A Case Study on Organic Online Marketing & SEO

PooPickers saw an opportunity in the dog market in the Spring of 2021. After connecting with a Calgary company, they realized the need and the open space for a service they didn’t even know existed at the time. PooPickers came to Metron with a minimum budget but with a belief that this business could be a success and Edmonton had room in the market for another dog waste removal company.

Marketing Strategy

To create a viable business that could grow with the company, Metron laid out a 3-prong strategy and plan to launch the new business into the Edmonton Dog Owner Market.

  • Prong 1 – a website with the ability for people to pay and book online
  • Prong 2 – Search Engine Optimization and Google My Business to begin localized ranking and collecting reviews to confirm the service levels and user experience.
  • Prong 3 – Social Media channels set up and establish their audience and begin to use hashtags and follow local businesses and users to who the service pertains.

Word Press E-Commerce Website

An eCommerce website does not need to be expensive. Because the budget was minimal for a start-up company, finding ways to work with zero setup fees was a priority. A basic website with Metron, when coming into our 12 month SEO ranking program is FREE so that took the largest cost off the budget right away. To allow the clients to pay online, we advised PooPickers sign-up with Stripe or Square for easy online payment integrations and no costly setup fees, unlike Moneris. To allow the clients easy sign-ups, WooCommerce was integrated, which is a free e-commerce platform easily added to the new WordPress website. The e-commerce piece is a $750 additional cost, allowing for up to 10 products to add to the platform. From start to finish the website was designed, built out, and live in 2 weeks.

 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search Engine Optimization was a massive priority for PooPickers. In order for PooPickers to gain new customers they MUST be found online when people are searching for their services with keywords. Our SEO team began the website optimization to ensure that Google Best Practices were being applied to all the technical aspects of the website. Below are the top 5 that we focused on:

  1. Crawl accessibility
  2. Title, URL, & description to draw high CTR in the rankings
  3. Compelling content
  4. Keyword optimized
  5. Great user experience including speed and mobile-friendliness

Next, we focused on the Google My Business or the GMB. This is an essential part of SEO, and they go hand in hand with localized search. It also creates user confidence with the Google Reviews which confirm to Google that the business is viable and trusted by actual customers.  GMB also gives the ability to list services, have a Google website, confirm an address for map searches and allow ongoing postings to keep the GMB updated.

The ongoing work for SEO is monthly and extensive in the first 6 months. If your niche is highly competitive it could take 6-12 months to start to rank on page 1 for your services. For a company such as PooPickers that has low competition they were able to rank on page 1 for some long tail, non-competitive keywords, and in under 6 months, PooPickers was on page 1 for many of the competitive and most commonly searched keywords.

Social Media Marketing

To round out the marketing strategy, PooPickers needed a social media presence. Over 64% of users now search for businesses on social media and they wanted to be sure they were there. Social Media also creates healthy backlinks that bolster the SEO, so the purpose extends to just a cool online presence, it actually works hand in hand with the entire strategy. Facebook and Instagram accounts were set up and built in a couple of ways.

First, to build the Facebook pages we started by inviting friends and family to like the pages. Again, we are working with no additional money for Ad Spend so Metron was happy to create organic ways to grow the social presence. Next, hashtags were found and followed on Instagram allowing PooPickers to follow and interact with like-minded businesses and dog owners. Working in partnership with PooPickers, a shared Google Drive was created, and images and videos were uploaded to that drive while doing the services. This allowed Metron to access content on their timelines and create engaging, cute, and promotional content.

Social Media Marketing is not about promotions but also about providing quality content that can drive traffic to their website. An Edmonton Local Business Spotlight blog was set up and featured local dog-friendly businesses on their blog. This allowed for fresh, quality content for SEO purposes, created strong connections for the online community, and found new followers through the local businesses that shared the blog. This is another amazing way to create quality content for the website at no extra cost or time on the client’s part, but also to create strong relationships and partnerships for future business.

From Zero to Hero

This client account is less than 12 months old, and the analytics and conversions are more than what PooPickers could have hoped for. This marketing strategy was put into place with zero paid advertising to Google Ads or Social Spend. The focus was a converting website, following Google Best Practices for ranking and website presence, and creating an engaging social network. For this to be considered a success the goals must be met, and analytics must be reviewed. It’s not just about a pretty website and high traffic, it is about doing what we said we would do. Ranking PooPickers on page 1 for their services offerings, creating a highly convertible website that causes the user to sign up and create a strong online presence to build trust with the user. We can confidently say that has been accomplished with these early analytics showing the goals have not only been met but have been surpassed.

Goal # 1 – Rank in the top spot for commonly searched keywords

It is important that if your company is paying for SEO, the analytics will show that ranking is increasing and in the short term you should be found on page 1 for long-tail keywords, and in the long-term page 1 for common, more competitive keywords. This 12-month report gives us a beautiful picture of the journey. January of 2021 PooPickers was placing in 11-50th place in ranking for their keywords, but as we move into the fall of 2021, those begin to move up into the top 6-10. For the last 5 months, PooPickers has taken the top spot on page 1 for many of the keywords for their service offerings. This is a perfect picture of what a 12-month SEO service package can do for a company.

Goal #2 – Organic traffic to be the top website provider (no paid ads)

The results of Goal #1 must have the direct effect of driving traffic to the website. Once PooPickers became a top choice in search engines, the result is it provides the traffic for the website. As we can see in the most recent months’ reporting, organic search is bringing in close to 60% of the traffic. This is showing that the majority of users are finding PooPickers in online searches using the service keywords or looking for the service offered and clicking through to learn more. Secondary to the organic search is the social media marking, and again the analytics show, that it is in the #2 spot for driving traffic. Again what is being paid for is showing up in the analytics, an important and integral piece of Metron’s marketing. (March 2022 Analytics Below) 

 

Goal #3 – Convert Users

When those users who found PooPickers in a search, then clicked through to investigate the company, conversion is the next goal we want to meet. As we review the behavior of the users, we can see that the top 3 pages are the shop and the 2 main service offerings. We can also see that the bounce rate is excellent, as the average bounce rate for websites is 41 to 55 percent. This tells us that the user is looking around, taking time, and even purchasing the service they came to investigate. (Lifetime Analytics Below)

 

Goal #4 – Create a strong online presence through social platforms and Google reviews

When users find the company that may be an option for the services they are searching for, they either look on social to confirm the company is a viable option or they check out their Google reviews. It is imperative that both are up to date and offer the user confidence to proceed with a purchase or booking. In PooPickers instance, that became a strong driver for the conversions online. (Lifetime Reviews Below)

In Summery

As a new business, investing in a marketing company can be overwhelming and seem like a costly venture. But as Metron has proven here, when you invest with the right partner, the results speak for themselves.

PooPickers had a limited budget, but they also knew that they needed marketing help. They decided that instead of building their own website through WIX or managing social media themselves or paying for Facebook Ads on their own limited time and knowledge, they allowed Metron to come alongside them and create a marketing strategy that fit their budget, needs, and values.

Today PooPickers has multiple staff, monthly, quarterly, and yearly contracts with hundreds of happy dog owners around the city of Edmonton. They have done an amazing job of creating an outstanding service. If you are a dog owner, you will not regret hiring them if you are in the local area of Edmonton. You can find them here https://poopickers.ca/ and read their google reviews here https://tinyurl.com/3fn8bntp

 

Online Marketing is a partnership, and the client must be willing to be involved to grow the business. Metron is a tool and resource that creates opportunity but as the business owner, the service, and the lead conversion land in their court. PooPickers are the ones that must convert the lead, provide an excellent service, and drive the happy user to give a review. Poo Pickers did this with excellence and Metron was proud to have them as a client.

Metron offers a 12 Month SEO Marketing Package for $1200/month + GST and includes all of the options listed in this case study. If you wish to pay in 1 or 2 installments, we discount the fee by 10%. Set up a free consultation with Becky at Metron. She will be happy to partner with your business for a launch or relaunch!