SmartSearch finds phenomenal growth with online marketing

July 18, 2006
By Doug McPherson, Denver Business Journal

Getting found. Two words at the heart of marketing.

But getting found today is much different than in years past. No longer does it just mean hanging a sign out front and buying a Yellow Pages ad.

Now it’s all about getting found on the Internet — call it virtual visibility — by “hanging up signage” along the information highway: keywords, campaign management software and pay-per-clicks.

One of today’s virtual signmakers helping companies get found is SmartSearch Marketing, a search-engine agency in Boulder that’s made some serious progress: 2,077 percent revenue growth from 2003 through 2005.

Clearly one factor that’s helping SmartSearch is that there are a lot of people looking for stuff on the Internet. Last year, Americans spent just as much time searching through the Internet as they did watching TV — 10 hours a week, reports Juniper Research, a high-tech industry analyst firm.

Another plus: Businesses are spending big bucks to get found. Last year, they dropped $12.5 billion for online ads, according to the Advertising Revenue Report. And insiders say that number will keep rising.

And then there’s what SmartSearch is doing, focusing on the fundamentals, according to the firm’s founder, Patricia Hursh.

She said that “first and foremost” the company is made up of marketing experts and that, beyond all the keywords and software, it’s about “communicating brand and unique market position to searchers, because search engines play a critical role in the overall online customer experience.”

But SmartSearch also taps technical know-how as well. It works with clients to improve their search-engine rankings through keywords, a process known as search-engine optimization, which increases the odds of being found via an Internet search. And the company creates pay-per-click campaigns where clients only pay when a prospect clicks on their Web site link.

Hursh said SmartSearch is focusing mostly on mid-sized to large companies that are prepared to spend at least $10,000 a month on online marketing.

Hursh attributes the company’s revenue growth to current clients bumping up their budgets and to the addition of new clients, which SmartSearch gets from referrals, trade shows, speaking engagements, public relations and, not surprisingly, its own search-engine marketing efforts.

A good portion of those clients are businesses looking to attract consumers, but more and more, SmartSearch is working with companies that depend on business-to-business sales.

Hursh said business-to-business sales have generally been ignored by the search-engine marketing industry, and the business-to-business offering makes SmartSearch stand out from competitors.

“We’ve been helping B-to-B companies with their search marketing efforts for several years because many of our staff members have B-to-B backgrounds,” Hursh said.

Last November, the company formalized the offering with a service called SmartSearch B2B.

“It’s been very well received,” Hursh said. “B-to-B firms want an agency that understands their business model and the unique challenges associated with selling to other businesses. This differentiation and focus has helped us win several new business clients over the past year.”

Serving the business-to-business segment may be a smart move.

Chris Sherman, executive editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, has called that market “a huge opportunity,” and said that SmartSearch is establishing itself as a “first mover” and “gaining credibility and respect” in the industry.

Current business-to-business clients include Advanced Systems Group, Time Warner Cable and Alpha Software, a software provider based in Burlington, Mass., which hired SmartSearch to refine the way it gets found on the Internet.

“We make software so it’s vital that potential customers not only find us but also download and buy our software,” said Richard Rabins, Alpha Software’s co-chairman. “So cost per lead is vital to us.”

The company continues to grow. “The larger we get, the harder it will be to grow at the same rate, but the future looks bright,” she said.

She may be right. Many industry insiders predict the search-engine marketing sector will continue to grow, as search-engine usage rises and as more companies shift marketing budgets online, specifically to search.

Posted on July 18, 2006 11:38 AM

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