Case study: Inbound marketing generates $800,000 in Q2 revenue for generator distributor

CK Power is a Midwest-based engine and generator manufacturer and distributor specializing in custom solutions for its customers.

The problem: an outdated site lacking the content and conversion paths needed to attract search traffic and generate leads.

The solution: a strategic inbound marketing plan focused on building a pipeline of qualified leads with keyword-targeted content and conversion opportunities.

The results: $800,000 revenue in Q2 of 2017 alone.  

The problem

Clayton Costello, operations manager at CK Power, realized in mid-2015 that inbound marketing would become a core part of CK Power’s overarching marketing plan. Print ads and event sponsorships weren’t showing clear ROI, so Clayton decided to invest a portion of the CK Power marketing budget toward digital strategy: website infrastructure, content marketing, SEO, PPC and more.

We’ve worked closely with Clayton to grow CK Power’s traffic and leads and even proven a measurable return on investment through closed-loop reporting. 

The first solution: building a solid foundation for growth

Building a successful inbound marketing program starts with solid brand positioning and a website that’s built to scale content marketing efforts and convert leads.

Digging into the data, we determined that the website needed a technical and conversion rework to improve user experience and drive visitors toward our conversion opportunities (educational guides, product catalogs, consultations, etc.). Clayton handed us the keys to the website, and we began site mapping and wireframing the site.

The EPA’s Tier 4 deadlines were fast approaching, so we decided to highlight CK Power’s understanding of Tier 4 regulations by featuring a detailed guide on the home page. We also helped visitors segment themselves easily by choosing between specific types of generators and engines they were interested in.

Once the visitor found the specific power equipment they needed, we made it easy for them to download an industry- or product-specific brochure that could be printed out or shared digitally in exchange for their contact information.

We also installed LiveChat, a messaging software for websites that allow businesses to answer visitors’ questions on the fly. We wrote custom messages for CK Power’s high traffic pages that invited conversations between Clayton and potential customers.

From a technical perspective, forms weren’t always loading correctly, and sometimes data wasn’t being collected due to a DNS issue. From an SEO perspective, there were duplicate pages and important pages buried within multiple folders, making it hard for Google to prioritize our keyword-targeted pages. Cleaning up these technical issues improved both our rankings in search engines and the amount of contacts generated.

Ongoing solutions: content marketing, SEO and CRO

While the new website certainly helped results (as you’ll see in the section below), a good digital marketer’s job is never done. There are endless opportunities to grow traffic, leads and sales through continued inbound and paid media efforts.

Let’s start with where we’ve seen a ton of success: Search engine optimization by building educational and informative content.

Google’s secret sauce boils down to two key ingredients: (1) credible, relevant links pointing to your website that effectively “validate” your website and (2) informative, keyword-targeted content that helps answer a searcher’s queries. When these two factors mix together, rankings happen.

Let’s get into a specific example.

As we mentioned above, Tier 4 is a big deal in the power generation industry. Any company that manufactures or uses off-road diesel equipment needed to be Tier 4 compliant in 2017. Back in 2015, CK Power saw these regulations as an opportunity to educate their audience and become a true thought leader in their industry before regulations went into effect. After consulting with CK Power and performing keyword research we identified keywords and topics their target audience was searching for as Tier 4 deadlines neared. Topics ranged from Tier 4 FAQs, common Tier 4 transition problems, OEM purchasing considerations and general regulation information.

First, we built up a strong content base that could live on CK Power’s site. This is important because you want to manage the platform where traffic will eventually stream into in order to turn that traffic into leads via guides, product catalogs and consultations. The content was keyword optimized to eventually rank in search engines.

Second, we help the CK Power team write for online industry publications to build credible backlinks to their site and further boost authority. There are hundreds of niche publications that CK Power could write for, publications in manufacturing, construction, facility management, data center management, etc. Since CK Power had built up a resource center full of Tier 4 content, it was natural and easy to link back to the valuable content they’d created, effectively building credibility (and rankings) in Google. We also created an infographic on Tier 4 regulations that we shared with these publications to build links at scale to help our keyword-targeted content rank.

Writing keyword-targeted content and guest writing for industry publications are tried-and-true strategies that should be part of every ongoing inbound marketing plan.

The results

More than a facelift to an outdated site, the website rebuild was focused on turning the site into a true business development tool. After a slow month in December 2016, the site launched in January 2017, resulting in a 150 percent increase in leads from the previous month.

Not only did we see a significant bump in leads, we also saw traffic increase by 45 percent from December. Cleaning up the site’s architecture to improve the flow of PageRank and improving the site’s URL structure resulted in higher rankings in Google that translated to more organic visitors.

In the end, the visitor-to-conversion rate went from less than 1 percent to 1.87 percent after site launch. There’s still work to be done to hit our goal of 2-3 percent, but we’re confident that we’re moving in the right direction with CK Power. And they are as well.

The ongoing inbound marketing efforts have also played a pivotal role in CK Power’s success. Average monthly organic traffic generation has grown 193% since October 2015, and average monthly lead generation has grown 336%. Even after the website was completed in January 2017, leads have continued to grow over time. You’ll also notice that organic search (denoted by green) has become a dominant channel for CK Power’s lead generation because of the ongoing SEO work. After consulting with his internal sales team, Clayton attributed $800,000 in Q2 2017 revenue to leads generated from inbound marketing. 

If this case study has interested you in the potential impact of a long-term inbound marketing strategy, you can sign up for a consultation today to talk with our co-founder Joe Sullivan. He’ll guide you through what working with Gorilla entails and work with you to determine if we’re a good fit.