A Digital Marketing Case Study for a San Francisco Local Business

Your website is the digital foundation of your business; it’s homebase and is the focal point to which your customers and clients will be returning again and again. The end game of any website should be to convert visitors into customers. As such, a properly optimized website is key to online success.

The case study below covers what goes into a website audit and provides an example of an audit that revealed profitable solutions and immediately leveraged a local San Francisco business.

The Premise

Ensuring that your website is fully optimized and that your small business is positioned for successful e-commerce is challenging. As a sole proprietor business, this particular client, whom we’ll call SF Perfume Shop, had difficulty finding the time to fully develop their website and also lacked the technical expertise to properly optimize it. The majority of the client’s business came from in-store purchases and wholesale resellers. The client was far behind their competitors for e-commerce sales and was not reaching their ideal clients using digital marketing tactics such as SEO, social, media, email marketing, and more.

SF Perfume Shop hired us because of our digital marketing expertise and extensive knowledge of industry best practices. In the following case study, we’ll show how we were able to leverage that knowledge to conduct a full website audit for SF Perfume Shop which revealed several structural issues with the site and unveiled opportunities for a substantial increase in revenue.

To find out how our expertise can be put to use for your own business, go ahead and click HERE to schedule your complimentary digital marketing strategy session with our founder and CEO, Anna Colibri.

Now, without further ado, onto the case study.

The Client

As one of the few local San Francisco natural perfume companies, our client had been primarily focused on the brick-and-mortar store and had been neglecting their brand’s digital presence. Their website lacked the professional, high-quality look and feel of their products and it lacked the ambiance of the physical store.

Additionally, the website was not optimized to appear in search engine results, lacked engaging copy, used outdated design themes, needed a lead capture strategy, and failed to provide incentives to encourage digital customers to purchase products.The site also lacked high-quality images — a must-have for an ecommerce website.

The Challenge

While the client knew that their website lagged behind their competitors’ and needed to be updated, they had neither the the time nor expertise to do so. As a result, the client was not generating online sales, was not capturing contact information for lead nurture, and was not dynamically representing their brand online.

The Method

Colibri Digital Marketing approached the website issues as part of a larger strategic branding process. Before the website audit, a meeting was held with the client to discuss pain points and examine the existing website.

The website audit was also preceded by a competitive analysis that extended beyond website comparisons to social media platforms and to how these two digital marketing components were being integrated to produce successful e-commerce strategies.

Following the competitive analysis, a lengthy website audit was conducted. The audit examined the following key areas for website optimization:

  • Search engine optimization
  • Social media optimization
  • Lead capture
  • User experience
  • Visual design

Following the examination of these categories, we presented the client with a summary of findings. As the result of a thorough competitive analysis, Colibri Digital Marketing team members (we call ourselves Colibris) discerned a number of strategies being employed by the client’s competitors that, but which the client was not yet implementing. We recommended action steps for optimizing their website and positioning the SF Perfume Shop to outperform its competitors.

The Solution

By partnering with Colibri Digital Marketing for a website audit, the client received a robust strategic plan — complete with easy-to-follow action steps — for optimizing their website, creating a professional representation of their brand online, and strategies for increasing online sales and outperforming competitors.

Additionally, Colibri Digital Marketing implemented a search engine optimization plan that:

    • Fixed eleven broken links
    • Provided URLs, title tags, and meta descriptions for existing webpages using strategic keywords
    • Created an actionable plan for integrating the website with the client’s social media platforms

It was Colibri Digital Marketing’s goal to produce a website plan that provided actionable steps that the SF Perfume Shop could easily implement using existing staff. By doing so, the client would save considerable resources.

The client was able to implement the strategies and action steps outlined in the website audit, which saved the client from having to divert funds to outsource these tasks to a third party for implementation.

Below you will find an excerpt that details some of the suggestions we made.

Excerpt from the Website Audit (Edited to Conceal Client Identity)

[This website audit was completed by Colibri Digital Marketing. The website was reviewed for search engine optimization, social media optimization, lead capture, user experience, and visual design.]

Lead Capture

Every website should have a way of capturing email leads that can be collected in a database. This allows a company to set up email automations and workflows, market to website visitors, and convert leads in to customers or clients.

Findings:

There is a lack of lead capture incentives, especially in comparison to the client’s competitors. The recommendation is to have one primary call to action, with an offer that inspires potential clients to share their email addresses, plus 1-2 opportunities for visitors to subscribe to the newsletter and/or purchase products.

There is no contact page, which makes it difficult for the user to contact the client with questions. The existing chat function doesn’t work consistently.

Entirely new strategies need to be implemented in order to capture leads (and then convert into customers).

Suggested Steps:

      • Delete the chat function, since it actually discourages people from entering their contact information and also does not function properly.
      • Add a free shipping incentive for orders over $50, to encourage purchases (and will also then capture contact information at checkout).
      • Add a popup with a discount incentive, such as 20% off first order if the user subscribes to the newsletter.
      • Make the newsletter form more visually appealing, give it the appropriate title, and add a call to action and the discount incentive.
      • Another strategy: To attract in-store customers, offer a free sample for subscribing to the newsletter, to be picked up in-store.
      • Add a quiz (can be given a dedicated landing page, to boost SEO) about “discovering the best blends and natural body care for you”. At the end of the quiz, users can be given a x% discount code off their customized blend if they enter their email address.

Looking for a San Francisco Digital Marketing Agency?

Are you looking for a San Francisco digital marketing agency? Colibri Digital Marketing is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and offers digital marketing services worldwide. Let us help you make your brand presence known online and position your business for success.

Did you know that we offer a complimentary digital marketing strategy session? Simply sign up and schedule a session with our CEO, Anna Colibri. At Colibri Digital Marketing, we believe in real connections and real people. Anna will meet with you one-on-one and you will receive:

      • A review of your digital assets
      • A review of your website
      • Action items that you can apply to enhance your digital marketing results

Click HERE to schedule your complimentary digital marketing strategy session today, or press the pink button, below!

It’s fun 🙂