1. Case Study, September 2009
the digital marketing “tipping point” for Small buSineSSeS
There is sometimes a fine distinction between having a “digital presence” and leverag-
ing your online strategies to ring up sales. We recently helped a San Francisco Bay Area
home improvement contractor make the transition with stellar results.
the Situation
The client was the clear Bay Area market leader in their category of home improvement.
The owner invested approximately 20% of gross sales in magazine advertising to brand
the business and produce call-in leads. For the past 4 years, this marketing approach
filled the owner’s calendar with an average of 12 consultations a week. The owner also
invested in a website which acted as his online brochure with information about his busi-
ness and images of completed projects.
the problem
In late 2008 and early 2009, the magazine leads reduced significantly. The owner con-
tinued to invest in advertising but by May 2009, he was forced to reduce his spending in
order to maintain payroll, given the lack of business. This reduction in spending reduced
the size and frequency of his ads and their positioning in the magazines, which resulted
in an even further reduction in leads as less readers were exposed to his message. The
owner turned to Meriam Media for advice.
the analYSiS
Meriam Media started with a holistic review of the client’s marketing and sales strate-
gies and discussed goals and achievement benchmarks for the client. The primary goal
was to generate quality leads. This goal needed to be accomplished with a minimal
investment outlay that could be easily scaled based on results. The seconday goal was to
position the client to remain the market leader in the longer term and to pick up market
share from any competitor fall-out.
the Solution
Meriam Media identified the digital space as the optimal medium for the client to gener-
ate leads through a scalable marketing strategy which would also enhance their position
as a category leader. The first step was to optimize the client’s “brochure” website into
a 24/7/365 lead capture tool. The second step was to create scalable online advertising
campaigns to drive traffic to his website and capture qualified leads. The third step was
to create a PR campaign to consistently produce content which is relevant to the client’s
prospective clients and positions the client as an industry expert.

2. Case Study September, 2009
the reSult
Meriam Media optimized the client’s digital marketing by:
• Creating lead capture on his site for interested consumers to easily set up appoint-
ments
• Incorporating tracking mechanisms to evaluate the performance of the client’s digital
marketing efforts
• Optimizing the website for search
• Building out and managing social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to com-
municate more effectively with customer and prospects
• Launching targeted, scalable cost-per-click advertising campaigns on major media
networks
• Creating a publishing calendar and developing content to educate his market
• Building out article links and blog sites to distribute the custom published content
• Manage his digital marketing strategies on an ongoing basis
The entire digital marketing campaign investment outlay is only a fraction of his previous
advertising budget. After launching the program on July 1, the client has significantly in-
creased the amount of visits to his website, received on average of 7 leads per week and
has achieved an after-margin return on investment of more than 250%.
Monthly Website Visitors
2845
3000
2449
2500
2068
June, 2009
2000
July, 2009
1500 August, 2009
September, 2009
1000
500 233
0