Our Work: Harter House Meats
The Harter House Meats Project came to fruition in August of last year. Our goal was to create an e-commerce solution for a very popular and successful Grocery Store Chain, Harter House, located in Southern Missouri. With the slogan, “Famous For Our Meats,” the team at Lime understood that although the store was famous for their meat, it was Harter House’s customer service and attention to quality that made the stores more successful than their competitors.
First steps involved coming up with a e-commerce platform to utilize that would allow us the flexibility for creative design while also giving us the ability to grow the site as we increased products, sales and marketing iniatives. Although we looked at several possibilities, a final decision was made to use the Magento E-Commerce Platform, given its reputation with such sites built on the platform like Toms Shoes, OfficeMax, and The North Face, among others.
Once the platform was selected, the early stages of wireframing began. Because of the scope of the project, we understood that we would have to wireframe roughly the entire website to ensure a pleasant experience for the end-user. End-user experience was tantamount in our minds and continues to be a focus to this day.
Design began immediately upon the completion and approval of the wireframes and was scheduled for completion within two months. Our plan was to design the site with the warm feeling of a down-home country butcher. A place you could trust, that is just concerned about quality as it is price.
After several rounds of revisions, design completed on schedule and development took over, and three months later we had a website, launching in January of this year. However, our job was not done, and the real work began in earnest. Because the Lime Agency understands, that building an E-Commerce website is only half the battle and is worthless if you don’t make any sales. An initial team meeting was held that created a budget and marketing plan for Harter House Meats that included Social Media, Print Media, Event Marketing, Video, Promotions, and several other features to drive sales throughout Harter House Meats infant year.
1. Social Media
Constant updates are made to Facebook to build interest with Harter House Meats delivery system. One challenge we have faced is the built-in market of Harter House, and differentiating it from its parent company. A Facebook contest was created through developing an application for Facebook, to increase “likes” from outside the state of Missouri. The management of Facebook has shown constant growth and a very successful method of building awareness of what skills we bring to the table in the realm of social media. We are continuously creating new content, programs, deals, and contests to keep the fan base interested.
2. Print Media and Event Marketing
The direction The Lime Agency has taken in these fronts is in the burgeoning competitive Barbeque Events. Having Harter House sponsor a professional Barbeque team that travels from event to event and creating awareness of these events through the creation of assets purposely created for them. Our plan is to continue in this area and build a strong following within the competitions.
3. Maintenance
The Lime Agency team re-evaluates the Harter House Meats website every day deciding which direction to go for each product and how better to “punch-up” slow moving product. Images are replaced to better display the meat, as well as content is changed to better sell product.
4. Video Production
Recently, The Lime Agency has begun to shoot video for the cooking tips on the different meats Harter House sells. We plan to create an entire series that will allow us to build an even larger presence in the market of online meat sales.
5. Blog and Email Marketing
A blog was integrated into the site midway through this year to have another avenue to reach new and repeat customers. Also, an email marketing campaign runs monthly informing customers of new specials and offers.
The Harter House Meats project has been a great success that the Lime Agency is very proud of. We are looking forward to our Holiday promotions, as well as new Facebook applications that will allow users to submit photos and add new functionality to the Harter House Meats Facebook page.
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