Waco, TX

Standard Hat Works

Standard Hat Works has been crafting custom cowboy hats in Waco, Texas for over 100 years. In 2013, new owner Cameron Morris began making ambitious improvements to the business including an extreme focus on customer service and expert craftsmanship. Motivated to make the cowboy hat cool again and firmly establishing his brand, Cameron sought local consulting expertise to identify marketing opportunities and business operational improvements to make this possible. As the consulting team lead, I worked directly with SHW to transform their ambitions into concrete deliverables within a three month timeframe. What follows is an outline of our work and the results.

3 Core Problems

Lack of Target Market Identification

Inconsistent Marketing Output

No Customer Tracking Systems

STEP 1: IMPLEMENT CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

We chose HubSpot for these reasons:

  1. Ease of Use

  2. Built in Automations

  3. All in one CRM + Marketing + Sales

This enables the client to have a software that works for them tracking customers and providing valuable information through data collection, while SHW continues to focus on what they do best: crafting custom hats and taking care of their customers.

Then, we integrated current website and sales softwares to work with the CRM, tracking the customers that are purchasing online and in store.

Step 2: Identify Key Target Markets

Utilizing Google Analytics and Google Search Console, our team deciphered who was most attracted to SHW and their products. We used these data points:

  • General Demographics (Age, Location, Gender)

  • New User Acquisition (Organic Search, Direct, Organic Social)

Based on how users came upon the SHW website (New User Acquisition), we concluded that the client’s social media presence played a large role in gathering interest. This allowed us to use social media metrics to define our target markets.

TM.01

Cameron

44 years old living in Decatur, Texas.

Is particularly attracted to the expert craftsmanship and long-standing history of SHW.

TM.02

Jess

31 years old living in Austin, Texas

Chooses to wear a SHW hat as a fashion statement and dive into the western aesthetic as an urban cowgirl.

Step 3: Optimize Social Media Strategy

BRAND IMAGE

  • This is a brand that doesn’t conform to industry norms but redefines them.

  • Each hat is designed with absolute care and attention to detail. Expert craftsmanship is the key component to the brand’s success.

  • The brand voice is confident, assertive, and never watered down. Call out the status quo of the industry and set the bar higher for what western wear should be.

ORGANIC CONTENT

  • Showcase exceptional expertise through highlighting the hat making process

  • Establish credibility by placing cowboy hats on those defining the western industry: music artists, movie stars, western athletes, and more.

  • Work with influencers that align with both the western aesthetic and the SHW target audiences

INTERACTION

  • Identify 20+ hashtags that are key to western industry and target audiences. Visit these often and interact with the top posts

  • Identify 20+ creators the SHW brand and target audiences closely identifies with. Interact with these individuals on a consistent basis.

  • Encourage use of a common hashtag and posts sharing hats purchased from SHW.

Step 4: Launch New Aligned Marketing Channels

Why we chose to implement email marketing for SHW:

  • Email marketing has the highest ROI among digital marketing channels

  • The collective target market age range is 30 - 55. This age range is receptive to email marketing

  • With automation and segmentation, email marketing is affordable and requires low client effort

  • Growing email subscriptions allows direct access to customers

We provided:

  1. Audience Segments and values to define groups

  2. Email templates, headings, guides, styles, and formats for easy email creation

  3. Important performance metrics and what to change or improve given specific values

4 Email Segments

Potential Customer

Loyal Customer

Current Customer

Inactive Customer

Results

Implemented a Customer Tracking System:

  • Clients use to come purchase a hat and then disappear. Now, SHW tracks who makes purchases online or in-store. They can contact them accordingly via email and drive more value out of their customers.

Brand Alignment Across Marketing Efforts:

  • The clearly defined brand voice and image communicated clearly across all platforms (email, socials, website, etc) will create a unified brand. This builds trust, authenticity, and further establishes SHW’s credibility.

Clearly Defined Target Market

  • SHW now can speak through multiple channels to their clearly defined audience. They understand what they care about and what draws them to the brand, making it easier to sell the product

Consistent Marketing Output:

  • Through social media, SHW has a playbook that defines exactly what content to make, who it is targeting, how to make it with ease, and how often to post. Additionally, after creating the email content, this will be automated and work hands-free for SHW