Case Study: SkyDive Center

Method: Search Engine Marketing, Google Ad Words (Pay Per Click) and National Newspaper Ads

This Georgia based skydive company used several methods to drive phone calls to its 1-800 call center. The team of 8 sales reps sold $ 180 certificates, redeemable anywhere in the USA for skydive, balloon and glider rides. The sales reps were also responsible for building profits through add on sales such as photo or video packages, payable by credit card. The certificates could then be redeemed by the customer at any of the participating skydive or balloon centers across the USA.

Since a Google search for the word skydive yields 546,000 results, the company needed a way to stand out among numerous competitors.

The first step in the Search Engine Marketing campaign was to get into a smaller pool of competitors.

This was done by building web page domains with names combining city names and the word skydive. Customers could naturally be expected to search for the skydive center closest to them, so a Google search for “skydive in YourTownName” yielded only a few hundred results and it became easier to appear at the top of the search results.

Next Google Ad Words were purchased for combinations of local town names and the word “skydive”. The skydive company only paid a few cents for each customer who clicked on the Google Ads. The customer landed on a web page named for their city which explained the sales offer and gave a call to action using a 1-800 number. The sales reps were well trained by a lady who had previously done travel agency sales, so the conversion rate was very good.

Using this Pay Per Click campaign and websites for each city name, skydive certificate sales now reached roughly $ 19,000 a week.

To increase sales for the Fall quarter leading up to Christmas, I added the newspaper advertisement you see above. I then placed the ad in 245 newspapers across the US. Because of the limited advertising budget, the ad only ran for a few days or weeks in each market.

I believe increasing frequency of the ad would have yielded even greater sales. The result was still good, calls increased dramatically from each city on days when the ad was run. Phone sales increased to roughly $ 80,000 a week.

This case study shows the power of an integrated campaign combining Search Engine Marketing, Pay Per Click and traditional advertising.

Ed Hill runs edhillpr.com, an Atlanta search engine optimization firm that specializes in getting targeted, ready-to-buy traffic to your business website. Ready for our Atlanta SEO firm to increase traffic to your business website?

. See free SEO articles.