ZO Skin Health™ is a Del Mar, California-based manufacturer of high-end skin care products created by company founder, Zein Obagi, MD. Dr. Obagi introduced medically sound, anti-aging skin care products twenty years ago. Since then, he and his team at ZO Skin Health have developed and expanded the line, which includes everything from cleansers to hand creams to sunscreens. Today, his goal is to introduce these high-demand “cosmeceuticals” to health-, age- and beauty-conscious consumers across the country.

In order to do this most effectively, the skin care company wanted an online presence to promote its products to mainstream consumers as well as to professionals in resorts and day spas. It hired a large, award-winning web marketing agency to build an E-Commerce site which launched in May of 2008.

Within a few short months, ZO Skin Health found itself hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of dollars in agency fees for the e-commerce site development and monthly maintenance ... but without any corresponding growth. With so much money being funneled toward those fees, the skin care company was severely limited in being able to grow the business, and therefore revenue, more cost effectively.

ZO Skin Health turned to Leslie Hahn, founder of Cowgirl Interactive, for help in January, 2009. The Phoenix, Arizona-based internet consulting and outsource firm analyzed the E-Commerce site and realized that it was nothing more than an open-source solution without any tailoring to ZO Skin Health’s branding and e-business needs. It lacked the ability to support the functionality the company needed to compete in the online retail space.

Leslie brought in several specialized E-Commerce programmers to incorporate Flash capabilities, a blog and customized modules into the site that would help generate the online revenue that the client was looking for. Specifically, Cowgirl Interactive introduced:

• the MouseCall feature that allows site visitors to post questions about skin conditions and the product line which are then answered by a panel of skin care experts, and sometimes Dr. Obagi himself
• a blog in which Dr. Obagi writes about hot topics and recommendations for skin health that people can then comment on
• a Google Adwords campaign to help draw prospects from across the country who are interested in and actively searching online for effective skin care products

Simply removing the agency layer enabled ZO Skin Health to realize positive measurable results. The company recognized that the agency model was a bit too cost-prohibitive for a medium-sized company like theirs.

The proof: In the first five months of 2009, ZO Skin Health saved 62% on its web development costs by transitioning from an outsourced agency to Cowgirl Interactive, and revenue increased an average of 22% per month. The blog alone has helped generate more than 20% of the revenue via the website.

As a result the skin care company is now able to reinvest those savings into marketing initiatives that focus on client retention and acquisition, something they hadn’t been able to do previously. Some of the initiatives ZO Skin Health is currently considering include implementing a customer loyalty plan, discounting shipping, and starting affiliate networks, to name a few.

“We’ve appreciated working with Leslie and her team, and more important than that, enjoyed the growth—not only in terms of revenues, but customer retention,” said Donna Queen, president of ZO Skin Health. “I used to dread thinking about our website. We couldn’t afford to make any improvements to it because any little change—every little change—was so expensive. But with Cowgirl Interactive we’ve taken marketing initiatives and improved functionality. So I am not afraid of looking at the ROI on our site. Now I look forward to it.”

See what Cowgirl Interactive has done for ZO Skin Health at http://www.zoskinhealth.com/home.html