We Set Up a Website and Sales Increased 1,000%

Jeff Grant, Trio President, wrote this article for his website, but authorized us to include it also in NewOnlineShopping.NET. You’ll find it very interesting.

We Set Up a Website and Sales Increased 1,000%

In 2001, my firm, TRIO Display, was essentially a retail design group that produced stores for professional sports teams, museums, and a myriad of individual specialty retailers. Staff was steady at four to five designers and artists and we pulled in subcontractors as needed. Display sales and design fees ranged from $500,000 to $650,000 per year, which was enough for all of us to live comfortably.

2001 was a wake-up year for me, as it was for many business owners. September 11 made me realize that if I got hit by a truck, my little business was gone and my family, while insured, would still suffer a diminution in lifestyle. I thought about expanding my business by growing the fixture end via a print catalog. I’d been in the mail order fixture business previously and knew that making a real dent required enough capital to send out at least 100,000 catalogs. Even then you were lucky if four percent of the people who received them actually opened them and that, in fact, it takes three to five mailings before customers take you seriously.

In 2002, the Web was moving forward, as was e-commerce, but the only way to reach the top of the search engines was through expensive search engine optimization (SEO, a method of manipulating website copy to push your website listing up in the natural listings) and that seemed like so much high-tech voodoo to me. Companies were spending lots of money to acquire catchy Web names and to promote them but these were no guarantee of success. In April of 2002, while using Yahoo (a portal site) for a search, I noticed some highlighted listings with a dollar amount placed after the entry. Something like this: www.dogleashes.com (.15¢). I was intrigued by the number, so I did a little research and it led me to a company called Overture.

I discovered that Overture had set up a keyword brokerage (a keyword is the search word someone puts into a search engine such as Google or Yahoo). Working with Overture a firm could bid on keywords that would allow placement at the top of a Yahoo Web search. At the time our website was a 4-page brochure detailing our design services. I took one look at Overture’s program and had an absolute epiphany. I remember calling one of my associates and telling him that I had just discovered the future of our business.

Within a week we had interviewed several Web designers and hired one on a full-time, interim basis. We started building the site focusing on retail design. The keywords were very inexpensive and we spent less then $500 per month but gained new clients within days. In fact we pulled in $10,000 in design fees within four weeks and that was followed by selling the store fixtures to the customers we had designed the stores for.

With a little excess cash we invested in the site partnering with vendors to show their product on our site while they drop-shipped orders for us. Within a year, Triodisplay.com went from four pages to several thousand. We also kept raising the ante with our Overture bids and in the second year joined with Google in an Adwords campaign that soon eclipsed what we were doing with Overture. Sales doubled the first year and we hired more salespeople, designers, and a full-time Web marketer with whom I attended various industry seminars.

Five years later it’s 2007 and we now have 22 employees and still hire subs as necessary. Business is ten times what it was in 2002, and we show a profit every year while still providing competitive salaries, medical care, and profit sharing.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Related Posts - Highly Relevant Content

Love and Internet With the Internet playing a larger and larger role in our lives, it's not surprising that it has become an electronic matchmaker. We don't send anymore roses but electronic flowers, the old and fragrant letters now are simple emails. But is it really so bad? Not at all! Seems that......
A desert riding story Tracey St. John and Kim Jacobs love to ride quads at the desert and wanted a product they could ride in and still feel and look like women. Research was gathered, products designed, and Huchi Gear emerged. Read Tracey exclusive words about their desert riding story! A desert riding story......
Hints For Locating Wholesale Shirts And Shirts Wholesaler If you own a business then you are in need of a supplier. Searching for a Wholesale Clothing and Clothing Wholesaler supplier you will want to remember that it can be difficult at times. However, some tips are available that you can make use of to find the one that......
There is not Bad Weather, Just the Wrong Clothing Jeff Knowlton wrote this exclusive article for us. He is the National Account Manager of 66North.com. 66°NORTH Ltd. is among Iceland’s oldest manufacturing companies. It was established in the year 1926 and has throughout the decades been a leading producer and innovator in the making of working clothes used on......
The life of a T-shirt Designer Paul Baines is a T-shirt Designer and Blogger. Read his popular t-shirt reviews blog and read also about his highly original t-shirt designs. You can vote now on his latest Threadless.com submission or purchase pieces from his collection at Retrogod, Redbubble, Zazzle. This is his exclusive article for us, a......

Related Websites - Highly Relevant Content

Reasons why all web designers should know SEO Many web designers are still have the belief of being just that. If you are a web designer you need to know why people are buying websites from you. The reason is make money for their business. They are not buying a website to impress their friends or to......
Web Site Marketing Internet Business Made Simple Running a successful Net business can be complicated if you do not know how to try and do it right. Since the Internet is flooded with a heap of information, it will be tough to understand how to create an online business the proper way. Running a website marketing......
Growing Your Business with a Company Blog If you are looking for a way to grow your business but you don’t have a lot of available resources at your disposal, a corporate blog is one of the easiest means of accomplishing this goal. The set up costs are minimal and with the right management, you can easily......
Web Design - Good Techniques To Identify A Good Web Design And Development Firm An effective website attracts customers to your business, generates sales leads and closes sales - multiplying your profits in the process. Professional website deaign companies must combine uniqueness and innovation in website design with state-of the-art technologies and customer support to create a compelling website that produces results. Before hiring......
5 Internet Marketing Tactics For Making Money If you will growth your exposure for the products you are selling on the World Wide Web, for sure you will make more money. But why do not people do it? There are 5 internet marketing tactics using which you will be able to increase your income. 1. You have......