In the Beginning
Masterson Equine Services was considered a small “Mom and Pop” company in the equine industry in 2011. Their business model was to trained people in an effective method of equine bodywork by selling videos, books, and training workshops. Their website had many issues that included broken links, old content, and the navigation was not intuitive, making it difficult for people to find information on their website. When they brought me on board, they need help increase product sales and workshop attendance.
My first task for MES was to redesign their website. Before redesigning the website, seminar registrations were done manually, and people wanted to purchase any of the products called the office and order over the phone. This was extremely time-consuming and did not allow MES to grow.
Two things need to be completed;
- redesign the website
- build an online store.
The Two Websites Needed:
- An easy navigation
- Visitors could find what they were looking for quickly
- Engaging and informative
- Higher conversation rate
- To show up in Google Searches
The redesign allowed people to find the information they needed and register for workshops, and the online store allowed people to purchase products effortlessly. When I started working for Mastersons, they receive a massive volume of calls, slowing workflow down. After redesigning the website and building an online store, the call volume drastically decreased, allowing staff to be more efficient and increase the amount of work they could accomplish.
Online Certification Program
As more students went through the weekend training, there was an increase in the number of people going through the certification program. It became apparent for the need for an online school. This streamlined the process of becoming certificated in the Masterson Method and standardized the training process. I built an online school for MES, using WordPress. This allowed Masterson to increase the number of students into the program, increased effective communication, allow students and instructions to track their progress, and gave students an overall satisfaction in the certification program.
Virtual Weekend Seminars
People from around the whole wanted to attend a weekend workshop. However, it was not cost-effective for them to travel to Japan or Australia to teach a weekend workshop. This led to the need to provide online training to people interested in learning the Masterson Method but was not able to attend a weekend seminar. I created the online training by videotaping a weekend workshop, edited the videos, and designed the online course using WordPress. This online training helped increase book sales because people needed a book to complete the online course. It also increased the number of students going through the Masterson Method Certification program.
Increasing Social Media Followers To Increase Sales
Another aspect of my job was marketing. I needed to marketing Master Equine Services through email marketing and social media marketing. When I started working with them, there were only 700 likes on the Masterson Equine Service Facebook page. Two years later, we had over 10,000 followers. I did this by setting up targeted campaigns on Facebook. The budget was limited, so I had to be creative in how I generated excitement and interest.
Moreover, I did that by using telling stories and videos. It also helped that Jim Masterson, the founder of Masterson Equine Services, was hilarious. Email marketing was another method I used to generate interest and build customer loyalty. After a customer purchase a video or book, we add those customers to a series of emails that included videos and instructions to help them learn the method better. However, customers wanted to learn more and attended a weekend workshop, increasing revenue for my client.
Masterson Method Testimonial
“Cindee Van Dijk took our website from a “Mom and Pop” website to a full-fledged interactive website with a myriad of menu items and an array of options. She listened closely and gave us exactly what we wanted. Cindee is very easy to work with, laughs easily, but puts her head down and gets the job done. Simply put, she’s amazing!”
Conley Wright, General Manager, Masterson Equine Services
