American Bedding Manufacturing
American Bedding manufactures quality bedding and distributes directly to camps, shelters, missions, and other institutions.
Located in Athens, TN, the company has been selling directly to its customers for over 20 years. This family owned business has experienced rapid expansion in the last 5 years and found itself struggling to keep up with the increasing need for an effective web presence and digital marketing strategy.
After dealing with several “SEO companies” in the past without seeing any clear positive results, American Bedding was hesitant to invest in a full-blown inbound marketing strategy. The leads coming from their brand new website were underwhelming and communication breakdowns between themselves and their web service provider were casting doubt on their path forward.
On top of this, American Bedding’s marketing manager was also their bookkeeper and HR representative, and she was feeling understandably overwhelmed.
Spinning Their Wheels
After working with several “SEO” companies, American Bedding wasn’t gaining any traction on their competitors where it counted.
Unclear Results
American Bedding came to us without a clear understanding of how their web presence was performing. They were doubtful that it was effectively generating leads.
Overwhelmed
Without a full time marketing manager, their bookkeeper was charged with managing American Bedding’s marketing efforts. She was overwhelmed by the amount of work involved.
Project Discovery
American Bedding was quick to communicate their frustrations that previous marketing companies weren’t able to fully understand the nature of their business. You can’t successfully market a product that you don’t understand, and business owners in niche industries are often hesitant to hand over their marketing to an agency partner for that very reason. This is why project discovery is so critical to establishing a relationship of mutual trust and understanding. Before any work began, the entire marketing team sat down with the Reynolds family – the owners and operators of American Bedding – and listened.
Our team used those conversations to learn the history of American Bedding – where they came from and where they want to go – and gain an understanding of exactly what they do and how they are unique.
Discovery is never truly complete. We are always learning more about our clients and their industries, but those initial conversations set a very important tone for the future of our relationship.
A Direct Line to a Dedicated Production Team
Before calling on us, all of American Bedding’s marketing fell to Hali – who was also the company’s bookkeeper and HR representative. It was Hali who first reached out to us looking for someone who could reduce her workload and bring some expertise to the table.
Hali was looking for someone to help. With Waypost she received a team of experts who understood her company and brand, including a dedicated producer and account manager to act as a direct line for support and feedback, a marketing strategist, and a dedicated graphic designer.
Strong Relationships. Positive Results.
Once we had established a good relationship with American Bedding and invested ourselves into their business, the results magically* appeared.
*It wasn’t magic. We were taking the time to create relevant, accurate content for their audience, delivering that content effectively to an audience that we have researched and understand, and nurturing the leads that came through as if they were leads for our own company. The difference between Waypost and every other company that American Bedding has worked with is our understanding that the secret to successful inbound marketing is careful attention, hard work, and meaningful connections.
increase in Q2 revenue attributed to Waypost
American Bedding came to us in May 2017 and had record sales for July and August. They expect Waypost to increase total revenue 15% for the first year.
increase in qualified leads since partnering with us
The metrics attached to incoming leads have also increased American Bedding’s close rate because they are able to handle warm leads more intelligently.
increase in qualified leads from new markets
Inbound marketing is effectively reaching markets that were too small or remote to be reached by trade publications or trade shows.
The companies that we’ve had before were supposedly SEO driven but we had very, very few leads, and the leads that were coming in were not qualified.
We’re getting great qualified leads from Waypost Marketing – and not just traditional leads from our traditional customers. These are new markets that we cannot physically reach by our trade shows. We were not reaching some of the people that we are getting now.
Results in 90 Days
The first 90 days of inbound marketing is typically unremarkable, but in this case American Bedding saw significant results in the first month and set sales records for the next two.
While we’d love to take all the credit for the success we experienced in that first 90 days of inbound with American Bedding, the truth is that not many companies could expect the same level of effectiveness in only 3 months.
American Bedding’s inbound strategy started working for them so quickly because they didn’t require a solution built from the ground up. Without the additional time required to build a new website – they already had a suitable website – we were able to push new, relevant content to their existing contacts within 30 days and focus our efforts on improving processes that were already in motion. In inbound marketing terms, you could consider that to be a significant head start.
Full Usability, SEO & Site Content Audit
American Bedding had an adequate website already, but a full usability, SEO, and site content audit turned up a laundry list of optimizations that boosted conversion rates on critical pages seemingly overnight.
Content Creation Targeting Key Verticals & Differentiators
An obvious solution aided by thorough project discovery, our 90 day content strategy focused on filling a content void surrounding American Bedding’s key differentiators and verticals.
Instant Catalog Download
American Bedding was still delivering their catalogs to warm leads by mail. We digitized the content and began delivering it immediately in multiple formats.
What We Learned
Doug Fowler
President
American Bedding Manufacturers has been a great client to work with. We’ve been able to help them achieve some great results, but working with them has also helped to make us better at what we do.
We have always put a lot of effort into understanding our client’s business, but American Bedding was the first time we put the entire team (sales, strategist, designers, inbound marketing producer) in the meetings from the very beginning. It required more time on our end, but everyone on our team was able to hear their story firsthand and see how passionate they are about what they do. As we’ve grown and learned as marketers, we’ve seen more and more confirmation that project discovery is the single most important step in the client onboarding process. In this case, that effort jump-started our marketing strategy and gave us results that continue to impress both the American Bedding sales team and our own team.
One of the things we talk a lot about internally is treating each client’s business as if it were your own. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. American Bedding’s success is confirmation that project discovery is never time wasted.