Retailer Case Study:
How Crystal Media helped grow this store owner’s business to her best year ever
Michelle Smith, Owner, Piccolo Mondo Toys, Portland, OR
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"Overall, 2022 was our best revenue year in our 16 year history, even though we saw sales dip in October and November.”
-Michelle Smith, Piccolo Mondo Toys
The Before:
Michelle Smith is the owner of Piccolo Mondo Toys; an Oregon-based toy store whose name means “Small World” and message promotes play and connection around the world. Michelle built her business from her unique passions for travel, cultural awareness, advocating for children in developing countries, play, and education.
Growing from just one 1300 sq. ft. store to three locations (plus a warehouse and a website!), joining The Good Toy Group (TGTG) in 2007, serving on TGTG board, creating a brand and team that she’s proud of, and leading with a propensity for trying new things, have all contributed to Michelle’s journey as an expanding small business owner.
Michelle’s motto has always been to work with and surround yourself with the people who make you a better version of you. Michelle knew she wanted to amplify her impact, so she reached out to our team in July 2020 to help her drive more business through social and digital marketing.
The Strategy:
After stores shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic, like multitudes of store owners out there, Michelle’s focus was to try to rapidly grow her online capabilities. In July 2020, she found Crystal Media and, as an Insider member, started utilizing live videos and implementing other strategies for the next few months. In 2021, she began seeing significant increases in sales (even compared to 2019) and had more customers telling her they were seeing her stores’ social media content.
Over the course of the next few years, Michelle realized that the Who was just as, if not more, important to reaching her goals as the How.
So, in the summer of 2021, she signed on to Ads Management with the following goals:
- Create consistency across all platforms
- Build community
- Get more in-store traffic
- Increase website sales
And Crystal Media ran the following campaigns:
✓ Engagement
✓ Store traffic
✓ Page Likes
✓ Website traffic
Ultimately in 2022, Michelle became a Get Listed client with the following goals:
- Increase traffic to website
- Show up more in search results
- Increase number of customer reviews
Crystal Media immediately optimized her listings across 60+ platforms to improve local SEO:
✓ Fixed errors on store listings
✓ Added product categories, brands sold, keyword-rich descriptions, and fresh photos
✓ Updated listings monthly with up-to-date info, events, and hours
✓ Notified of incoming reviews for quick response time
The Crystal Media team had essentially become an extension of Michelle’s team and her business transformation had begun.
The Results:
With Crystal Media behind her every step of the way, Michelle’s sales results as a SCALE client (Insider membership + Ads Management + Get Listed) were unprecedented.
Michelle had her best year in business. Ever.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of just a few of the biggest wins she experienced.
Insider Membership
Live Selling:
- 5367% increase in Video Views
- 12,082 (April 2023) vs 221 (May 2021)
- A dad recognized Michelle at the grocery store. “You’re from the toy store right? I watch your FB Lives!”
“Crystal really got me to do these videos which I never would have wanted to do, but now it seems somewhat natural. It’s become like I’m talking with a friend. We have people who are thanking us, you have made our lives better, and telling us, ‘I don’t know how I would have done this year without you.’”
“It’s just what [Crystal Media] says. We’ve filled [the customer’s] bucket up all year doing entertainment, non-sales shows, jokes, etc. People have gotten to know us, why we like things or why we care about things.”
Ads Management
Page Likes:
- 61% increase in FB page likes
- 4,431 (April 2023) vs 2,755 (May 2021)
- 47% organic following growth on Instagram
- We say organically since there is no objective to gain followers on Instagram, however, their engagement ads ran on the platform which may have contributed to the growth.
Ads Management
Traffic:
- 64% increase in Monthly Website Users
- 9,047 Monthly Users (April 2023) vs 3,300 (March 2022)
- 192% increase in Online Sessions
- 12,766 Monthly Sessions (April 2023) vs 4,369 (March 2022)
- 113% increase in online sales (2022 vs 2021)
Engagement:
- 824% increase in Engagement
- 3,788 (April 2023) vs 410 (May 2021)
Get Listed
Google Search:
- 30% YOY increase
Google Customer Actions:
- 41% YOY increase in Get Directions requests (made on Google Business Profile)
Google Search Queries:
- Branded results: 21% YOY increase
- Branded searches happen when a customer searches for your brand or a brand that is related to your business.
- Direct results: 30% YOY increase
- Direct searches happen when a customer directly searches for your business name or address.
- Discovery results: 15% YOY increase
- Discovery searches happen when a customer searches for a category, product, or service that you offer, and your listing appears.
Listing(s) with Featured Message (available only with Get Listed):
- 41% increase in YOY clicks (2022 vs 2021)
- These are leads to Michelle’s website coming from her listings in the Get Listed network.
- The "Featured Message" field is an additional promotional space that allows businesses to highlight a specific message or offer with customizable text within their online listings.
Reviews:
- 33% YOY increase in the number of reviews (2022 vs 2021)
- More customer reviews with experiential details lead to more sales
- Michelle was sent a direct link to her Google review page, which can be embedded in emails and customer communication
“I feel like I’ve become braver just getting to know your story and who you are. ”
-Michelle Smith on getting to know Crystal and Crystal Media
The Takeaways:
Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.
One of the biggest contributors to Michelle’s success was being able to move past fear by trusting the suggested best practices and direction from Crystal Media. The confidence she gained—with the success of things like Live Selling and running a variety of more targeted ad campaigns—created a more open mindset to fresh ideas and new opportunities.
Customers want to see YOU!
After a while of shying away from being in front of the camera, Michelle realized that the best way for her customers to connect with her business was for her to connect with them. Being authentically herself and creating humanized content throughout her social and digital channels opened the door to a more relatable and receptive relationship with her customers.
Ads are powerful, but a strategy is critical.
Knowing your goals is imperative to creating an ads strategy that works for you. Crystal Media helped Michelle get clear on what she wanted to achieve in order to create a robust and diverse ads strategy targeting the right audiences with the right creative using the right messaging at the right time.
Listings grow your digital footprint.
All Google search queries saw significant YOY growth—helping Piccolo Mondo Toys appear more in search results. This also led to increased requests for directions which led to more in-store traffic.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
“I just needed to have more confidence in myself and share all my ‘whys’ with my customers. And that’s what I’ve been able to do since really meeting you- to really share the ‘whys’ and making those connections within my community.”
-Michelle Smith
The Future:
What does the future look like for Piccolo Mondo Toys?
Michelle’s mission is to stay true to her brand and who she is, and share that with her customers. She’s focused on continuing to find her PCGs (Perfect Customer Groups) and be an important resource in her community. Michelle aims to show up for her customers and offer all the benefits of great products, great toys, getting outside in nature, and offline activities through great purpose and strong brand messaging of inclusivity and diversity.
MAKE CRYSTAL MEDIA AN EXTENSION OF YOUR TEAM TODAY!
Learn how Crystal Media can generate results for you, too.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
“‘Be my authentic self.’ That is what you teach us. I feel better as a person.
I definitely had some struggles in 2020, and I have to say that meeting you and hearing that and revisiting my ‘whys’ has helped me to get through. We had our best year last year ever.
I can’t thank you enough.”
-Michelle Smith on working with Crystal Media