If you’ve ever thought about whether or not SEO would be an effective tool for you or your business, take a look at how this powerful internet marketing strategy helped one of our clients boost sales and web presence.

We started doing Search Engine Optimization for our client, Columbine Label Company, in July. Since then, they have been experienced huge jumps in their web traffic. Traffic is great, but driving business through new leads is better.

This is the email I received from our client last week:

Brand Iron can help your business develop an effective SEO strategy. Every company has unique online goals, ie, 2nd handshake, resource for information, make online purchases, demonstrate expertise. A targeted SEO plan can be exactly the shot of adrenaline your company’s online presence needs. Learn more about our Web-O-Nanza™ program or call us today 303-534-1901.

The first thought that comes to mind when you hear the term “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) or “Search Engine Marketing” (SEM), is improving your website page ranking on search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Actually, page rank is just the tip of the iceberg, SEO encompasses a wide variety of tasks that improve a website’s search engine presence.

Unfortunately, the famous line from the popular 90s baseball film, Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come” does not work when it comes to building a website. You need to define your website goals, which coincide with your business goals, and define how you are going to convert those goals on your website.

After the goals are defined, you need a website that is designed and programmed to be “SEO-friendly.” SEO-friendly sites are W3C web standard complaint, use proper document markup, and separate structure from presentation and behavior (we will go into this in more detail in my next blog entry). Brand Iron’s web development team designs and develops SEO-friendly websites on a daily basis.

After your goals are defined and your site is designed and developed, you need to ask the question, “who is your target market?” The answer to this question is easier than you may think…the individual you want to find your website most frequently is the individual who is searching for you! This sounds obvious, but trust me, more often than not, when people implement SEO they are solely focused on a higher page rank and are neglecting the most important target market, someone who is already looking for their company.

A 2007 survey by the internet data firm, comScore, found that 60% of consumers use the web as their first tool of reference to search for local businesses and 60% of those searchers make a purchase from the business’ website. A study by AOL and Henley Centre, a UK market research firm, states that 73% of survey respondents use a search engine as an important source of information when considering a product or service. This is a higher percentage than personal recommendations, TV and print media.

In order to have a successful online presence, you need a successful SEO/SEM campaign. Brand Iron’s “Web-O-Nanza” program is the perfect solution for your website. We map out your website’s primary and secondary goals, and come up with a solution to convert these goals into revenue via your website. We build SEO-friendly websites that target individuals who want to see your website.

Brand Iron is known for forging brands and driving revenue, now with our “Web-O-Nanza” program, we drive web traffic that also drives revenue. Contact Brand Iron today and we will “build a website that will make them come.”

Written By Andrew Hoffman, Design Bandit

Budweiser American Ale

I first came across this television advertisement for Budweiser American Ale a few Sundays back while watching NBC Sunday Night Football. They are marketing towards their target audience, good start. During the commercial I found it interesting that a Dutch owned company’s (InBev) first new product launch will be called Budweiser American Ale. It made me think, “What are they trying to say?” Is this beer more American than the beers they made in the past? Is it more American than its competition? Or are they just trying to get across that “we are still America’s beer.”

This made me analyze what was said in the commercial. They used Words like “savor” and “new friends”. At the end of the commercial they used this interesting line, “not just a new beer, it’s a whole new ale.” This is definitely an attempt to gain greater market share in the growing micro-brewery market. The scene for this ad was in a local pub or tap house much like Falling Rock Tap house in lower downtown Denver.

They have also launched a website for this new product, which is not uncommon for something new to any market. I did find it interesting that it was the ninth listing down on Google when I searched for “Budweiser American Ale.” It also did not have Google AdWord® support. This led to question, “are they really trying to market this beer to the public?” You would assume it would have been one of the first three in my Google search, if they were truly marketing to the public.

At Brand Iron, we have had clients who use us for their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) needs. For example, our company, Brand Iron, is the first one on Google on both the search and the Sponsored Links (AdWords®) section.

I guess Budweiser could use our Web-O-Nanza service at the very least. So if you are reading this InBev/ Anheuser-Busch give us a call to help brand and promote your new product.

America.

Side note: I found this article from the Guardian, a British news source, to be interesting. This was before the Dutch owned company purchased Anheuser-Busch. The summary goes as follows: during the 2006 World Cup, approximately 1000 Dutch football fans were forced to remove their lederhosen in order to gain access to the stadium. The pants had the name of a competing beer (Bavaria) printed on them. FIFA made the decision in order to secure the right of Budweiser, the official sponsor, to advertise exclusively and to prevent ambush marketing by non-sponsors. Bavaria is not a brand of InBev.

Written by Mike Slife