For more than two decades, Pit N Portal operated as a recognised player in the Australian mining sector, delivering heavy equipment hire, market-leading heavy machinery rebuilds, specialised underground mining and geological surveys.
When I joined, the business was at a turning point: expanding rapidly, competing for major clients, and pivoting to new markets.
Over 2.5 years, backed by a A$500,000+ programme budget, I served as PNPs sole in-house brand and marketing lead. I delivered its complete rebrand, modernised its digital and marketing infrastructure, and supported a significant growth period that culminated in its acquisition by ASX-listed Emeco.
"Using River and his services over the past few years to roll out our rebranding and the entire marketing efforts was a rewarding experience. River's focus and dedication are reflected in our excellent results during the period. I gladly recommend his services to any business wishing to expand".
P. Twine | Pit N Portal
Over 2.5 years and $500K+ invested in building a comprehensive digital marketing ecosystem that drove measurable growth and market leadership.
Full-spectrum marketing execution across planning, brand development and management, product marketing, and corporate identity systems.
Digital capabilities include website design, development and ongoing management, CRM implementation, technical/on-page/off-page SEO, and marketing automation.
Content and engagement through technical copywriting, social media management, public relations, open-field days and trade shows.
Webflow for web development, ActiveCampaign for marketing automation and CRM, Adobe Creative Suite for collateral, and Semrush for SEO.
I personally undertook Pit N Portal’s complete rebrand and served as the company’s sole in-house brand and marketing lead. The work combined big-picture positioning with day-to-day delivery across brand, digital, communications, recruitment marketing and commercial material.
The objective was straightforward: reposition Pit N Portal as a modern, innovative mining-services leader, strengthen its ability to attract much-needed talent, and build a coherent market-facing platform that could support a rapidly expanding business.
To date, this is still one of my favourite projects. I learned an extraordinary amount over the period, gained new skills and worked for well-regarded mining industry icons.
Publicly reported context: Emeco acquired Pit N Portal for A$72 million in 2020. Pit N Portal had approximately A$101 million in FY19 pro forma revenue at the time of acquisition, and Emeco later reported A$248.7 million in FY22 revenue. I did not lead sales, operations, engineering delivery or the acquisition; my role was to build and apply the brand, digital and commercial-evidence capability to assist the expansion.
If you'd like these kinds of results for your business, take a moment to schedule a 30min chat.
If you're not ready to book a call right now but would like some more information in an email, please reach out via the form.
Here are a range of more commonly asked questions in relation to this B2B marketing case study.
To get a full run-down of how I can help your business thrive in the same way as the businesses I've worked with, take a moment to book a call.
This was a complete rebrand and full marketing function rebuild, delivered across two and a half years with a budget exceeding $500K.
The scope covered the full marketing spectrum: brand strategy and positioning, corporate identity systems, product marketing, technical and on-page SEO, marketing automation through ActiveCampaign, and a complete Webflow website rebuild.
Alongside the digital work, I handled technical copywriting, social media management, public relations, trade shows, and open-field days.
Every visual asset across the business was revamped, from building and fleet signage through to uniforms and document templates. Photography across live underground mining environments was sourced, coordinated, and creatively directed.
The engagement also included tender and commercial-evidence support across more than 20 multi-million-dollar submissions, including bid templates, evaluation-criteria mapping, visual material and final document packaging.
The result was a unified brand presence with consistent commercial storytelling at every touchpoint.
Alongside the complete rebrand and wider marketing programme, I supported more than 20 multi-million-dollar tender submissions.
I collaborated with technical heads to structure material against evaluation criteria and translate HSEQ, ESG, mobilisation and engineering input into clear, compliant and client-centric value propositions. I established reusable templates, created clear technical visuals, compiled submission documents and supported final packaging.
Technical claims, operational commitments, pricing, engineering certification and final approvals remained the responsibility of Pit N Portal’s technical and executive leadership. My role was to extract, structure, clarify and present their evidence in evaluator-ready form.
The 400% lift came from a structured technical SEO programme applied to a sector where many competitors do almost nothing with their digital presence.
The foundation was a complete Webflow rebuild with clean architecture, fast page loads, and proper schema markup. On top of that sat a sustained content programme targeting the high-intent search terms that mining procurement, equipment buyers, and prospective talent found useful.
Technical SEO (site health, internal linking, crawl efficiency) ran in parallel with on-page and off-page work.
In a sector where most websites are neglected, disciplined SEO compounds quickly. The 400% figure reflects sustained effort across the engagement window, not a single campaign spike.
The 200% growth in qualified candidate pool came from treating recruitment as a marketing problem, not an HR problem.
Mining was (and still is) competing for skilled workers against every other heavy industry. The work positioned Pit N Portal as a people-first employer with a forward-looking culture, then built dedicated talent pathways into the website with role-specific content and clear application routes.
Photography deliberately captured authentic human imagery from live sites, not generic stock shots, so prospective candidates could see themselves in the business.
The 330% lift in digital and social engagement amplified the same story across LinkedIn and other channels where mining professionals actually spend time. The combined effect was a candidate pool that grew through inbound interest rather than outbound recruitment spend.
During rapid scale-up, the brand is doing commercial work whether you've designed it to or not. The question is whether it's helping or hurting.
A rebrand at scale-up phase forces clarity on positioning, audience, and commercial narrative. It documents what the business is becoming, not just what it has been.
Tender teams have consistent collateral to draw from. Sales conversations have shared language. Recruitment campaigns have a coherent employer story. Investors and acquirers see a business that looks the part.
Without that foundation, scale-up compounds inconsistency. Every new region, product line, or acquisition target inherits a slightly different version of the brand. Pit N Portal’s rebrand was delivered during a rapid growth period, helping create a more consistent platform for subsequent expansion across marketing, recruitment, tender and commercial communications.
The same way it worked across the rest of my career: single-point accountability with no handoff layers.
No account managers, no contractor chains, no agency dilution. Every brand decision, line of copy, SEO call, photography brief, and CRM workflow was made and executed by the same operator who carried the commercial outcome.
For a mining business expanding rapidly while preparing for acquisition, that coherence mattered more than agency-style production capacity.
The principal model also meant the work could adapt in real time to tenders, recruitment drives, and executive decisions without renegotiating scope through intermediaries.