The Client
2nd Wind Exercise is a Midwest retailer of fitness equipment with over 60 brick-and-mortar locations in 7 states. Founded in 1992, the company is a leading retailer of home fitness equipment, selling everything from exercise balls, gloves, and clothing, to home gyms and treadmills. Although primarily a brick-and-mortar offline retailer, 2nd Wind sees the internet as central to increasing sales and has invested heavily in an online presence.
The Client
VP of Marketing & Technology
The primary purpose of 2ndwindexercise.com is to generate leads for retail stores. Visitors to 2nd Wind's website can research fitness equipment, print coupons, and find the nearest retail location. Rick Enrico, VP of Marketing & Technology at 2nd Wind, installed Google Analytics to learn how to better focus online advertising and website development efforts.
After installing Google Analytics, 2nd Wind's marketing team began analyzing website traffic and noticed that many landing pages had a high exit rate and that the average pageviews per visit was low.
Interested in getting more information from Google Analytics, Mr. Enrico turned to XOONI, an Authorized Google Analytics Consultant, for assistance with configuring the tool and analyzing the reports. Specifically, Mr. Enrico wanted to learn more about tracking specific marketing programs, such as the popularity of their printable online coupons.
The Challenge
XOONI worked with the 2nd Wind marketing team to resolve the technical and configuration issues that had hindered analysis in some areas. For example, 2nd Wind had not been able to differentiate organic search referrals from AdWords referrals and had not been tracking email newsletters. XOONI worked with 2nd Wind's IT staff to eliminate duplicate data, track visitors across unique domains, resolve web server redirection issues, and fully populate all relevant Google Analytics reports.
Next, XOONI studied the visitor behavioral data provided by Google Analytics and recommended site design changes that would improve the user experience. For example, since a large percentage of site visitors used a dial-up account, XOONI identified specific images and code snippets that could be optimized and/or eliminated, thereby reducing page load time. XOONI also made design recommendations based upon content optimization data from Google Analytics for landing pages. For landing pages with high bounce rates, XOONI was able to implement a call to action that increased page "stickyness" and improved conversions.
XOONI and the 2nd Wind team then turned their attention towards fine tuning marketing initiatives. They began by implementing Google Analytics' campaign tracking framework, allowing 2nd Wind's marketing team to differentiate between Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and organic keywords, monthly e-mail newsletters, and other online marketing efforts. This allowed 2nd Wind to identify the conversions generated by keywords and e-mails for each equipment manufacturer and product, as well as test post-sale offers via an e-mail-based customer retention program.
The Process
The website design changes made an immediate positive impact.
- Lead generation increased by 60%, resulting in additional sales of $150,000 per month.
- 2nd Wind's AdWords campaign generated an ROI of 3,661%.
- The number of return visitors per month increased by 55%.
- The average number of pageviews per visit increased by 35%.
- Landing page exits were reduced by 50% on key pages.
- E-mail newsletters generated $33,500 in additional monthly sales.
- The team was able to identify the coupons that were most successful at driving customers into retail stores.
According to Mr. Enrico, "Google Analytics has changed the way we do business. A new breed of web marketing firms have formed to assist customers in maximizing their profit in this new frontier. 2nd Wind looked extensively for a partner who understood our clients and was flexible enough to adapt to our dynamic advertising. XOONI has been instrumental in shaping our value proposition so we can focus on ROI with our customers."
"XOONI's expertise with Google Analytics allowed us to start using the more advanced features in days rather than weeks. The consulting project paid for itself in the first month."