By Alan Perkins
Managing Director
SilverDisc
GARDENLINES, the online retailer of garden machinery, had been a SilverDisc customer for over ten years when we acquired the business at the start of 2015. Four years later, we can share what we’ve learnt by being the marketing agency of our own retail business.
We never set out to acquire a client. With the desire of the Gardenlines founders to retire, and our deep understanding of their business, having worked in partnership with them for so long, we were a good fit and the timing happened to be right for us.
Gardenlines had been a great customer, hampered among other things by an old-fashioned and clunky website and back office that pre-dated even our involvement. It was time for an update and so we, Gardenlines, became a client of us, SilverDisc. We built a modern, customer-centric retail website that has since won awards, including Website of the Year and e-Business of the Year at Northamptonshire SME Awards; the latter because SilverDisc engineered the website to sit at the heart of the Gardenlines business, connecting front office to back office – automating transactions with suppliers and customers, taking live stock feeds and automating the advertising through SilverDisc partners like Google and Bing.
Part of the benefit of being a Google Premier Partner is that SilverDisc is invited to Google events around the world to see the future of digital advertising. This has allowed us to position our retail clients, including Gardenlines, to be ready for that future. In the last few months some things that we saw a year or two ago, like the application of artificial intelligence to audience targeting and conversion rates, have come to market. The lovely weather that we saw in February provided an early insight into the performance of the new technology for Gardenlines, and it has been stunning.
For example, it’s now possible to advertise products that we were previously unable to profitably advertise, because AI picks out our best customers (e.g. one segment is older people with large gardens) and focuses the advertising on them, rather than the entire market.
SilverDisc is hosting an event dedicated to Maximising Retail Profits with Marketing Technology at Google’s flagship London HQ on 18 June. This event will show you how to reach and sell to your ideal customers more profitably using the latest Google Ads automation and AI techniques. Learn how to optimise every element of your website and marketing, hear B2B and B2C case studies from the retailers themselves – including Gardenlines – and get answers to your specific questions in an informal breakout session over wines, beers and soft drinks. Places are limited!
So, to avoid disappointment, register today. Book your place by calling 01536 316100 or filling the registration form. It will be great for your business, fellow retailer.