Lighting Science is a global technology leader focused on improving the health and wellness of the planet and its people through innovative LED solutions.  While working at the inbound marketing agency Big Presence, I had the esteemed pleasure of having Lighting Science as an eCommerce marketing and web development client.  BP was initially brought on to create and establish the eCommerce channel.

In order to achieve our goal of building a successful eCommerce presence, we needed to build up the website's organic traffic/lead database and establish a baseline for conversions, all while providing support to the commercial side of the business. We started by telling the unique story of their products and spreading the word about the health and aesthetic benefits lighting can provide.

Telling their Unique Story

In the early going, we realized that people were not yet accustomed to buying light bulbs online.  When a light went out, we found people unscrewed it to get the product details off the bulb and then drove to places like Home Depot, often bulb in hand, to get a new one.  We would need to update a consumer behavior that was still stuck in the past and to do so we needed to show people that the benefits of modern LEDs go far beyond just lighting.  I conceptualized a parallax website design and worked with their branding agency to tell the story of a unique product line that is better for your health, better for the planet, better for interior design and better for all mankind. My team and I also designed a unique UX concept to usher B2B and B2C users to the appropriate parts of the site.

We would need to update a consumer behavior that was still stuck in the past and to do so we needed to show people that the benefits of modern LEDs go far beyond just lighting.  I conceptualized a parallax website design and worked with their branding agency to tell the story of a unique product line that is better for your health, better for the planet, better for interior design and better for all mankind. My team and I also designed a unique UX concept to usher B2B and B2C users to the appropriate parts of the site.

 

Attracting 20% of Site Traffic with Valuable Content

With goals of being a thought leader, educating the public, and driving organic traffic, I lead content strategy and managed content production that infused their website with unique articles.

The content informed readers how to use lights to regulate their circadian rhythms, allowing them to stay alert and awake during the day, while achieving restful sleep at night.

Additionally, it taught them how to properly light the various rooms in their homes and workplaces explained all the nuances of lighting and provided answers to mysteries like watts vs lumens and CCT vs CRI. Eventually, there was so much content that we needed to switch to a magazine style blog layout to properly display and prioritize all of it.

Eventually, there was so much content that we needed to switch to a magazine style blog layout to properly display and prioritize all of it.

With a built in SEO strategy, the blog drives an average of 20% of all site traffic and we designed a handful of unique, call to action banners, which turn every post into a conversion funnel.

 

A Sales Generating, Data Harvesting, Digital Shopping Assistant

 

 

After watching visitors aimlessly bounce around the site looking for the right light bulbs, we realized people may not know what kind of bulbs they need. I worked with my development team to create a quiz-themed shopping assistant. The tool asks the shopper questions that both make appropriate recommendations and educate the customer on Lighting Science's unique products. The app also serves as a data-harvesting tool for Lighting Science's marketing team and feeds directly into their HubSpot account, allowing us to push visitors into highly-targeted nurture campaigns and marketing lists.

 

Lighting the Way to a Sale with Email Marketing

 

 

 

Many of Lighting Science's popular HealthE products fell into the "lux" category, and, as a result, consumers were extremely motivated by discounts and sales. We used multiple channels to support sales campaigns, but nothing more effective than email marketing. The more we pushed the designs of the emails and added elements like animated gifs the bigger the spikes in sales became.

 

In addition to sales emails, we also build several streams of automated nurture campaigns, consisting mostly of cross-selling and promotional emails triggered by the purchasing of various products. The star was a dynamic residential prospect nurture campaign.

We used workflows to segment the members of their database into Hubspot buyer personas based on the actions they took on the website and the aspects of lighting they showed the most interest in. The nurture campaign used dynamic emails to change the look, feel, message and products promoted for the interests of the three most important personas: health, interior design, and parenting. The emails promoted a mix of educational content and Lighting Science products and experienced an average CTR of +7%.

 

Building a Database with Valuable Content Assets

In the early stages, when we were still growing the database, I decided to introduce an element of B2B marketing into eCommerce and produced premium eBooks with gated landing pages. Unsure if there was a place for eBooks in the eCommerce space, we advertised the gated content in various places on the site and watched them become some of the best converting offers the site had.

 

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