Ruoxi Wang
Tools: Google Analytics, Google Adwords
Company: Black Swan Manufacturing
Digital Marketing Plan
Executive Summary
Black Swan Manufacturing Company are using social media outlets, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube. They are not actively blogging about the company or the products. They have their own website, which includes an online store. The website is equipped with Google Analytics. Black Swan does not partake in paid advertising, but is extremely consciously making efforts to improve their search engine optimization results.
Objectives and Goals
Their objectives are to increase brand awareness, generate leads for the business to business marketplace, educate the marketplace on their products, and create engagement both for business to business and end users. Their goals are to increase sales, optimize for search engines results to be relevant and quickly found by users and increase customer engagement on social media with useful content.
Client Profile
Black Swan Manufacturing Company manufactures plumbing chemicals and accessories. The factory founded in 1928 and is located in Chicago Illinois. There are now over 250 items that are offered by the company. The product line is mainly composed of chemicals and accessories for the plumbing industry, but also includes more general items such as duct tape, stretch wrap, marking paint, etc. The plumbing chemicals consist of putty, pipe joint compounds, cleaners, fluxes, boiler chemicals, cements, primers and drain pipe openers to name a few. The accessories range from PTFE tape, closet bolts and screws to wrenches, augers and roof flashings. While there has been tremendous growth in many aspects of the company one area of focus for the company moving forward is the digital marketing and web presence.
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Currently they are a manufacturer of plumbing chemicals and accessories geared towards the plumbing wholesale trade, but also selling into the retail industry. Plumbing is the main focus, but the broad product line feeds into a number of industries such as hardware, maintenance, construction, automotive, janitorial, electrical, waterworks, pooling, roofing, flooring, boating and the company has had inquiries from the antiquing trade. One critical missing component for Black Swan is brand awareness. With such a large customer base, the company realizes the importance of search engine optimization and wants to work on improving its results. Black Swan is well known amongst the plumbing professionals and would like to have more success with the retail trade and grow on the other industry areas.
Website Analysis
There is a current presence online, however it is not as strong as the business would like. The website in the past had been set up with Google analytics, but the account had not been active for a long period of time. After meeting with the client, Google Analytics was made active once again.
The website has all the information in an organized fashion and has strong product descriptions and content throughout. The website has different sections about the company itself including history, corporate information, shipping locations, the manufacturer’s representative information, mission statement, letter from the president and so on. Each product has its own product page, which lists the product's descriptions, directions, safety information, technical information, lists any other relevant information and links the viewer to the Black Swan store. The website does have a store to sell to the public, but that is not the main purpose of the site. The manufacturer’s reps are the main source of contact to the Black Swan customers. Customers submit orders either through the rep, or directly to Black Swan via email and fax. The majority of orders come from established returning customers. A small percentage, roughly 3%-5%, of their orders do come from end users in the form of web orders, Amazon orders and orders that come in over the phone which are considered miscellaneous orders.
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The site is primarily used to provide information about the company and their products to the users, increase awareness of Black Swan’s brand and generate leads and engagement. While the goal is to attract attention of other businesses Black Swan would benefit from general consumer recognition as well. The more the public (end users) are aware of Black Swan, the more potential requests wholesalers and retailers will have for the Black Swan products and the more likely stores will bring the Black Swan product into stock.
Other Social Media Analysis
Black Swan needs a more detailed digital marketing strategy. They have social media outlets with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube and Pinterest. Black Swan is listed on Google locations and the company is selling on Amazon in order to show up faster on Google result pages. When someone enters a search query for putty on Google, Black Swan should come up first as they are the inventor, but Black Swan’s website does not even appear on the first page of web results. A small portion of Black Swan’s customer discovered Black Swan online. In fact one customer had said they found Black Swan because they came across an informational video that Black Swan had posted on their YouTube channel several years ago. The company would like to see more situations like this.
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Company Digital Marketing Objectives
Black Swan uses digital platforms to increase customer reach to drive sales.
Sales are driven by hitting some key objectives.
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Increase brand awareness.
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Generate leads for business to business marketplace to sell product.
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Create engagement both for business to business and end users.
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Educate the marketplace their products.
Objectives for the digital marketing activities include:
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Increase visits to the website from all areas of the web.
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Increase position on search pages and increase organic search reach.
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Increase engagement on social media channels.
Key performance indicators (KPI's)
Our Key performance indicators are related to engagement and conversion.
Black Swan does not currently conduct or study any market research. They are not paying attention to any specific metrics that could be used to evaluate factors that would impact Black Swan’s success. Google Analytics was recently implemented so they can start to analyze areas of the website, which is the most significant part of Black Swan digital marketing platforms. Below are suggested KPI’s to determine success toward achieving the objectives:
Below are suggested KPI’s to determine success toward achieving the objectives:
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Bounce rate/session length- reducing bounce rate and creating longer session length shows higher visitor engagement which drive sales
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Conversion rate- sales on website are not the main revenue source for Black Swan. Looking at lead generation from B2B visitors are tying those together to see how they found Black Swan. Monitoring how many new customers found Black Swan from Digital marketing activities
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Referrals rate- Similar to conversions, referral rate from social media and other content sites to show user engagement and drives sales. Conducting marketing research of new customers to understand if they found Black Swan from digital marketing activities
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Response rates on social media- this doesn’t directly drive sales, however, customer service is a key component to Black Swan value proposition and it increases customer engagement.
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Timely useful content creation- creating a schedule for new and useful content to increase visitor engagement. New products need to showcased, useful “how to” videos uploaded in a way that visitors subscribe to the brand, all of which drives sales since we are first of mind to provide solutions to plumbing needs.
Website Evaluation
Google Analytics Site Content (September 12th - October 16th)
In the five weeks we have been tracking users on the website, we have learned a lot about them:
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2,599 total number of sessions and 2,079 different users
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Channels- organic search is 62.61%, direct 32.38%, referral 4.04%, social .96%
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The gender split is 80% men, 20% women.
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85% of the sites visitors are 25-64 years old with the highest age group of 25-34 year olds at 25% and the lowest age group of 55-64 year olds at 17%.
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New visitors are 23.1% vs returning visitors of 76.9%.
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74 % of the visitors are accessing the site from desktop and surprisingly 21% are accessing it from mobile devices.
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Engagement at 0-10 seconds was 59% and at 61-180 seconds was 20%
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42% bounce rate for home page
This data confirms some theories and raises other questions. The gender split was predictable since the Black Swan’s core customer is a plumber which is an occupation generally performed by men. This also falls inline with the age demographic which aligns with the general plumbing worker career (25-64). We are encouraged by the high number of new users and we like that visitors are returning. We were surprised to learn that 20% of visitors are accessing from a mobile site. Redesigns to the website should be mobile friendly and our customers may be seeking on the spot information while on the job. The 0-10 second engagement statistic is worrisome. We feel that many may be accessing the site accidentally (black swan movie) which could correlate to 42% bounce rate for the home page. We like that 20% of visitors are spending 60-180 seconds suggesting that those seeking the information, are finding it and moving on. Black Swan wants their information to be immediate and useful to visitors.
Website Persona
“Joe the plumber” represents our biggest user of the website. He is a blue collar, 20-65 year old male who is a plumber, works as a maintenance person, or in some plumbing related industry. He uses the website primarily for information to solve his plumbing problems. He is concerned about his application and is seeking information to make sure the product provides a solution to his problem. He is not usually technologically savvy and wants quick, simple, useful information at his fingertips. He can be a bargain shopper and will place orders on the website. He is generally looking for a loyal relationship with a reliable supplier.
​The current version of the website is easy for this persona to use. Product information is easy to locate once the visitor finds the product section. Under products, the user can find the “barter section” and see price lists and quantity discounts when he is searching for a bargain.
Other User
Purchasing agents for distributors use the website to collect information for their customers. Manufacturers look at the website for product information to determine if it is suitable for their manufacturing needs. Plumbing contractors use the website for pick up and contact information. Inspectors use the website to make sure contractors are using products that meet the required codes. We notice that there may be a few different types of visitors to our site, however, they are all searching for information (company, product, etc.), so it is important to make that information readily available and easy to access.
The existing homepage is fairly easy to navigate and useful information is available for the visitors to easily find. We like the visible logo in the upper left hand corner and the immediate presentation of the product line in a large photo. It’s very clear to the visitor that this company makes putties and solvents. The color scheme with a white background and blue and black script creates a clear contrast so that visitors can more easily locate the information they are seeking. The home page makes good use of white space without too much clutter and no scrolling. It is quick and easy to use.
Increase Home Page Usability
We do think that the website would be more user friendly if it had better organization of the information. Black Swan wants the website to focus on first and foremost, product information, yet the product information is below the company information. Both bars can be condensed into menus and the information can be categorized into four main areas focus on the goals of the website. The company wants to focus on product (end user information), distributors and MFG reps (selling), company information (family business branding), and the store (smaller selling).
Redesign
There is vital top space that is currently a gray bar. We suggest putting product picture on the top suggesting a large breadth of products and focusing on the core bread and butter claim to fame product to sell (putty). By relocating the images up top, we can showcase the original putty and provide quick links to “how to videos”. The homepage is now easier to navigate and provides useful content on the home page for the visitor to engage. Black Swan currently has a logo that is at the top left on the website. This logo to also be a link to the home page.
We feel that adding the youtube video showing the CEO provides a sense that Black Swan cares about solving plumbing problems. We added call to action buttons “Learn More” for the top selling putty and youtube videos as well as added visible icons to social media links on the homepage. Google Analytics showed that no one has used the search function so we suggest removing this function as it isn’t useful.
Drop Down Menus
Currently, when visitors click on Products. They are taken to a new page that is broken down into arbitrary categories that don’t have any meaning for the visitor. We suggest, not only removing the category headers, but also and organizing the products in order of most popular or alphabetically would makes the most sense. We chose to rank by most popular in the graphic below. Currently they are listed in the order of the catalog.
We would also incorporate this into drop down menu on the homepage so visitors are one less click away from finding the product they need. This drop down menu can follow them through the product search to more easily navigate the products if they are unsure of the category. Safety Data Sheets, product information, and product drawings are specific to each product and will be found on the product page so we suggest removing these categories from the drop down menu.
We suggest using the same idea for the “distributors and MFG reps” as well as “Company Information”. These will both become drop down menus so users can easily access the information they need. We designed the format with products on the left, next is distributors and on the right Company Information to reflect the most popular items that are visited on the Black Swan website.
Search Engine Optimization
The website redesign provides a unique opportunity for Black Swan to focus on increasing organic search volume to their site and capitalizing on their successful conversions. The search engine optimization for Black Swan will focus on two main areas for improvement, on page keyword phrases and off page inbound links. For the keyword phrase, a complete overhaul of the selection and more importantly the implementation of the keywords on the pages will be recommended. More creative thinking and strategies, such as blogs, creation of a on the job app, and leveraging the PDF data sheets will be crucial to driving off page optimization. Each section is explained in detail below.
On Page Optimization: Keyword Phrases
Two Successful Conversions
Currently black swan mfg.com, or the homepage, does have keyword phrases, meta data with some of the keyword phrases in them, and alt tags also with keyword presence. Some simple tweaks to the existing keywords should boost SEO considerably for the company. For the keyword selection we considered two main groups who are utilizing the site, and defined two separate successful conversions. The first conversion is plumbers on the job who are in need of quick information on the product they are using, either in the form of directions or safety concerns. The second group of targeted users is commercial distribution representatives who need information on ordering products for their vendors, generally seeking UPC, contact, and size information for larger orders. With this in mind, the following keyword phrases have been constructed to help target these users and boost organic search conversions.
Paid Search
Currently, Black Swan does not utilize Google AdWords. We recommend that they get involved, but not spend too much time or money focusing in this area. Black Swan prefers to do business-to-business, not business-to-consumers sales. While Black Swan has an online store it is not targeted toward their key customers. The online stores sells items by each and since Black Swan is a manufacturing company they are looking to sell to their customers in bulk. Thus, we recommend that they do not spend too much money on Google paid search when it comes to selling their products online. The goal for paid search will be to attract the consumer who wants to know the product information, or the retailer who wants to know more about their company and their product information. Due to their situation, we recommend that the paid ads should focus on private label and brand awareness. Based on these goals, we created two ad groups for them to use. One is ‘Plumbing Supplies’ and another one is ‘Plumbing Factory’. For the ad group ‘Plumbing Supplies’ we recommend the key words quality plumbing products, plumbing accessories and best plumbing supplies. For the ad group ‘Plumbing Factory’ plumbing manufacturer, putty and best plumbing factory. We hope with keywords such as these our ad will match up with searchers looking for quality plumbing supplies and accessories from a manufacturer. We recommend they use negative match keywords such as store and supplier. This is because we do not want to attract end users looking for a store to buy plumbing supplies and products. The following graphs are two ad groups and keywords.
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We also designed a graph to show the PPC budget for each Ads group.
According to the PPC budget graph, we think the ‘Plumbing Factory’ is the better choice for Black Swan. Because the annual cost for ‘Plumbing Factory’ is $1,612.80 to $3,360.00. It is not too expensive for Black Swan in comparison to Plumbing Supplies. If Black Swan wants customers and potential customers to become more familiar with their company and product line they must improve their brand awareness. Focusing on private label paid search is a good way to improve their brand awareness while saving money. Therefore, if Black Swan would like to create a lower end budget for paid search, we recommend that they choose and bid on the ad word ‘Plumbing Factory’.
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As mentioned before, our target audience is the wholesale customer who wants to know the product information, or the retailer who wants to know more about their company and their product information. In order to better target our audience, keywords and the negative keywords should be ads in the search and display ads option. The geographic setting will be focused on the United States. Another good ad serving option for Black Swan would be making their website available for use on mobile device.
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Successful metrics can increase website traffic including high clicks. Conversion can measure the paid search success or not. High conversion rate means that more retailers want to purchase Black Swan plumbing products or the customers who want to purchase the plumbing products prefer to know more about Black Swan. In addition, it is a good way for using A/B testing and focused on conversion rate to compare keyword performance level and identify profitable keywords.
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In fact, it is important when users click on the ads, that they are directed a landing page and not just the home page. For instance, users clicking on the plumbing manufacturer campaign ads, users are directly sent to the manufacturer's rep and distributor landing page which includes contact information and information related to manufacturing products. Therefore, we think that paid search also can become an option for Black Swan, but not the main choice.
Recommendations
To drive sales with digital marketing, Black Swan needs to increase brand awareness by providing useful solutions to plumbing needs and connecting to consumers. Addressing areas of need on the website, search engine results, and social media will provide an increase in sales and overall customer service and satisfaction. We summarize the changes below.
Website
The focal point of their digital activities are with the website. Our first recommendation is to redesign the homepage so that it provides useful engaging content and the content is organized in way that is easy for the visitor to navigate. Since visitors are primarily looking for product information, addressing the product navigation and content is especially important. Redesigning these pages increase engagement and usability. In addition, we recommend Black Swan redesign the e-commerce section of the website to increase usability for business to business customer driving online sales for their core customer segment. Lastly, with the increasing levels of users accessing the website from mobile devices, redesigns should consider a mobile site or mobile friendly design.
Search Engine Optimization
Increase brand awareness through digital marketing can only be done if the customer can base can find the website. On page optimization by lining up keyword phrases with the website content regarding products, selling and company information so that visitors are finding information faster. Increasing search optimization also includes connecting so links to social media, outside sites, and expanding content all of which increase brand awareness.
Paid Search
We don’t feel that paid search ads would be an effective tool to drive sales unless they focus on the manufacturing side of the business. If implemented, Black Swan should display ads that target consumers looking for a plumbing manufacturer in a cost effective manner.