Revenue River is now an Instrumental Group Company. Learn more.
When The Chopping Block, a recreational cooking school that combines education and entertainment, decided to redesign their website they had education on their mind.
The Chopping Block wanted their site to represent “The Chopping Block Experience”, which means everything one experiences when walking in the store.
From the music they hear to the tools and equipment they use, to the menu they create, to the plate they eat on, to the products they shop for, The Chopping Block strives to provide the ultimate experience for their customers. That was the challenge that was presented when they came to us for a COS website redesign.
That statement certainly rings true with websites as well. On the other hand, there is not a lot of argument about great user experience. In the past, The Chopping Block had bad luck with their web designer. As a result of a bad partnership they were worried about wasting, even more, money with a new company. Instead, as they grew and offered more, they simply kept adding to an outdated website.
After I learned of HubSpot, I knew it was the right fit for my business, The Chopping Block. I went in search of a designer who could work within the COS but also think out of the box. I found that at Revenue River. Eric and his team were professional and worked hard throughout our entire project. And with a site of 100+ pages, it was a lengthy one!
Then, along came Google’s insistence that sites need to be optimized for mobile use. According to Google’s Mobile Path to Purchase report;
With the threat of losing SEO rankings and alienating their clientele by not being mobile friendly, it was finally time to make some changes. The Chopping Block had five objectives that were vital to them as they went looking for the perfect content management system (CMS):
After careful analysis of HubSpot's COS and it's ability to handle some of the custom integration requirements The Chopping Block found that Revenue River could accomplish all of their criteria. They already liked their design style so they decided to invest in their COS website redesign.
To organize the different aspects of the business, we integrated multiple functionalities such as differentiated blog feeds, third-party scheduling, and calendar system, creative use of call-to-actions and accompanying landing pages, and multiple media types including a video library.
By utilizing a modular or tiled format, we were able to generate containers for each niche of the business on the main level pages. This helped keep the pages organized and allowed the visitors to easily identify their desired content and work their way further through the site.
Since The Chopping Block’s offerings are constantly changing, this allowed the client to easily update specific information on the page without having to worry about breaking the layout. In addition, by utilizing CTAs that appear on multiple pages, the client can easily update the CTA with a new video for instance, and that would then change the video on all the pages at once; thus saving both time and energy, and probably some frustration along the way.
True to inbound marketing form, the success has come quickly and is measurable. They now have a website that acts as an extension to their business and they know that their 25,000 monthly visitors are wowed every time they explore their site and find outstanding recipes and instructional videos. The website is an aspiring chef’s dream and the traffic growth and engagement statistics support that.
Since the site went live in April, The Chopping Block has 260,275 total visits, of which 153,381 of those found it organically. In fact, organic traffic has been steadily rising since the launch in April, from 11,502 visitors in April to 26,205 in December. In only 9 months organic traffic rose by almost 15,000 monthly visitors.
They publish a ton of valuable content that truly adds to the user experience so it was vital that the redesign helped get more eyes to it. Since April, their blog has gone from 971 blog views to an over 4,500 views in November and December. That’s over 4600% growth in 8 months!!
Month |
Views |
April |
971 |
May |
1954 |
June |
2782 |
July |
4071 |
August |
3651 |
September October November December |
3637 4444 4645 4566 |
As great as traffic and blog views are, what’s the point if they’re not converting traffic to leads? It’s often the entry point for website visits and they needed to overhaul the design to make it more successful in converting traffic through the blog to their classes and resources. Since the website launch in
The Chopping Block now has a site with great user experience that represents “The Chopping Block Experience”, which is great for their current and potential customers. They also have a site that represents the inbound marketing experience, which for The Chopping Block, made their investment well worth it.
According to The Chopping Block’s marketing and PR professional, Andrea Miller, “with a site of 100+ pages, it was a lengthy one! They developed a website that could never be accused of looking like a template; it's unusual and beautiful in design. It stands out, but it also speaks to who we are as one of the busiest recreational cooking schools in the country.”