There's no shortage of remarkable ideas, what's missing is the will to execute them.
Michael is a born strategist with over 15 years of experience working with executives, senior leadership teams and entrepreneurs to drive revenue for their companies.
An award-winning marketer, in 2014 Michael founded and was CEO of what became one of Australia’s premier independent digital agencies, Yoghurt Digital. By the time he exited in mid-2022, Yoghurt had a team of 35 across Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and had worked with household names like ANZ Bank, H&R Block, P&O Cruises, Converse, the NRL and many more.
Since then, Michael has launched a growth advisory focused on building effective marketing strategies in parallel with strong operational capabilities to deliver not just growth - but scale.
In his spare time, Michael is a Non-Executive Director at both Marriott Support Services and Family Life, a guest lecturer at Macquarie University and UNSW, a Senior Advisor at 24 Hour Business Plan, and a trainer at Australia’s peak marketing body, the Australian Marketing Institute.
Talking Points
Digital 101: Everything you need to know to get your marketing strategy firing
The world of digital marketing is constantly shifting. Every day there's a new tool, a new platform, a new channel, a new strategy - it's impossible to keep up with it all. In fact, it's exhausting. But the truth is, the fundamentals haven't changed. Most companies aren't even doing the basics right, and that's where the most money is made.Digital 101: Everything you need to know to get your marketing strategy firing
This detailed, highly actionable talk is designed for business owners, senior executives and marketers who want to get up-to-speed with the most important strategies in digital marketing today. It's not about discussing the cutting edge, but rather talking about the non-negotiables that most companies are getting horribly wrong, and leaving enormous amounts of money on the table as a result.
Topics Covered
- What is SEO and why is it so important?
- How has SEO changed over the years, and what does it look like going forward?
- What is SEM and why is it so important?
- How has SEM changed over the years, and what does it look like going forward?
- What is paid social and why is it so important?
- How does paid social differ from SEM? Why do I need both?
- What is UX and Conversion Optimisation (CRO) and why is it so important?
- Where and how does email marketing fit into my marketing mix?
- The power and importance of Google Analytics
- How should I be approaching budgeting?
- How do I find the right agencies to help me? What are red flags to look out for?
How Customer Obsession Drives Business Growth
In its most distilled form, data is the voice of your customers. Yet it's the most underrepresented voice in the rooms where decisions are made. Despite being the the heartbeat of modern marketing, data is rarely used when trying to solve common dilemmas such as how to improve customer experience, optimise a website's performance, or build an effective and integrated digital strategy.How Customer Obsession Drives Business Growth
This talk is designed for business owners, senior executives and marketers wanting to learn how to truly understand their customer’s behaviour online and how to leverage that data to engage customers and profit their brand. It's designed to bring the voice of marketing into the c-suite and put the customer at the centre of the decision-making process.
Topics Covered
- Learn the tools and techniques to collect critical data about how your customers behave on your website.
- Learn how to analyse your data and discover powerful insights to turn more website visitors into customers.
- Learn how to reduce the risk of a website redesign / replatform project by using customer data to inform decision making.
- Learn how to leverage customer insights to optimise all of your digital channels and drive performance.
Debunking the Myths of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs and business owners are all addicted to the same drug: the exhilaration of building something and seeing it grow. But at what cost? Social media and society places enormous pressure on founders to succeed, and succeed big. It's become a contest of who's got the most "hustle" and measuring "success" by all of the wrong metrics.Debunking the Myths of Entrepreneurship
This talk is designed for entrepreneurs, business owners, start-up founders or anybody thinking about starting a business, to talk openly and honestly about the brutality of running a company and debunking unhelpful and dangerous myths.
Topics Covered
- "The Founder Attitude": the most important characteristics for a founder
- Debunking the stereotypes around "hustle" and working insane hours
- Prioritising your time and your health (mental, physical and emotional wellbeing)
- How to deal with the weight of expectations - from your family, your friends, your team, and yourself
- How to deal with loss, how to find and apply the lessons
- Optimist vs pessimist vs realist - what's actually best for business?
- The importance of vulnerability and of asking for help
Video
Catching Up w/ Club of United Business (CUB) | Michael Laps (Sept 2020)
Website Redesigns: Start From Scratch, Or Optimise What You Have? | Michael Laps (Apr 2017)
Basically a walking digital and e-commerce encyclopedia, Michael has changed the way marketers view their agencies. Always passionate in everything he does, Michael goes above and beyond to ... keep reading ThreeByOne
Michael gave a guest lecture to our students at Macquarie University. The content he presented was truly insightful and at the cutting edge of Digital Marketing. Michael is a great communicator, and his presentation was interesting, crisp and very engaging. Michael was most generous in sharing his knowledge and timely career advice with our students, and his lecture left everyone uplifted and inspired. He is a force to be reckoned with.
What struck me about Michael was his immediate interest in getting to know my organisation and the unique challenges we were facing. He was interested in what was going on for us and how he could add value. This meant that we didn't end up with a set of generic principles but rather a tailored response to our current situation complete with actions that could be implemented immediately. It also goes without saying that Michael is on top of his game technically. Match that with someone who is intelligent, can translate 'geek' to 'marketer', and top it off a lasting partnership and you've hit gold. I've thoroughly enjoyed working with Michael and can’t recommend him highly enough.
