Background
Unique Northeast Lumber was formed in the aftermath of the unexpected passing of the owner of a logging company. Having harvested some of the finest mature timber in the area for over 30 years, he had built an immense collection of hand-selected, very rare, and highly sought after lumber specimens, intending to sell it to fine craftsmen and woodworkers. However, after his untimely passing, one of his former employees decided he would take over, and UNL was born.
From the onset, the intention wasn't to create a long standing sustainable business, but rather to sell out the lumber collection entirely to buyers who would value it as premium and pay accordingly.
Problem
The lumber in the collection was much more rare (and therefore more valuable) to buyers outside of the update NY area. While sales in the local region were good, the most sought after potential buyers were ones in other areas of the US. We had to make sure that UNL would show up in search engine results for the widest possible audience. Additionally, they would reach out directly to fine woodworkers they identified as potential buyers, and wanted to be sure that the diversity and quality of the collection was apparent on the website.
Solution
Not only did Renoun Creative focus on designing a website that showcased the lumber beautifully, but - more importantly - built it with useability and SEO in mind in order to reach the widest possible audience.
The entire website was built with a mobile first approach using a responsive frame work (more about responsive web design here and here). Page content was optimized with specific keywords, meta page titles, and tagged images. We included a robust site-wide search, and designed the product pages so users had multiple ways of finding the content they were looking for.
Additionally, we helped the client utilize social media marketing by helping to build a Facebook page and fan base, and put up regular posts with news, highlights and updates.
Google Analytics tracked site visitors and identified search terms and patterns used to obtain web traffic. We continually reviewed and edited the site to maximize its effectiveness, making sure to continually update with fresh, relevant content.
Results
In only a few weeks, Unique Northeast Lumber began enjoying sales throughout New York as well as Connecticut, California, Michigan, Hawaii, Washington D.C., and Ohio. Dozens of local craftsmen found them and began shopping their inventory of a regular basis. The furthest sale came all the way from Australia, where the buyer had found them via a Google search.
Update
In just over a year of operation, Unique Northeast Lumber sold out of its entire inventory, having been contacted by a major out of state buyer.
