An efficient team structure improved the cycle of iteration, hitting the conversion target four months running

Kizuki Inc. (head office: Shibuya, Tokyo) runs learning support and employment support services for people facing a range of difficulties, including school refusal, social withdrawal, depression and developmental disorders. Having expanded its business, including through an M&A deal in autumn 2020, the company began working with NowVillage to build an effective structure for running its digital marketing.

We asked Mr Hayashida, executive officer in the Marketing Division, about the specifics of the work and what they expect from NowVillage.

Too few specialist staff, and a major problem with the PDCA cycle

―What prompted you to approach us?

Even before we spoke with NowVillage, we were working on three areas of web marketing: SEO articles, search advertising and YouTube. But as the business grew, we needed to do more to strengthen customer acquisition through web marketing.

For SEO articles, for example, we had learned know-how from someone who writes textbooks on web writing and occasionally took advice from outside consultants, and at the level of individual articles many of them ranked well and led to conversions. But we lacked sufficient knowledge on questions such as “How should we think about the overall picture?”, “Which metrics should we really be looking at?”, “What should we do to increase conversions?” and “What should we do with articles whose rankings or conversions are poor?”, so it was hard to move forward with substantive, concrete discussions. It was much the same for search advertising and YouTube videos.

Then in November 2020 we gained a new business division through M&A, the company grew larger still, and we began to feel the limits of running our various web marketing tasks with “a few people in-house plus an occasional consultant”. We also had no real grasp of how to allocate resources appropriately. As a company, we had not standardised how to run the PDCA cycle for our web marketing initiatives.

We consulted NowVillage in January 2021. It was exactly a year after we had started running our YouTube channel, and video updates had stalled, so we wanted to rebuild the whole thing, including our other issues.

―Why did you choose NowVillage?

One reason is that your CEO, Mr Imamura, and our CEO, Mr Yasuda, had known each other for some time. That said, we were actually considering several other companies as well. The other companies offered various opinions during our discussions, but they were somehow not very assertive, and they often asked us, “What do you think, as a company?” We struggled with that: “We need consulting precisely because we don’t know the answer when you ask us…”
NowVillage, by contrast, laid out concrete hypotheses and figures based on data, and then strongly proposed, “Let’s give it a try!” We sensed a proactive attitude, and because they gave us plenty of material for decision-making, it was easier to discuss things internally and consider the costs. That was the deciding factor.

Up to 40% lower CPA in ad operations

―Please tell us about what you have worked on since the consulting began in February 2021.

We set a strategy with increasing the number of enquiries as the overall goal, and we are working on SEO articles, landing page production and running search advertising.

For SEO articles, they showed us in detail everything from keyword selection to how to proceed in practice, and we first asked them to write around seven articles on our behalf. For the destination pages that turn those SEO articles into conversions (which double as ad landing pages), they not only created them but also taught us the know-how, such as how to use them and how to present them effectively. Our previous landing page was just the top page with some of the wording rewritten, so its role was half-baked. Thanks to them building it properly, I think we now have a structure in which we can think about the purpose and effect of landing pages in-house.

For search advertising, in addition to creating landing pages, we aimed for efficient operation. By clarifying what we should do in-house and what we leave to NowVillage, and putting in place a structure that lets us take action at the right time, our collaboration in day-to-day operations is going well. Beyond improving CVR, we are also pleased to have achieved up to a 40% reduction in CPA.

They also made proposals on how to use the website for “Katei Kyoshi Kizuki Kagaku”, a new home tutoring business that came from the M&A mentioned earlier. After several rounds of discussion we concluded that SEO would be the most effective approach, and I think being able to decide the website’s role and strategy together is another of the results.

An efficient operating structure that lets us focus 100% on our own tasks

―Where do you feel the collaboration is paying off?

In how well the scheme for identifying problems works.

To take one example from search advertising, we were able to improve the ad copy and landing pages to raise our Quality Score, which had been an issue, and impressions and impression share went up too. And because the two companies have separated their tasks, we can now put 100% of our effort into what falls within our own remit, so we are working very efficiently. I think this way of running the PDCA cycle is really good; honestly, it’s good enough that if it didn’t produce results, I’d say we were in real trouble (laughs).

Overall, we started the various initiatives in June 2021 and have hit our KPI, the number of conversions, for four consecutive months. In the past we used to struggle by trial and error in-house even with things we had no specialist knowledge of, so being able to leave budget allocation and the day-to-day tuning of initiatives to professionals is a huge help. By dividing the work like that while tackling it together, and starting to see results, I feel a sense of being one team has grown between the two companies.

―Is there anything from your dealings so far that has stayed with you?

There was a time when some SEO data for the “Kagaku” website dropped a lot compared with the previous month. I absolutely had to find out the reason before a meeting the next day, and when I consulted them, at a loss as to what to do, they dealt with it straight away! Even though it was a sudden request, they looked into it the same day, which was a real help.

A “team” that pursues results together

―What do you see as our distinguishing features? And what do you expect from us going forward?

I’d say a craftsman’s temperament, in the good sense. You have knowledge to an almost obsessive degree, you take a deep interest in us and you pursue results together with us, which we really appreciate in a partner.

I think what matters from here is keeping the initiatives that are working as they are while getting ahead of problems, so I also look forward to your help with identifying problems day to day and building the structure to do that.

―What kind of companies would you recommend our services to?

Rather than companies that want to hand over operations entirely to reduce their internal workload, I’d recommend you to companies that want to stay hands-on themselves and have specific needs along the lines of “we’d like this done this way”. Companies with a culture of forming a team, sharing problems and always searching for answers together in pursuit of results could, I think, build a collaborative relationship with the same kind of enthusiasm.

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Kizuki Inc.
・Website: https://kizuki-corp.com/
・What they do
　Kizuki Kyoiku Juku
　Kizuki Business College
　Kizuki Kagaku

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