AXON OPTICS CASE STUDY
AXON OPTICS STORY
Axon Optics was formed in 2010 after a neuro-ophthalmologist working at the University of Utah’s Eye Center found, through countless studies, the impact of light sensitivity on those suffering from photosensitive migraines. His research lead to the creation of eyewear for individuals suffering from migraines. In 2011 Axon Optics officially began.
Axon Optics + Stryde
Axon Optics came to Stryde with a key initiative, which was to grow organic search traffic and revenue. Having been the first player in the market, Axon established itself as a clear leader in the new field of advanced lens technology for migraine headaches.
However, a few years into it they lost visibility for highly valuable keywords, which resulted in minor growth through organic search. For two years Axon’s organic search was only growing around ~15% year over year while revenue was doubling year over year reaching over $200K. Towards the beginning of the next year, revenue started to decline as well so something needed to change. Axon needed help converting site visitors into email subscribers, increase conversion rate into paying customers and improving site traffic through SEO, content marketing, email marketing and social marketing.
We analyzed Axon Optics analytics to understand the issues they were experiencing with organic search. Then we analyzed traffic coming to the site, channels driving traffic and revenue coming from each channel and found the following challenges and opportunities:
ORGANIC SEARCH AND CONTENT
CHALLENGES
Organic search traffic was the highest priority for Axon Optics when they initially looked to Stryde for help. They lost a lot of visibility for key terms they had been ranking well for. Terms such as migraine glasses, fl-41 lens, blepharospasm treatment, natural migraine relief and numerous highly relevant terms. This decrease was happening when search volume for these search terms were doubling in search volume year over year. Additionally, new content being created on the blog was limited with sporadic publishing dates and no set schedule. Everything on the blog was a post and no other forms of content such as infographics, micro graphics and quizzes were being created. Blog posts lacked good internal links using keyword rich anchor text and external links to supporting studies and highly authoritative sites.
Through our analysis we found the following challenges: Highly disorganized site structure with duplicate or similar category and subcategory pages, keyword cannibalization throughout the site, lack of site optimizations for key landing pages, numerous 404 errors, technical SEO issues, broken internal links and more. To improve organic search performance, STRYDE implemented these solutions.
SOLUTIONS
- Created a robust site architecture for category, subcategory, resource pages and the blog
- Redirected old product, category and subcategory URLs to relevant pages
- Restructured the site navigation
- Setup and managed a regular posting schedule
- Optimized blog content for keywords and incorporated internal and external links
- Created various forms of content such as quizzes and graphics around interesting topics
- Incorporated recent blog posts into email marketing campaigns each month
- Reorganized and consolidated blog categories to match the new site structure
EMAIL MARKETING
CHALLENGES
Axon was doing a good job of getting potential customers to opt in to their list and generating revenue through email. However, they weren’t sure how to market to these individuals post purchase. STRYDE implemented the following to educate subscribers before and after a purchase was made:
SOLUTIONS
- Built out and deployed an email series to individuals that received a discount code for opting in but haven’t redeemed the code
- Series of post purchase emails that included: (1) Thanks for your order, (2) Extensive FAQ email, (3) Warranty and refund email and (4) Customer Satisfaction email
- Created, designed and deployed monthly emails to subscribers via Mailchimp
SOCIAL MEDIA
CHALLENGES
Axon Optics was pushing out updates to their social channels but they weren’t getting engaged followers like they hoped. They needed to grow each social channel follower count to help spread their message to a wider audience for increased brand awareness. We were able to grow engaged followers to their social media profiles and increase revenue coming from each channel through:
SOLUTIONS
- Paid Facebook ads to select blog content
- Influencer outreach and promotions using bloggers for product placement and giveaways
- Regularly posts and updates on Axon’s owned Twitter and Facebook pages
AXON OPTICS RESULTS
Total Traffic Growth
- 78% YOY
Total Revenue Growth
- 29% YOY