Growing and Going Global

Sugar started working with plasma cutting table manufacture Swift-Cut when it had just one product and was only selling in the UK. Five years later the company has a comprehensive range of products targeting different user groups and sells in 24 countries.

To be effective in supporting Swift-Cut achieve this success required Sugar to know the Swift-Cut product inside out, to understand their target customers and appreciate subtle market variations.

 

I have no doubt whatsoever that working with Sugar has greatly contributed to Swift-Cut’s sales success – they are very much part of the team. They bring skills that we do not have internally and using them has helped us to gain and maintain sales momentum worldwide.

Steve Brown

Sales Director, Swift-Cut

 

The Customer

Swift-Cut Automation is a British company which manufacturers plasma cutting tables. The company was founded in 2011 when the directors identified an opportunity for an entry level plasma cutting table that was smaller in size and more affordable than existing products and would appeal to small workshops, artists, educational establishments etc. as an alternative to outsourcing. From this base Swift-Cut has developed a comprehensive range of tables.

The Challenge

In 2012 when Swift-Cut appointed Sugar their ambition was to grow sales in the UK and abroad, using a distributor network to reach customers. Our challenge as Swift-Cut’s business growth agency was to put the right message in front of the right people at the right time to enable the business to gain customers and facilitate this growth.

Ensuring Online Visibility – Paid Search

To gain awareness for Swift-Cut we designed and refined a pay per click campaign on Google Adwords adjusting three key elements to driving relevant traffic to the website as cost effectively as possible:

  • Analysing and testing the words people use to search
  • Running different text advertisements to gain an understanding of what engages and motivates people
  • Testing different landing pages to engage people with the goal of getting them to get in touch for more information.

 

Very quickly we achieved a top three position for Swift-Cut on search results for key words and phrases e.g. ‘plasma cutting tables’, and website traffic and enquiries started growing.

Developing an Online Presence – Natural Search

Building relevant, engaging content keeps customers and potential customers on your website, encourages them to return and refer, and drives your natural search performance i.e. it gets you higher up the search results for relevant terms.

The Swift-Cut website already included technical details of the products offered. To bring this to life we decided to create a series of interviews with people who used Swift-Cut plasma cutting tables, or ‘Swift-Cutters’.

These case studies performed several key functions:

  1. They illustrated the diverse applications for the product
  2. They showcased Swift-Cut’s clients, strengthening the relationship with Swift-Cut
  3. They provided diverse content for the website and social media which people could share and comment on, creating a mesh of information about Swift-Cut online, which improved search performance and increased online visibility.

 

Swift-Cut has a mesh of online information making it visible to those seeking information.

Maintaining a Dialogue

To maintain dialogue with customers and other interested parties we worked with Swift-Cut to create quarterly e-mails. These also drove traffic back to the website and social media channels.

Demonstrating the Benefits

Purchasing a Swift-Cut table is a significant investment. Live and online demonstrations to potential customers were proving invaluable in instilling confidence in Swift-Cut’s products. Building on this we worked with Swift-Cut to create a suite of simple videos demonstrating cutting various metal types. The popularity of the videos surprised us all – the top video achieved over 6000 views in six months. Adding popular content to Swift-Cut’s YouTube channel also added to Swift-Cut’s overall online presence and search performance.

Reaching Customers and Creating Sales

During the first two years of Sugar working with Swift-Cut we created and managed a search campaign, developed the website, improving its usability and search performance, created case studies for use on the website and social media, managed the company’s social media presence, and developed an e-mail programme. During the same period the company’s UK sales quadrupled.

Since then we have we have worked with Swift-Cut supporting its successful expansion into 23 new markets, including the USA. Less than seven years from launch Swift-Cut has established itself as a world player in its sector.

If you’re proud of what your business does make sure that the right people know about it.

 For a no obligation discussion of how we can help please call Martin on 01892 539977 or email us.