A check provider increases on-site search by 191 percent

One of the largest direct marketers and manufacturers of personalized products and services, including personal and business checks, in the US offers top quality financial products to consumers, businesses and marketing organizations.

Challenges
IBM® Digital Analytics merchandising reports revealed that customers on this online check provider’s website were departing the on-site search results pages, indicating that the search results were not effectively helping visitors find the products they were looking for. To help answer why shoppers were departing the on-site search results pages, the customer turned to its IBM Coremetrics business analyst for help.

The customer’s internet marketing team, together with their business analyst, relied heavily on the IBM Coremetrics Best Practices Guide. This book, available exclusively to IBM Coremetrics clients, delivers real-world insight distilled from hundreds of client engagements, industry research and deep product expertise. The process flows detailed in the guide allowed the team to focus on expanding its online business, as opposed to trying to determine how it should be running its on-site search tests.

Solution
Leveraging IBM Coremetrics Best Practices for on-site search, the check provider followed the analytical frameworks and templates detailed in the guide, giving the team deep visibility into search performance. This approach provided clear insight into the optimizations that were necessary to improve search results:

• Their search engine algorithm was optimized to increase keyword recognition, so that fewer “no results” pages were returned. For example, the word “check” or “checks” was stripped from the search queries.

• “No results” landing pages were changed to offer alternatives, including the most popular products purchased by shoppers who had used the same keywords.

• Shoppers who were visiting one of the customer’s ten check brand sites were offered a pre-populated search window to browse the company’s umbrella site.

• The customer expanded its search program from its umbrella site to its other ten brand sites.

Within three months of implementing the improvements, the customer saw a 10 percent lift in conversions from on-site search, resulting in a significant increase in total revenue. On-site search usage jumped by an impressive 191 percent over the same period, signifying that customers were finding the products they were seeking.

For more information
To learn more about IBM Coremetrics please contact your IBM marketing representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website: ibm.com/software/marketing-solutions