Sunday, February 23, 2020

Case Study: Dr. Squatch Soap Co.


Dr. Squatch Soap Co. is based in California and best I can tell launched with a Kickstarter campaign in 2016.  Now they have millions in sales direct to their website, mail-order, or through various on-line retailers including amazon.com, wal-mart.com, and target.com.  They are clearly using web analytics to help drive their e-commerce business and I uncovered this two ways.  One, I’m a customer so I have interaction with the brand.  They clearly retarget me through the use of pixels after I’ve been on the site.  They also have a strong facebook advertising campaign with retargeting built into their spending.  Second, Dr. Squatch has a pretty clear explanation of data collection, personal information, and their policies pertaining to all on their website.  The information is really buried.  I actually couldn’t find it by navigating their website and instead had to do a search.  Google brought the page up immediately at the top of my search.  The terms and conditions page spells out what they capture and this includes but is not limited to:
-        - Site usage
-      -  IP address
-     -   Referral URL
-      -  Browser type
-       - Operating system type
-       - Form fills
-      -  Device used
-      -  Mobile network information
-       - Number of visitors
-       - Frequency of visitors
Dr. Squatch also explains on this page how they use tools like cookies and pixels to track consumer interactions with e-mail, the website, and their on-line advertising (including mobile advertising).  It’s obvious to me they are using all these things.  Since I’m a customer and I interact with the website, and I’m on their e-mail list, I experience many different touch-points with them.  They will send me offers after I have been browsing on the website.  They will send me reminders if I haven’t purchased in a while.  All of these message are personalized to exactly the things I’m interested in, and have been researching or shopping for.  The frequency of communication is directly responsive to my interaction with their website and emails.  The more I interact, the more they communicate with me.  This communication is typically a smattering of all the things I mention above, including display ads, facebook ads, and emails.  I have only bought direct from them twice, but I’ve also purchased their product from amazon.  I’m a prime member so shipping is free, faster, and the product is the same price.  The only limitation with ordering from amazon is the selection is substantially less than ordering direct from Dr. Squatch. 

As a marketer I think there are some considerations for them to improve using their data here.  First, I think they could reach out to me and ask why I’m not a repeat purchaser.  If they learned I ordered from amazon, then maybe they could offer me free shipping and a broader selection.  My interaction with any of their ads is almost non-existent.  Their ads definitely drive brand awareness, and keeps them top of mind with me, but I never “click” an ad.  This is probably because I just haven’t seen anything compelling.  They should consider A/B testing different creative executions, messages, offers, etc…  This is also a way to uncover why I’m not a repeat shopper.  My guess is there are many others like me (that discovered the products on amazon), and it could provide a nice boost to their profit to drive repeat shoppers.

From an on-page SEO perspective I see them having a fairly strong strategy here.  I actually took a couple of their pages and ran them through Internet Marketing Ninjas SEO comparison tool.  They have strong use of Head Tag Elements with tags in URL’s and with Meta Descriptions.  I’ve included some charts below for reference.  If I search directly for the brand term “dr squatch”, all results provide a consistent ad copy result.  Whether it’s their website, amazon, facebook, or wal-mart the organic rankings have similar ad copy.  This is likely driven by metrics that guided them on how to do this.

Keyword usage is in depth on their website, particularly the home page.  Words like, natural, shipping, skin, soap, squatch all appear numerous times to help them rank organically.  Additionally, they have a great blog on their site.  Each page has good URL extensions and lots of keywords pertaining to product, and the lifestyle they target.  This includes words like natural, manly, men’s, men, lifestyle, and of course all the key product words like soap, lotion, and shampoo.  The blog content is diverse.  By tracking the time on these pages, and which specific pages, Dr. Squatch will learn what topics are driving the most interest.  This could be a good indicator for language and keywords they could use in other places on the site, and across all their advertising.  Organic should feed paid and vice-versa.

Two other key things that I notice on their site.  First, they have links to all their social media accounts including facebook, twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, and YouTube.  There is piles of content on all the social media sites, they are very strong with their use of video.  Lastly, I performed another keyword search without using their brand terms, instead using “natural men’s soap”.  They were right at the top of Google with zero-click results allowing the shopper to purchase right there.  The top paid ads were two different competitors, but the number one and number two organic spot is held by them.  Number one was their ad copy and a link to a product page for soap.  Number two was amazon with similar ad copy and a link to purchase soap.  I conclude their SEO strategy is quite sound, and their paid strategy is not as strong but really effective.  It seems most of their paid digital advertising is reactive.  By this I mean, if you search for them or if you visit any of their digital properties, they will retarget you.  I take the same approach with my own budget in regards to digital advertising.  They definitely let other companies take the top spot on some paid keyword searches however.  If I was them I would probably put a broader keyword search list together to blunt the competition a little.  Even though they rank high in Organic, it will still allow the shopper/searcher to see other choices instead of Dr. Squatch owning that entire top space on the search results page.




REFERENCES
Author, M.H.Fleischner (2017). SEO Made Simple, Insider Secrets for Driving More Traffic to Your Website. Middletown, DE: ©Michael H. Fleischner

Internet Marketing Ninjas. Side-by-Side SEO Comparison Tool (2019, February 23). Retrieved from: https://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/seo-tools/seo-compare/

Dr. Squatch Soap Co. Website Terms and Conditions of Use (2019, February 23). Retrieved from: https://drsquatch.com/pages/terms-conditions

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