An Example of Growth: Kobikian

Kobikian.com is a website designed and developed for a traditional Japanese soba restaurant called Kobikian "木挽庵". Although being well known in the Kanto region of Japan, it needed a growth strategy to further increase revenue. To do this, Kobikian needed to reach out to more customers across geographic borders. The only problems was that they didn't know how.

Kumidia Web Marketing was hired to become their personal web marketing team because they needed a professionally built website rigged with SEO (search engine optimization).

Our mission was simple: To expand the Kobikian brand as well advise them on cost effective advertising techniques via the web.

Within a few months after kobikian.com was officially launched, we saw a strong correlation between the number of customers and an increase in web traffic.

Challenges

SEO. Several optimizing web techniques were used on kobikian.com but it always takes time until code implementations take place and spread across the web. How to do it and when to do it is very important. 

Providing better access from any device for to up-to-date information. During 2008, smart phones were not as popular as they are today. Most websites in Japan were not accessible or too heavy for mobile phones to see, causing problems among users who needed quick information online via phone. 

Costs... The owner of kobikian was not willing to spend a fortune on a website especially when web development companies charged an average of 3K plus...

Solutions

Implementation of up-to-date coding and development techniques that adhere to simplicity. In other words, keeping the site simple and focused on the goal.

Knowledge of mobile systems and unifying them for easier access for all people regardless of their phone carriers. Most importantly the popularity of smart phones made access to information revolutionary, and we adapted to this.

Good cost performance strategies taken by Kumidia Web Marketing help make it affordable for Kobikian to build a website with Kumidia Web Marketing.

Impact

A close look at their analytics indicate growth compared to earlier months. Please take a look.

In the first image we see that In the month of February, analytics reports indicate poor traffic. This is because the site was just launched and optimal coding implementation have not propagated across the net.

In the second image, significant growth is noted in the increase in number of visitors, nearly twice the number of visitors from February. A low bounce rate may also indicate that the content is of interest and informative while the high number of new visitors mean potential for more growth for new customers.

Finally in October, the number of visitors have increased more than 100% (from 314 to 640 users), while still having consistent bounce rates, good average times, and new visits. This indicates to us that a chain reaction for growth has started.  As people find kobikian.com through a search on Google or Yahoo, there are many referrals and direct hits suggesting that word of mouth via blogs to actual person to person is in action.

As for where kobikian.com has expanded... lets take a look at some at the maps below.

The first months indicate that the area that users see kobikian.com are localized. Several months later, we start to see hits from places farther away.

In the third image, more than a year later, people across Japan are visiting kobikian.com. That's exactly what we wanted!

These web statistics show good results but for solid proof, it is through testimonials from the Kobikian staff that they prove their growth.

For example, Kobikian staff have stated that a lot of new faces besides "regulars" have been appearing at their restaurant.

Another sign is that more young people* are dining at Kobikian, which is very interesting because the average customer especially for a traditional soba restaurant in Japan is usually middle-aged to old business type people.*(more young people use the internet than older generations.)

And finally, a nice steady increase in revenue. Although people don't talk about how much they make, major renovations at Kobikian were made to accommodate more people. 

Please keep in mind that even if the web played a huge role in the success of kobikian.com, several factors such as great customer service, high quality food, and an effective dynamic website, ultimately secured the success of Kobikian. 

"A good website will bring in the customer but the services and products that come out of the business, esp. for a brick and mortar, will lead to repeat customers and referrals calling for growth".~ Adam