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SUMMARY:
Best practices are sometimes really only practices. Just because everyone’s doing it, doesn’t mean it’s the best approach. So to give you ideas for breaking away from the pack, today we bring you examples from the GameDev and email marketing industries. |
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RetroStyle Games is a game art outsourcing company. While many specialized B2B service providers focus on backlink acquisition, the team found better results for its niche creative services with a more balanced SEO approach that emphasized on-site optimization.
"We were spending $4,000 per month on link-building activities. Our approach had been focused on getting expensive backlinks through guest posts and link building, believing that this is the best way to improve our search rankings" explained Mykola Vynohradov, marketing manager, RetroStyle Games.
Even though the company was building numerous backlinks through guest posts and anchor text, the team wasn’t seeing a proportional increase in organic traffic and conversions.
They decided to reallocate resources from building external links to comprehensive website optimization and started identifying opportunities for improvement.
For instance, on the portfolio page, headlines were generic and not effectively targeted to relevant keywords. and technical format information was mixed with descriptive content, which created confusion. Here’s an example – one section’s headline began with ‘FEMALE WARRIOR ASSASSIN’ while another began with ‘HIDDEN OBJECTS.’
Creative Sample #1: Previous portfolio page
The contact form was also generic, and did not provide any guidance on the different types of requests that potential customers could send in.
Creative Sample #2: Previous contact page
Starting in January 2024, the team decided to take a new approach to prepare for the spring, when new clients tend to start signing contracts. They still built new links but reduced the number of new links to 34. That allowed them to focus more on website optimization.
The first step was to improve portfolio content by updating the meta titles and descriptions on 65 pages. These changes were based on actual Google Search Console data that showed how users were finding these pages in search results.
The team created headlines with keywords that matched what potential customers were looking for. They also tried to reduce confusion with consistent headlines. For example, ‘FEMALE WARRIOR ASSASSIN’ was changed to ‘ASSASSIN 3D FEMALE CHARACTER’ while ‘HIDDEN OBJECTS’ was changed to ‘2D PIRATE CHARACTERS, BACKGROUNDS & PUZZLES.’
Creative Sample #3: New portfolio page
The team added new high-quality images with correctly optimized alt tags to 13 portfolio pages that had potential for getting traffic. And they reduced the number of missing alt tags from 768 to 40 to improve the images visibility in search results.
The headline on the lead form was changed from ‘Need assistance?’ to ‘HOW CAN WE ASSIST? LET’S CRAFT SOMETHING UNIQUE TOGETHER.’ The team added three options at the top of the form to guide different types of requests:
They changed the CTA button wording from ‘SEND MESSAGE’ to ‘SEND REQUEST.’ They added an optional budget range field to better qualify leads. They also included upload functionality for potential clients to share project materials.
And they provided an alternative contact option – ‘Hate contact forms? boost@retrostylegames.com’
Creative Sample #4: New lead form
On the backend, the team automated the collection of website conversions using Make and moved all new content development to Elementor, which improved page speed and user experience.
Google Search Console performance data, analyzed at the page level rather than the domain level, gave them clear evidence that their internal optimization efforts were responsible for most of their search engine optimization success.
Using BigQuery connected to the Google Search Console, they analyzed the performance of specific pages before and after implementing different optimization strategies.
For example, some pages in their portfolio that received on-page optimization but didn’t receive backlinks showed a steady increase in SERP impressions by 30% to 50%, while pages that did receive the links often showed minimal growth or even a decrease in visibility. Using Clarity's heatmaps, they were also able to see how users interacted with optimized and non-optimized pages, confirming that changes to the site also improved user experience metrics.
“Simple on-site improvements to content and structure delivered consistently positive results at a fraction of the cost,” Vynohradov shared. The team saved an estimated 60% of their previous link-building budget while achieving superior results. Link building delivered an ROI of 78% compared to 252% for site optimization.
SERP impressions of portfolio pages increased by 54% year over year and clicks to the site increased 30%. Some portfolio pages achieved a 127% increase in search visibility.
The team started seeing improved contact form submissions by March, about six weeks after the site optimization started. The number of completed contact forms increased by 30% year over year.
Omnisend’s target audience is SMB ecommerce owners. Most companies with a B2B audience like this take a conservative approach. The team tried something different.
“Boldness in B2B marketing isn’t common – there’s a perception that humor and professionalism don’t mix. But even a non-controversial angle like ours does what other brands have to work much harder to achieve,” said Pija Ona Indriunaite, Brand Director, Omnisend.
Omnisend’s previous tagline was ‘Send email & SMS that really sell.’
Creative Sample #5: Previous homepage
The marketing team ran an experiment. They showed seven slogans to the executive team – six from competitors alongside Omnisend’s own tagline. But there were no logos or brand names, just the slogans:
Surprisingly, most executives couldn't distinguish one from another. Even though they could easily explain differences in features and pricing of all the competitors, the slogans alone made it impossible to identify which belonged to Omnisend.
For the marketing team, this highlighted the need to rethink their campaign. “It certainly wasn’t bad before, but it was challenging to stand out,” explained Indriunaite
Creative Sample #6: Previous display ad
“In such a competitive industry, being memorable is invaluable. When considering our direction, any attempt to frame an email marketing tool as sexy or exciting felt absurd. We’re not the center of our customers' world. This realization was freeing. It allowed us to be direct: email marketing isn’t exciting, and that’s exactly the point. You don’t want surprises, you just want it to work. Embracing that truth was essential to staying customer-centric,” Indriunaite said.
The team decided to take a more humorous approach to break through the clutter focused around the idea that the platform is ‘Email & SMS marketing so good, it’s boring.’
“Some feared that people might take it too literally and find it confusing. Around that time, Oslo launched its viral ‘Oslo is rubbish’ campaign, which highlighted how reactions differ based on whether they are emotionally invested into the brand or not. Those that are tend to overanalyze and be protective, while new audiences need something bold to capture their attention,” she said.
With relevant case studies to support their concept, they got approval to test, with the potential to evolve into a full brand identity.
The big idea was that while the product itself – email marketing – was boring, they could have fun around that to communicate to the audience with a tongue-in-cheek approach. Because, after all, they are marketing to a creative group – marketers. “Our clients don’t exist in a ‘Severance’-like world where they shed their personality the moment they log in,” added Indriunaite.
But it was a far more daring approach than anything the brand had tried before, so they tested the concept in a place they could get direct, real world, human-to-human feedback.
“Our first real test came at WordCamp events, where we set up a booth and interviewed attendees about what they noticed and understood. The relief came when the vast majority of people grasped the concept just by looking at the booth. That was our sign that we were on the right track,” she said.
Creative Sample #7: Booth with new campaign
That feedback led to a broad rollout of the campaign.
Creative Sample #8: New homepage
Creative Sample #9: New display ad
They tried to add humor to every customer communication. For example, monthly product update videos were previously boring but important since they showcased updates and new features. In the new campaign, they brought an alpaca to the office for a product update video. “For another one, we filmed it in nature, giving it a ‘Survivor’ type vibe,” Indriunaite said.
They also played with other fun out-of-the-box approaches, like sending T-shirts to unresponsive clients instead of just the traditional re-engagement email campaign, which they then leveraged in their social media.
Creative Sample #10: Re-engagement t-shirt
Every social media post is evaluated based on three questions:
Now, the campaign has become the new voice of the brand and shapes every communication they have with the outside world.
“For example, when applying for the Stevie Awards for customer support, we created a video with the tagline: ‘If you love adventure and mystery, you’ll hate our customer support. They don’t allow any side quests,’” she explained.
“In general, the rebrand ’s key focus wasn’t on instant wins – it was more about creating a lasting, memorable identity that sets Omnisend apart and builds loyalty and retention in the long run. While the full impact will unfold over time, we’ve already noticed deeper engagement and stronger brand affinity. Our revenue has also grown notably since the rebrand, however, we can’t confidently attribute that growth solely to the rebrand alone. Still, the signs suggest we’re moving in the right direction,” Indriunaite said.
Alongside the rebranding announcement, a paid brand awareness campaign that resulted in:
The team also saw improvements in their organic social media performance:
“We’re glad we took the approach of testing and scaling rather than doing a full-on rebrand from the start,” Indriunaite concluded. “It allowed us to gain confidence and better understand the opportunities the concept presents over time.”
This article was distributed through the MarketingSherpa email newsletter.
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