Social Media Marketing and Google Ads Case Study (SEM and Facebook Marketing)

Case Study on: Identiti Designer Name Plates

Client: Mumbai

Year: 2011-2012

Website: www.idenitit.in

This is a social media and paid advertising case study for my first client called Identiti Home Pvt Ltd. based in Mumbai, India.

Who is Identiti and what does it do?

Identiti designs, manufactures designer name plates to customers who are building or improving homes. In a short span of time Identiti has created niche market for itself which is fast catching the imagination of all the home makers. Since inception, Identiti has been enabling proud home owners with artistically designed hand crafted nameplates and interesting fusion of glass, wood, fiber, stone and metal. Identiti is focused towards making a difference in the way people design their home entrances.

What was the challenge?

Identiti owned one store in Mumbai and partnered with several other home decor brands across India to display their products and sell their products. Their products ranged from wooden name plates to glass name plates. Operating a physical store was obviously an expensive affair and so was it dealing with their partners. In 2011, small businesses were approaching the web halfheartedly to sell their products online. At the same time, Facebook started becoming a very popular networking site surpassing the then famous Orkut networking site. Like most SMB, Identiti had plans to go digital. The problem was obviously how and what to do?

Identiti wanted to incorporate Facebook as a part of their marketing and advertising plan but didn’t want 1M likes on their fan page. They wanted something more solid, something that will boost sales and bring in more revenue. At the same time, another major issue was driving traffic on their website. Since their website wasn’t modern, they faced a major challenge of getting into good books with search engines Google and Bing.

Being a SMB, Identiti did not have a budget to hire a full fledged digital marketing team, neither were they comfortable hiring an agency especially without a clear business strategy w.r.t the Internet.

The Solution

This is where I came into the picture. Spending a few days with the owner of Identiti, I quickly realized there was only 1 thing expected if money was invested online i.e. Sales. It had to be quick because time was running out and profits coming in from physical stores was deteriorating each day.

I made two suggestions, Google Adwords and Facebook.

Google Adwords

In 2011, Google adwords was very new to SMB in Mumbai which meant there were host of opportunities to acquire new markets and yet at the same time was difficult to convince the owner for funds.

Problem 1: No SEO

The website was built by a third party web development company who had little or no experience in search engine optimization. There were 10 keywords that were being tracked by this agency, all of which were suggested by the owner of Identiti. These keywords were chosen based on assumptions and ideas that came to the owners mind on the basis of his experience and vocabulary.

Solution 1: Don’t guess, believe in scientific data and facts

I spent a couple of days using the google keyword tool to find the potential market available, keyword suggestions, competition etc and found vast opportunities that could be targeted. It was fairly easy to convince the owner with facts, supply and demand as he understood it. This is where introduction of google adwords happened.

Initially we spent a few hundred rupees, created 25-30 ads tested different images etc. Once we saw which ads were converting we quickly increased the budget for those ads and the results were incredible. From merely doing sales of Rs 15,000 each month online, Identiti was now selling stuff worth Rs 3,50,000 each month in less than half a year. We spent on average 20-30k and noticed sales improved at 50% every month. This was directly in proportion to the money we were spending on ads. We ran text ads and display ads. Another observation we made was that products that were on the expensive side, sold more online and these were acquired by a text or display ad. We used all kinds of image sizes provided by Google.

Solution 2: Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/myidentiti)

During my pow vow session with the owner I was explaining the way people were using Facebook. The trend has never changed since then, people use Facebook only to brag or vent their frustration or anger.  They could be bragging about their new smart phone, new dress, new hair style, holiday destination etc. This meant every time a person bought something new he/she would update their status. So, here was my big idea..make our customers brag about their new designer name plate.

Yes, whenever a customer booked a product on our site or in the store we made it a compulsion to collect their email address and Facebook name. We also invested in a small studio in the factory where the name plate was being manufactured. So here’s how things would turn out

Step 1: Customer orders online or offline, provides email address and Facebook name

Step 2: Once the custom name plate is ready for delivery, a HQ picture is taken and sent over to the corporate office

Step 3: This HQ picture is uploaded on Identiti business page, through the Identiti personal account we friend the customer, so that we can tag them

Step 4: Once the customer gets tagged, this picture is visible on their wall which means all their friends can see it when they visit the customers Facebook wall. Additionally, if the customer is not happy with the finished product it can be replaced before delivering which means we save delivery and pick up costs.

This provided a much needed impetus to Identiti and grew their business.

Recommended by Mr. Rattan Joneja (CEO & MD)

Rattan Joneja

CEO at Marigold Ventures

Cilvan is a highly self motivated, intelligent and hard working. He launched the Web Business at Identiti and grew it by 200% in 6 months time.