Retail Online Integration

You will be automatically redirected to retailonlineintegration in 20 seconds.
Skip this advertisement.

Advertisement
Advertisement
 
 

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Branders.com Grows Its Revenues Via SEO

June 14, 2010
Get the Flash Player to see this rotator.
 
Problem: Branders.com, the largest online seller of promotional items in the world, needed an integrated solution to manage its growing SEO operation and provide comprehensive competitive SEO intelligence.

Solution: Partnered with an enterprise-class SEO platform provider.

Results: Since launching its new SEO platform in 2008, Branders.com's revenues have increased over $3 million per year, with a 20 percent increase in the productivity of its SEO team.

Founded in 1999, Branders.com is the lowest priced and largest online seller of promotional items in the world. It estimates that online now accounts for over 15 percent of the industry's $15 billion annual revenue, with a significant portion coming from organic search referrals. Branders.com has led the industry in its adoption of SEO, accounting for approximately 50 percent of its online business (the other 50 percent generated from traditional pay per click).

"SEO economics are much better than those for PPC," says Jerry McLaughlin, CEO of Branders.com, in a press release from BrightEdge, the retailer's SEO platform provider. "However, SEO does need more effort — particularly early on to establish a high position in the rankings."

Branders.com has a dedicated team of SEO specialists who currently manage a portfolio of over 100,000 search terms or keywords across a variety of search engines. It traditionally relied on spreadsheets to manage its SEO operations, as well as a number of different analytical tools. However, none of these tools were integrated and all required a significant amount of manual effort every week.

An Integrated Enterprise-Class SEO Platform
Branders.com realized its current infrastructure couldn't scale to support its growing SEO operation. The company needed an integrated platform that could handle large keyword volumes and provide comprehensive competitive SEO intelligence. After a review of the alternatives, Branders.com contracted with BrightEdge, a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of on-demand, enterprise-class SEO platforms in 2008. 

"There are a lot of search marketing tools out there, and they're not all the same,” said McLaughlin. "BrightEdge's SEO platform gives us the ability to manage large keyword volumes at scale. It gives us the opportunity to see what our competitors are doing and what works for them. BrightEdge gives us precise visibility into the value of SEO opportunities along with actionable intelligence into the most effective strategies to attack these opportunities."

SEO as a Competitive Advantage
Branders.com also sees other strategic benefits from the BrightEdge platform: It recently acquired Promopeddler.com, the No. 4 player in its industry, with BrightEdge's platform playing a critical role in the evaluation. "BrightEdge gave us a better estimate of what potential acquisition candidates would be worth to us based on the analysis of the value of their now known organic search traffic," explained McLaughlin.

Branders.com's strong position in the natural search rankings can be attributed in large part to its new SEO platform. This is a key competitive advantage given how difficult it is to move up in search rankings. However, in the long term McLaughlin believes such capabilities will become a competitive necessity, not just in his industry but for all e-commerce companies.
 

SPONSORED CONTENT

MORE ON E-COMMERCE >>

FROM THE BOOKSTORE

<P>“Blanchard is demanding. He won’t allow you to flip through this book, nod your head, and leave. If you’re in, you’re going to have to invest to get your rewards.” <BR><STRONG>--Chris Brogan</STRONG>, president of Human Business Works <BR><BR>“Social media isn’t inexpensive; it’s different expensive. The human effort required to do it right is significant, and not knowing precisely how social media helps your business and how to gauge that progress is a dereliction of duty. In <EM>Social Media ROI</EM>, Blanchard provides the missing playbook for sensible, sustainable, profitable social communication. It’s about time.” <BR><STRONG>--Jay Baer</STRONG>, coauthor of <EM>The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social <BR></EM><BR>“<EM>Social Media ROI</EM> gets down to the heart of the matter: How will social communications positively impact my organizational goals? Olivier takes us through a journey starting from the start, creating a strategy to achieve objectives, and in turn, the means to measure return on investment. If you want to get serious about online communications, you can’t go wrong with <EM>Social Media ROI</EM>.” <BR><STRONG>--Geoff Livingston</STRONG>, author of <EM>Welcome to the Fifth Estate</EM> and <EM>Now Is Gone</EM> <BR><BR>“Olivier explains the intricacies of building a social media-influenced company for every layman to understand. It is important to understand reach, attention, and influence for social media ROI. This is the book to help with that understanding.” <BR><STRONG>--Kyle Lacy</STRONG>, principal at MindFrame (yourmindframe.com) and author of <EM>Branding Yourself <BR></EM><BR>“Ladies and gentlemen, the social media code has officially been cracked. In <EM>Social Media ROI</EM>, Blanchard reveals how companies can apply the massive power of social media to achieve equally massive results. Incredibly practical, yet supremely enjoyable, this book offers a clear roadmap to growing your revenue in the dizzying world of tweets and retweets, likes and shares, connections and comments.” <BR><STRONG>--Sally Hogshead</STRONG>, author of <EM>Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation</EM> <BR><BR>“If you know Olivier, you know he goes beyond the bullshit. He ‘gets it.’ This book will put you in the mindset to successfully plan and achieve real business objectives with social media. It’s a hard fact that good business decisions depend on real results. Olivier avoids the fluff with clear-cut ideas that will help you produce results.” <BR><STRONG>--Brandon Prebynski</STRONG>, social media strategist <BR><BR><STRONG>Use Social and Viral Technologies to Supercharge Your Customer Service! <BR></STRONG><BR>Use this book to bring true business discipline to your social media program and align with your organization’s goals. Top branding and marketing expert Olivier Blanchard brings together new best practices for strategy, planning, execution, measurement, analysis, and optimization. You will learn how to define the financial and nonfinancial business impacts you are aiming for--and achieve them. <EM>Social Media ROI</EM> delivers practical solutions for everything from structuring programs to attracting followers, defining metrics to managing crises. Whether you are in a startup or a global enterprise, this book will help you gain more value from every dime you invest in social media. </P> Social Media ROI

“Blanchard is demanding. He won’t allow you to flip through this book, nod your head, and leave. If you’re in, you’re going to have to invest to get your rewards.”
--Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works

“Social media isn’t inexpensive; it’s different expensive. The human effort required to do


...

ORDER NOW

Available as a PDF.<BR> <BR>A guide to prospecting, lead generation, building an Opt-in database, tracking, social media integration, deliverability, mining content and balanced creative. While email marketing has reached maturity, there’s still plenty of life in this channel — if used wisely. <BR><BR>That’s the focus of this new guide to email marketing, with articles devoted to best practices for prospecting; continuing to build and refresh your opt-in file; how social and email work together; generating relevant content; keeping your messages safe from spam filters and junk-mail folders; and more. <BR><BR>Are you searching for ways to create stronger email marketing campaigns? <BR><BR>The DirectMarketingIQ and Target Marketing editorial teams have been researching, writing and collecting expert advice from industry leaders about how to create top-notch email marketing campaigns for years. <BR><BR>We’ve compiled this information and made it easy for you to find all in one place, with our easy-to-read report – <EM>Email Marketing That Works (2nd Edition)</EM>. Email Marketing that Works (2nd Edition)

Available as a PDF.

A guide to prospecting, lead generation, building an Opt-in database, tracking, social media integration, deliverability, mining content and balanced creative. While email marketing has reached maturity, there’s still plenty of life in this channel — if used wisely.

That’s the focus of this new guide to email



...

ORDER NOW

 

COMMENTS

Click here to leave a comment...
Comment *
Most Recent Comments: