We grew their organic traffic by 1,300% to over 165,000 visitors per month and climbing
Founded in 1921, the American Orchid Society (AOS) is an award-winning, education, research and conservation effort, as well as the largest organization in the world devoted exclusively to orchids.
The organization has over 8,000 members worldwide and features hundreds formally trained orchid judges that participate in judging and awarding orchids at orchid shows and judging centers.
The American Orchid Society also supports hundreds
of local orchid societies throughout the world.
Sterling Talon was first brought in around October 2012 to assess complex IT and e-commerce related issues that were severely impacting the organization.
There were neither guest checkout capabilities featured on the site, nor distinct processes through which to handle donations online. As part of the digital audit we performed for the client, they discovered critical problems and new opportunities they were previously unaware of.
By 2013 we were implementing sweaping changes to the web database: the engine that drives the AOS, as well as streamlining and automating processes related to ecommerce , donations, and the overall technical foundation.
We began resolving SEO problems that were holding the organization back and made enhancements to improve the user experience and online exposure.
The organization had been promising their members and judges new orchid software for years but prior teams were unable to get the job done. Sterling Talon launched the software in 2014 with great success.
Their new software was the only software in the industry that provided online updates, making sending out quarterly DVD updates no longer required.
"We have made strides that were not even imagined a year ago..." - Sandra Tillisch Svoboda, President, American Orchid Society
By 2014, the investment that the American Orchid Society made in IT and digital marketing was easily producing a greater impact for the organization than the expenses that made up the remainder of the budget.
Our strategies and technical expertise provided the AOS with the best and fastest opportunities for growth including improved retention and a marked increase in both donations and exposure.
Prior to Sterling Talon, the organization's membership growth had been on a downward trend. We turned that around and catapulted the aos.org website to the #1 orchid site in the world.
Our impact was substantial, and no other initiative has come close to generating the kinds of results that the AOS has seen under our leadership.
The IT support it had invested in prior to our arrival failed to address complicated source code issues, and ultimately created more problems for the non-profit.
So we hit the ground running with goal and campaign tracking,
user segmentation, and a new email program that automatically
initiates marketing campaigns for prospects, members,
donors, and award recipients.
We also reinvigorated the society’s Facebook fan base with special marketing funnels designed to attract and nurture new members, and with an enhanced donations page that helped the AOS quadruple its end of year contributions with a single campaign.
Not only did we help the organization earn its typical year-end endowment before it even activated its next campaign, we engineered framework that allows the AOS to sustain its own market growth every year thereafter.
We went on to amplify the AOS’s social media presence and increase its Facebook reach by over 748%.
Contrary to Facebook advertising trends, our organic posts were netting tens of thousands of fan shares across the platform without any promotion.
We launched the new website design at the end of March 2016 and search rankings immediately climbed and delivered over 20,000 additional visitors per month. Online exposure has continued to climb monthly from under 12,000 visitors per month when we were first hired to over 165,000 visitors per month today. See the chart above for reference.
Together, we've mapped out the next three years of work and with nearly 100 projects defined and a laser-focus on achieving goals, there is no question that we are going to deliver amazing results. That's how we help our clients rule their market!