Business Challenge
Winston Furniture, a luxury outdoor furniture retailer with a century-old legacy, was facing threats to its business from several sides. Ecommerce was quickly transforming its industry, and if the company didn’t adapt, it risked being overtaken by disruptors and overlooked by consumers. On top of that, its small marketing team was struggling to identify and patch the holes in Winston’s marketing infrastructure while addressing immediate retail needs. Winston consulted Icon to address urgent, short-term challenges while setting up the company for long-term success in an ever-changing ecommerce landscape.
Solution
We started by mapping out Winston’s current marketing capabilities against the challenges it faced, identifying several improvements that would help achieve its goal of developing a 50/50 ecommerce and retail business mix. This included integrating a CRM into its website, strengthening its messaging and content, and driving sales of surplus products to relieve inventory.
But Winston needed more than just answers—the company needed experienced hands to put these plans into place. So we went to work integrating the HubSpot CRM and training Winston’s marketing team; creating a content strategy and producing organic content; and managing an SEO/SEM strategy (including a Google Shopping campaign) that would drive traffic to its website and sell surplus products.
Results
Ultimately, we developed a strong marketing plan that could support Winston’s long-term goals, allowing it to pivot quickly when faced with market forces and withstand business challenges when they arrived. And arrive they did when a tanker blocked the Suez Canal and led to months of delays getting products to customers. Because of the quick implementation of our strategic recommendations, we were able to swiftly adjust Winston’s advertising, SEO/SEM strategy, and DTC site to account for the delays and keep sales steady.
