Case Studies | OpenMoves Blog

Case Study: ZapMyTax Website Redesign

Monday, July 5th, 2010

zmt1

Brand Background
The Property Assessment Correction Group (PACG), a Property Tax Grievance agency, offered a great product (who wouldn’t want to reduce their property taxes!?) but struggled with branding. OpenMoves helped PACG to add some “zap” to their brand identity and reinforce their promise of getting rapid results. Thus, the transformation to ZapMyTax, a vibrant brand that Suffolk County, NY homeowners can get excited about.

The Challenge
The company had 3 primary objectives as they launched their website, ZapMyTax.com:

1.    Drive traffic to the site, from direct mail, organic search, and pay per click
2.    Engage visitors, educate them, show them real examples of savings in their neighborhoods
3.    Enable customers to submit an online application

Each of these objectives required a unique technology solution.

The Solution
zap-car1 OpenMoves created a website that maintains the same look and feel as the direct mail pieces, online ads and even the company’s Smart Car.

The homepage explains how simple and “no-risk” it is to learn about the grievance process, and to apply online at ZapMyTax.com. Other pages explain the tax grievance process, provide FAQs, examine the homeowner’s mortgage escrow impact, and even make a case for filing a grievance if you are selling your house. The entire site is heavily tagged and coded with an ever-expanding list of keywords to help drive organic search traffic. The site is also integrated with the company’s social media strategy: visitors are invited to connect on LinkedIn, friend on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

The highlight of the site is a flash “ZapMap” which shows real homes with real savings in Suffolk County. Prospects can then click on their own town to see house photos with street names and actual tax savings. While this was a technological challenge to develop, it was worth it – when people see their own neighbors saving money, it helps drive them to do the same.

Finally, we streamlined the process by enabling customers to apply online, even adding signature-capturing functionality so the application is legal and ready to be processed. Each completed applicaton generates and email notification to a ZapMyTax admin.

The Result
The site went live in January 2010, and thanks to our integrated search engine strategy, site traffic exploded 10-fold within a few months. This helped ZapMyTax acquire a record number of online customers in time for the May 2010 application season. We are already make additional site enhancements and marketing tactics to make the 2011 season an even bigger success.

See our other ZapMyTax case studies here:

The Power of Personalization: Zap’s Email Campaign

Zap’s Search Engine Optimization & Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Posted in Case Studies, Marketing, Web development | No Comments »

The Power of Personalization

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

openemail

All aspects of digital marketing can be effective tools, but their ultimate power is revealed when efforts are integrated. That’s why we’re running this series of case studies on our client ZapMyTax, a Long Island based company which assists homeowners in need of lowering their Real Estate taxes. Each story shows a different facet of the integrated e-marketing plan we developed and launched for them. We recently wrote about the search engine optimization and pay per click marketing strategy we implemented for them; this week, we’re looking at Zap’s personalized email campaign.

The Challenge:
ZapMyTax wanted to utilize email marketing to promote their services, build a relationship, and to display the recent savings they helped obtain for their clients. They envisioned an e-newsletter, complete with a chart of addresses and total annual savings that was specific to their email recipient’s town. Due to the fact that Zap My Tax’s database contained contacts which covered all of Long Island, the challenge for OpenMoves was to create a dynamic image that would reflect each recipient’s town, thus creating a sense of personalization and one-to-one communication.

The Solution:

OpenMoves utilized an email marketing tool called “Dynamic Content” in which each contact within a database is given a corresponding code; this code tells our system which image to display within the email newsletter. For example, all database contacts which owned a residence in Manorville, NY received this image in their newsletter:
zap-manorville

Similarly, all contacts which owned a residence in Mastic, NY saw this image within their newsletter:
zap-mastic1

The Result:
OpenMoves successfully deployed a demographically-segmented email campaign in which each recipient saw the tax savings for their specific town, which powerfully illustrated the savings they could get if they worked with ZapMyTax. As a result of this kind of personalization, ZapMyTax saw a superior open rate compared to their previous “non-segmented” email campaigns; it better reflected their overall branding, made the newsletter more engaging and laid the groundwork for a comprehensive relationship-building strategy.

Ready to add the personal touch to your email communications? Contact us to get started today.

Tags: personalization
Posted in Case Studies, Email, Marketing | 1 Comment »

Case Study: Zap My Tax

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Background
Zap My Tax/Property Assessment Correction Group is a local agency that provides property tax reduction services for Suffolk County, New York residents. Their business is seasonal in that the deadline to file a tax grievance in Suffolk County is mid-May. Thus, in the months leading up to the deadline, Internet volume on keywords for their services increases exponentially. Then, after the filing deadline passes, activity decreases significantly.

OpenMoves provides search engine optimization and pay-per-click management services for Zap My Tax.

The Challenge

Search Engine Optimization: In April 2009, ZapMyTax.com’s previous highest month of traffic activity, they received 209 total organic (unpaid) search engine referrals. A majority of the site’s traffic was being generated by paid advertising sources. While this was profitable, the challenge for 2010 was to increase the site’s organic visibility so that they could generate new customers for free.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Since it can take several months for organic search engine visibility to increase after work has been done on a site, we sought to ramp up Pay-Per-Click activity to help capitalize on increasing volume for Zap My Tax’s primary keywords. The goal was to expand the coverage of their ads so that they would appear for all variations of the target service areas, even on those keywords that might not seem intuitively relevant. Additionally, we needed to make sure we did not display our ads outside of Suffolk County, because anyone searching for their keywords outside the target service area wouldn’t be relevant.

The Solution
Search Engine Optimization: We took the existing site content and enhanced it by creating brand new content pages that target keyword phrases related to Zap My Tax’s various service offerings. While the actual service of grieving taxes is very straightforward, there are many ways in which potential customers search for it. Therefore, it was necessary to research these variations and write effective search engine- and user-friendly copy for each one.

In addition to on-page content optimization, we ran multiple link-building campaigns to increase the number of incoming links pointing to ZapMyTax.com and we worked with Zap My Tax on their social media content strategy to help drive traffic from their accounts on websites like Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Pay-Per-Click Management: First, we built out a campaign structure that incorporated the various search topics users use to find tax grievance services. Then we wrote multiple ad variations to test different messaging. Finally, we geo-targeted the ads to display only to potential customers where Zap My Tax’s services would be applicable. Because some of the keywords being targeted were general terms, an opportunity existed for us to waste a lot of money on irrelevent traffic. Thus, we sought to prevent this.

The Results
Search Engine Optimization: In April 2010, ZapMyTax.com’s new highest month of traffic activity, they received 961 total organic (unpaid) search engine referrals, an increase of over 300%. In addition, overall traffic increased by nearly 200% in April. Thus, the site’s organic visibility increased and we were able to capitalize on increased traffic volume because of the enhanced keyword visibility on search engines.

We fully expect that the efforts we undertook for Zap My Tax will yield even higher organic search engine results when their hot season rolls around again in 2011. Zap My Tax will be in a great position to receive search engine referrals on a greater variety of keyword phrases.

Pay-Per-Click Management: By expanding to include multiple variations of the services being offered, we were able to ramp up leads generated by the website. Also, we made sure to include in the paid advertising keywords for which we had high natural search visibility, thereby increasing our first page coverage in Google.

In addition, we expanded the paid advertising to include accounts with Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN AdCenter. These accounts generated hundreds of new visitors and dozens of new customers who never would have found Zap My Tax simply because they don’t use Google as their primary search engine.

OpenMoves is a full-service Internet marketing agency. We will be featuring a series of case studies showing how we helped Zap My Tax improve not only their SEO and PPC efforts, but also their website, email newsletter and lead generation strategy. Let us help you create a 360-degree, integrated online program so you can increase traffic, sales, and profitability. Stay tuned!

Posted in Case Studies, Post Click Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment »

A or B? Test and See!

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

a-b-switch

It’s important to keep evolving your creative executions, but it’s not always clear which direction will resonate best with your customers. So next time you’re presented with several options, instead of going with your gut, select your favorite two or three and test them. A/B Testing is a great tool to determine which of your new designs or subject lines will really ‘wow’ your audience.

The OM2 system automatically splits your mailing list into multiple segments, and sends your different creative options to each group. After the mailing, the system will show you the results of which version performed better. If testing subject lines, you should measure which line generated the best open rate. When testing creative, the click through rate will reveal which look got more people to visit your site.

Case Study
OpenMoves client Hanover Fire & Casualty Insurance Company recently tested new subject lines and creative layouts, in an effort to drive higher response rates and sign new policies.

Starting with subject lines, they tried the following:

A: [Name], Do you care about protecting your Home or Apt. from fire?
B: [Name], affordable renters insurance.

The first employed an emotional tone, while the second was based more on a value proposition; in this case, A was more successful. The results of your split test results can easily be seen on the OM2 dashboard:

Working with design partner Langton Cherubino Group, Hanover developed two different visual designs. Both related to the company’s branding, but organized the space within the email differently:
A

B

OpenMoves sent the two versions as an A/B test, and the A layout, with its larger image and more streamlined message, performed better. Throughout the campaign, Hanover leveraged the same template but substituted in several different images to make each mailing feel fresh.

Results

Throughout the testing phase, Hanover learned which combination of tone and style would drive the most response. As a result, they are more in tune with their customers’ preferences AND are able to drive more business.

Posted in Case Studies, Design, Email, Response Rates, Testing | 1 Comment »

Riding for Katrina’s Refugees

Friday, October 16th, 2009

This Monday, Randy MacCaughey begins a cross-country, fund-raising bicycle ride to bring attention to the ongoing need for rebuild assistance in New Orleans.

Randy MacCaughey was recommended to OpenMoves by our client, Liz McCartney, co-founder of the non-profit St. Bernard Project. Like Liz, Randy found that simply watching television broadcast the fallout of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was not enough. And like Liz, he began a grass roots effort to support the people of New Orleans, the victims of the two hurricanes.

Randy’s goal is to bicycle ride from Shrevesport to Chalmette, Louisiana, listening, writing and filming the tales of folk along the way. From October 19 to November 6, 2009, Randy begins his journey that includes the generosity of volunteers, NOLA — the bus that houses and transports the crew — and Randy with his bicycle.

Randy came to OpenMoves looking to create an electronic journal, one that he could update as he cycled through Louisiana. OpenMoves produced a Word Press blog, customized to tell Randy’s unique story: The Reason, The Ride, The Bus, The Book and finally The Film.

ToBringUsHome.com also provides Randy with an interactive Google Latitude map that is updated as Randy travels.

The entire staff at OpenMoves salutes the efforts of Randy MacCaughey and Liz McCartney! Logon to ToBringUsHome.com and share his 390-mile journey today!

Tags: blog, nonprofit
Posted in Analytics, Case Studies, Social Media | No Comments »

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Archive for the ‘Case Studies’ Category

Case Study: ZapMyTax Website Redesign

The Power of Personalization

Case Study: Zap My Tax

A or B? Test and See!