Share
Guest Post: Thomas Hicks
In the summer of 2008, I did not have a care in the world. I was working remotely from a small island in the Mediterranean, for my families telecommunication business, located in the suburbs of NYC. My primary responsibility was to keep the website current and maintain a presence in the first few spots of google for anything related to our products or industry in general. It took considerable time and effort initially, to provide these results, but once firmly established it was a good gig for all involved. Quite a few leads came in on a daily basis, so everyone was comfortable in our existence.
I doubt I had heard of toxic mortgages yet or knew much relating to macro-economic theories. If I did, I certainly did not care or possess the vision to grasp the implications. Swimming before or after morning coffee was a typical dilemma. I would do a few hours of work, go play a bit and then get back to finish the day. It was a situation I had earned through brutal work and made sure to enjoy every day.
It does not take much imagination to see how that fall and the majority of the following year went. Traffic to the website increased by a little more than 10% for the 12 months, following September 2008 with sales inquiries keeping pace. However, sales dropped by 60% and our reasonable profit margin was decimated. Ultimately, staff needed to be let go, salaries reduced and benefits slashed.
After considerable thought, I decided it would be best to weather the storm in Malta, due to the incredibly cheap and high standard of living. For a time, our entire company and family was severely depressed. Individually, each person dealt with their new reality and moved on. Definitely, it was different things for different people. The one common thread was to become more critical of our actions and find improved processes.
In my case, I became more involved with the sales cycle instead of remaining in the background in the marketing role. Since sales were less profitable, a major concern was also to significantly increase the number of leads. After analyzing the data with the help of a new set of eyes, that had no prior internet marketing experience, the conclusion was obvious. The website was clearly not as effective as it needed to be.
The site at the time was 1600 static pages, meaning each one needs to be changed separately. It had grown over time and not been planned. Instead of attempting to redo each page, I decided the 10 most popular pages and the sales/contact areas would be sufficient. The graphics, layout, new logo, and text took nearly a week to perfect. The results were instantaneous. Our sales increased to a higher level than before the global meltdown and our bounce rate was cut in half. The margins are still modest, but the business is growing once again. Just in case, I have picked up a few freelance SEO gigs to make sure.
You might also be interested in …
- How did CampaignHub help Property Tutors get a Full House for their last Event?
- Survival Tips for Business Owners
- Important Blogging Tip: Use Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
- Success Foundations 10 Week Webinar – Recommended
- How Does BusinessBlogs Benefit From Using CampaignHub’s Solutions?
This post was written by:
Business Blogs – who has written 102 posts on Business Blogs.
Business Blogs is the home of business bloggers from around the world.
Connect with the Author:
Email | WWW | RSS | Twitter
Leave a Reply
Click here to cancel reply.