Deer Creek Seed Company is an independently owned seed producer, processor, and distributor based in the small town of Windsor, Wisconsin. But after more than 40 years in business, this thriving brand is anything but small.
With an annual revenue of $17 million, Deer Creek Seed is a major player in the turf, forage, wildlife, and farming seed business. With most of its sales happening offline, the brand came to BFM ready for a digital transformation that would expand and strengthen its reach online.
The Challenge
On the business side, Deer Creek Seed owned several distinct yet disconnected brands. Our first challenge was to refresh the Deer Creek Seed brand and fold all other brands into the new one.
From a technical perspective, Deer Creek Seed used a standalone ERP that made tracking users and sales problematic. To help create more efficient, sales-friendly environment for their team, an API would need to be built and integrated with their current ERP – plus, have the IT infrastructure to support Deer Creek Seed’s new digital capabilities.
The Approach
As a true digital partner, our team engaged strategically with every aspect of the brand to ensure seamless branding, a sales-driven website, and the right technology for success.
increase in marketing ROI year on year
increase in revenue (compared to previous agency)
Building a Modern Brand
Our first step was creating a brand that Deer Creek could proudly take to market.
Our branding team was tasked with creating a new logo and product packaging that felt fresh and contemporary, without losing a sense of heritage and connection with the land – and our designers delivered in style.
Redefining Offerings
Our user experience team created an intuitive architecture to lay out a structure for eCommerce development. Where products were once divided up by brand, we took an audience-centric approach, regrouping products into four distinct categories that corresponded to Deer Creek Seed’s audiences.
Upgrading Technology
BFM helped the team set up an API to connect with their existing ERP, giving them access to critical sales features like product and user tracking across the new site. As a bonus, the integration also enhanced operational efficiency and visibility, strengthening inventory controls as well as their online and offline sales process.
Finally, to support their new and powerful digital presence, we helped Deer Creek Seed design the robust IT infrastructure it needed for everything to run smoothly.
Making Tech Advancements
After helping the client upgrade their current technology stack, BFM’s developers drew on the eCommerce power of Magento to develop the new site, successfully integrating the ERP and bringing our designers’ creations to life.
Unleashing New Creative
Digging into Deer Creek’s analytics, our paid media team saw big opportunities. Working with BFM’s designers and copywriters, our marketing team looked to capitalize. We launched a series of stunning display and social media ads with product-specific, user-centered messaging that saw impressive results.
Result
Planting the seeds for Deer Creek Seed’s digital growth was a challenge we felt well-prepared for as an agency. But even we were surprised by the results. On top of big gains in ROI and keyword rankings, Deer Creek Seed saw a 617% increase in transactions and 515% increase in revenue using the paid media we created post-launch, compared to their previous agency.
Beyond the numbers, our team’s PR efforts have helped Deer Creek Seed form valuable industry partnerships that have opened up new sales channels and media opportunities, positioning their team as thought leaders and their audience’s go-to seed experts.
