Record Sales During Covid,
How We Helped PJ Trailers Canada Turn a Crisis Into a Growth Boom
While other businesses with physical locations were watching their walk-in traffic traffic disappear and their phones were going quiet during Covid, PJ Trailers Canada's phone was ringing off the hook.
The reason? A complete lead generation system that turned pandemic-era restrictions into a competitive advantage.
When Covid hit Canada in spring 2020, dealerships faced an immediate problem: walk-in traffic – traditionally the lifeblood of trailer sales – was strongly discouraged or outright restricted.
For companies without a strong digital presence, that meant lost sales. For PJ Trailers Canada, it meant something different.
At that time, PJ Trailers Canada operated 5 locations across Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario, with a dealer network spanning the country.
By the end of the pandemic, they had added a 6th location, strategically placed in the high traffic corridor between Ottawa and Montreal.
PJ's also manufactures the True North Trailers product line and runs a national eCommerce parts store.
When we launched their Google Ads and Meta Ads campaigns in April 2020, the timing turned out to be critical.
Huge Increase in Phone Inquiries & Social Media Messages at the Beginning of Covid
Buyers who couldn't walk into a dealership weren't giving up.
They were picking up the phone and sending Facebook messages. Our ad campaigns and call tracking were built to capture exactly that behaviour.
By July 2020, PJ Trailers Canada was receiving 201 leads in a single month from these digital marketing campaigns. Inquiries from people actively researching & planning to purchase trailers.
These were additional calls & messages on top of leads that came in from other sources.
Throughout 2020, phone and social media leads consistently outpaced website leads, a direct reflection of how Covid-restricted buyers were choosing to reach out.
When restrictions loosened over time, much of the phone inquiries shifted towards walk-ins again, as we can see in the chart above.
The "New Normal" for PJ Trailers Canada
But we noticed something else: new habits were formed because of the extent of the pandemic.
The "new normal" for PJ Trailers Canada was a continued steady stream of social media inquiries from then on.
PJ's management told us during this period that they were experiencing record trailer and parts sales!
These sales were driven in large part by the digital lead generation system we had built and were actively managing.
Their sales team came to their desks each morning to a list of new leads that needed to be responded to, inquiries that kept coming in after hours during the previous evening.
Smooth Transition from Our Agency to Their In-House Marketing Team After a 3-Year Working Relationship
The positive momentum that we generated during some of the toughest economic conditions in recent history led to them hiring additional staff.
After approximately 2 1/2 years of working together, the owners of PJ Trailers Canada made the decision to bring all of their marketing in-house.
Instead of a situation that looks more like a hostage negotiation, which is all too common with many other agencies, we started preparing for a seamless transition to their internal team.
Of course, we were disappointed to lose this client since we enjoyed working with their management team.
The result: their team inherited a fully operational digital lead generation and eCommerce machine that had already proven it could deliver – consistently, month after month.
