Imagine that you've introduced a revolutionary new bicycle that doesn't use a chain. Neato. You are forced to sell on the Internet exclusively until you're able to convince retailers to carry your product. Now of course, you want everyone who's searching on the Internet for “bicycles” to find you. Pronto.

Sound like an uphill climb? How are you going to convince customers, the media and reviewers that your chainless bike is ready for the mainstream, especially when you are selling online – where customers can't test ride?

Room 214 made the seemingly unattainable goal a reality for Patrick Perugini, president and founder of Dynamic Bicycles, Inc. of Holliston, Mass., when it implemented an integrated online and offline marketing strategy for the company. With a web presence, but no traffic, Dynamic Bicycles knew it had a challenge ahead of them when they set out to rise up the natural search rankings for the keyword “bicycles,” the most popular term in their category

Dynamic Bicycles didn't have the budget for a PPC campaign, especially given the very competitive nature of the category. The term bicycles is searched upon 50 million times per month. A year later, the company is appearing on page 2 (of the SERPs) for the term bicycles and business is moving along as swiftly as Lance Armstrong on his rally toward the finish line.

“We were competing for a search term with enormous popularity and a large number of major players in the industry, many of which have been in business for decades. For us to rank as high as we are, and continue to work our way up, is enormous. As an online business, our primary source of leads and sales comes from our online exposure.” explains Perugini.

The entirely integrated campaign, managed and implemented by Room 214, included the following:

• Custom e-commerce application
• Natural search optimization
• Traditional link building
• Pay-per-click advertising and optimization
• Customized landing pages
• Article marketing
• Public relations
• Trade show support
• E-mail marketing
• Website analytics
• Multimedia and blogging strategies

One finding, uncovered early in the process, was the popularity of the term chainless bicycles. This phrase was being searched upon often, indicating that there was a definite market for the product. Likewise, there was a great opportunity to optimize the site to this term in order to capture this qualified audience.

One true indication that SEO and SEM efforts were paying off -- orders keep churning in through the website, without any human interface. Customers are able to get what they need, including information and peace of mind, to make their purchase online with confidence, despite the lack of a test ride.

“When a person comes to our site from a PPC ad or a natural ranking or someone buys a bike and we have never talked to them… that to me, is a testament to the combination of the power and reach of our PPC ads, the strength of our web content and the simplicity of our commerce process. I give a lot of credit to Room 214 for the front and back end of this process. They do the front end in terms of lead generation and the back-end in terms of the commerce process. They are very involved in the orders that come through the website where we don't have any verbal or direct interaction with that prospect. If anyone calls us and says they saw us online, we give Room 214 all of the credit,” explains Perugini.

The public relations strategy that Room 214 implemented resulted in numerous articles in a diverse range of print publications including Forbes, Popular Mechanics and American Way, as well as an appearance on Fox network's morning variety news program FOX & Friends. Dynamic Bicycles subsequently added this video clip to their homepage, gaining additional mileage from the product's appearance.

Remaining on top of the SERPs is a long-term effort. It takes often a year to obtain rankings in the top pages for a term as popular as bicycles . When great rankings are eventually obtained, sites will require ongoing optimization to maintain its position. Room 214 continues to optimize Dynamic Bicycle's SEO campaign and plans to launch social media applications such as blogs, RSS feeds, live chat and video podcasts. With the help of Room 214, Dynamic Bicycles is gearing up for great ride in the online cycling industry.

Terms Used In This Case Study

PPC: Pay-Per-Click advertising is an advertising model used on websites, advertising networks, and search engines where the advertising costs apply only when the ad is clicked on.

SERPS: Search-Engine Results Pages are the results you see after entering a search in a search engine.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization refers to methods aimed at improving website rankings based on key search terms in search engine listings.

SEM: Similar to SEO, but broader, search engine marketing refers to methods that include search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, article marketing, link building and other search-engine related services aimed at increasing exposure and traffic to a website.

Room 214 offers podcast consulting and production, custom blog development, search engine optimization, reputation management, pay per click advertising, and web development services. For more information, call James Clark in Boulder, Colorado at 303-444-9214 x10.