clever mutt

Stephen Gent, owner of McDade’s Nursery in Tool Texas, needed a web solutions company with experience delivering websites and social media marketing that drives revenue as well as brand awareness.

Back in the 1990's McDade's Nursery in Tool Texas was well known and respected throughout its local market - the Cedar Creek Lake area and cities including Athens, Corsicana, Ennis, Kaufman & beyond.

During the 2000's however the customer base and business reach declined. In 2010 new owner Stephen Gent set about revitalizing the nursery, diversifying its business and increasing its reach to a wider customer base than ever before.

Essential to plans for McDade's Nursery was the considerable experience of Stephen's well respected team, including long time McDade's employees Shannon, Kim (both Texas Certified Nursery Professionals) and Tammy.

Stephen's own 14+ year marketing background in publishing as the Marketing Director for Nursery Management and Production, Greenhouse Management and Production, and Garden Center Magazine would also prove critical to the team's ambitions.

Fully aware of the potential of effective online marketing, Stephen looked to compliment the skills of this team with the skills of a professional web solutions agency that possessed a wide range of knowledge & experience.

"We needed to extend the McDade's brand effectively online. It's important to us to provide well informed advice and great customer service and we needed an Internet marketing strategy that did more than just provide a website with photo's of the Nursery" recalls Stephen.

"We needed to increase awareness of McDade's through the Internet by attracting new customers while also appealing to old customers simultaneously - drawing those customers back to a refreshed McDade's Nursery". Stephen adds "It's fair to say that we were on something of a tight deadline. It was important that we hit the ground running, maximizing our return on our investment quickly".

To achieve these goals Stephen turned to Clever Mutt, the web software, web design & Internet marketing professionals.

Recalling their early discussions, Clever Mutt's co-owner Chris Hill notes "It was immediately apparent that Stephen and the entire McDade's team were passionate about rejuvenating the business and were not losing any time in doing so. It was notable that highly focused plans were in place in terms of marketing, diversifying the product range & expanding the customer base. The team at McDade's knew exactly what they wanted to achieve and the Nursery was buzzing with activity".

Commenting on his initial impressions of Clever Mutt, Stephen says "We were looking for a company that had a broad technical, creative and commercial knowledge of the Internet - we needed a company that understood exactly how to take advantage of what the Internet offers and had proven experience with web development, social media marketing and search marketing. Perhaps most importantly we were looking for a company that knew how to build an online brand that generated revenue".

"During our early discussions it became very clear that we should place the important task of developing the McDade's website into the care of Clever Mutt", says Stephen.

A range of options were discussed and an ambitious social media marketing, search marketing and web development strategy was agreed.

"We got straight to work before we left the first meeting" says Chris. "We had a range of ideas to implement and a strict plan of action to follow in a short space of time".

"During their time working on our website and social media, Clever Mutt's communication was of the highest level - we were provided status reports throughout the design process, even allowing us to view the site as it was being built whenever we wanted to" says Stephen.

"They provided guidance based on their previous experiences of what works and what doesn't work on the web. For example their process of selecting colors, fonts and styles for the website was really useful in helping us arrive at a site that we not only liked, but felt like we had been an active participant in the development process."

Of the final result Stephen notes "We wanted to not only increase awareness of McDade's Nursery in a general sense, but wanted to clearly demonstrate our active involvement in our local community. We also found it important to allow website visitors to ask questions directly of our experts at the Nursery. With the end result we received all of this and much more".

"I can say with confidence that other companies will be more than satisfied with the products and services provided by Clever Mutt."

You can connect directly with the McDade's Nursery team:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mcdadesnursery
Website: www.mcdadesnursery.com