CASE STUDY

Boesen the Florist Deploys a Comprehensive

Internet Marketing Strategy

Authored by:
Doug Mitchell
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doug@createWOWmedia.com
515.306.9319
www.dougmitchell.me

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 Table of Contents:
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Setting the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
The Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

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Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
What We Discovered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
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What actually happened? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Twitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Facebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
FlowersDesMoines.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
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Real Dollar Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Challenging Metric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Google Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Conclusions & Future Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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Copyright © 2010
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Setting the Stage

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Interactive Marketing tools admittedly the
Boesen team was skeptical.

7KHELJTXHVWLRQORRPHGRYHURXU Tom Boesen - Boesen the Florist

5
potential engagement:

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The Problem
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Boesen was well aware that the face of
marketing was evolving around its 86-year-
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Our team explained that these new
catalyst for change. Boesen is a pioneer in
media marketing methods are part of a
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where 99.99% of companies go wrong.
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e-commerce fully and go online with stores).
Most companies bolt on additional new
But the pace of change in the market and the
media marketing tools without having
explosion of “social marketing” had outpaced
any idea of what their outcomes, goals,
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or metrics should be.

The Boesen team did not know then that

redirecting some marketing dollars to “give
this stuff a try” would have such a positive
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7
philanthropy, and its sales revenue.

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Executive Summary
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when executing a Social Marketing strategy,
at Boesen we have done just that. Boesen has
seen increased sales online, over the phone,
and in their store locations.

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growing each month.

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Here are the major successes:
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do not share any keyword focus
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FlowersDesMoines.com to Boesen.com
consists of new visitors.
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Boesen.com (FlowersDesMoines.com went
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average Boesen the Florist sees a month-
to-month ROI of 200%.
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higher conversion rate than any other
referral site or search engine
for Boesen.com.
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Boesen the Florist has saved thousands
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 OLYHLQ2FWREHU wasteful online advertising through
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decision-making principles.
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Boesen to reach out to an entirely
new demographic.

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FlowersDesMoines.com is organic.
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including the upfront costs of execution,
Boesen the Florist recouped their initial
investment and all recurring monthly
investment in a little over 3 months.

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Copyright © 2010
 .
Methodology
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1. Google Analytics
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4. Google.com
5. TwitterCounter.com
6. Google AdWords
7. Twitter.com

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What We Discovered
Our team dove in and discovered that like
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presence was very powerful as a shopping
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It was not however conducive to putting out
compelling and fresh marketing content. 1LMV\QÅML7]\KWUM[
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[\I\QKQVVI\]ZMIVLLWV¼\PI^M\PM also needed to:

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Additionally, Boesen did not have the staff
to create the content nor the expertise to
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Boesen needed a foundation for its own
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foundation is an additional marketing site or
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advantage of positive chatter in the online
marketplace while addressing any
negatives head on...proactively.
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for you and your company.
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and speaking WITH them.

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engines and it provides and easy interface for
rapid content release.

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Copyright © 2010

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the “3rd dimension”.
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that limit shopping to a couple highlighted
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of choices.
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the value (or lack thereof) of Internet
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“The company” since Boesen is merely
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and committed in the process of
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assimilate into Boesen culture to drive its
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content creation.
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Our team had a lot of work to do. We were
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focused on a shrinking economy, promotions,
human resources, etc.
So more simply stated our overriding goal for
Boesen the Florist was to:
Create a comprehensive web strategy
using interactive media that would
integrate into and modify Boesen’s
overall marketing strategy resulting
in increased online sales and a newly
engaged buying demographic of 18-40
in the Des Moines metropolitan area.
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What Actually Happened?
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following online.

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Copyright © 2010

We utilize Twitter to accomplish
a variety of things.
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contact with our following so they know
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with sales. This engagement has opened
a completely new channel to a hyper-local
and engaged online demographic.
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amount for good causes and the
community. Twitter has provided a
channel where a new segment of our
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philanthropic efforts. Twitter originated
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chance to participate with new
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and giveaways that reinforced the Boesen
following and even caught attention in
the Des Moines Register. Boesen the
Florist was included (through linking and
.
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Many are interested only when it comes
to contests and events. If the
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to adapt and offer new contests that are
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approaching 4,000 click-throughs.
Approximately one half of those went directly
to Boesen.com. Most of the other half went
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click throughs.
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videos that resulted from this type of of conversation have more click throughs.
online participation. 3DUWLFLSDWLRQLVNH\

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when Boesen engaged createWOWmedia to
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During this period they also lost 20 fans,

which is natural. The goal is to have a loyal
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relationship.

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Copyright © 2010
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have reached the very group we WKH%RHVHQRQOLQHEUDQG6RPHSHRSOHFKRRVH

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were targeting. )DFHERRNH[FOXVLYHO\DVWKHLU³KRPHEDVH´RI

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of their fans are 34 years old or younger. data as well.
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environment for those 34+. 67% of their fan :HWRRNDVPDOOGLYHLQWR)DFHERRNDGV
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received nearly 700,000 impressions within
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support Twitter and FlowersDesMoines.com: SHULRGGXULQJWKHKLJKHVWEX\LQJSHULRG
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a powerhouse of online engagement. H[SHULPHQWZLWKORZGDLO\EXGJHWVVRFOLFN
All of our online contests and events were throughs and conversions were minimal.
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our micro-site.
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where individuals can and have uploaded
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Boesen the Florist.

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FlowersDesMoines.com is a targeted
micro-site that supplements Boesen.com.
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campaign. Content production on this site
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in the next chart.

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engines. The constant output of new content
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Copyright © 2010
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Keywords
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The majority of these visitors are new visits.
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visits per keyword are 94.66%.
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only one of these keywords actually has
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contrast with Boesen.com where virtually
every major keyword has the word “Boesen.”
This further demonstrates that our
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Boesen the Florist.
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predisposed to purchase from Boesen the
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for “Boesen”.
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to increase referrals to the current catalog
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purchase through FlowersDesMoines.com
as well to test different product mixes and
checkout procedures, e.g. reducing choice
to only 1 special item and providing a simple
%8<12:EXWWRQYVWKHW\SLFDOFKHFNRXW
7
procedure. To date, FlowersDesMoines.com
has a higher conversion rate than any other
referring sites including Google.
13

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Search
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related keywords.

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was searching for an event Boesen was
participating in, the Bridal Forum this past

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article, pushed a few tweets on Twitter and
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search was done. Their keywords were:
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results. We were ahead of other events
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particular event.

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to promote events, contests, giveaways,
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7
RQOLQHHQHUJ\WKDWEHHQFXOWLYDWHG

14

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Copyright © 2010
 .
7VTQVM+WUU]VQ\a
Boesen now has a loyal community online.
These individuals have expressed their love
of Boesen the Florist. They participate in
well-planned contests and events. They take
advantage of deals. When someone complains
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followers online come into the store to take

5
advantage of deals.

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allowed for cash & carry pickups. Boesen is a
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to one of the locations and pick something
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6HDUFK#ERHVHQÀRULVWDQG\RX¶OOVHH

7 15

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Real Dollar Results
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WKURXJKRXUWKUHHPRQWKKLVWRU\RQOLQHVDOHVFRPSDUHGWRWKHSUHYLRXV\HDUVKDYHEHHQXSGXULQJDWLPH
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full 3-month period of our engagement:

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x
7
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Copyright © 2010
 .
Challenging Metrics
,WLVFKDOOHQJLQJWRDFFXUDWHO\PHDVXUHDQGFDOFXODWHDWUXH52,IRU
interactive media marketing. So here’s how we’ve done it:

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WKH,QWHUDFWLYH0DUNHWLQJH[SHULHQFHLQWRWKH³LQVWRUHZRUOG´\HWWRREWDLQEHWWHUWUDFNLQJGDWDRQWKHVH
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EHQFKPDUNthat for every one internet order there were three phone orders that were derived
from online marketing efforts.

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has achieved.

7 17

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Google Voice
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gauge online-to-phone order conversion.
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among the different Internet marketing
outposts we use.

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y
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This does two things:

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picture of the impact and ROI of our
interactive media marketing efforts.
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industry standard, we can work to raise the
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the industry.

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that allow us to track click through rates
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conversion rate we can derive ROI from those
We can now apply another industry-accepted sites as well.
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4 minutes is likely an order.

7
18

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Copyright © 2010

Conclusions and Future Plans
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Interactive Marketing campaign, the work is
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Like most companies, Boesen the Florist
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incrementally.
.
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she just graduated with marketing degree”.
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overwhelming, i.e. setting up systems that will
support content, then create the content, then
edit the content into something powerful, etc.

Our content production and online monitoring

5
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design staff. Most images on the Boesen.com
site are more stock in nature. We will soon
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VREULGHVDQGRWKHUVFDQVHHWKHLUDUUDQJHPHQWV
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We have niche markets that remain untouched
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targeted content portal that will serve a
massively underserved market in the Des
Moines metro. This portal will leverage
multimedia and high value content to drive sales
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engagement that they could not execute on
what we laid out in our strategy plan. They had
to have ongoing help. Without this piece of the
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considered a failure. It is wise for companies
considering an Interactive Marketing campaign
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$VZHSURJUHVVZLWK%RHVHQWKH)ORULVW,¶P
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our engagement every day.
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,RZD:HGH¿QLWHO\KDQGOHWKDWZLWKFDUH
Special thanks to Tom and Frank Boesen and
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LQSXWDQGFUHDWLYLW\WKURXJKRXWWKHODVW¿YH
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Thank you.
7
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createWOWmedia
19

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KZMI\M?7?UMLQI
The Mitchell Group, LLC
West Des Moines, IA
3+
doug@createWOWmedia.com

Copyright © 2010