Earth-Kind
Problem
Earth-Kind is a multi channel manufacturer and distributor of innovative agricultural based products; things that make our lives better, are totally natural, and environmentally friendly. When we first partnered in 2007, they were a small company headquartered in North Dakota. Their CEO, Kari Block, was an entrepreneurial woman with a great product, blossoming retail distribution, but no online marketing or online sales. Their premier product is Fresh Cab, an all natural mouse and rat repellent for the home, farm, and more.
Growth goals for the company were aggressive when we started and are even more aggressive now. Their website was very basic with a virtually non-functioning shopping cart. It’s a crowded market with exterminator companies like Orkin paying for advertising, and every mom-and-pop imaginable working on the same rankings in Google. We were given one year to make online sales be over 25% of the company’s $1M in sales. It was a tall order on a limited budget.
Solution
A new website was the first order of business, at least to build credibility and support all the off-line sales work Kari was doing with her retail outlets. We integrated the new website with a state-of-the-art ProStores eCommerce solution which allowed us to easily and rapidly start selling online with all the bells and whistles of a much more expensive solution. Pay per Click advertising was the mainstay of driving traffic to the site for the first year. After that, SEO has taken over as a major driver with high rankings for hundreds of keyword phrases.
We have constantly added content to the site which has further helped the SEO effort. Additionally, over the last year, Kari has been increasingly active on social media which is also bringing traffic and boosting our Google rankings.
Impact
Earth Kind’s growth has been superb. They have moved the company to Minneapolis MN, set up an efficient manufacturing operation, and integrated a back-end ERP system with our ProStores eCommerce solution. They now have plans to keep expanding products and even accelerate their recent growth.
Online sales have grown tremendously with year to year monthly increases of 200% to 300% per year the standard. It’s a perfect example of starting small, continuing to invest for the long term, and partnering to constantly improve the online marketing campaign effectiveness. Our teamwork and results have been truly outstanding.
Client Testimonial:
Kari Block, CEO, Earth-Kind
Earth-Kind Natural Agricultural Products