CASE STUDY:
Le Barn Website, Blog & Social Media
Le Barn is an antiques importer/exporter (worldwide), and retailer (mostly US), which depends on their web and physical locations in several high-end antique cooperatives to generate sales. They feature unique, one-of-a-kind furnishings primarily from France, China, Italy, and Indonesia. Highlights:
- Located on 100 acres of historic landmark property.
- Offers unique personalized shopping experience for each customer.
- Furniture restoration and interior design services available on premises.
- Antiques are hand-selected abroad and shipped twice annually to the US.
REQUIREMENTS
- To create/develop/brand a new/updated web/social media presence for Le Barn
- Strong SEO from passive/inbound marketing needed to improve results and sales
- E-Commerce integration required to turn gallery browsing into purchases
BUSINESS PROBLEMS
Le Barn was searching for ways to increase revenue in a competitive market by promoting their unique line of antique furnishings and personalized one-on-one service. Their old, existing website and blog were not producing any results, and they had no social media presence. Critical steps needed to be taken in order to support future growth of the business, to expand beyond simple word-of-mouth marketing and poor results from print advertising.
TECHNICAL PROBLEMS
Le Barn’s old website and blog were both invisible to search engines, primitive in design, limited in functionality, and had no social media presence or connections. Their existing website was more than ten years old and a blog setup was attempted, but had failed. Attempts were made to incorporate some forms of social media marketing, but their old site was unable to support links properly, due to old, limited technology. Their blog was broken. So Le Barn turned to us!
BUSINESS & TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS
An entirely new, 3-site (web + blog + shop) architecture – to improve functionality & SEO – was devised, incorporating attractive, user-friendly design, cross-functional e-commerce and social media tools, and presence on the key social platforms. All supported by an active, professionally-written blog highlighting individual furnishings and Le Barn’s historic property with a regular posting schedule in place. Training for site administrators (populating the gallery with new inventory, uploading new blog posts) was provided, thereby enabling Le Barn to self-manage and update site content. Integration from website to web shop (item creation) was developed to minimize effort and maximize results from the 3-site architecture.
DELIVERABLES
- Sites created:
- Website / Gallery
- Blog site
- Web shop
- Social profiles created:
- Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
SOLUTION COMPONENTS
- Services:
- Creative Direction & Branding
- Web Development & Integration
- Content Creation (writing/photography)
- Content Management (updates/changes)
- IT Support & Web Hosting
- Business Consulting
- Social Media Support
- Blog: built on WordPress.com
- Web: developed in Drupal
- Shop: hosted with Volusion
RESULTS & BENEFITS
- Blog: launched first with immediate ROI from search engine hits, followers, inquiries, comments, and new sales (email/call-ins) & increased revenue (before web and shop launch). In particular, professional blog-writing we provided, effectively engaged followers and search-engines.
- Social: supported and increased blog traffic, additional followers/likes, leading to sales.
- Web: launched with immediate ROI from customers browsing gallery, inquiries leading to sales. Coordinated blog and social media announcements of web site led to increased hits.
- Shop: launched last, with immediate increase of search engine hits, additional browsing, leading to sales.
Four Seasons @ Le Barn
Tell us where you want to go and we’ll take you there!
Pages / Services / Solutions / Contact
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