Improving a complex site to generate more sales
Situation:
Our manufacturing client had a product line with more than 4,000 products, including numerous variations of each product. They also sold products in a variety of ways, including direct, through distributors, and through integrators. Beyond that, there were various pricing options, including special pricing contracts and volume discounts. In fact, each product could have 8 prices based on different variables. Additionally, the client had previously invested approximately $90,000 into developing a new website and online CAD Design tool. However, the tool was underused due to poor website design and the site lacked e-commerce functionality, doing little to increase perceived value.
Challenge:
- Make it easy for the customer to find the right product for their need
- Create a pricing structure that resulted in 32,000 different prices
- Improve search engine rankings for higher value keywords
- Reduce the cost of developing a new site without having to use a proprietary platform created by the developer with the site
Expertise Applied:
- Product Marketing
- Pricing Strategy
- Digital Marketing
- Inbound Marketing
- Marketing Automation
Astute Approach:
- Conducted a digital marketing assessment and identified issues in the user experience, flow, and functionality of the site
- Created search parameters that went above and beyond traditional technical data to make products easy to find (i.e. searches based on benefits, application, etc.)
- Created a portal for existing customers, resellers, and integrators to get their specific pricing
- Developed a unique and complex, yet easy to use pricing tool to calculate the over 32,000 different prices required for the site
- Replaced email marketing tool with an advanced Marketing Automation system tied to CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform
- Developed two unique features to make projects easier to manage on website (Project Locker and Ask an Engineer)
- Managed the entire nine-month project and the developers, contractors, application providers and content contributors
Result:
- Users of Ask an Engineer tool were 83 percent more likely to make a purchase
- As part of a grant application, the site was audited by a government agency. Auditors of the site offered this assessment: “This site is brilliant. We’ve actually learned new things by reviewing this site.”
- Reduced cost of development by 50 percent off the average quote and avoided use of a proprietary back-end management system
- Improved every KPI by a minimum of 21 percent and some over 100 percent, including site traffic, conversion rates and lead close rates
- Achieved first page search engine rank for high volume, high value keywords