When the economy is unstable and businesses are experiencing cuts in cashflow, the marketing budget is often one of the first expenses business owners look to reduce. This is one of the most common mistakes businesses make because marketing is a long-term strategy that may not show immediate ROI.
However, many of our clients have proved that continuing to invest in marketing efforts, even through an economic slowdown, is imperative for business success. We want to share Cowpokes’ story that serves as a great example of a business that remained resilient and experienced tremendous success through the unusual year of 2020.
Cowpokes Work & Western is a family-owned, full-line outfitters store that opened its doors in 1993 in Anderson, Indiana. During the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak and stay-at-home orders, we implemented a stronger strategy to help Cowpokes navigate the changing economy. As a result, Cowpokes dominated the work and western outfitters market this year. By keeping up with their marketing efforts and finding unique ways of fulfilling customers’ needs, Cowpokes has seen incredible digital growth during the pandemic.
Advertising Performance: 2019 vs. 2020 (January-August)
Google Ads
- Impression: 1410.21% increase
- Clicks: 1290.9% increase
- Ad Sales: 872.5% increase
- Impression: 330.8% increase
- Clicks: 523.4% increase
- Ad Sales: 887.9% increase
Sales Performance: 2019 vs. 2020 (May-August)
- Total Sales (Online and In-store): 12.3% increase
How was this drastic growth possible in the middle of the COVID-19 economic fallout?
– E-Commerce Website: Cowpokes’ had launched its e-commerce website back in 2018. This allowed us to develop campaigns to continue serving their customers during business closures and stay-at-home orders.
– Advertising Platforms: We created campaigns stimulating online shopping using Facebook and Google ads for essential agriculture workers and farmers who needed to continue working and purchasing workwear, boots, and animal feed. Our messaging focused on how customers could shop with comfort and safety while strict CDC guidelines were in place.
– Show Campaigns: Regional shows are where the customers have been buying Cowpokes products at special show-pricing in the past, but most shows were canceled this year. We created branded campaigns consistent with the shows, making the ads easily recognizable by the show-goers. With these online and in-store show-pricing promotions, we provided options for customers to purchase show outfits without traveling to the show locations.
– Online Presence: Cowpokes reinforced their online presence, making sure to keep important information available such as shopping options, store hours, and Cowpokes’ resources to weather the storm with the community. We also temporarily replaced sales advertising with branding efforts in light of reduced spending at the time—all of this instilled confidence in customers for Cowpokes as their trusted industry resource.
Is your business also encountering new opportunities, facing challenges, or looking for a fresh approach? Meeting your business goals, big or small, can be made possible with research-based and data-driven marketing strategies.
