A Masterclass In Selling Digital Products

Today we are going to break down Shrub Hub, a standout example of a productized service business that is effectively using lead capture to drive sales by ecommerce!

Shrub Hub is an innovative online landscape design service that offers homeowners custom design solutions for their outdoor spaces. By leveraging technology and professional expertise, they provide comprehensive landscape plans, 3D renderings, and shopping lists to transform yards into beautiful, functional outdoor living areas.

These are tools I’d recommend for implementing tactics like ShrubHub!

Nurturing: For nurturing leads through both SMS and email campaigns, I recommend using ActiveCampaign, which efficiently handles both communication channels.

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Shrub Hub’s primary traffic sources are search traffic from Google Ads and SEO.

• SEM Rush Estimates: SEM Rush estimates their monthly traffic cost at $4,700. However, based on my experience, this is a significant underestimation. Considering SEM Rush's analysis of my own paid traffic ads, I estimate they are spending 7-10x that amount, approximately $40,000 per month on paid ads.

• Top Paid Keyword: Their top paid keyword is ‘Yardzen’, a direct competitor. This strategy of targeting competitor keywords can be quite effective, attracting users looking for similar services.

• SEO Traffic: They also receive a substantial amount of organic traffic, estimated at 11,800 visits per month.

• Social Media: Interestingly, Shrub Hub does not seem to utilize social media ads, highlighting their focus on direct response marketing.

A crucial aspect of Shrub Hub's success is their lead generation strategy.

Shrub Hub requires users curious about pricing to enter their name, email, and phone number to view pricing and initiate purchase. This tactic serves two main purposes:

1. Lead Capture for Remarketing: By capturing user information, Shrub Hub can directly remarket to these potential customers through email and SMS campaigns.

2. Optimizable Conversion Event: This low-commitment conversion event is easier to optimize for compared to a purchase event, which may occur much later and outside the tracking capabilities of ad platforms.

Once Shrub Hub captures a lead, they engage in extensive nurturing to convert these leads into paying customers.

SMS Campaigns: Their SMS sequences typically run for 30 days, with short, compelling messages encouraging users to complete their purchase. Due to the higher cost of SMS compared to email, it’s likely that they have determined the chances of conversion drop significantly after 30 days.

Email Campaigns: In contrast, their email campaigns appear to be long-term, continuing indefinitely. The primary tactic here is offering further discounts to keep potential customers engaged and motivated to convert.

Shrub Hub has effectively utilized a pricing gate as a lead capture mechanism. Additionally, their long-term nurturing strategy, while not particularly groundbreaking, ensures they remain top-of-mind for potential customers with consistent reminders and discount offers.

• Utilize lead capture mechanisms to gather valuable customer information.

• Optimize for low-commitment conversion events to improve ad performance.

• Maintain long-term engagement through consistent, value-driven communication.

By dissecting Shrub Hub's marketing funnel, we can gain valuable insights into successful direct response marketing strategies that can be applied to our own campaigns. Stay tuned for more funnel breakdowns in our next newsletter!