Madwire targets clicks to customers

LOVELAND – A website is only one necessary piece to a successful online business. Without online marketing, the website sits there, stifled on page 15 of Google, under all the other similar sites. But what makes online marketing successful?

“Converting clicks to customers” is what Madwire Media promises, and it uses an arsenal of weapons to accomplish the mission. The firm specializes in online marketing, Web design, search engine optimization, keyword writing, Google ads, social media management and customization, blogging services, press releases and public relations. All of the services are customized to the target market of each client’s business.

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As one of the fastest growing Web design and Internet marketing companies in Colorado, Madwire brought in $1 million in 2010, its first full year of operation. The company is projecting $4.5 million in revenues for 2011. It has quickly become a significant Northern Colorado employer as well, hiring 57 employees and projecting a staff of over 100 by year’s end.

The Madwire offices overlook Lake Loveland and boast bigger-than-life Batman and Spiderman mannequin mascots in the hallways, giving the physical space the same over-the-top, edgy, hip feel of Madwire‘s website, www.madwirewebdesign.com.

Madwire is a family company, owned and operated by a father and son team. In 1997, Joseph Kellogg, son J.B. Kellogg, and their business partner John Crane launched a cutting-edge website, Market Center Direct, to allow users to trade futures and commodities from their home computer. It was one of the first of its kind, a huge innovation in the investment industry at the time.

The successful online marketing of that website inspired the Kelloggs to branch off and start an online marketing company.

“We discovered that we were gifted at marketing ourselves, targeting leads, search engine optimization,´ said J.B. Kellogg, who is COO of Madwire. “We realized the same stuff could be applied to any business. We built our website in 2009, optimized it, captured leads, and we’ve seen incoming demand every month.”

The Madwire site gets hit between 6,000 and 11,000 times a month, according to Compete.com.

Designing with marketing in mind

Converting such hits to meaningful business means drawing site traffic specific to a customer’s niche market.

“It’s not just designing, it’s designing with marketing in mind,” explained Jerry Kelly, Madwire’s director of marketing. “It has to be marketable to a company’s specific clients, so you can have the conversions you need in regards to sales.”

To attract potential customers, Madwire offers a free “super sick” website mockup, SEO analysis, and 22-page Marketing Online 2011 guide.

“We offer the design as a loss leader to get them into marketing,” Kellogg said. “Our free design is not just a template-y thing. One of our designers spends an entire day creating a custom design, which they feel will really work for the client. It’s usually a good tool to earn their business.”

Once the design is complete, Madwire uses online marketing strategies to get a company to page one on keyword searches.

“The marketing piece is really about working with the client directly, building strategies, campaigns and solutions, the nuts and bolts of it,” Kelly said. “We measure effectiveness through Google analytics and make improvements. It’s continuous and ever-changing. At the end of the day, it’s working alongside (clients) and with (clients).”

Kellogg says it’s “the price and our design quality,” that accounts for Madwire’s success.  “If you compare design of equal quality, you’re going to find that our price is dramatically lower than our competitors. We’re focused on building a long-term relationship.” 

That focus factors into the company’s growth, according to Farra Lanzer, public relations executive, and the size of the firm factors into customer satisfaction.

“I think one of the reasons why we’re growing as quick as we are is that we make online marketing a reality and so affordable, compared to other website and design companies,” she said. “A lot of other design companies are much smaller and don’t have the manpower to handle what we can. We can get it done more efficiently.”

Madwire Media is making contributions to the Northern Colorado community as well. Madwire has recently launched a program in which a nonprofit organization receives a percentage of every sale resulting from a referral to Madwire.

Madwire designed a website for St. John’s Catholic School in Fort Collins, where J.B. Kellogg’s children attend, to launch and promote the program.

“If they refer anybody in their community to us, we kick back 7 percent of what the sale was to the school,” he explained. “There are a lot of business owners involved in the school who could use our services. If it’s recurring business, the 7 percent donation goes on until they cancel, every month. It could really add up over time.”

Madwire is a platinum sponsor for Sierra’s Race Against Meningitis. The company designed a website for the organization and is donating $1 for each person who “Likes” Madwire Media on Facebook. The firm is also partnering with the Larimer County Humane Society this year.

“We’re always looking for better ways to give back,” J.B. Kellogg said.