Aeroshade Testimonial
Attn: Kelly Cutler
445 W Erie Ste. 105
Chicago, IL 60610
Dear Kelly:
I am writing to commend Kelly Cutler and Marcel Media for the work they have done for my company, Aeroshade Inc. Aeroshade is a custom manufacturer of outdoor shades and folding doors. Our primary form or marketing has been through our large dealer network. We had never sold our products direct to customers in the past. Prior to our business relationship with Marcel Media, Aeroshade had no internet strategy at all. We had a basic brochure web site. In 2003 Marcel Media recommended a new and improved web site based on our strategic business goals. Marcel Media built a new web site for our company with one goal in mind: lead generation. Under the direction of Marcel Media, we added more photographs, organized the web site better and drove people to fill out a lead form. Aeroshade had never marketed directly to consumers in the past, so investing in a web site and an online marketing strategy was a large risk for a very small company like ours.
Once the web site was complete, Marcel Media implemented an online marketing strategy to drive more qualified traffic to our site. Kelly recommended buying targeted keywords on top search engines like Yahoo, MSN and Google to align Aeroshade with our target customer. Once our keywords began drawving attention to our new and improved web site, we began to see many email leads coming directly through the web site. We had never sold our product through this channel before and saw it as a large opportunity for growth within our company due to higher margins and a very hands-on sales approach.
According to our internal tracking system, we were able to garner approximately 600% return on investment on a monthly basis, during our busiest season. We offered valuable incentives to customers who sought out our web site such as free or discounted shipping. Even with these incentives in place, our internet profit margins are higher than our traditional channels. We have also enjoyed an increase in phone call orders and dealer sign ups since this program began.
This season we have resumed the online marketing strategy and also taken it to the next level. Through Marcel Media, and Kelly’s recommendation, we implemented a Search Engine Optimization strategy. We took some of our most targeted keywords, based on Marcel Media’s research and our own success, and worked to increase our natural rankings on top search engines for these words. We are still buying keywords on Yahoo and have seen our monthly traffic continue to rise. Over 90% of our monthly web site traffic comes through search engines, so we know the traffic is qualified.
Most importantly, we are still getting many internet leads, an average of 20-30 per month, and are enjoying a very high conversion rate. Over 35% of leads that come in via the internet turn into orders. This is higher than traditional forms of marketing, which we have used in the past, such as direct mail or trade shows. Our statistics show that the internet was responsible for 15% of our revenue in 2004 and we are expecting that number will be even higher in 2005, due to the efforts of Marcel Media.
We would like to express our appreciation to Kelly and the staff of Marcel Media for moving our company in a new direction and opening up a new sales channel for Aeroshade Inc. As a result, we will continue to do business with Marcel Media for years to come, and we will recommend their services to other businesses.
Very truly yours,
Sandy MacDonald
Chairman & CEO Aeroshade Inc.