Case Study: Schwartz Communications
Bringing New Business to a Market Leader with an integrated
Internet marketing strategy
A website design and search engine marketing case study
October 12, 2004
Schwartz Communications is the leading PR agency for technology and healthcare
companies. They have achieved outstanding results for a range of companies,
including the household names of ebay and Lycos, along with a wealth of
other technology companies. In February 2004, Schwartz Communications
selected Backbone Media to help redesign their website and generate leads
and complement existing sales channels.
Background Marketing Goals
The original website, created during the Internet boom, was primarily
designed to attract new employees. Now that the agency has more than 160
employees, this was less of a priority. The company’s vice presidents—most
agencies’ traditional source of new business leads—are focused
on providing strategic counsel and running their accounts and not on generating
new business. So Schwartz decided to update its site to better communicate
its brand and support its business objectives. With the revamp, Schwartz
realized it had the opportunity to turn its Website into a powerful tool
for generating leads to complement its existing sales channels.
Schwartz turned to Backbone Media Inc., a leader in search engine marketing
and website design to make this a reality. Seeing an opportunity to evolve
the Schwartz Communications brand, Backbone enlisted Bowman Design, as
Creative Director and Designer for the project. During the discovery process
the team identified Schwartz’s core strength as being its ability
to help clients articulate compelling stories and leverage the power of
media. The team set out to do the same for Schwartz.
The goals for the project were to:
- Differentiate Schwartz Communications as a high tech PR firm that
turns complicated stories into plain English
- Reinforce Credibility
- Increase capability of the site to generate leads, and secure pitch
meetings
- Provide easy to navigate site with multiple opportunities for users
to contact Schwartz
- Create a consistent brand representing core values
- Implement easy-to-learn and use content management system
- Attain top search engine positions on specific public relations terms
Implementation Specifics
The team worked closely with Schwartz VPs to produce an online B2B strategy
that incorporates a compelling website design with an integrated search
engine marketing approach. The result is a website that leverages an impressive
public relations client list, a vast collection of PR success stories
and a steady stream of client media coverage to create an online marketing
advantage for Schwartz.
Many agency sites rarely change their content, or simply contain lists
of all the clients for whom an agency has ever worked. Schwartz understood
its prospects would want to know what it was doing now and would be interested
to learn that Schwartz delivers consistent results. To emphasize results,
the site design features three key sections—a constantly updated
listing of Client Coverage, Case Studies and Expertise to educate potential
clients about Schwartz through real examples and accolades about its achievements
and its specific vertical / industry expertise. The implementation of
these content sections enriches the overall user experience while also
providing increased content relevancy for improved search engine rankings.
To emphasize Schwartz’s take no prisoners approach to PR the team
created a website design that utilizes bold messaging and typography,
accompanied by dramatic background images as well as concise engaging
content. You will notice a number of “S” words on the site,
which are attributes of Schwartz—Savvy, Spirited, Strategic and
Stirring Up Markets. Branded “Start Relating” callouts throughout
the site promote the ultimate goal for the website by providing potential
business customers with quick and easy access to Schwartz contact form.
The backdrop for the bold messaging and content incorporates many dramatic
images of The Guggenheim Museum, located in Bilbao, Spain. “We chose
The Guggenheim Museum as a central image in the Web site design because
the building is regarded by many as the most beautiful and innovative
man-made creation of the past several decades,” said Steve Schwartz,
president of Schwartz Communications. “The titanium-clad building
could not have been envisioned or produced without marvels in imagination
and software. In short, The Guggenheim Museum is a perfect symbol of what
we are doing at Schwartz.”
As a leading public relations firm, Schwartz’s credibility is also
reflected by the quality of the content it publishes about itself. Schwartz
required a Content Management System (CMS) that enabled authorized personnel
to instantly make changes to the website in a way that would not harm
the visual integrity. A completely customized content management system
was developed. Built from the ground up, this custom Backbone Media CMS
provides a search engine optimized technical architecture that features
text navigation links, short spider friendly urls and user managed meta
and title tags. The CMS is another example of how search engine marketing
concerns were addressed throughout the design and development process.
Measured Outcome
A robust tracking system enables the marketing team to analyze web traffic
and the ROI of search advertising campaigns and monitor search positions.
The results speak for themselves, according to Steve Schwartz: “Since
the new Web site launched we have noticed a substantial increase in qualified
leads that come in through the Web. The site is clearly effective at conveying
the messages we wanted to communicate and attracting qualified prospects.
Backbone Media has been a great partner in making this happen.”
Since the new site launched on May 5, 2004,Schwartz has:
- Closed multiple new business accounts
- Experienced a 450% increase in new business leads via the website
- Seen a 94% increase in search engine traffic,
- Experienced a 170% increase in visits to the “Contact Us”
page.
- And reached top positions in Google for specific phrases, including
5th position for the phrase “PR firm”
Establishing a Platform for Long-term Internet Marketing Success
The Schwartz website project is an example of Backbone Media’s
commitment to partnering with its clients to capture the essence of their
business and transform that into an outstanding visual experience for
their clients’ on-line prospects. The end result is a site that
provides a highly engaging user experience while also boosting target
keyword positions and establishing a platform for long-term success in
the editorial search engine results pages.
To learn more about Backbone’s methodology and how they can be
of help to your company, please go to www.Backbonemedia.com
As early as 1996, the firm saw the advantage this would give their
clients over their competitors in achieving to search engine rankings.
Since the success of search engine optimization relies greatly on the
synthesis of website design and search engine strategy, Backbone Media’s
clients realize that it is more efficient to work with a company that
offers an all-in-one integrated solution. As a specialist of online presence,
Backbone Media keeps themselves and their clients on the cutting edge
of optimum marketing technology.
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