However, owner Kate Morgan was unable to take advantage of this online advantage despite significant investment in an e-commerce site and several Internet marketing campaigns.
For what?
Kate had made a common mistake. She had acted tactically, not strategically, when building her online presence. Each element of Posh Jewelry’s digital presence had been added in isolation from the others, and unlike her thriving brick-and-mortar store, the customer experience hadn’t been carefully considered in creating these elements.
The plan of attack
Kate faced two major challenges in ensuring Posh had a successful digital presence. First, she needed customers looking for Pandora jewelry in Canada to find her website. Then, she needed them to make a purchase. Unfortunately, the money she had spent on attracting customers to her online store had been wasted, as the site was not designed to entice customers to make a purchase.
Kate also wanted to learn more about web marketing. She wanted to understand how online businesses provide a good return on investment, so she could make better decisions in the future.
The results
With the help of BDC Advisory Services, Kate moved from a tactical to a strategic approach, steadily improving her online presence through a series of small, manageable steps.
Kate decided not to rebuild her website from scratch, but instead to make strategic “renovations” to make it more customer-focused. The site was relaunched in September 2013. That same month, Kate undertook an advertising campaign, using Google AdWords to increase traffic.
Kate also used Google Analytics to better understand the results of her digital activities.
The results below reflect data collected on the site from overseas chinese in canada data November 1 , 2013 to April 1 , 2014, compared to the same period one year earlier.
Before
After
Result # 1 : Convert visitors into buyers
Kate has seen a change in her online customer behavior. They are spending more time on the site (41% longer overall) and visiting 26% more pages, on average. Additionally, few visitors leave the site immediately after entering.
However, the most encouraging change has been in shopping behavior. Posh Jewelry has seen its online sales jump 232% year-over-year! Clearly, the site is doing a better job of converting visitors into customers.
Result # 2 : Getting Found
Because her new site converts more visitors into customers, Kate gets more bang for her buck when she pays for online advertising to drive traffic to her site.
His web marketing efforts were also effective. The total number of visitors to his site increased by 32% over the past twelve months. The number of new visitors to the site (who had never "set foot" in his online store) also increased by 32%.
Result # 3 : Gain a global perspective
Strategic planning and management coaching now allow Kate to understand the big picture.
She learned that most online activities should be focused on either attracting or converting customers. Now she knows the right questions to ask. Is this activity helping me attract new customers? Converting my website visitors into customers? If not, what's the point?
She also learned that the digital world offers many wonderful free tools , such as Google Analytics, to help you understand how well your activities are performing. With this information, you can decide how to more wisely allocate your limited online marketing budget .
The rest of things
Kate and Posh Jewelry have just started their online adventure.
The first steps have been successfully taken. The next step will be to reinvest some of the new revenue from digital activities to continue improving the online store. Kate will work to increase the number of customers and the monetary value of each shopping cart.
It will also launch various web marketing activities to increase the number of qualified potential customers who visit its online store.
To drive online growth, Kate will need to continue to act strategically, focusing on the customer experience on her website – just as she does for her successful brick-and-mortar store.
To learn more about online marketing, download a free copy of BDC's guide, Boosting Your Sales with Online Marketing: A Business Owner's Guide .