User Experience and Customer Attraction Strategy for an Education-Focused Small Business
Situation
Before the global pandemic, the client acquired most of their customers via word-of-mouth, an email newsletter, and direct outreach. Additionally, the company founder published various pieces on social-emotional learning that were linked back to the company website. However, they did not know which methods were most effective for reaching their customers.
Leaning into the digital acceleration that COVID-19 caused, the business has introduced new programs such as a YouTube series and podcast. However, the client still struggled to generate revenue due to decreased demand as a result of the pandemic.
Challenge
Our client’s challenge revolves around effective marketing practices, customer conversion, and business scaling. While they have multiple marketing and outreach initiatives, they lack data on which efforts are working to successfully acquire customers. Due to limited staffing resources, the client would benefit from the introduction of analytics and a resulting intentional marketing strategy to ensure their efforts have a direct impact on customer acquisition, and therefore revenue streams.
The client tasked Rem and Company with determining a future outlook for customer attraction that would focus on high-potential targets. The client also tasked Rem and Company with identifying the gap between website visits and product purchases. Lastly, they were looking to create business practices that would serve as a strong foundation for the company as it continued to scale.
Approach
The team worked to create an analytical and evidence-based marketing and user experience strategy, as well as determing best practices to consider when scaling.
The research phase of the marketing strategy focused on analyzing the client’s current marketing methods and the uses for different potential analytics. One strategist focused on providing a guide for beginning to utilize these different analytics, as well as information on the benefits of doing so. The second strategist focused on researching and compiling outreach strategies and best practices for leveraging social media and current network connections to secure new customers. The goal of this strategy was to identify the most successful marketing tactics for the client using data-driven analytics to create an intentional marketing strategy to target higher potential customers.
The research phase of the user experience strategy was split into two parts.
First, we focused on analyzing and mapping the current client website to understand the user experience. The team found that the messaging and social media presence made it difficult for potential new customers to understand the client’s product offerings.
Second, we identified best practices by comparing other mission-driven businesses that had websites with strong user experiences. The team identified the elements that made these websites successful. For example, drop-down menus to navigate the site, clear showcasing of products and prices, and a strong organization making clear the business’ different services.
Ultimately, our research would help determine a new UI outline for the client’s website. The goal of this outline was to make the website more user-friendly, based on gaps in the existing site and best practices observed in research. This portion of the engagement was focused on eliminating the gap between website visits and purchases, so the client could fully tap into their customer base.
The final phase of the approach focused on providing the client with considerations and best practices as they continued to scale to other markets and cities. This included competitor research and a guide on how to apply the foundations of the other two aspects of the strategy as the company continued to grow.
Together, those components constitute an intentional, research-backed strategy to build a stronger customer acquisition foundation and eventually increase customer revenue streams.
Impact
Guidance from Rem and Company along with personalized deliverables like new outreach strategies and a website redesign, helped the client to develop a deeper understanding of how to interact with potential customers. The deliverables gave the client concrete steps and considerations as they continued to scale the business, to ensure they were using their limited resources wisely. Overall, this project helped to increase customer acquisition and conversion to drive revenues.
Team Breakdown
Team Lead: Shula Horton
Strategist: Nate Sifuntes
Strategist: James Wechsler
Strategist: MK Kang
Junior Strategist: Emily Chandler
Relevant Background Information
Business Type: Mission-Driven Small Business
Industry: Education
Location: Nashville, TN
At Rem and Company, we're on a mission to keep doors open and dreams alive. Rem and Company started as a social impact initiative offering free consulting services to small businesses impacted by COVID-19. Rem and Company has become an information hub and digital community platform for small businesses in need. At Rem and Company, small businesses stay up to date on trends in their industries, learn new approaches from peers, build a network, and develop the capacity to adapt as the world around them changes. Our consulting teams provide small businesses with the opportunity to identify and prioritize issues facing their business, propose innovative strategies and facilitate execution. If you are a small business owner and want to learn more about how we can help, request a free consultation.