Ferguson sales soar thanks to SEO by SmarttNet e-marketers

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For immediate release Mar. 19, 2009

The joy of having a Web site is no joy at all if it can’t bring in a return on investment.  That’s the feeling of sales reps at Ferguson Moving & Storage who have experienced first-hand what search engine optimization (SEO) can do for a business.

“SmarttNet has put the excitement back into having a Web site.  Suddenly, it’s no longer an ‘online brochure’ that we direct our potential customers to. It has become a fourth sales person to our company,” testified Lorne MacInnes, vice president of Ferguson Moving and Storage.

With Ferguson, it’s no guess work – business gets measured and the company can solidly say where sales are coming from.

“Before working with SmarttNet, our Web site only generated approximately three per cent of new business. Yellow Pages was around 13 per cent. Today, Google comes in at 17 per cent and Yellow Pages has dipped to just seven per cent.”

Since starting an e-marketing campaign with SmarttNet, Ferguson staff levels have doubled and sales have rocketed 43 per cent compared to figures from a year earlier.

It all started back in February, 2008, when MacInnes phoned SmarttNet’s marketing manager Martin Wong, “out of the blue.”  At the time, his frustration was that even rented-truck, basement-run moving companies were ranking higher on Google than Ferguson – even though Ferguson is an established North Vancouver company with over 90 years of experience.

“He wanted to find out how he can beat back his competition on search engines…so we sat down and I took out a piece of paper and pen and started drawing out how Google works,” recalls Wong.

For Ferguson, it was the birth of a new e-marketing campaign.  For Wong, it was the start of an Internet marketing venture at SmarttNet, which exploded with popularity.

“Our household moving business has increased directly because of the SEO work done by the entire team at SmarttNet…we always ask everyone who calls for our services how they heard of us. At first it was really exciting to hear them say “I Googled you.” After a few months, it has become so common it no longer has that ‘new car smell’ feeling,” explains a happy MacInnes.

SmarttNet’s Internet marketing and Web development team has since been acquiring new clients from types of industries including law, trades, professions and medical services.

“Clients are happy because after we put together their site, we teach them how to do their own SEO.  They can log in to their site to make updates, which is so easy, and then they can rank well to generate more sales through search engines.  It’s a lot more simple than many people think,” says Wong.

More information about SmarttNet’s Internet marketing services can be found at www.smartt.com/internet-marketing or by calling 604 473 9700.

For more information, or to arrange an interview call 604 473 9700 or e-mail joyce@smartt.com.