Background
Haskell Education is dedicated to designing and manufacturing the highest quality furniture for business, education, government, and institutional enterprises. Founded in 1947 in Pittsburgh by Bud and Ed Haskell, the company’s headquarters are in Bala Cynwyd, PA.
Situation
When Haskell was originally founded, it specialized in workbenches, drafting tables, task chairs and steel desks. In 2002, the company was purchased by the Robins brothers, successful furniture entrepreneurs. They soon developed new strategic goals, brought on more employees, and saw an opportunity to expand within the kindergarten to 12th grade education market. Haskell was now positioned to serve the K-12 markets with their new products, expand to secondary markets, and serve the State, Local, and Federal Government. They now needed to understand how best to educate the market about their new products (Active Seating and Table Lines) and services (Design and How to solve for the “whys” in a learning environment), and developed goals for both short-term and long-term marketing and sales growth.
Solution
Haskell’s leaders interviewed numerous companies to help them expand their marketing and sales initiatives, and chose DVIRC’s team to help them achieve their business and strategic goals through a wide array of services, including Lead Generation support, Digital Marketing, and Website Development.
Haskell has continued to experience consistent increases in sales over the five years we have worked with DVIRC. They created—and keep us on—a continuous growth trajectory with marketing and sales planning support, web development, inbound marketing, and sales lead generation. DVIRC’s marketing experts work with Haskell management and provide efficient resources to fortify the brand and fuel growth.
Cristel Hutchinson
Lead Generation
The Lead Generation service included an assessment of Haskell’s capabilities and messaging, as well as in-depth secondary research into current and prospective markets. DVIRC’s team then built and maintained a list of prospects, vetting them for applicability, conducted outreach, and nurtured leads.
Digital Marketing
DVIRC worked with Haskell’s leadership to:
- understand the brand positioning, and establish goals for the program
- review Haskell’s existing digital marketing efforts and Google Analytics
- conduct keyword research for search engine optimization
- expand website content to include news, articles, case studies, and client testimonials
- develop an email marketing program to reach current and prospective customers
- conduct online advertising: circulating homepage banners, new digital tools, targeted product campaigns
- build, manage, and populate the company’s social media platforms
- build critical distribution lists to support all digital marketing campaigns with the A & D firms, distributors, and education stakeholders
- generate leads from Architectural & Design (A & D) firms, educational stakeholders, and distribution
Website Development
DVIRC also worked with Haskell’s leadership to upgrade their website to reflect the company’s brand and vision while helping to drive traffic, increase sales with existing clients, and engage new customers. Some of the tasks completed included:
- developing a site that was robust with content to support all three stakeholders
- refreshing the website often
- aligning the targeting advertising with strategic quarterly goals
- continuously developing enhanced digital tools (animations, build your own Ethos Chair)
- weekly website reviews to ensure they were always looking at how to improve the visitor experience
- editing navigational tools for ease
- watermarking their images
- digitizing all of their analog forms
Results
Since DVIRC’s partnership with Haskell, the company has experienced:
- Annual year-over-year sales growth
- the best sales growth in company history in 2020
- improved team alignment
- aggressive digital resource improvement
- increase in A & D firms by at least 20% year over year
- annual distribution growth of 15%+
- education stakeholder website traffic increase by 20%+ with product inquires resulting in quotes and, in turn, orders