Swan

Swan Brand wanted Castle to generate more traffic and increase sales through the Swan website. Swan set us the objective of increasing revenue through the website by 50% in 12 months.

That objective was far exceeded — achieving 250% growth in sales in just the first year, followed by a further 361% increase the following year, and a further 30% the year after. This was achieved by improving conversions on the site and increasing traffic using paid advertising, which had previously never been done. We also needed to develop their brand identity and increase brand awareness, particularly through social media.

In our first year working with Swan we provided a 250% increase in revenue through online sales compared to the previous year. That growth came from increasing traffic by 115%, increasing the conversion rate from 1.7% to 2.1%, and increasing average order value by 48%.

Compared to 2020, however, this is nothing. In 2020 Castle increased Swan’s sales by 361%, with a 337% increase in traffic on the year before. That is in part due to a conversion rate of 2.7%, up 40% year on year. It resulted in Swan making more revenue through their website in a single month than they had in the whole of 2018.

The order matters. By first making vital improvements to the website to increase the conversion rate, and implementing a cross-selling strategy to increase AOV, we made Swan’s budget stretch further: 250% more sales in 2019 on just 115% more traffic, 361% in 2020 on 337% more traffic, and 30% in 2021 on just 10% more traffic. We had to spend less on promotion because we converted more of the traffic Swan was already getting, while increasing what each converted customer spent.

Swan was already generating a good amount of traffic, but customers were not converting — which is why we focused on conversion rate optimisation first. We increased the site speed and made the checkout much faster, so it was simpler to complete a purchase, and made the search bar more prominent so users could find the products they wanted. This significantly reduced the bounce rate and led to fewer people abandoning purchases halfway through, resulting in a 10% increase in conversions in the first year.

In 2020 we designed and built Swan a brand-new UX-friendly website, which lifted the conversion rate on the site by a further 40% in 2020 and 16% in 2021.

Spend £150, get a free steam cleaner

We also implemented a cross-selling strategy across the website to encourage those already making purchases to spend more. Promotions such as “if you spend £150, you get a free steam cleaner” increased the average order value by 48% in 2019 and again by 16% in 2021. Only after improving the site’s conversion rate did we start to focus on further promotion.

Website improvements we made

• An innovative search facility that strips back the high visibility, colour-coded headings sections
• The ability to share all news items, spreading influence
• Relatable articles, meaning site visitors stay longer, increasing conversion rates
• In-frame video capability
• A secure comments section
• A mega menu facility through hover
• Individualised social link connectivity
• A blog and newsletter signup to capture more people who could be marketed to via email

Castle worked on developing thriving social channels for Swan with content followers could interact with, focusing on Instagram, Facebook and X (then Twitter). We grew Swan’s Instagram following from 8,000 in 2018 to over 102,000 in 2020. That led to a 1,933% increase in traffic from social media from 2018–19, a 684% increase in sales from social in 2020, and an 84% increase in social traffic in 2021.

Viral content is incredibly difficult to manufacture, so we focused on user-generated and influencer content instead — it reads as real and drives higher engagement. By asking customers to tag Swan in their product images and reposting influencer content, we built a large bank of user-generated content to post across all of Swan’s platforms. That saves Swan time creating their own and has increased engagement and brand awareness.

Competitions, giveaways and a Messenger bot

To grow followers we ran competitions where followers could win free Swan products. To enter, users tagged multiple friends in Swan posts and followed the page — building a large database of people Swan could then promote to regularly.

Castle also created a Messenger bot through ManyChat, where users gained access to exclusive Swan discounts by signing up for alerts through Facebook Messenger. This built a promotable database much like an email list, but far more effective: messages arrive as a phone notification from Messenger, leading to a 98% open rate.

Due to these tactics, in 2020 we generated a 575% increase in traffic through Instagram and a 643% increase in sales; a 1,900% increase in traffic through Facebook and a 2,700% increase in sales; and a 194% increase in traffic through X and a 2,900% increase in sales.

Castle set up paid advertising for Swan through social media and pay-per-click campaigns on Google AdWords — something that had previously never been done. Our PPC campaigns won the Swan website placement at the top of Google for keywords and phrases relevant to the brand.

We also implemented shopping campaigns so Swan products displayed in the Google shopping banner when someone searched for a relevant product — a kettle, say. Every click cost a small fee, but that fee was trivial next to the value of the visit: one click could cost £1 and result in a £150 sale.

Circumstantial targeting, not just demographics

On Facebook we used a circumstantial targeting model — running campaigns that target customers based on their circumstances rather than basic demographics. When advertising cookware and kitchen appliances, for example, we targeted women aged 28–40 with interests such as baking, cooking and home décor, as the people more likely to be cooking family meals or baking at home. The ads were therefore more likely to reach the right audience, lifting both traffic and conversion.

We designed eye-catching graphics and wrote convincing copy to catch attention mid-scroll, promoted high-performing products and added discounts to encourage purchase. We also set up retargeting across both social and PPC, so people who had already interacted with the ads or visited the site kept seeing Swan and the products they were interested in. That helped achieve a 76% returning customer rate in 2020, up a further 21% in 2021.

Together, Google AdWords and Facebook advertising led to a 908% increase in traffic from 2018 to 2019, and a 523% increase in 2020 against the same period in 2019. In 2020 there was a 442% increase in sales through paid advertising alone.

Another strategy that led to instrumental change was an affiliate and ambassador programme, run through social media and the affiliate platform AWIN. We created a network of influencers on Instagram and Facebook and invited them to become Swan affiliates, promoting Swan products to their own large followings. Each affiliate received a unique UTM tracking code to use when directing their audience to the Swan site.

Affiliates are paid on commission on a cost-per-acquisition basis — 10% of the profit on each final sale. The more people who purchase using their code, the more they receive. It has generated a huge amount of traffic on a no-risk basis, letting Swan reach hundreds of thousands of new people while only paying out when a transaction is made.

Sales from social media increased by 5,695% in the first year compared to 2018, then a further 684% through 2020. In 2020 there was a reported 734% increase in sales through AWIN, and in 2021 that increased again by a further 8%.

As a result of developing strong social channels and implementing social advertising campaigns, Castle has helped create a strong, recognisable brand identity and increased brand awareness for Swan — and Swan has benefited from a huge increase in traffic and sales through the website, year after year.