and grows. The previous WordPress site made the subscription process practically impossible to manage. The KGMG Creative build made it seamless.
72% of all sessions come from mobile, underscoring the importance of the mobile-first design approach Kelly applied throughout the build. Saturday is the peak traffic day, mapping directly to cellar door visit patterns.
An ongoing relationship, not a one-off project
The Mount Towrong story is not a case study with a neat ending. It is an ongoing relationship that has evolved significantly over more than two years.
The website has been updated and expanded. The photography library grows with every season. The social media and email strategy adapts as the business grows, as new wines are released, as the cellar door program evolves. And the KGMG Creative team is available, genuinely and practically available, when something comes up that needs to be handled quickly.
That is what a regional creative agency should be. Not a service provider that delivers a project and moves on, but a genuine partner invested in the success of the businesses it works with, for the long term.
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