Client: Michael C. Fina?
Agency: Elite SEM?
Objective: Develop a more sophisticated search marketing campaign to drive new customers to its website and store.?
Michael C. Fina, a New York-based retailer of engagement rings, wedding bands and household décor items, has more than 70,000 products on its website and in its retail store. Its e-commerce site, which launched in 1998, was in serious need of search engine marketing ?enhancements in order to drive online sales and to encourage consumers to schedule in-store appointments. ?
“We had a shotgun search engine marketing approach that we’d been using for three years,” says Zhoe Garcia, digital production manager at Michael C. Fina. “We attempted to buy as many keywords as we thought were relevant and see what stuck. It wasn’t very focused.” ?
The jeweler performs well with repeat customers, says Garcia, so it decided to revamp its search engine marketing campaigns to drive customer acquisition. “We have a lot of repeat users,” says Garcia, “brides in particular. Engagement rings, wedding bands and our bride registry bring the most people to our site.” ?
STRATEGY: Elite SEM, a New York-based boutique marketing company specializing in search and web design, ?approached Michael C. Fina with a pitch it found compelling. “Our pitch was ‘Try our services out. You don’t have to sign a contract,'” says Ben Kirshner, CEO of Elite SEM.?
Elite SEM created keywords for Michael C. Fina’s 70,000 products, and it increased the retailer’s search engine quality score by removing bad or outdated information, which in turn lowered Fina’s search engine costs. In addition, it used landing pages to drive prospects toward category pages or the homepage depending on their search terms. Those searching for engagement rings were funneled toward an appointment form to fill out.?
RESULTS: Michael C. Fina’s work with Elite produced a 45% increase in online sales in the first year of the implementation, a figure that Garcia attributes to, “a lot more testing and reporting,” he says. “They looked at what we did in the past and they were able to create focused campaigns with great analytics.” ?
The company also saw a 12% increase for in-store consultations driven from the Web, an important figure considering that the customers that constitute the bulk of these appointments are brides and grooms. ?
“Time on site for brides and grooms is high,” says Garcia, who also notes that total average time on site since the implementation has increased by 35 seconds. “Brides and grooms are creating their registries. They’re doing a lot of research, and they come back after the wedding, too. These are lifelong customers,” he says.
