Introduction
The total number of Internet users across the world has skyrocketed from just over 1 billion in 2005 to more than 3.5 billion in 2017. Each day, more people are relying on the web for virtually every aspect of their daily lives, from checking the weather to communicating with colleagues to keeping up with current events.
So it’s no surprise that the Internet plays a massive role in a customer’s shopping behaviors and decisions. Statistics show that 81% of shoppers do their research online before making a purchase, and 93% of consumers say that social media has influenced their buying decisions. With instant access to information, brands and their customers are communicating more quickly and efficiently than ever, in ways that integrate with a consumer’s daily web use habits.
The Internet is replacing traditional media. It’s no longer the future–it’s our reality. This is why a digital marketing strategy is critical for brands that want to keep up with their competition.
A strong digital marketing plan can include a diverse portfolio of tactics, like search engine optimization (SEO), social media, pay-per-click advertising (PPC),video production, and content marketing. Top-performing companies cross-pollinate their digital channels to create a customized, multi-channel strategy that closely examines and caters to their ideal customers.
In this report, we examine how StrataBlue designed and executed multi-channel digital marketing campaign for Kayak Pools. Within a year or less, this campaign resulted in the best year ever for Kayak.
Keep reading to learn how this pool company generated $15 million in revenue in 1 year!
Kayak Pools Midwest generated 7,746 leads from their new Facebook advertising campaign and 6,257 leads from their Google AdWords PPC campaign. To enhance the multi-media experience, StrataBlue filmed a pool installation for Kayak’s digital ads, crossing into the powerful world of video.
Case Study: Kayak Pools
Located in Indianapolis, IN, Kayak Pools Midwest services several states in the Midwest region. The company had one of their best years ever in 2012, after which point they hit a slump. In January 2017, they came to StrataBlue looking for a new, creative approach to help bring their numbers back to what they once were. StrataBlue studied the company’s past performance strategies and results, and combined this information with market research for potential customers within their service areas. Based on this data, they designed a digital marketing plan that implemented the following strategies:
- Facebook advertising, which the company had never done before
- A time-lapse video of a pool installation for use in digital marketing materials
- Google AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- Migrating their existing website to WordPress, complete with back-end optimization
- Consistent blogging for added customer engagement and SEO improvement
Entering the World of Facebook Ads and Video
As a Facebook Blueprint Certified Agency, StrataBlue immediately implemented a targeted Facebook advertising strategy, marking Kayak’s first foray into social media marketing. The campaign focused primarily on Lead Generation Ads, which are designed to capture information from users who are interested in your business. Once a user clicks on the ad’s image, video, or carousel, they’re taken to a lead form to provide information so that a member of Kayak’s sales team can follow-up.
Once the Facebook campaign gained traction using static images as the main visual, StrataBlue decided to incorporate video. One reason for this choice is because 2017 research shows that video viewing and social media were the two most popular activities online, accounting for more than one-third of the time that we spend on the Internet.
Drilling down even further, we see that Facebook alone generates eight billion video views each day on average. Facebook video has shown itself to be a powerhouse digital marketing strategy for B2C businesses, which is why 62% of marketers are planning to invest in Facebook videos in the coming year.
To capitalize on the immense opportunity of video, StrataBlue sent out a film crew to record Kayak’s team building a pool on-site in a customer’s backyard. The video was then time-lapsed for brevity and used in Facebook ads and other digital marketing materials.
To nurture leads generated from Kayak’s Facebook, AdWords, and organic landing pages, StrataBlue used the HubSpot platform to create comprehensive email drip campaigns. These automated campaigns sent personalized, periodic emails to each lead based on their buyer persona and their stage in the purchasing process. The Kayak team kept contact with each lead, offering helpful information and answering the questions or concerns they had leading up to their purchase–which turned into more conversions and more revenue.
Campaign Results
In 2017, Kayak Pools saw an incredible $15 million in revenue from their new, comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Of this total gross revenue, $3.1 million was a direct result of the Facebook ad campaign, $3.6 million came from Google AdWords, and $3.5 came fromGoogle search traffic and their new website.
They also saw the following results from their paid advertising campaigns:
