MMAR Medical's Custom Marketing & Design Strategy Substantially Grows Online Revenue
Total online revenue experienced a substantial boost since the inception of MMAR Medical's Custom Marketing project
Goals:
- Improve online visibility of MMAR Medical and its products
- Increase relevant medical professional traffic and online sales
- Implement expert design to establish credibility and resonate with target audience
- Institute logical, easy-to-navigate site architecture to effectively move customers to conversion
- Increase repeat purchasing and customer retention by utilizing Volusion's robust Account History feature
- Become the primary wholesale medical device distributor in America
Results:
- Increased targeted web traffic and online sales significantly
- Established a highly respected and credible online brand
- Increased customer loyalty by making it easier for medical professionals to manage a large patient portfolio via the Volusion Account History feature
- Established MMAR Medical as a leading wholesale medical device distributor in the Americas
MMAR Medical
MMAR Medical is a Houston-based wholesale distributor of high-end medical equipment, including orthopedic braces, diabetic shoes, contracture management products, and cold therapy systems. MMAR specifically targets medical clinics, physicians, certified orthotic fitters, chiropractors, podiatrists, Medicare Part B suppliers, certified pedorthists, as well as sports medicine doctors and trainers. Since 1990, MMAR has been providing medical professionals with high-quality products at discount pricing, and they back their products up with a commitment to superior customer service, a flexible return policy and swift shipping.
The Challenge
MMAR Medical understood that in order to compete in the crowded wholesale medical device marketplace, the company would need a comprehensive marketing strategy. This plan would need to establish professional credibility, improve online visibility, attract targeted traffic and grow market share. Despite understanding their objectives, MMAR Medical was uncertain of how to efficiently apply a proper online marketing and design mix to reach the company goals.
Simply put, MMAR Medical faced several fundamental questions:
- How should MMAR balance the company's marketing and design efforts?
- Should MMAR pursue these marketing endeavors in-house or would it make more sense to outsource to specialists?
- How does MMAR know if the company is making the right strategic improvements, rather than simply changing things for the sake of change?
The Solution
Since the company's foray into eCommerce, MMAR Medical has strategically built out their estore with the help of Volusion's Marketing and Design Services. In 2009, MMAR eased into design with a premium store template. Once the store architecture was in place, MMAR partnered with the Volusion Marketing Team on a Custom Marketing Plan. The Volusion Marketing team crafted a strategy that specifically targeted medical professional traffic. In time, MMAR Medical diversified their product offerings and sought to increase their online visibility accordingly. The company upgraded to a more comprehensive marketing package, which the Volusion Marketing team continues to maintain today. MMAR Medical also engaged Volusion's Conversion Consulting Team in order to form a better understanding of MMAR Medical's website effectiveness and health. The Conversion Consulting team provided a comprehensive report detailing a number of conversion influencers including design elements, navigation, value proposition, purchase process and abandonment. It also provided a number of recommendations for improving MMAR's conversion rate in the short- and long-term.
Based on Volusion's Conversion Consulting recommendations, MMAR Medical made a large investment in homepage redesign, navigation improvement and landing page optimization. Their main objective was increasing conversions by establishing professional credibility, actively engaging visitors and increasing customer retention rate with an easy-to-navigate purchase process.
The Outcome
- Total online revenue experienced a substantial boost since the inception of MMAR Medical's Custom Marketing project
- Site experienced an 8% reduction in the visitor bounce rate* the month following custom design implementation and an 8.6% reduction in the organic traffic bounce rate* within the same time frame
- Since the inception of the Custom Marketing project, the purchase conversion rate** has increased by 24%
- Within one month of the new design implementation, visitors stay on the site nearly 20% longer
Lessons Learned
Marketing your e-commerce store effectively can be difficult, but finding the right marketing mix is the key to long-term success. An effective online marketing strategy requires design expertise, an understanding of online customer behavior and search engine marketing know-how. By combining a custom marketing strategy with Volusion's Conversion Consulting and professional Design services, MMAR Medical was able to significantly increase online visibility and revenue.
Today MMAR Medical is one of the nation's leading wholesale distributors of high-end medical equipment. MMAR Medical is an example of how Volusion's professional services can help take the guesswork out of marketing your business online. Even in a highly competitive market, you can leverage Volusion's design, conversion and online marketing expertise to make your store a success.
*Bounce rate represents the percent of visitors who exit a site after briefly viewing a single page. These visitors "bounce" away to a different site or back to the search engine rather than explore your site further. It is typically a signal that visitors do not feel your site matches their search intent or that they did not like what they see upon arrival.
**Conversion rate represents the ratio of online visitors who make an actual purchase. It can be calculated by dividing the number of purchases by the number of visitors.
