Lincoln Electric

Retail Website & Social Media Management

challenge

Lincoln Electric manufactures equipment and consumables used by the welding and metalworking-related industries. A trusted brand among professionals, their products are sold through an international network of industrial gas distributors.

Lincoln Electric also has a robust retail presence. DIYers and small contractors can find high-quality, professional equipment and consumables online and on the shelves of retailers all across the nation. We work with Lincoln Electric to help retail customers put the “pro in their projects.”

Geile/Leon proactively developed a strategy for Lincoln Electric retail after identifying an opportunity in the social media environment within the DIY/small contractor retail category. We recommended a strategic plan to engage their target audience and build an online community that would compete and hopefully surpass the social following among Lincoln Electric retail’s competitors.

solution

First, we created thematic language that would communicate in a memorable way that Lincoln Electric products that are has high performing as their trademark industrial line, but with features and usability well suited to DIYers and contractors. Next, we created a landing page inviting the target audience to “put the pro in your project.” We also launched social media channels for Lincoln Electric retail, using content produced in-house, including video and graphic elements, to fortify our initial growth strategy.

We also implemented an email list growth strategy and continue to develop promotional giveaway contests each month. These help to promote products, and entrants who choose to opt in are added to the database to receive monthly emails. The giveaways also contribute to the overall social media performance and significantly grow the social media audience.

results

Lincoln Electric retail social media channels continue to outpace competitors in growth and engagement. With so many brand options in the retail category, it is critical to keep the audience engaged with added value like knowledge and skills development, as well as community building, to support sales growth.

Overall, each of the three Lincoln Electric Retail’s social media platforms managed by Geile/Leon consistently performs well above the industry’s 1% benchmark for engagement and even further above the average of 0.5% to 0.99% across all industries.

To see how the channels are performing, please visit the website and click on the social media links: www.lincolnelectricretail.com

Ranken Enrollment Campaign

Challenge

Ranken Technical College approached Geile/Leon to support its Spring 2023 enrollment period by strategizing and managing a paid social media effort to promote their Bachelor of Science in Applied Management program, active duty military and veteran recruitment, and a new location in Troy, MO. The goals were to not only increase awareness, but also to generate leads and online conversions through application submissions and information inquiries. The campaigns would run for a 12-week period, beginning in November 2022 and ending in February 2023.

Ranken Enrollment Campaign Social Ads

Solution

G/L developed a paid social media strategy for Facebook and Instagram with two phases: awareness and conversion. During the awareness phase, we utilized broad audience targeting to reach a large pool of potential enrollment prospects. Interested users visited different website pages for more information about each specific initiative. Due to our relatively short campaign time frame, we ran this phase for eight weeks to maximize exposure for each audience before moving them through the funnel towards conversion.

During the conversion phase, we retargeted users who had previously clicked the awareness ads. To accelerate lead generation during this phase’s two-week window, we implemented Lead Form Ads so users could fill out simple, on-platform questionnaires that pre-qualified them as enrollment leads.

Ranken Enrollment Campaign Digital Ads

RESULTS

During the awareness phase, the three campaigns combined reached half a million targeted users and achieved an overall click-through rate of 0.96%, exceeding the industry’s 0.47-0.73% benchmark. During the conversion phase, the campaigns generated an overall conversion rate of 20.8% (exceeding the industry’s 11-14% benchmark) and an average of nearly 10 Lead Form Ad submissions per day. Because the Lead Form Ads were connected to Ranken’s CRM, these form submissions were automatically funneled to Ranken so they can be utilized for continued follow-up and monitoring into the future.

Grant’s Farm Holiday Lights 2021

Holiday Lights 2021 Lockup

Challenge

Grant’s Farm hosted its second annual Holiday Lights Drive-Thru event from November 2021 through January 2022. This holiday lights display is an evening event open to the public and offers the chance to experience one of St. Louis’ beloved attractions, all a glow in holiday cheer. In 2021, Grant’s Farm added an exciting new addition to the Holiday Lights event: the Busch Family Estate House—this presented a unique experience that has never before been offered to guests of Grant’s Farm.

Grant’s Farm engaged Geile/Leon to develop a marketing and media strategy in support of Holiday Lights that would address brand and operational objectives including expanded awareness of the event amongst targeted audiences, promotion of the new event offerings (earlier start date, new decor, increased capacity, dynamic pricing, bundle offers, and the addition of the Busch Family Estate House), continued communication around the Busch Family Ownership Group’s commitment to sharing their family home, and increased ticket sales/reservations compared to the 2020 event.

Holiday Lights 2021 Social Media

Solution

Geile/Leon created an integrated marketing campaign targeted locally within the St. Louis DMA. The campaign incorporated the use of public relations to generate earned media around the event, email marketing to the existing guest database, paid and organic social media on Facebook and Instagram to drive online bookings, and broadcast radio advertising to generated heightened awareness leading up to the launch of the event.

Geile/Leon developed the content, messaging, and creative assets for each channel, which featured fun, holiday-themed visuals and messaging points that also integrated a style and tone that aligned with the overall Grant’s Farm brand. In addition, our team was responsible for campaign implementation and ongoing performance reporting throughout the Holiday Lights event.

Holiday Lights 2021 PR Stories

RESULTS

The 2021 Grant’s Farm Holiday Lights event was a great success, achieving a 28% increase in attendance and revenue compared to the 2020 event. A guest survey incorporated into the booking process showed that the majority of ticket purchases were driven by Facebook—this channel alone generated nearly 30% of all reservations.

UMSL TOUHILL

Discover Touhill Campaign

challenge

The Touhill Performing Arts Center is a performance facility on the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) campus that hosts over 105,000 patrons, participants, and artists each year. The Touhill team approached Geile/Leon to help promote the 2019-2020 “Discover Touhill” season, a series of 10 artistically, culturally, and educationally enriching performances. The Touhill challenged G/L to develop a strategic communications plan that would successfully announce the “Discover” season lineup, as well as drive excitement and ticket sales for each event.

solution

G/L developed an overall awareness strategy, incorporating an integrated mix of ongoing public relations and social media campaigns for each event. A media distribution approach was created for public relations, including promotion on regional events calendars and ongoing outreach to relevant local outlets for earned media coverage. G/L built the strategy for each social media campaign, utilizing both organic and paid content to reach and convert custom target audiences. Finally, custom goals in Google Analytics to directly attribute site traffic and successful ticket purchase conversions to the social media campaigns was implemented.

results

Overall awareness and engagement surrounding the series increased significantly as a result of the ongoing public relations and social media efforts. Despite the last two shows of the season being canceled due to the COVID-19 crisis, the campaigns supported the Touhill in achieving 90% of its revenue goal for the 2019-2020 season.

 

Public relations efforts resulted in a total of 15 earned media placements across local print, radio, and television outlets including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Great Day St. Louis, Show Me St. Louis, KMOX, and KTRS.

Lindenwood University

Digital Management

challenge

Lindenwood determined that the students most likely to choose Lindenwood were most strongly influenced by the opportunity to gain real-world experience. Lindenwood developed the “Real Experience. Real Success.” tagline and challenged G/L to bring the brand to life through a new viewbook. Additionally, with the digital space being the primary resource of research and decision-making for incoming students, Lindenwood University enlisted the help of G/L to develop and manage all of Lindenwood’s digital strategies, campaigns and initiatives.

solution

Geile/Leon concepted and designed creative executions and deployed a variety of digital campaigns and strategies to support system objectives across graduate, undergraduate and online programs. As the digital agency of record, we have recommended and utilized a variety of effective digital mediums through Google’s comprehensive and industry-leading ad network. Specific platforms include Paid Search, Retargeting, Display and YouTube. Additionally, working with the Lindenwood IT department we designed and executed an optimized landing page experience for their graduate program offerings.

results

Lindenwood University has entrusted Geile/Leon with management of their integrated digital strategy for the past five years. Our campaigns have been extremely productive, performing significantly better than industry/category benchmarks.

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