Success Stories

The situation

When Seraphine approached us they were disillusioned with their incumbent SEO provider and were keen to establish a relationship with an SEO agency that could really tailor an approach to fit with their targets and budgets.

After speaking to several recognised SEO agency’s Seraphine opted to work with us citing our refreshing approach to identifying exactly what was required to deliver results together with our compelling performance assurance proposal as the key reasons.

What did Silverbean do?

Through an extensive in-house managed PPC strategy, Seraphine already knew which key phrases would drive the greatest number of buying customers to the site. Our focus therefore was on making sure the website was optimised correctly for the key phrase strategy and then the implementation of a link building campaign to ultimately deliver the highest rankings on Google.

Our key deliverables for Seraphine were as follows:

We evolved the strategy from small scale and very focused to a larger, multi-lingual, multi-key phrase strategy to directly assist the company in their growth targets

• This involved analysing the market trends to locate additional opportunities; and
• Full key phrase research into additional locations to highlight short and long term opportunities.

We conducted full on-site optimisation to ensure the website was 100% visible to Google and the other major search engines for the most relevant keyphrases.

We've employed a large number of  link building techniques to achieve a natural mixture of quantity and quality links.

Results

By measuring our performance against a number of key criteria we can see that Seraphine are experiencing a fantastic performance:

 Above are a small snap shot of the major Seraphine key phrases and they have dramatically improved at a time when competition levels were rising for major national fashion retailers such as New Look, ASOS and Dorothy Perkins who were all aggressively seeking higher Google rankings for maternity fashion key phrases.

	Visitors from natural traffic increased by 48.66%
	Based on Seraphine's investment, this equated to just £0.10 per visitor.

Testimonial : “Seraphine engaged with Silverbean on a short term SEO project. What attracted us, was the low engagement costs and the approach of goal alignment. They seemed happy to back their own results. They are willing to share knowledge, measures and reporting, that adapts to the needs of the customer interface. Our short term engagement has grown into a partnership over the past 2 years across international markets, in which we interface across SEO, Website Advice, Keyword Scoping and now Social Media. ” Tony D - eCommerce & Operations Director

The situation

We started working with Benfield Motor Group in 2009. Before we started working with them on an extensive SEO strategy their website ranked quite well on Google for a number of relevant search terms but they were keen to dominate all relevant local keyphrases to support their overall position as the North East’s number 1 car dealership group.

What did Silverbean do?

When we started working with Benfield they had a clear brief for what they wanted to achieve – dominate the local North East marketplace for every relevant key phrase relating to their manufacturing brands and car models. The depth of the Benfield car range led this to being a broad key phrase strategy and currently encompasses 80 different search terms.

Our strategy and deliverables included

1. Delivering a constantly evolving strategy to secure a range of keyphrases to achieve a number of objectives;

• Important internal key phrases;
• Secured top 4 Google rankings for the brand name to compliment future offline marketing strategies;
• Secure 1st place Google rankings for all localised key phrases;
• Improve the exposure for large generic key phrases such as ‘car dealership’;

2. Full on-site SEO across all pages on the site to improve the long-tail possibilities.

3. Liaising with the development team to improve elements of the site

4 Full content optimisation of all car model reviews prior to them going live on the site

5. Managed the site migration plan when the new site was launched in June 2011

6. Created and implemented a dynamic and structure link building strategy to secure 1st place rankings across a large range of key phrases across multiple pages.

Results

The current keyphrase strategy includes 80 different search terms too many to list here! Below is a snapshot and summary of the key results:

	74 out of 80 keyphrases have a top-3 ranking on Google.
	A 91% increase in non-branded natural search engine traffic in the last 12 months (compared to previous 12 months - July 11)
	Top-5 rankings in Google for national key phrases, including 'car dealership' and 'used car dealer', which drive new sales opportunities from all over the UK

Testimonial : “We approached Silverbean to improve the presence of the Benfield brand online and have been delighted with the progress made through the SEO campaign. The work is swift, of a high quality and always results in an increase in our rankings. The guys at Silverbean are clearly knowledgeable about the service but make an effort to explain the work in ‘plain English’.”

The situation

Astley Clarke were already operating two affiliate programs - one hosted on Affiliate Window and another on Linkshare. We started working with them in October 2010, right at the beginning of their fourth quarter of their financial year; with the brief to increase sales from affiliates for the key Christmas trading period.

What did Silverbean do?

We were faced with needing to drive the affiliate program forward in a very short space of time when many affiliates had already decided which jewellery retailers to promote to their audiences. However, this did not mean opportunities did not exist so we had to have a really focussed approach to increasing sales.

We produced a full and comprehensive affiliate plan for Q4 including ideas for exclusive offers and affiliate incentives.

We immediately contacted the key affiliates already promoting Astley Clarke to discuss immediate opportunities to increase traffic and sales.

We implemented a comprehensive communication plan which included weekly newsletters to affiliates and generic content. We also created and provided unique content for each of the main jewellery blog affiliates.

Astley Clarke provided customers with great Christmas gift ideas so we set up affiliate agreements with Next Jump and Asperity who had a significant audience of users with a good demographic fit.

We also focused on re-activating lapsed affiliates looking for immediate quick win opportunities to increase traffic and sales

And what were the results for Astley Clarke…

Despite the limited timescale we had to drive results forward we were able to make a very positive difference. The results table below demonstrates Q4 2009 performance metrics against those we helped achieve in Q4 2010:

What do these results demonstrate?

These results show that Silverbean can generate results for an affiliate program in a very short space of time; through focussed application of the right strategy.

Testimonial : “Silverbean demonstrated very quickly the value they offer by increasing our sales from our two affiliate programs by 48% for Q4 2010 in comparison to Q4 2009. I am pleased with their overall approach to managing the affiliate programs and developing unique promotional opportunities with our key affiliates, which clearly has a positive impact on our sales revenue from this channel.” Michael Edey - Head of eCommerce - Astley Clarke

The situation

When we started working with OKA Direct we wanted to ensure that affiliate marketing was the right channel for them. There were understandably some initial hesitations at OKA Direct regarding brand protection so we set out a suitable strategy to address that issue. OKA Direct were very keen to avoid brand deprecation whilst still achieving high sales revenue from affiliates.

What did silverbean do?

OKA Direct had the right characteristics to provide affiliates with a real opportunity to generate revenue; it was a case of implementing good ideas with the right management with us undertaken the following:

We identified the ideal affiliate network for home ware, ensuring that the program would attract the top homeware affiliates.

Created a communication strategy which was focused around newsletter/blog/social media adhering to strict best practice guidelines.

Promotional strategies implemented to further improve the reach of OKA Direct and also gain increased exposure on affiliate sites. This was all in a constant effort to improve clicks/revenue for the program.

Kept to strict brand guidelines to ensure OKA Direct wasn’t being promoted on affiliate sites which don’t meet a high standard.

And what were the results for OKA Direct?

Testimonial : “Silverbean have been very pro-active in continuing to increase sales for us from affiliates. I am impressed with the overall service we receive from them and the commitment they show to deliver sales growth from this marketing channel. We were not sure how effective affiliate marketing could be for OKA Direct but Silverbean have proved it is very worthwhile and a valuable source for new customers. ” Richard Kent - Head of Marketing - OKA

Talkmobile Overview

Talkmobile (by The Carphone Warehouse) offers pay as you go and contract mobile phone deals with the latest handsets and national and international tariffs. Operating in highly competitive and transferable industry where small sales percentages are actively fought over on a daily basis Talkmobile is regarded as one of the UK‘s leading retailers of SIM cards and mobile phones.

The Situation

Talkmobile were investing heavily in advertising to promote the new website and whilst the site experienced a significant number of visitors the company was concerned it was not maximising conversion rates and consequently losing revenue.

After reviewing the market for high quality service suppliers Talkmobile enlisted Silverbean to increase the site conversion rate.

The goal: To turn a greater number of site visits into actual sales of SIM cards and mobile phone contracts.

The Solution

Silverbean completed the following activities:

Conducted a full usability study of the Talkmobile website.

Performed a detailed analysis of key aspects including; homepage layout, typical user journey, content flow and call to action messages.

Identified a suite of individual tactical recommendations which were then documented in a bound report accompanied by a graphical demonstration and step by step guidelines for execution.

Gave Talkmobile the ability and the guidance to execute around 90% of the recommendations immediately.

The Results

Within one month Talkmobile reported:

	A 30% increase in visitor to transaction conversion rate.
	A 14% reduction in the number of visitors leaving the website after viewing one page.

Testimonial : “Silverbean really helped us to understand the front end efficiency of the website. The combination of their expertise in website usability and access to the latest technologies have had a huge impact on online sales for Talkmobile. Within only one month Silverbean’s recommendations had increased our online sales by a staggering 30%. ” Andrew Beckett - Head of Online Business - TalkMobile