Problem, Setting, & History
An e-commerce site that doesn't bring in sales is more helpful than a rowboat with no oars. That was the problem that Hoda Deluvia, a wedding artist who has now turned into an e-commerce entrepreneur, had when she reached out to our team.
Hoda started her career in the wedding space. When we met her, she had over 20 years of experience doing wedding makeup and hair and plenty of time in the retail makeup industry. Her most recent project was focused on testing products and makeup tools to launch her site.
In early 2023, Hoda launched Glam By Hoda, an e-commerce site that sold makeup tools like brushes, sponges, removers, and cases. Her launch had a relatively low luster despite having a developed online audience.
Her product was dialed in. She had spent over a year testing products and manufacturing her products. When you hold and use them, you can tell these products stand head and shoulders above most of the competition.
When Hoda hired us, her new website needed serious help. Hoda had opted for a cheap website built by a contact on Fiver, and unfortunately for her, the site looked like it. While "pretty" doesn't necessarily translate into new sales, we've all seen sites that don't encourage us to volunteer our credit card information.
Hoda hired us to fix her site, generate traffic, and grow revenue.
Scope Walkthrough & Analysis
We split the scope into sections to ensure that Hoda immediately got tangible results. The biggest issue was the low trust status of her site due to the low-quality design. From there, we chugged forward on building the fundamentals of how she should develop her brand and drive site traffic.
The list below represents a rough outline of our scope.
- Stage 1: Build
- Mission Critical Site Fixes
- Market Research
- Brand & Storytelling Development
- Stage 2: Attract
- Content Strategy
- Lead Magnet Systems
- Email Marketing
- Stage 3: Grow
- Surprise & Delight Campaigns
- Cross-Selling Strategy Development
- Other Initiatives Focused on Growing Revenue
As you can see, we broke the project out into three distinct stages. While it would be too complex to break out here, I'll briefly overview each section below.
The core purpose of Stage 1 was to develop the foundation for the ecommerce business. A great product is essential to a thriving business, but other things matter. Our priority in this first phase was to fix the glaring issues on the site before 2023's Black Friday. That's what I mean by "Mission Critical Site Fixes" in the outline above. That included grammatical mistakes, fixing the flow and structure of the homepage, optimizing the navigation, and other items that would frustrate and confuse potential buyers. The rest of Stage 1 pivoted to setting the stage for future activities, like formalizing Glam By Hoda's brand, how we should talk about the brand, and developing insights surrounding the product.
Stage 2 leveraged the foundation of Stage 1 to build systems that would bridge the gap in the brand's buyer's journey. Content on Instagram would drive traffic, Lead Magnets would be used to capture that attention, and Email Marketing would be the core tactic for converting the leads.
Stage 3 focused on specific campaigns and other efficiencies that grew revenue and introduced new customers to the site. One particularly successful campaign was our holiday surprise and delight campaign. Our team designed postcards and sent makeup influencers product samples all across the United States. The response was electric. We had content creators posting unboxing videos for months as a result.
Impact
Hoda's total sales had stagnated since she launched the site. Site sessions had stagnated, and she had no daily sales after the initial launch. Her first round of sales was based entirely on friends and family.
Since bringing us on, we over 10X'd her gross revenue in only a few months. We got her return customer rate to over 20%, a growth of 60% from where it was. Sessions went up over 450%, add-to-cart sessions were up by over 1300%, sessions reaching checkout were up 1500%, and she doubled her conversion rate.
Going Forward
If Hoda builds on the foundation we built for her, she will reach her first $100k in orders next year. That being said, it will be essential that she executes our recommendations for investing time into posting on social channels. Using Instagram as a source for product promotion only works if founders actively create relationships with their target audience. Focusing on providing value, rather than just taking, will go a long way to building trust and attracting lifelong customers.
Testimonial
- Hoda Deluvia, Owner of Glam By Hoda
Reflection
We loved the chance to support such an inspiring entrepreneur on her journey to provide value for her community.
While we know Hoda has many irons in the fire, we are incredibly proud of her, how far she's come, and her mission to support women everywhere. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to help her. We wish her nothing but the best in the year to come. Our favorite part of this project was creating a site she could be proud of.
If your story is similar to Hoda's and you need help growing your site's revenue, check out our First Engagement Session to learn more about how we forge new consulting relationships.
