Case Studies

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The Challenge
Eight years ago when All-Travel originally contacted WebMetro, they were skeptical about how the Internet could become a meaningful part of their single office travel agency. They had already begun to test the waters with a first generation web site that did very little to prove that an Internet strategy could work for them.

Travel is one of the most saturated markets online, and competition includes sites like travelocity.com and Orbitz.com, a partnership between the major airlines. One of the major difficulties faced by All-Travel was lack of name recognition and no known brand to the consumer. Up against competition with major dollars to establish this recognition, the strategy had to be clear and the execution flawless. Over the past four years, WebMetro has helped them define and develop an Internet strategy that is currently on pace to bring them over 7 million in business in 2002.

The Solution & Results
From the beginning, WebMetro knew that in order to succeed, we had to aggressively attack niches and capitalize on the names of the brands they sell. Trying to get a top placement for the key term Travel, would have been a costly and time intensive proposition. However, if we could ensure that they came up when someone typed in Apple Vacations, and then position them as the expert on that product, we knew success could be achieved.

We began by creating a series of bridge, or doorway, pages, each one establishing All-Travel's relationship with a major vendor, such as Club Med, and positioning them as the expert advisor on the purchase of one of their vacations. Each page was aggressively promoted to the major engines and soon All-Travel was driving major amounts of traffic through these doorways. As the amount of business generated through the site increased, All-Travel worked with us to continue to re-invest into the site to produce greater results. We worked with them by making changes to their web site to insure that the traffic we were driving to the site was being converted at the highest optimal rate, and we worked with them to expose the best opportunities to increase their business online.

As shown in the image, All-Travel now operates a universe of niche specific web sites, each one specifically targeted to attract, convert and retain its' respective audience. The Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays site for example, recently booked over $ 350,000 in one month. As All-Travel's current e-Media Planning and Placement team, we will continue to consult with them to expose the greatest opportunities for increased growth through aggressive planning and oversight, and swift, expert execution.

The Challenge
In an increasingly competitive search landscape, Lexington Law needed a dynamic and sophisticated system for staying ahead of the game-which saw keyword bids soar as high as $20. Breaking through the clutter and maximizing reach were essential goals when WebMetro took over the Lexington Law campaign.

The Solution
The creative strategy necessary for making a campaign successful can change on a daily basis. Being one step ahead is essential, and being able to change what is not working is imperative.

To create an effective campaign, WebMetro isolated which companies Lexington Law was in direct competition with. A creative strategy was then designed based on Lexington Law's competitive advantage. By using best in class technology WebMetro tested multiple creative strategies to isolate which ad creatives were breaking through the clutter and giving maximum results.

After focusing on increasing reach through keywords and messaging, WebMetro turned toward increasing conversion by optimizing the current landing page. Developing new landing pages had an immediate and significant increase in conversions.

Through a concerted effort to increase reach WebMetro also optimized the website for natural search engine rankings. Within months WebMetro achieved top rankings for many of Lexington Law's highly competitive keywords, helping to further brand Lexington Law as the credit repair leader.

Using a sophisticated keyword segmentation strategy and best in class technology, WebMetro was able increase the lead volume, grow reach and still reduce the cost per acquisition within months of taking over the campaign.

The Challenge
Public Storage began offering self storage rentals to consumers in 1971. Over the last 34 years Public Storage has grown to manage over 800,000 self-service storage spaces in 80 U.S. cities. In order to help fill occupancy levels of available storage spaces, Public Storage asked WebMetro to identify their online marketplace; effectively penetrate and increase their market share in a very competitive online landscape; generate a high volume of sales; and minimize their marketing costs to produce a high ROI.

The Solution
WebMetro's effective reach-discovery phase isolated and segmented their online consumer base into tiered groups based on their propensity to commit to renting storage space. Next, WebMetro built creatives, using trigger optimization practices, to isolate a higher level of consumer commitment. WebMetro linked the consumer to a properly aligned landing page that provided the necessary variables of the buy funnel to increase conversion rates. Finally, WebMetro performed sophisticated e-Metrics and ROI analytics to efficiently improve the Public Storage marketing campaign. WebMetro's techniques resulted in a 31% increase of online market share and an average of 88% month over month increase in online sales.

The Challenge
Delray Credit Solutions, a non-profit organization that helps consumers with debt management plans, was looking for a way increase lead volume while reducing their cost per lead. Their greatest need was a constant and high weekly lead count for their representatives to follow-up with and fax out contracts to each week. Their greatest obstacle was the high cost per click brought about by a very competitive online landscape. The challenge was positioning their advertisements in front of qualified consumers.

The Solution
WebMetro began a rapid cost per lead reduction process that reduced Delray's lead cost by 37%. Next, WebMetro began a reach-discovery process to isolate, segment, and categorize Delray's consumer groups based upon the propensity of lead traffic to convert. WebMetro built ad creatives, using trigger optimization practices, to further isolate a higher quality of consumer visit - focusing on higher conversion rates. Next, WebMetro linked the consumer to a properly aligned landing page that provided the necessary factors of the buy funnel to increase conversion rates. WebMetro continues to perform e-Metrics and ROI analytics to enhance and optimize Delray's marketing performance on a daily basis.

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The Challenge
Aerospace Component Services (ACS), a Pratt & Whitney Canada operating unit, was seeking a strategic development partner who could help them integrate an e-Commerce solution to better serve its existing clients. ACS, a combination of 5 companies acquired by Pratt and Whitney Canada, needed to also consolidate the Pratt & Whitney brand, while maintaining the loyalty of customers to the acquired entities.

The assignment, which appeared to be technical in nature, became also a branding and positioning issue. WebMetro was called to help in the decision making process of how to position all these entities within the brand context of Pratt & Whitney Canada.

The Solution
Based on the understood goals that ACS had for this web initiative, WebMetro made the recommendation to combine all 5 units into 1 main web site. The site had to maintain the identity of each unit, which we achieved by creating strategically designed sub-pages that incorporated imagery and messaging that was consistent with the prior identity of each unit.

WebMetro developed a "look and feel" that played heavily on the identity of Pratt & Whitney Canada, to ensure that there was no mental disconnect between this new unit and its' parent. The resulting site seamlessly combined all of the entities and has provided ACS with a robust tool. WebMetro also managed the integration portion of the project and worked with their IT department to connect their system to the web.

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The Challenge
DVD Avenue approached WebMetro with only a desire to penetrate a new growing online industry, online DVD rentals. WebMetro had to help determine the best possible way to penetrate the market that was dominated by a few firms. Obviously, since the business would be a pure-play (absent of a brick-and-mortar storefront) the website was a critical component to the business. When WebMetro was contacted the name DVD Avenue had not yet even been selected.

The start up company needed a firm that could help select a name, develop a brand identity, create a powerful web presence, locate and integrate accounting and inventory management solutions as well as develop an interactive marketing plan to attract members.

The Solution
The first step was to create a brand identity for DVD Avenue. We researched the industry, consulted with the shareholders and began the process of creating an identity that would be conducive to success in the online DVD rental business. The result can be found at www.dvdavenue.com. Once the logos, and graphics for the site were created the attention was turned to the functionality of the website. The site was completed on time and ready for a Thanksgiving launch. It was important to have the site launched in time for the Holidays. The site was live and getting immediate attention. Their press release was picked up by Yahoo, Hoovers, and CNN just to name a few. An instant buzz was generated.

Now it was time to attract paying subscribers. The industry was new, so the search engines would not be able to provide enough exposure to meet our membership goals. A moderate search engine marketing campaign was implemented however, to take advantage of the tremendous conversions that are normally achieved through that venue. This situation was no different, the search engine marketing resulted in acquisition cost half of that what we had targeted. To meet the aggressive goals set forth we implemented an affiliate program that caught on very quickly; within a month we had over 1,500 sites promoting DVD Avenue on a CPA basis. Our affiliates generate millions of impressions for our site every month.

One of the main reasons for the success of the Internet promotional campaign that was implemented was the unbelievable conversion ratio (visitors-to-customers) the site was achieving. The conversions (as high as 7 times the industry average) are largely attributed to the design and navigation that was developed. Users are having no trouble navigating through the site to find the information they desire. DVD Avenue is now one of the top Online DVD rental destinations and was recently recognized by MSN as one of the top three DVD rental locations. WebMetro continues to work closely with DVD Avenue to ensure the member base continues its rapid growth.

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The Challenge
SAF was originally established as a state funding service to provide low cost loans to students in Montana, but has grown into a multi-disciplinary group that provides a number of services, including foundation related activities and student programs. As the organization grew, SAF realized that opportunities existed for them to sell other products and services that are complimentary to their student loan packages.

This growth and diversification caused confusion among the employees and constituents of SAF. Their site had done very little for them, and if anything, was a cause of greater confusion than benefit to their targeted audiences and employees.

SAF contacted a Big 5 accounting firm to consult and make recommendations. The results of this process left them with more questions than answers and they decided that they needed to work with a strategic partner who understands not only the technical aspects of web development, but could examine their business and work with them on a practical level. They saw opportunities to both raise the profitability of their loan programs as well as raise money, through foundation related activities, to further enhance their ability to service the students within their target market.

The Solution
In order to gain a better understanding of the business of SAF, WebMetro recommended a consulting phase for the project. Not only did we need to gain a better understanding of their business, but they needed to go through the mental process of uncovering the barriers that existed to success online. Throughout the research and discovery process, we helped them isolate where the greatest opportunities existed for them to grow using the internet as a strategic business weapon. Our resulting recommendation was not to create a single site, but to create a group of sites divided by the services provided and the goals to be met. The result is a cohesive group of sites that are perfectly positioned to attract, convert and retain their respective audiences. Additionally, we recommended the creation of a doorway site to give additional value-added services to their constituents and provide a gateway to the universe of SAF websites.

WebMetro has now been engaged to provide design services and manage the entire integration process.