Digital Consulting
Case Study
VendorShop social f-commerce solutions
Brief
VendorShop, a third-party facebook development company, was established in 2010 in Dublin by Chris Small & Tony Casey. Their facebook product is a retail application that allows facebook business pages sell directly within facebook. Facebook merchants can install their free shopping cart app, integrate with e-commerce payment solutions such as Realex or PayPal, and drive revenue from this f-commerce sales channel. Thousands use the application everyday. Recently, VendorShop won funding. Investment prioritised market growth & brand ubiquity in f-commerce. Surf Merchant Digital was contracted for two weeks digital consulting in December 2011.
Process
1. Our initial focus centred on a digital marketing plan. This documentation was two-fold; an action statement across a range of online media channels & a roll-out schedule of task procedures.
2. Upon sign-off, implementation was tracked using project management software & communicated with daily progress reports. Daily collaborative work-shops pooled staff knowledge.
3. In conclusion, weekly & monthly performance templates were compiled, defining key success indicators with set benchmarks per marketing vertical.
Outcomes
Business Intellgence
Google analytics and other open-source tools access information necessary to research and audit a company. Google analytics tracking was revised to provide complete product life-cycle visibility. By evaluating customer journeys, touch-points with the brand vis-a-vis competitors, we could develop a media & marketing plan best suited to the company and its’ market. Our findings motivated for product development in certain areas, editorial & P.R in others and various marketing initiatives. Our insights programme identified key product & service expectations, brand good-will or negative sentiment and niche competitive opportunities.
Google Marketing
A website audit discovered a wide range of optimisation opportunities. We conducted a content review, categorising topics thematically. We identified keyword priorities, detailed on & off-site factors and produced optimisation recommendations. We motivated for a website redevelopment. Interogation of Google Analytics data critiqued visitor acquisition and retention, providing waymarkers for a functional, elegant user-interface with precise user-experience & journey goals. Experts in WordPress optimisation, we advised on theme upgrades, plug-in installation and design branding. We employed SEO software for ongoing competitive analysis, diagnosis & reporting.
The website is currently number 1 on Google for key-terms such as f-commerce shop app & facebook shopping cart.
In conjunction with organic SEO, we embarked on a paid Adwords campaign. The keyword set & ad creative was devised with app installations the end conversion goal. We set tight limits on cost per acquisition, targeting advertising to those of qualified search intent, namely would-be facebook merchants.
VendorShop’s ads appear at the top of Google routinely, driving facebook app installation directly from Google.
Facebook Optimisation
The VendorShop app is already popular with 140,000 active monthly users. We endevoured to activate some 13,000 facebook page fans through a process of page optimisation & community engagement. We appraised popular f-commerce or shopping cart apps within facebook’s directory and audited fan feedback over time. Our investigations evaluated periods of fan growth and highlighted popular and unpopular posts. We revised the page settings and general information to maximise the company’s exposure from facebook’s page/app directory. A weekly posting calander proved instructive for staff, encouraging regular, focussed dialogue with fans in an effort to stimulate interaction, provide a positive facebook experience and win facebook edgerank in order to feature as the go-to destination for commerce on facebook. Internal training helped staff discover techniques for increased social reach & valued status updates.
The facebook page now lists at the top of Google for high volume search queries specific to f-commerce & facebook shop apps.
Twitter & LinkedIn Campaigns
First we identified the function that we intended Twitter to serve for VendorShop. We determined who we broadcast to, peers we wished to correspond with and the types of messages we would published. The account overhaul required a reversal in follows/follower ratio. We ceased to follow a significant number of profiles, following instead highly relevent voices with a receptive audience. As with facebook, we drew up a weekly posting time-table and employed social management tools to coordinate tweets, retweets, messages, hash-tag conversations & @ profile direct marketing.
A new LinkedIn brand page for VendorShop was populated & optimised. Detailed company information was submitted along with succinct app descriptions. Imagery was uploaded to complement copy, as was video introduction & how-to demos. According to the social engagement plan, VendorShop interacted on specific group discussions, and answers columns.
VendorShop’s LinkedIn page now features in LinkedIn company search & Google result listings for brand & product searches, reinforcing website, twitter, YouTube & facebook organic listings.
Inbound Marketing
As a web start-up, VendorShop’s growth strategy hinges on user adoption. A review of the digital landscape for competitors, peer industry bodies, technology journalists, directories & community/social platforms short-listed vital acquaintances and relationships that VendorShop must initiate. We categorised connections according to interest groups & mapped out an editorial calendar of articles. Over the coming months, bloggers/webmasters/journalists/agents will be contacted in an effort to build up a network of guest blog posts and feature interviews, FAQs or Q&As.