Case Study: Soft Intelligence
Client Name: Soft Intelligence
Project Type: Web Presence, PPC and Ecommerce and SEO
URL: http://www.buytough.com
Project Overview
The Soft Intelligence project was a unique one with time-sensitive challenges and a tight budget for a niche product in a highly specialized emerging market.
PB&J Interactive developed a web presence and ecommerce system that allowed the client to manage and update all of the inventory. A marketing campaign was conceptualized and tested and multiple communication tools connected Soft Intelligence to their customers and instantly proved to be a winner in a unique space.
Business Need
Soft Intelligence, an accounting software company wanted to expand into some alternate markets. Through a relentless trial and error process they were able to secure a position as an authorized reseller of Toughbooks, Panasonics ruggedized line of notebook computers.
Originally, these computers had been manufactured for the U.S. Government by Panasonic for military use. By 2003, they had begun to sell specialized units for Police, Utility companies and Construction firms as the computers were perfectly suited for extreme environments.
Soft Intelligence saw this as an opportunity for a new market as there were only four resellers of this product in the U.S.
By securing their TP3 reseller status (Panasonics highest ranking) with Panasonic in a series of meetings over a period of a year the project was born.
Real-time feedback and flexibility was needed for the marketing message and ad content as well as the budgetary constraints of those marketing efforts on a day by day basis. Measurability and maximum ROI was essential for the success of this project.
The PB&J Interactive Solution
After extensive research of the marketplace and positioning of the 4 major competitors in terms of online advertising Soft Intelligence decided they needed a way to quickly get in front of not only individual buyers but companies and military outfits that increasingly were looking for information on these specialized machines.
PB&J Interactive used Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns with Google initially and then Overture and Yahoo after the first six months to instantly position Soft Intelligence in the major search engines.
A corporate identity was developed, along with an .asp based ecommerce module and product web site as well as our own proprietary email management application to allow Soft Intelligence to easily communicate with all of their customers, prospects and employees with real-time tracking of individuals who click through to the web site so that easy Measurability and identification of the most interested prospects was possible.
Additionally, PB&J Interactive added a 3rd party Live Support application that automatically greets visitors to the site and proactively asks the visitor if they need assistance as well as adding an additional layer of Measurability with referrer tracking that allows Soft Intelligence the ability to see exactly where a visitor came from and what search terms brought them to the site, allowing further refinement to the ongoing management of all online marketing efforts.
Results
An immediate competitive advantage for Soft Intelligence was acquired by developing a high-end, slick look and feel to the web site and marketing collateral.
Once the intial rollout was tested and finalized, they launched the site. The first day of operation, more than $5,000 of product was sold and 30 days into the launch the company had grossed over $100,000 in sales all from targeted web-based advertising.
By December, just six months after the initial launch of the site, Soft Intelligence added 125% more in gross sales to their bottom line and sold 1.3 million dollars of product with a monthly budget of less than $3,000.
Since that time, the company now enjoys monthly sales in excess of 1 million dollars still using only web-based advertising.