TopSpot Internet Marketing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a manufacturer of systems and equipment, primarily for the chemical processing industry.

What is your position?

I'm in charge of sales and marketing for North America.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with TopSpot Internet?

We were just looking to optimize our paid search campaigns. We wanted to make sure that the campaigns that we had were set up and managed in the most efficient way possible.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

TopSpot worked with us on our paid search, primarily Google and Bing. They helped us with our campaigns based on keywords and phrases that we identified jointly, and they set up all the campaigns. Since then, the biggest thing we do is monitor the effectiveness of everything and then modifying and adjusting as required to continue to improve our results.

How did you come to work with TopSpot Internet?

They found us actually. One of their sales guys had done a little bit of work with us when he was at a different company. They came and spoke to us about their services. Everything we had done before, we had done on our own. We wanted to see if we could get better results working with somebody that did this for a living and had done this before.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

To date, we’ve spent between $50,000 and $100,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them a couple of years ago now. It was originally a six-month project that we've just extended. We’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The goal is to create leads and bring leads in and turn it into business. We've seen the number of leads increase, and I'd say even the quality of those leads has increased as well. We haven't done a formal return on investment calculation, but if you look at traffic and you look at the number of leads, we've seen a steady improvement basically from the beginning.

How did TopSpot Internet perform from a project management standpoint?

TopSpot has been easy to work with, and they've done a really good job for us throughout.

What distinguishes TopSpot Internet from other providers?

The biggest thing is that the TopSpot team has been really easy to work with, and we've seen some good results also, so it's a combination of those two things that really sets them apart.

Is there anything TopSpot Internet could have improved or done differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The company is Precision Urethane & Machine. We're a polyurethane manufacturer of cast industrial products along with design and machining services.

What is your position?

I am the Vice President of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with TopSpot?

We started working with TopSpot about 11 years ago, and I think we may be one of their first clients actually, from when they made a transition from Thomas Register. I don't know if you're familiar with Thomas Register, back when it was the Industrial Encyclopedia.

At that point, we saw the opportunity to transition into internet marketing, and they were instrumental in educating us on the process, teaching us all the techniques relative to internet marketing: optimization, pay-per-click marketing, and then also web design. They were really very capable in understanding our business needs, the products, and how to present that information in such a way that it generated significant growth for our organization.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

It's a very hands-on collaboration of our team along with their team. TopSpot has a unique approach in how they mirror project management with a team of one specialist in pay-per-click and one specialist in Search Engine Optimization [SEO] and then also a web developer, a team leader and a project manager. What that allows them to do is to focus on specific elements of the site, relative to what the target actually is, be it a certain product or a certain industry.

In our situation, what we did is we focused on specific content, relative to certain industries and certain products that are used in those industries. In our collaboration efforts, we went out to studios, did quite a bit of photography, to make the site and to capture certain types of products that were actually used. Then we generated all the content that we felt would be relevant in that industry.

With their help we searched all the keyword phrases that had a very high impression share. The understanding of what's being searched and the resources they had on hand to discover those search terms is allowed us to see results in a very short period of time. After we launched the site, we were seeing that we were one, two, and three in pay per click. We also saw a very high conversion rate when the links going directly to the site would bring in traffic.

They were able to drive a substantial amount of traffic to our sales department. We saw significant growth as an organization. It rivaled any other marketing means that we were able to make, via either direct mail or actual staff sales with lead generation and traditional prospecting and cold-calling methods. It really has been an instrumental part of the growth of our organization.

How did you come to work with TopSpot?

They came from an industrial environment in Thomas.net and in Thomas Register. They understood the needs of what an industrial manufacturer was looking for. They had a very good grasp of our ad campaign, the understanding of what we did, along with the different processes.

I liked their team approach, where you had specific specialists who were very inquisitive and responsive in trying to understand your needs. That was one of the things I felt differentiated them from some of the other people that we looked at that had a little bit of a learning curve in understanding what our needs were and how we were looking to fulfill those.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost is between $750,000 and $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did TopSpot perform from a project management standpoint?

Their reporting system is awesome, just based on the sheer amount of data they have. It's very easy just to spend an hour or more just immersing yourself in the monthly report that they generate and that they issue for both SEO and pay per click. That really gives you insight to exactly what's been changed and why it's been changed.

Then, the monthly meetings that we have to discuss the ad program and the next level of optimization for our site, are some of the things that they're always looking at. What's the next cutting edge technology that we need to start trying to incorporate? What are the benefits of that? That process has been very productive for us in working with them on a regular basis, which also allows for feedback.

With any marketing campaign, you get out of it what you put into it, and the more interactive you are with their team, the better the results are going to be and that's what we found.

What distinguishes TopSpot from other providers?

I think the flexibility to really try to understand your needs is at the heart of what TopSpot is trying to accomplish. Their President, Dave Underwood, has really been the focal point for them in his commitment to quality and customer service. The team approach is unique in the sense that they really have a number of voices and not just one person.

The amount of perspective and input you receive on your ad campaign is unique to TopSpot’s operation model and what they've done, and I think a large part of why they've seen the growth that they have over the years. It's been a great relationship. We've always found them to be very flexible and very responsive in just about every area.

Is there anything TopSpot could have improved or done differently?

I think in every industry, especially more so in IT and IT-related fields, turnover is always a concern. It's a turnover in every business, and especially in a growing business. If I had to say that there is one potential downside, it’s that.  I like keeping the same team together for a long period of time, and sometimes that's just not realistic. Over the course of 11 years, I'd like to keep the same people once their educated. You have to go through that retraining process periodically and that happens. That's probably the only negative that I would say, that there is turnover and you have to retrain, but no matter what industry you're going to be in, you're going to see some of that.

BACKGROUND

We are a manufacturer of air filters. When I bought the business in 1994, we had one employee and one customer, so we have grown the company to more than 100 employees and tens of millions in sales. I am the owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We noticed the need to focus on online sales in 2004. I decided to start a strong e-commerce presence. We needed to bring the right types of B2B [business-to-business] customers to our e-commerce site, but I couldn't do it alone. I decided to seek out qualified Internet marketing companies to help me generate traffic and online sales.

SOLUTION

I started working on PPC [pay-per-click] and SEO [search engine optimization] campaigns in 2004 after hiring TopSpot. They are local and had good success with other clients. 

We started with a small budget for Google AdWords that TopSpot managed. They also helped us launch our e-commerce site. We were able to make a nice impact with a small budget so we have grown the engagement to a larger budget and added in other digital marketing services like SEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

They have helped us increase online sales by more than $14 million in the past five years. I treat them like family because we have worked together for more than a decade. I completely trust them with all of our online marketing campaigns and highly recommend them to others.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a plastic sheet, rod, and tube distributor. We do a lot of fabrication out of that sheet, rod, and tube. Plexiglas and acrylic Lucite are examples. Plastics are very diversified, so we’re in a lot of different markets with different types of plastic other than just those that I named.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m vice president. My wife owns the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with TopSpot Internet Marketing?

We went through three generations of websites with a couple other website developing marketing companies that just didn’t work. What they developed was good for people to look at, but nobody was staying on and asking questions and getting us any RFQs [request for quotations] for our salespeople. 

I met with them maybe five to eight years ago. I told them I wanted at least 50 RFQs a day to come directly to my desktop to where I could respond to them and get them to my salespeople.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They did the initial website. Then, we did a revamp a few years ago and now we’re tearing down the one we’ve got and we’re completely doing one new site so we can do e-commerce. 

We’ve never had an e-commerce site. We do a lot of business with mom and pop places so they don’t do a lot e-commerce, but I’m seeing that market change because younger generations are getting into this industry. I felt like we needed to redo our website again. This is probably the biggest project we’ve done with them. 

What was your process for selecting TopSpot Internet Marketing with which to work?

I think they cold called me, and I was going to be in Houston and their main office is in Houston. I met with their management team in Houston, and we went over everything. I really wasn’t looking for a new vendor, but all I knew is the previous companies that I had used never delivered what I wanted.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or a personnel work-hour figure?

The most recent project is $70,000. I pay $3,500 a month for marketing.

When was the work completed?

It’s ongoing work. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We’ve seen a huge improvement. I don’t sit in on all the meetings. They’ve got more statistics than I need. I have staff that looks at their reports. What I measure monthly is how many RFQs come across my desk because I personally respond to every one of them. Then, I funnel them to salespeople.

Our Internet sales since we did the last revamp of the website have gone from zero to about half a million a year. I think we sell more than a half a million because we don’t have a great way to track it yet, but we’ll be able to do that with our new website.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

They have never oversold me and they’ve always overdelivered. They sent a whole team to Houston for one day to meet with us. They spent nine hours in the car that day without complaint. That’s dedicated. 

Is there anything unique or special about TopSpot Internet Marketing that really makes them stand out compared to other business partners?

I think their integrity and character in the business world is above reproach. You don’t see that very often. They’re more of a true business partner rather than just a vendor. A business partner is somebody that cares as much about my business and its success as I do. They go to extreme measures to make sure that everything they do for us is successful. They play a big part in helping our sales. They’re true business partners in every sense of the word.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I can’t imagine what it would be. I get more value out of them than I need as far as information. My staff loves the data because it is useful and interesting to view.