CIG Amplify Optimizes Website Engagement, Sales Lead Generation, and SEO for Kelley Imaging Systems
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Editor’s Note: “Sharper Image” is a 2018 limited edition series of four features as to how Clover Imaging Group’s (CIG) Amplify Digital Marketing Platform is delivering on marketing support for dealers. “Getting the Message” is the second of four installments, with the remaining two slated for launch in November and December in-magazine and online.
In the meantime, you can also check out the first installment, “Digital Upgrade,” which delves into CIG’s successful marketing partnership with Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises. Both the first and second installments are also respectively published in the April and September issues of The Cannata Report.
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Top: Screenshot of the kelleyimaging.com homepage as conceived, designed, and maintained by CIG’s Amplify Digital Marketing Platform. The homepage reflects current clean, photo-centric flat design trends and features a link to Kelly’s company video overview.
Above: Company video screenshot: Click here to play full video on kelleyimaging.com.
Above: Blog page that features recent posts on topics ranging from wide format print head replacement to cloud storage versus hard drives: Click here to view and read blog posts.
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As Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones so eloquently belted out, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try some time, you just might find, you get what you need.”
What Kelley Imaging Systems in Kent, Washington, wanted was a website that better engaged customers, helped them generate more business, and provided better SEO. After hiring various local marketing and website design firms and not getting what they wanted, Kelley Imaging Systems got what they needed from the social media experts at Clover Imaging Group (CIG).
The firm Kelley last engaged spent nine months building Kelley’s website. However, when it finally launched, both Kelley President Aric Manion and Marketing Director Sarah Krueger noted it couldn’t do what they needed. Enter CIG and the Amplify Digital Marketing Platform.
“They understood, business-to-consumer [marketing], but they didn’t understand B2B,” observed Manion.
Another issue was the website platform, which was more difficult to use than WordPress, the dealership’s previous platform.
“The whole buildup process was a nightmare,” recalled Krueger.
Having a strong SEO component was particularly critical to the dealership. As the company has grown to 18 offices in 18 markets, recognition of the Kelley brand wasn’t as strong in some of the newer markets.
“The biggest red flag was during Google searches,” explained Manion. “[The marketing company] was supposed to optimize and write landing pages to help us gain recognition in all those markets, and it just wasn’t happening.”
Kelley Imaging Systems initially engaged Clover to write blogs and create content pages for the site. But because the new platform wasn’t as user-friendly as WordPress and didn’t easily integrate with the HubSpot inbound marketing and sales software, the company realized it was time to switch back to WordPress.
“Working with Clover, we realized our site wasn’t up to spec,” admitted Manion. “It wasn’t going to be easy writing all these blogs and putting everything together. We had a blog piece, a social media piece, a website piece, but they didn’t all talk to each other nicely.”
HubSpot easily integrates with Kelley’s website and CRM system, allowing the dealership to better track leads and manage and monitor the site. The closer the Kelley team looked at that first platform, they realized they’d have to spend much work with HubSpot.
“We can track the activity of current customers and because of the HubSpot connection, see where they’re looking, what they’re interested in, and then can go back to them and say, we’ve seen you’ve been on this page, check this out,” said Krueger.
HubSpot is also better for posting blogs.
“It gives us a lot more capabilities for social media marketing,” explained Krueger. “We have all of our contacts and we can track everything through there, and it comes back into our CRM system, which is invaluable.”
Because managing a website and creating content isn’t one of Kelley Imaging’s core competencies, Clover is responsible for managing the site and creating content. Kelley staff will make suggestions to Clover’s media team about what they’d like them to write about. Those topics are often tied to the company’s latest initiatives such as MPS or solutions and software.
“They’re good at running with the idea of what we’re looking for and coming back with something that fits,” said Krueger.
One of the benefits of working with the media experts at Clover is their knowledge of the industry.
“That was one of the downfalls of the other web companies that didn’t know or understand our business,” said Krueger. “Working with a company that knows our business has been a significant improvement for us.”
Meanwhile, SEO has improved dramatically, which has helped generate more leads.
Manion added that now when he Googles office technology related businesses and sources in individual markets, Kelley is coming up on the first page of the search.
One of the more beneficial aspects of Kelley’s site is a call to action that encourages customers who land on a specific page to submit a lead form. This helps the dealership identify hot prospects, as opposed to those who are just window shopping.
“We want them to do business with us, so having a plan where the end result is a call to action where they pick up the phone or submit a web form is important,” said Manion.
Krueger’s words of wisdom for ensuring a productive relationship with a third-party marketing organization such as Clover is to keep an open dialog, which ensures both the client and the marketing company are on the same page. For Kelley, it’s done via periodic phone calls to talk about the status of current and future initiatives.
Manion feels he now has one of the most effective websites in his market.
“It’s a cleaner, more modern look compared to a lot of dealers whose websites never change,” he said. “My biggest competitor’s site looks the same as it did 10 years ago.”
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