Wallace Family Meats moves to greener pastures…online!
July 19, 2018
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In Search of Greener Pastures
What does a local beef producer do when selling beef at the feedlot just isn’t cutting it anymore? They come to us.
At least that’s what Frank Wallace did for his family-owned cattle ranch in Vandalia, MO, Wallace Family Meats.
He wanted to sell his tender, flavorful all natural beef not just to his family, friends and fellow Vandalians but to everyone in the region. His idea was to expand his business by establishing a shop online—not only would this gain his ranch more exposure, but it would also eliminate the middleman by allowing Frank to process, price and sell his beef himself versus selling it at feedlot prices.
The first thing he needed, though, was a place to house this online shop, a professional website with a personal feel to sell his products as well as the history of Wallace Family Meats and the values they incorporate into their beef production….
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, an introduction to Frank and his cattle ranch:
A 5th Generation Family Farm
Frank’s journey to establishing Wallace Family Meats began when he purchased a Hereford Heifer named Daisy out of Lynn, MO in 1975. Armed with a desire to produce and provide quality beef, he used the family’s farm land, acquired by his grandfather in 1903 and passed down from previous generations, to launch his beef-producing operation.
Nearly 40 years later, Daisy’s legacy has evolved into a herd of 150 cattle, half Red Angus and half Black Angus, roaming free across 250 acres of grass and woods. His family operation continues to incorporate family values into their beef production for some of the best beef you’ll find in the Midwest.
As a company run by agriculture enthusiasts, we couldn’t wait to jump on board and design something that would appeal to the country sheek beef lovers of the world and streamline the Wallace Family Meats online sales.
Creating an Upscale “Citified Country” Look
In designing Frank’s new site, we not only wanted to help Wallace Family Meats successfully sell beef products online, we also wanted the look of it to appeal to new audiences, namely more city folks who might enjoy his awesome beef.
We specifically picked this theme of “citified country,” piggybacking off of the inspiring work Joanna Gaines did on her and husband’s show Fixer Upper (In case you haven’t heard of her or her husband Chip, they are a real force in the house flipping industry. You should probably check them out.) We wanted a design that would emulate the interior of a home Joanna would decorate — ya know…what we call “the Hobby Lobby Look” here in the Midwest: country, but not too country, kind of like traditional country with a young, modern twist. You get it…
Once we completed the design, we wrote the content for Frank’s website based on a lengthy interview we conducted with him to gather the right information for capturing the true voice of Wallace Family Meats. Visitors can now find interesting facts about the Wallace family and their ranch, highlights he and his family’s values as a cattle ranchers in western Missouri, and of course, an online shop featuring details about his beef products and prices.
The Online Shop
What can we say about WooCommerce’s functional versatility as an eCommerce website platform? Truth be told, not enough. Regardless, let us try and count the ways we love thee, WooCommerce:
- It’s free.
‘Nough said. - It’s user-friendly.
As a WordPress plugin, many ecommerce startups appreciate WooCommerce’s same user-friendly interface. - It’s simple yet highly versatile, customizable, and functional.
- It’s professional.
- It’s insightful.
WooCommerce features a built-in analytics system to make sales stats extremely clear for the end-user. - It’s geared toward growth.
As simple as it is to use, WooCommerce is set up to allow your business to grow while easily updating your templates to conform with your growth.
Of course, there’s more we could say, but need we say it? If a cattle rancher like Frank can use it for his online beef shop, anyone can.
Additional website features include…
- Mobile Friendly Design – Adaptive Template
Websites that are mobile-friendly with adaptive templates will be served more often on search engines to people using their mobile devices. - Custom WordPress Theme
With Custom WordPress Themes, the website design is unique and the structure is flexible, scalable, and easily manageable. Let’s just say websites with custom WordPress themes aren’t forced to reside inside the box. - Safe Site Plan
The new Wallace Family Meats website is enrolled in our Company Safe Site Plan, meaning we’ve enhanced the site in an effort to offensively protect it from hackers. We backup the site daily, maintain regular WordPress and plugin updates, and monitor site activity and link function. - Updates & Ongoing Maintenance
It’s imperative to keep content fresh with regular updates to keep clients and prospects interested. With their website completed, we help Wallace Family Meats stay on top of their game by performing requested updates and changes to the website as requested. - Content Development
Wallace Family Meats specializes in selling beef, which typically doesn’t involve mad writing skills, so Frank relied on us to assist with content development for his new website. Through content planning and extensive interviews, we developed and polished a marketing message to project the true culture of the Wallace family farm. - WooCommerce
For Wallace Family Meats’ online shop, we installed WooCommerce to allow Frank to easily track and manage the purchases from his website.
Building it doesn’t mean they always come…
Website? Check. Online Shopping Platform? Check. Visitors? … *crickets*
Yeah, so….just ‘cause you have a new website doesn’t mean people magically start flooding in to see it. There’s this whole concept of, ya know, telling people about it. But who? Everyone Frank knew was already purchasing beef directly from him and thus had no need to buy it online. He had to widen his reach…
For this, we had a solution: online marketing.
For prospects who like all natural beef but haven’t heard of Wallace Family Meats…
Many established prospects with disposable income who prefer all natural, pasture-raised beef are living out on Facebook these days, and Frank wanted to get his business in front of them. So we created a new Business Page to generate awareness for Wallace Family Meats and began writing and boosting posts to help fill in gaps for when Frank couldn’t post himself.
Boy, did we see results, and FAST. Most people think all the “hip” action online takes place in big cities, given the Internet capabilities and speeds — but that’s not always the case, as we saw here with Wallace Family Meats. Talk about small town community and their desire for local businesses to thrive! Vandalia, a western Missouri town of less than 5,000 residents, quickly rallied together to support Wallace Family Meats’ new Facebook page. Within two months, Wallace Family Meats’ Likes went from 0 to 544! And Frank is ALL about it.
For prospects ready to buy…
To really get the traffic going to the Wallace Family Meats website, we wrote Google search ads to appear when people search online for beef products. The idea here was to help them find Wallace Family Meats’ online shop by getting his website as high in the Google search listings as possible, which is exactly what Google ads can do (when they’re well-written, lead to a rockin’ website, and have enough $$$ behind them, that is…).
Within the first month, Frank’s ads resulted in 416 clicks to his new website and nearly 22,000 impressions (views). So, this method is not only great for boosting your website traffic, it’s another awesome way to create awareness for your business by just having your company name show up in search results.
Sometimes ya gotta give paid advertising credit where credit is due, right?
For prospects who don’t have a clue…
Most people tend to get their beef from the local grocery store without giving it much thought. These are the people Frank wants to introduce his products to so he can get them onboard with the benefits of purchasing all natural pasture-raised beef from his website.
The new Wallace Family Meats website features a blog to cater to these prospects. By continually publishing beef recipes, product news and ranch history to his blog, he’ll “beef up” his website with fresh content and new pages. Google loves this and shows regularly updated websites love by serving their pages more frequently in related searches. Every new post is another “door” online prospects can use to get into Frank’s website. So when they’re online looking for all natural beef recipes, or even what life is like on a cattle ranch, they’ll see the posts published on the Wallace Family Meats blog. A well-written post or fabulous recipe can leave a lasting impression on these types of prospects that will hopefully contribute to their decision-making down the road when they’re ready to buy beef online.
Are you looking for a website?
Does your site lack a WooCommerce Shopping Cart and the traffic to use it, or do you just need a site in general? Contact the team at MayeCreate Design. We believe websites work when good design meets solid functionality. Our web designs always aim for ease of use and clear communication. Check out our portfolio for a look at our other projects and to get your pride on…today.
Who Manifested This Madness?
This fabulous human, that's who.
Monica Maye Pitts
Monica is the creative force and founder of MayeCreate. She has a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with an emphasis in Economics, Education and Plant Science from the University of Missouri. Monica possesses a rare combination of design savvy and technological know-how. Her clients know this quite well. Her passion for making friends and helping businesses grow gives her the skills she needs to make sure that each client, or friend, gets the attention and service he or she deserves.
