John says, "Within the first two years of launching the website, Amy's company sales increased 43%!1 The website has also helped Amy's to stay current with online customers." Taking a "test and learn" experimental approach to marketing, Amy's Gourmet Apples talked about what helped grow their business the most.
The first step was figuring out SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. "If search engines can't find your website, you miss out on customers," said John. So, they decided to put some money towards the website's organic (unpaid) search-ability, which recently increased new user visits by 28%. Doing this led to higher sales, as revenue from organic searches increased by 80%.
Next they decided to try social media. Customers can now find Amy's Gourmet Apples on Facebook and TripAdvisor. These sites are used by Amy's to connect with customers, host customer reviews, and direct customers to the business website. Amy's also uses these channels to quickly fix those rare orders that aren't perfect, keeping customers happy.
Amy's has always used text sign-ups and contests to build customer loyalty, but since launching the website, tens of thousands of customers have signed up to receive communications from Amy's. Amy's now has the ability to send targeted offers to encourage these customers to make another purchase or finish the shopping they started online. Amy's noticed that more than 30% of customers who had abandoned their online shopping cart would respond to e-mails offering small incentives to finish checking out, leading to more sales.
"Starting a website and educating myself on all these online tools has been an eye-opening experience. Being able to sell to customers from the United States and parts of Canada has been wonderful!" says John.
1Sales growth based on pre and post website sales.
Note: Other results based on 1 month of data, same time period analyzed for pre-SEO and post-SEO enablement.
