The Business
When we first partnered with KICK-EEZ, the company already had something most businesses would love to have: more than 40 years of history, a respected name in their industry and products with a loyal following.
The business had built a strong reputation without a sophisticated marketing operation behind it. That created an interesting opportunity.
We didn’t need to manufacture demand for an unknown product or reinvent what had made the company successful.
We needed to help the marketing catch up with the business.
The Challenge
Like many established businesses, years of growth had created a collection of marketing needs without a clear strategy connecting them.
The brand had an e-commerce website and an existing customer base. New products were being developed. Customers were searching for its products online. There were opportunities across content, social media, email, search and industry partnerships.
There was plenty we could do.
The more important question was what we should do, and in what order.
That’s a distinction that has become central to how we work at Housetop. Our name comes from a simple idea: you wouldn’t start building a house at the roof. Yet businesses are sold marketing that way all the time. Start running ads. Build a new website. Post more on social. Invest in SEO.
Those tactics aren’t inherently wrong. But without understanding the business underneath them, it’s difficult to know whether they’re the right place to start. So we started by looking at the bigger picture.
What We Found
The biggest opportunity wasn’t one missing marketing channel. It was the amount of untapped potential already inside the business.
The company had decades of expertise that could become useful content. Its product catalog created opportunities to capture customers with very specific needs. New product development provided a steady source of stories and campaigns. Its reputation opened doors to credible partnerships within the industry.
Most importantly, there was an opportunity to connect those pieces.
Instead of treating the website, search, content, email, social media and partnerships as separate activities, we could build a strategy where each made the others more effective.
That became the foundation of the plan.
The Plan
We centered the strategy around three priorities.
1. Make the digital experience match the quality of the business
An established brand’s digital presence should reinforce the credibility it has spent years building. We focused on strengthening how the brand and its products were presented online, making it easier for customers to understand what made the products different and find the right solution for their needs. That work created a stronger destination for everything else we would eventually do to generate attention and traffic.
2. Get in front of customers already looking for a solution
We saw significant opportunity in organic search. Rather than approaching SEO as a race to publish as much content as possible, we focused on the searches closest to the company’s products and the problems they solve. Product-specific searches, compatibility questions, buying questions and other high-intent topics gave us opportunities to meet customers much closer to the point of purchase. The goal wasn’t simply more traffic. It was more relevant traffic.
3. Turn individual marketing activities into a system
This was perhaps the most important shift. A new product wasn’t just something to add to the website. It could become a product page, search opportunity, email campaign, social content, video and reason to engage an industry partner. A partnership wasn’t just a sponsored post. It could create credible third-party content that could be used across the website, email and social media. A useful piece of content could generate search traffic today and continue introducing customers to the brand months or years later. We wanted every good idea to work harder.
The Results
Two years later, the business is approaching twice the size it was when our partnership began.
That growth hasn’t come from a single viral post, advertising campaign or breakthrough tactic. It’s been the result of dozens of improvements working together over time.
The brand is reaching more potential customers. Its digital presence is stronger. Search has become a more meaningful source of discovery. Product launches have more marketing support behind them. Partnerships are extending the brand’s reach and credibility. And the company has a much stronger marketing infrastructure supporting its continued growth.
That’s the kind of growth we want to help create.
Not a temporary spike, but a stronger business with a better system behind it.
