» The background
Panther are in the business of 'power access'. They rent and sell specialist industrial commercial lifting equipment like scissor lifts and boom lifts, often used on construction sites and in tough outdoor conditions.
Seven years ago the business was pretty small, operating out of a portacabin, and using very traditional sales channels and techniques to drive new business.
Like the rest of their industry, Panther knew all about telesales, trade shows and sales pitches, and next to nothing about internet marketing. Until they started talking to dotSearch.
dotSearch showed us that if we invested aggressively and strategically in SEO right from the kick-off, we could dominate the search market and reap the rewards."
» Their marketing challenge
"The opportunity to grab the early adopter advantage online was one dotSearch convinced us we shouldn't pass over" says Panther's Operations Director, Steve Simmons. "The team at Panther took a very bold step when they agreed to trial our intensive SEO strategy" says Mark Furber, MD of dotSearch.
"These were completely unchartered waters both for their business and their industry."
"The challenge for dotSearch was to show that not only could we take them from a cold start to the top of Google (Panther had no website or web presence at all when they first came to us), but we could also drive quality sales leads and enquiries from their website. Search and internet marketing had to be a cost-effective sales channel for their business."
» The result
| Keyword |
Position
|
Scissor lifts
|
1
|
Boom lifts
|
1 |
Boom lift rental
|
1
|
Platform rental
|
1 |
The bold step paid off. Within 12 months dotSearch had helped Panther to hit the top spot on Google for every target keyword they set. Not only were Panther dominating the top spots for their targeted keywords. The traffic the dotSearch search strategy was driving for them had turned internet marketing into the single most effective lead channel in their business.
" Within 3 months, our SEO campaign was generating positive ROI" says Steve Simmons. "But that was just the beginning. Whereas our sales team were generating 10-15 strong leads per month, our organic search marketing was generating 35. As our SEO campaign went from strength to strength we were handling 200 inbound enquiries a month from our website alone".
The buyout
So dramatic was the business growth and strength that Panther exhibited through the use of successful SEO that in 2007 the business was acquired by the Lavendon Group plc, the biggest player in the industry.
dotSearch now manage the SEO for the entire Lavendon Group – a public company with an annual turnover in excess of £150m and a market leader in the rental of powered aerial work platforms in both Western Europe and the Gulf States.
Of their remarkable success story, Steve concludes:
"dotSearch were so successful at enabling us to capture market share in our B2B sector that it was certainly a contributing factor in selling the company to a bigger group."