Empowering a well-established traditional business to thrive in the global digital marketplace
A Life Sustainable Works came to MiSolution with a healthy problem to have. In business for nearly 20 years, their highly stable and sustainable growth came about organically through the delivery of great service and products. A Life took the traditional B2B route of acquiring new customers through a face-to-face presence at stalls spread across numerous annual international trade shows. It worked, until …
Enter a global pandemic and it was time to look for growth through a new avenue – the digital space. An OEM multi-material manufacturer now wanted to become an online leader in its eco-friendly niche, hungry to share its love for sustainable product manufacturing with a much wider audience. It was our job to solve the problem of how to make it happen.
International, B2B, OEM, based in China with no online presence
Our challenge began as soon as we realised that we had to start from scratch. Not because we were dealing with a start-up, but because we were working together with a well-established company who provided OEM products to some of the most well-known brands in Europe and North America. And with around 100 staff onboard, they’d never needed to use the internet to find new business. This meant we’d need to further develop their brand story, while mining decades of data to show the quality of their reputation and build the same trustworthy brand presence online they’d developed in the bricks and mortar marketplace.
There were challenges due to differences in language, but all businesses understand the natural language of growth, and so we were put to the test to plant the seeds of sustainable online expansion. No international website, no social media, no English language content, no CRM, no Electronic Direct Marketing (EDMs), no SEO, and little understanding of how digital marketing works … yes, this would be starting from page 1.
The ball was firmly placed in our court. We were being trusted to educate, coach, plan, and strategize to the same premium level of quality that A Life performed when running its own unique multi-material product manufacturing factory and customer support service. The initial goal was to connect with B2B businesses and product designers interested in sustainable products across Scandinavia, the USA, Europe, and the UK – not a small ask.
A steady stream of solid leads born from a genuine expression of integrity
Our strategy was a multi-stage solution. First, we custom designed a premium Shopify theme, but with a focus on attracting OEM, B2B customers. This meant disabling the shopping cart until a future stage where A Life would sell specific products, eventually offering its own branded ODM products in a B2C context.
A multi-pronged digital marketing and advertising approach was put into action once we’d developed A Life’s brand story further. We wrote compelling website content focusing on the powerful eco-friendly messaging and values the team behind the brand held so close to its heart. We then worked on boosting immediate web traffic via online ads. These focused on gaining quality leads after thorough analysis of A Life’s target audiences’ personas.
Together with our Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram ads, we concurrently undertook a long-term approach to build free, organic traffic through SEO, content creation, and email marketing. Right from the start we saw leads develop into conversions, and over time, within its online sustainability niche, A Life’s brand equity has steadily grown to become a trusted identity in its chosen market.
