Marketing Case Study Examples: Small changes by the marketer, big improvements in results for the business

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Quick Case Study #1: Online course creator adds abandoned cart email, gets 93% conversion rate

A few months ago, Jennie Lakenan realized that she was getting some leads who started the purchase process for her course but didn't finish it.

BEFORE – Two-step checkout process

Her checkout system happens in two steps. First, she captures the email address.

Creative Sample #1: First step in checkout flow

The second step was the payment entry page.

Creative Sample #2: Second step in checkout flow

AFTER – Abandoned cart emails

As soon as she noticed that leads were starting checkout but not finishing, she implemented a simple email automation to follow-up with them if they abandoned cart.

She sent the first email one hour after they didn’t finish their checkout, with the following copy…

Hey ,

I noticed that you clicked away without finishing the checkout process for Website Kit for Coaches, my course teaching new coaches how to create their own simple website to attract their first clients.

I understand that getting your coaching business off the ground is no small task.

I want to help make the process as easy as possible for you.

That's why I created this course.

It's a short but powerful program that will help you create a website you can be proud of quickly and easily.

In just 7 snappy modules, you'll learn everything you need to know to set up a simple website to market your coaching business.

Plus, as a certified coach myself, I know exactly how to guide you through the process so you don't get stuck.

"I just used this kit and set up a new website in two days. Super easy, super thorough directions, and not so much info that it overwhelms you."

- Kim Job, Systems & Soul Stories Coach

Don't miss out on this opportunity to take the first step in your website design journey.

Click here to finish your purchase and get started today!

Always here,

Jennie Lakenan

She sent the second abandoned cart email one day after they didn’t finish checkout. Here is the email copy…

Hey ,

I hope you're doing well!

I noticed that you clicked away from my website without completing the checkout process for Website Kit for Coaches.

You know, my course teaching new coaches how to create their own simple website to attract their first clients.

This course will help you create a website you can be proud of quickly and easily.

In just 7 snappy modules, you'll learn everything you need to know to set up a simple website to market your coaching business.

Plus, as a certified coach myself, I'm here to help you every step of the way.

And because I'm so confident in the value of this course, I'm offering a satisfaction guarantee.

If you watch the entire course, ask for help in the community, and you're still not able to successfully finish your site, I'll give you your money back.

No questions asked.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to take the first step in your website design journey.

Click here to finish your purchase and get started today!

All the best,

Jennie Lakenan

RESULTS – 93% conversion rate

The conversion rate on this abandoned cart automation is 93.1%.

Of the 28 people who have gone through this automation since she implemented it, 23 of them have bought the course.

“I highly recommend anyone with an online course, e-commerce shop, or any website payment system, frankly, set up an abandoned cart automation if your payment system allows it. Abandoned cart follow-ups are a powerful way to convert!,” said Jennie Lakenan, Website Designer and Strategist, Jennie Lakenan Web Consulting.

Quick Case Study #2: Shipping service makes one simple change to ad, reduces cost per new registration 300%

Stallion Express is a shipping company in Canada.

BEFORE: Ads that appeal to niche of top clients

The team tested a variety of ads, mainly focusing on price savings. The ads included a general figure for the average savings achieved by their top clients.

Creative Sample #3: Ad focused on top clients

The team realized that the ad did not speak to its entire audience because the figure itself – “$60,000 annual savings” – does not mean much to e-commerce sellers with different volumes and hence, different savings.

AFTER: Ad with pricing comparison that could apply to broad audience

They decided to come up with a pricing comparison ad that would be helpful to each individual seller regardless of their sales volume. Basically, an ad which appeals to a broad audience rather than niche sellers.

To appeal to their entire audience, they included concrete figures for a representative example along with some value elements.

Creative Sample #4: Ad that is more broadly applicable

RESULTS – 300% lower cost per new registration

The cost per new registration was reduced by 300% by making this one simple change. They did not make any changes to the landing page or targeting so this is purely based on the ad performance.

This simple image ad also outperformed some of their older, high-quality, cinematic video ads.

One reason the team feels this ad was successful is that their B2B audience loves to see prices and clear-cut comparisons.

“A few other reasons why Meta may have pushed this ad more than our previous ones are the game element – ‘find the difference’ is a good hook and people stuck around and engaged with the ad – and the shipment example is funny and extremely relevant to our audience (Canadian e-commerce sellers + this was published during the NHL season),” said Diana Zheng, Head of Marketing, Stallion Express.

Case Sample #3: Mazda dealership changes SEO tag strategy, gets 10x increase in sales inquiries and service bookings

Redlands Mazda is an auto dealership in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It sells new and pre-owned cars and has a 20-car service workshop.

“We were already with a digital agency that was working on our SEO but little did I know that for the money they were charging me, they actually weren't doing the things that they were supposed to do," said Peter Niebling, Dealer Principal, Redlands Mazda.

He continued, “I have heard of horror stories in the past with certain digital agencies, so trust was a concern, in regards to letting go of the old agency. After all they had access to some of our business's digital properties such as our website backend, and Google Analytics. I sell cars for a living and I wasn't sure if they could do anything to hurt the business. Luckily they didn't.”

BEFORE – Tags focused on branded search

“Redlands Mazda was really having issues ranking on page 1 of Google for their major keywords,” said Rob Whaley, Head of Growth & Digital Strategy, Project Local (Redlands Mazda’s new SEO agency).

The team conducted a sitewide SEO audit and identified some key SEO mistakes that were hurting rankings.

The site <title> tag wasn't optimized around a keyword that would actually bring in search traffic. The original site title was: ‘Redlands Mazda | Mazda Dealer Capalaba.’ This site title would help with branded searches, but as Redlands Mazda had recently undergone a rebrand, branded searches were going to be unlikely. “A better alternative was to optimize the website around a keyword such as ‘Mazda Brisbane’ which gets over 800 searches per month according to Ahrefs,” Whaley said.

Capalaba is a suburb of Brisbane. ‘Mazda Capalaba’ gets 50 searches per month.

“There were multiple uses of <h1> tags which confuses Google as to what the page is about,” Whaley said. SEO best practice is to have only one <h1> tag per page. The <h1> tag at the time the new team took over the website was <h1> Redlands Mazda </h1> and, again, wasn't optimized around a keyword that would bring traffic.

“The site <title> tag is one of the best SEO elements to optimize as it directly tells Google what the page is about. The <h1> tag is a close second and is also known as being a ‘mini’ title tag,” Whaley said.

AFTER – Tags focused on local keywords

The team changed the site title from: <title>Redlands Mazda | Mazda Dealer Capalaba</title> to <title>Redlands Mazda Brisbane | Queensland's Premier Mazda Dealer</title>.

The team also ensured they only had one <h1> tag on their homepage and changed it from <h1> Redlands Mazda </h1> to <h1> Redlands Mazda Brisbane Your Local Mazda Dealer Of New & Used Vehicles</h1>.

In fairness, the team did make some other changes as well (SEO tends to be more complex than other tactics), but the tag change stands out as a simple change anyone reading this article could make right now even with limited resources.

“Redlands Mazda was making a lot of SEO mistakes and really needed to get back to basics and increase the health of their website in Google's eyes before they could expect higher rankings,” Whaley said. “Redlands Mazda's domain rating according to Ahrefs was only 0.5.”

Other changes included:

• Images and videos were using the Http protocol instead of the more secure Https
• Many external and internal links were going to pages that no longer existed or had links removed
• The website’s overall speed was slow and needed to be optimized
• The target keyword was not mentioned on the page at all
• With a targeted outreach campaign Redlands Mazda was able to build a number of quality white hat backlinks to boost their domain rating.

RESULTS – Better search rankings

“I spend a lot on Google Ads and the PPC cost for a keyword like ‘Mazda Brisbane’ can be as high as $1.50 per click. Having organic rankings for the same keyword means I am effectively getting that traffic now for free (minus agency costs)," Niebling said.

Within four weeks, the site went from ranking as low as page six for their target keywords all the way to page one. For example, the website ranked 35^th for ‘Brisbane Mazda dealers’ and now ranks fourth.

Organic traffic increased from 1,000 organic visitors per month to 5,000. Service bookings increased at least 10 times, and the number of leads and sales inquiries also increased by roughly the same margin of 10 times what they were originally getting.

Asked what he learned from the experience regarding agency management, Niebling said, “In hindsight, I would ask more questions about what their strategy is, which keywords they are targeting, and what they are doing each month to achieve the said targets and KPIs.”

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