Room 214 client, Strategic Media, Inc. http://www.strategicmediainc.com/ builds direct response radio advertising campaigns for clients seeking a national audience. However, they aren’t the only company claiming to do this, as evidenced by the high number of search results for terms related to radio advertising. For Strategic Media the idea of yet another new website redesign without a focus on driving sales and measuring the effectiveness of the message was project stopper. Finding the right partner to not only design the site, but to ensure it’s SEO friendly and implement a complete marketing platform to drive people to the site to generate leads and visibility seemed out of the picture. Enter Room 214 Inc. Recognizing Strategic Media’s unique and distinctive process combined with years of expertise and radio advertising knowledge, it became apparent that the best strategy for visibility would be through continuous posting of relevant and topical content and entering the ongoing radio advertising conversation. The challenge was to prove to the world that Strategic Media is the true expert in direct response radio. The radio advertising marketplace is fragmented and contains many organizations that include advertising agencies, media buyers, radio conglomerates and remnant resellers, not to mention production companies and industry-related associations. Strategic Media wanted to promote its years of experience, expertise and successful analytical process to the sea of national advertisers looking to spend radio dollars wisely and optimize their campaigns.

Strategic Media’s Target Market
National advertisers seeking profitable direct response call-to-action radio campaigns. That’s a pretty narrow target, now the where to find and how to engage these companies and individuals was at the crux of the program.

Objective
Room 214’s objective was to use search visibility to effectively position Strategic Media as the de-facto industry expert in radio advertising. Room 214 worked with Strategic Media to implement a successful programs based on two main driving philosophies:

1. Search Engines are Media
2. Markets are Conversations

If there is not a true online destination for radio advertisers, it became apparent that we would need to look at markets and conversations that play on the periphery of radio advertising and engage the conversation from that angle. Increasing leads and sales was always a key factor, but tracking the lead conversion online was another issue. Because most leads come from the website, we set up a specific trackable 800 number on the website to monitor leads. In addition the sales cycle for this highly sophisticated service is lengthy. Typically, Strategic Media’s prospects have already dedicated an advertising budget for the current year and are researching alternatives for future ad expenditures. Because of this, tracking visits to the contact page as well as the number of articles downloaded.

Strategy/Approach
Our client agreed that by developing unique content and syndicating that content through blogs, article marketing and optimized press releases, we could effectively and dramatically improve organic rankings and showcase the company’s expertise. Starting with keyword research and site mapping, Room 214 built the strategy and the infrastructure for the new site, and implemented high-profile SEO strategies.These services were augmented with a pay per click campaign, custom blog development, an article marketing platform and optimized press releases. Strategic Media and their account team led by Brett Astor have been consistent contributors to the content-building effort. Each month, the team is producing an article, an associated press release and ongoing blog posts. A unique strategy employed was to cross-connect the blog and article marketing applications to provide the site visitor with unique and targeted content based on internal searching. This means that when a site visitor views a blog post, that post is tagged with keywords that will present relevant articles relevant to the post.

Results
As Room 214’s James Clark proclaims, “Let’s be honest, the actual search engine ranking position in Google is not a direct correlation to being a true expert, but being highly visible for a search term is a huge bonus!” Results of the campaign included13 top keyword positions with over 50 results on the first pages of the search engines. The articles, blog entries and search optimization efforts create visibility that catches the attention of the news media as well as potential clients. Recently, the company was one of the primary sources for an in-depth article in Response magazine, a top national direct response marketing publication. The volume of blog posts and articles on the Strategic Media site makes it fast and easy for interested reporters to find timely and relevant content upon which to build their stories. Perhaps the most impressive result has been a dramatic increase in leads. Total leads generated via the company’s web site in February 2007 were up 433% compared to the same month last year. Not too shabby. “Because of our articles and blog, prospects come to us with an understanding of our philosophy and approach to what we do, which makes the entire process of learning about each other and getting a campaign underway much more efficient,” Astor explains. Currently, the site draws nearly 2000 unique visits per month. The articles are viewed approximately 900 times per month and an average of 35 new blog subscribers are added on a monthly basis. The Contact page, which is used as an indicator of further interest, is one of the top five pages on the site, attracting over 200 visits per month. The pay per click (PPC) campaign has resulted in 26,106 visitors to the site since the campaign’s inception, earning a 0.37% click through rate (CTR). Summing it all up, Astor explains, “I rely on Room 214 to be the experts in what’s possible and optimal as it relates to web marketing and to help me determine the most important and relevant investments to proceed with. Beyond that, I have great respect for Room 214’s strategic thinking and really enjoy having those kinds of conversations with them. That makes the whole process more fun than work. We have a good time crafting ways to outsmart and win at tackling the challenges ahead of us.”

If you would like to increase your visibility and expert poisoning, Room 214 has a complete program with proven results. Call James Clark at 303-444-9214 x10 and ask about our Search Visibility Professional Program.

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