BillyGrey and the Case of the Mismatched Style

BillyGrey Custom Clothiers was founded by Bill Whitney in 2007. Like many great businesses, BillyGrey was born from the serendipitous intersection of opportunity and necessity.

In 1990, Bill Whitney went to work for his father, an expert craftsman in leather goods. During the weekdays, Bill learned everything his father could teach him about how to manufacture various pieces of leather clothing and accessories. On Saturdays, however, Bill spent much of his mornings developing his own products just for fun.

Years later, Bill’s interests in custom clothing lead him to a job at a custom clothing store. It was here where he learned his biggest lesson of all: the industry was wrong. Rather than encouraging Bill to dress each customer in a way that would benefit him, Bill’s superiors told Bill that closing a sale was priority number one. Recognizing this massive flaw – that the store he worked for wasn’t treating its customers the way they deserved to be treated – Bill decided to venture out on his own. He made it his mission to create the perfect customer experience that put each individual’s personal style and self-confidence ahead of everything else. He wanted his customers to be present to their greatness, always.

Thus, BillyGrey Custom Clothiers was born.

Services Provided

SEO Strategy & Execution
PPC Strategy & Execution
Website Design & Development
Social Media Strategy & Management
Content Marketing Strategy
Video Production
Email Marketing
Social Advertising
Press Releases

Industry

Fashion

The Challenge

“By showing clients how to develop and execute their own personal style, we can be an advocate and advisor to them ensuring that their wardrobes evolve with them throughout the years and throughout their careers.”

A strong brand deserves an even stronger voice.

Over the last decade, BillyGrey Custom Clothiers has been helping clients refine their self images, close the deals they never thought they could close, and feel more empowered in their daily lives.

For some, this would’ve been the perfect success story. But Bill wasn’t satisfied with stopping there; he wanted to reach more people so that they could access the same confidence his existing customers shared.

That’s when Seafoam Media was brought into the fold.

Liz Oeltjen talks about BillyGrey’s challenges.

The Opportunity

Immediately, the Seafoam team went to work redefining BillyGrey Custom Clothiers’ online potential and bringing Bill Whitney’s expertise to the masses.

We tackled this by focusing on three key elements of the BillyGrey brand:

1. Expertise

The majority of Bill Whitney’s life has revolved around the custom clothing industry. Making clothes that empower the wearer is Bill’s passion, and his devotion to both his trade and his brand reflect that. Why shouldn’t his brand’s marketing strategy do the same?

2. Voice

If you’ve ever had the chance to meet Bill Whitney, you know how infectious he can be. Does his charisma exude from him because of the sharp clothes he wears? Maybe a bit. But mostly, Bill is a blast to talk to because he truly loves what he does!

3. Relationships

The lesson Bill learned early on in his career didn’t just compel him to take a broader look at the state of his industry; it was so vital that it became woven into the very fabric of BillyGrey. People are at the core of Bill’s business, so it was important for us to inject this into every element of his internet marketing strategy.

The Strategy

The fine details always look better up close.

A really cool thing about the BillyGrey brand is that it leans heavily on visual elements to convey its message. Since there’s no better way to showcase Bill Whitney’s custom designs and bespoke suits to his audience than by providing close-up images of his latest work, BillyGrey was a perfect candidate for platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.

When designing BillyGrey’s social media strategy, it was also incredibly important for us to understand Bill’s customers before we tried to engage with them.

According to analytical data pulled from our family of marketing partners, we’ve found that women historically like and comment on social media posts more than men. Since the majority of BillyGrey’s customers are men, we had to adjust the way we reached customers and measured our social media success in combination with website data.

Holly Sinclair explains BillyGrey’s content strategy.

Holly Wentworth talks social media.

Liz breaks down how we strategized the BillyGrey website build.

A web of ties, and other fine clothing.

A website is exactly what its developers make it out to be. Amid the many lines of code it takes to produce even a simple-looking webpage, it’s easy for a brand’s site to feel bland or stagnant.

In the case of BillyGrey, their original website highlighted what they did, but it lacked the style that would truly portray the soul of their brand.

Especially for a brand such as BillyGrey, we needed Bill’s website to look clean, modern, and inviting. We needed to show Bill’s customers that his website wasn’t simply a place to learn a bit more about the BillyGrey brand — it was a place where they could connect with their own sense of style by drawing from Bill’s expertise.

You reap what you sew (pun intended).

BillyGrey is a fun partner to work with for many reasons.

First, we think that Bill Whitney has an incredible vision, and we are so thrilled to have the chance to work with him and his customers. We’re excited to continue to show the world what BillyGrey has to offer.

Second, BillyGrey really challenged us to utilize all the tools in our toolbox – strategy, content creation, social media, SEO, and web development – in ways that boosted our team’s strategic thinking and creative output. And the journey isn’t over; we’re still tweaking BillyGrey’s strategy and pushing his brand further online.