St John Ambulance
Marketing Director
A Digital Transformation Success Story: Quadrupling Online Sales
St. John Ambulance is a charitable, non profit organization dedicated to saving lives at work, home, and play through first aid training and emergency preparedness. With a national presence across Canada, they offer a wide range of services including standardized first aid courses, CPR and AED training, mental health programs, and the sale of essential first aid supplies and equipment.
🌟 During my time at St. John Ambulance, I led a digital-first approach to drive brand awareness and improve sales performance. Through a strategic digital transformation, we quadrupled online sales for St. John Ambulance, dramatically increased AED sales by 650% monthly, and expanded the reach of life-saving equipment and training across Canada, ultimately aligning business growth with the organization's mission to save lives.
Overview
The Challenge and Hypothesis
Challenge:
We were trying to reach an increasingly younger demographic with outdated online properties. Despite having a wealth of content, it wasn't being distributed meaningfully or communicated in a way that was shareable or emotionally engaging. Our online presence failed to effectively educate potential customers about the critical importance of AEDs, limiting our ability to convert interest into sales, especially for a high-ticket item.
Hypothesis:
I wagered that people would consistently purchase more AEDs (a high-ticket item around $2,000) online if they had a better understanding of the need for these life saving devices. This bet was inspired by the growing trend of consumers buying cars and other expensive items, traditionally left to offline sales, online. Our goal was to dramatically increase sales and position ourselves as the go-to provider for life-saving equipment.
Strategy
Emotional Storytelling: We leveraged real-life AED rescue stories to create urgency and foster emotional connections with our audience.
High Value Educational Content: We developed extensive resources and audience specific content explaining the importance of AEDs, positioning ourselves as industry experts.
Digital-First Approach: We completely overhauled our e-commerce platform, optimizing for user experience, search engine optimization (SEO), and landing pages for targeted campaigns.
Unique Value Proposition: We emphasized our centuries-long expertise and non-profit status to differentiate ourselves from competitors.
Data-Driven Audience Insights: We conducted comprehensive research to deeply understand our diverse audience segments, better understand people's current level of awareness and craft content and messaging that resonates.
Targeted Digital Campaigns: We developed and executed tailored marketing strategies for different sectors, increasing engagement rates substantially.
Competitive Research: Our analysis revealed untapped potential in Google Shopping Ads for AEDs, which we leveraged due to their visual nature and placement.
Digital First, Not Digital Only: We embraced an integrated marketing approach, blending online and offline touchpoints, including online properties, targeted digital campaigns, and physical presence across 26 branches and classrooms.
IPSOS Study: We commissioned an IPSOS study revealing cardiac arrest survival rates in high-rises, highlighting the urgent need for readily accessible AEDs.
Brand Awareness: We updated our digital presence to appeal to an increasingly younger demographic.
"Help A Heart" Campaign
Paired with our awareness efforts, we launched the "Help A Heart" Campaign. This initiative was designed to increase the number of AEDs available in public spaces. The campaign had two primary objectives:
Improve sales of AEDs to businesses and organizations
Boost charitable giving to fund the placement of AEDs in high-need areas
Through this dual approach, we not only saw an increase in AED sales but also experienced a significant uptick in charitable donations. This allowed us to place more life-saving devices in communities that might otherwise lack access.
Increased Sales of CPR and AED Courses
As a result of our online marketing efforts and the "Help A Heart" Campaign, we saw a substantial increase in the sale of CPR and AED training courses. This boost in interest had multiple positive outcomes:
Increased revenue for the charity.
With more people trained in life-saving techniques, communities became better equipped to respond to cardiac emergencies.
Resulted in a more educated population and community advocates for life saving AEDs and CPR training.
Breakthrough Results
Online AED sales grew by 650% a month
Overall e-commerce sales for all safety products quadrupled
Marketing drove lead generation for offline bulk AED orders (school districts, condo buildings, workplaces)
Ad campaign conversions improved by 160% while reducing spend
Set a trajectory for the organization to sell 1,000 AEDs annually
Improved corresponding course sales for CPR & AED Training
Increased Charitable Giving
Growth in Online and Offline Sales
Importantly, amping up online sales didn't cannibalize offline business. Instead, as we enhanced our online education about AEDs in gyms, workplaces, condos, and school districts, our sales department began handling offline bulk orders of 30+ AEDs.
Outcome
Sales and Social Impact: Aligning Business Growth with Life-Saving Mission
Our success stemmed from creating a strong relationship between marketing and sales, improving awareness, empathizing with our audience, crafting a thoughtful content strategy, and leaning into targeted messaging.
This push for AEDs not only put more life-saving devices into the public but also led to an increase in charitable donations, as well as life-saving CPR and AED training. Our efforts aligned with our charitable mission to save lives at work, home, and play, reinforcing St. John Ambulance's commitment to improving health and safety for all Canadians.
