Location3 Media Gets a Full-body Makeover

As many of you have noticed, we launched our much-anticipated (and much-needed!) website redesign in early August. The new site features a sleeker and more streamlined layout, making content easier to locate (not to mention easier on the eyes).

We didn’t just create pages willy nilly; instead, the site layout was developed to mirror our company layout. As an interactive direct marketing company that strives to integrate all services, we felt an integrated design was necessary. Our services page helps to communicate this combination of offerings. We don’t just focus on PPC, because it’s essential to have analytics in place to measure results; we don’t just talk about SEO because the most beneficial campaigns have a mix of PPC and map listings (what we refer to as the “Search Triple Threat”); and how could we forget about creative services—what good is a search or media campaign if your site is sloppy and difficult to navigate? Answer: No good at all!

We also added a slick work page that highlights some of our more successful campaigns. These case studies showcase campaigns which utilize a variety of innovative strategies and advanced tools.

We worked hard to show off some of our culture as well. We aren’t a bland group of ROI-reducing drones—we’re a fun and unique group of talented individuals. And if it weren’t for these fabulous employees, we wouldn’t be here today. So we wanted to open up, become more transparent and provide some insight into the people and personality behind Location3 Media. Learn more about the company and our team.

The new site was developed using a CMS, making it quick and simple for us to make changes. You won’t notice the CMS cosmetically, but you will notice that the site is maintained better and updated more frequently.

If you haven’t already, check out the new site for yourself. And please let us know what you think—we’d love to hear your feedback.

AMA Peak Awards

We received the Gold and Silver AMA Peak Awards this year for successful e-marketing campaigns. The Gold went to a program developed and managed for Starz Entertainment, which utilized paid search marketing, content marketing and social media marketing. The Silver went to a program for Westwood College, which used nearly every tool and strategy available to further refine their PPC campaign. Check out the full press release.

Inc5000

Inc5000, compiled by Inc. magazine, is a list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. This is the third consecutive year that we have made the list. We had a 224.4% growth in sales since 2006, which placed us at #1425 for the international list and #36 for the Denver-Aurora area.

In the tough economy of the past year, we’re pleased to report growth and happy to see others pulling ahead as well. We’re fortunate to be in an industry that fared the recession rather well, and unique in that we continued to sharpen strategies and add services so that our clients were more successful.

Check out our profile on the list and read the full press release.

OMMA Online Advertising Creativity Award Finalist

A campaign we developed for Starz Entertainment titled, “Beyond Paid Search: The making of a blockbuster campaign” was chosen as a finalist for the OMMA Awards. In addition to paid search, the program used advanced contextual marketing and social media monitoring and recorded a 670% increase in searches from September through October.

Learn more about the campaign and check out the other finalists.

Andrew Published in Visibility Magazine

Andrew wrote an article for the Fall 2009 issues of Visibility Magazine. In this article, he provides tips for developing paid and organic search campaigns that complement each other and work together to generate high-quality traffic for your site. Read the full article.

SOS Outreach

They say opposites attract (they being Paula Abdul), but when it comes to our partnership with SOS, we couldn’t disagree more. Our shared love of boarding, skiing, hiking and helping youth is the fuel that keeps us both going and attracted us to SOS in the first place.

As we mentioned in the last newsletter, we partnered with SOS to help in any and every way—marketing expertise, donations and volunteering. The past few months provided us with the opportunity to help the outdoor charity organize their gear. We had no idea what we were in for. Who knew a 20’ x 20’ room could hold so much clothing, helmets, gloves, boards, boots and more! It was fun just to see all that gear in one place. A handful of Location3 employees and friends, along with several SOS staff members and other volunteers, helped organize gear, wax boards and build shelving at their Denver club.

MicroHoo is Finally For Real

And we couldn’t be happier! This agreement, which puts Microsoft’s Bing technology on Yahoo!’s backend, is set to change the search marketing industry in a big way. When there’s only one competitor, no one wins—and that includes you, us and the engines themselves. That’s why we’re so excited⎯the deal will help to close the gap between frontrunner Google and inspire innovation from all parties.

In a round of blog posts ("Microsoft-Yahoo! Merger Imminent,” “Microsoft and Yahoo!: The Real Deal,” and “Why MicroHoo Benefits the SEM Industry”), we laid out the history of the deal, implications for various SEM elements and how we see it affecting your campaigns. While the change won’t take place for another year at least (there’s a lot of red tape and legal hoops to jump through first), we’ll be keeping an eye on the changes to ensure that we know exactly what will occur and how it will affect you. Stay up-to-date on all news about MicroHoo here and watch expertSEM for any major breakthroughs.

New Employees

We’ve added six new individuals to our roster, making Location3 a truly international company—we now have employees from Australia, China, South Africa and Los Angeles (if you’ve ever been there, you know it’s a whole different world!). Help us welcome these talented employees.

Leo Chen
Market Analyst
Leo is an analytics whiz! He joined Location3 in August, bringing with him a great deal of business research and marketing knowledge. Leo is originally from Quanzhou, Fujian, China. He moved to Denver in 2007 to attend school and fell in love with the fabulous weather and beautiful scenery. We’re thrilled to welcome Leo to the analytics team!

Stephanie Lee
Account Manager
Stephanie hails from Canberra, Australia. She has traveled the world extensively, living and working in London, Paris and Whistler, Canada over the years, but returned to Australia in 2001. She entered the search marketing industry in 1999, when she began working at Ozemail in Australia as the Ad Traffic Manager for their network of sites. Stephanie moved to the States in early 2009. We’re always pleased when experienced individuals join the company, especially when they have lilting accent that makes even the harshest conversations pleasant! Welcome, Stephanie!

Angelina Gurule
Account Processor
Angelina joined the Local Search Traffic team to help with data placement and management across multiple search engines and IYPs for local map listings clients. She will also be helping with client reporting, customer service and client communications. It’s our pleasure to welcome Angelina!

Nicole Rowe
Account Manager
Nicole also joined the Local Search Traffic team, but on the PPC side. She will be helping with day-to-day management and implementation of changes for locally-focused paid search campaigns. Additionally, Nicole will be handle client reporting, customer service and client communication for various LST PPC clients. Welcome, Nicole!

Kate Brown
Link Developer
A newbie to Location3 and to Denver! Kate joined the company in October as part of the ever-growing SEO team. She moved from Portland, ME in late September after having manager two retail locations and contributing to in-house online marketing initiatives at a startup coffee company. Kate is a die-hard triathlete and a self-appointed foodie—she’ll do just fine in Denver! Welcome, Kate!

Emily Brown
Link Developer
Another new link developer that recently moved to Denver from the East Coast whose last name is Brown! What a coincidence! Emily joined the SEO team in mid-October to help with link development efforts. She’s an upstate New York native but most recently lived in Philadelphia. Emily received her bachelor’s in marketing from Temple University. Nice to have you on board, Emily!

Jennifer Duensing
Account Manager
Jennifer joined Location3 in late October. She is a member of the PPC team and will be helping with day-to-day management and optimization for various clients, as well as reporting and client communications. We’re pleased to say that Jennifer has prior search marketing experience¾before coming to Location3, she worked at Outrider where she managed paid search campaigns for Dell. Her efforts were focused on generating increased traffic to Dell’s corporate site. Welcome, Jen!

Three Men and Babies

Actually, make that “Four Men and Babies.” Alex, Justin, Tom and Erik are all being promoted to a new position—Dad! Justin, Tom and Erik are each welcoming their first bundles of joy; Alex recently had number two. Congrats to all four happy fathers and their fabulous wives.

New Service Offering

Now that we’ve done major surgery on our site—both cosmetically and on the backend—we’re ready to operate on yours! But don’t be scared, it won’t hurt a bit. We promise.

We’re pleased to announce the addition of a whole slew of creative services to our expanding portfolio. From Flash animation and video production to mobile apps and UI design, we leverage our experience with online marketing to create fully-functional and aesthetically-appealing interactive programs.

Check out our full list of creative services and contact us when you’re ready to go under the knife.

If you bent over a stroller to coo at an adorable baby and found their rattle replaced by a cell phone, would you be surprised? Probably not. That’s because nearly everyone, regardless of age, gender, creed and status uses a cell phone.

Some 200 million people can’t leave home without their cell phone. What does this mean for you? It means you need to start a mobile marketing campaign!

We offer four types of mobile marketing programs: 1. SMS campaigns; 2. mobile PPC; 3. Mobile-enabled sites and 4. mobile media planning and buying.

Learn more about mobile marketing and contact us if you’re ready to get started today!

March of Dimes Mud Volleyball

If you consider being coated in fetid mud water for hours and winning one of five games a success! But our participation in the event helped raise money for the March of Dimes and was a whole dirty mess of fun! Instead of best team, we decided to shoot for best dressed—full suits, ties and prom dresses were the attire of choice. In the scorching August sun and giant mud pit, what else would we wear?!

Make a Wish Kickball Tournament

This marks the fourth consecutive year that we’ve participated in the Make a Wish Kickball Tournament. We planned ahead this year—recruited the best kickballers from the company, created a killer lineup and practiced a ton. And our efforts paid off! We finally made it to the playoffs! However, the sun was hot and the day was long, so we were almost thankful to be eliminated in the first round. Check out a quick video of Team InSANity on the kickball field.

Rockies Games

We love spending the day at the ballpark. Especially when it’s a Thursday afternoon and the entire company goes! On September 3rd, we all took the afternoon off and walked a few blocks to Coors Field for the Rockies vs. Mets game. The Rocks didn’t pull off a victory, but it didn’t matter—we had a blast!

End of Summer BBQ

What better way to celebrate a successful summer than a BBQ at the boss’s new penthouse! On August 21st, the whole company headed over the Andrew’s pad for some grilled goodies, brews, mojitos and great company! Too bad Andrew forgot to tell us there was a fabulous pool in his building. Surprisingly, no one jumped in fully clothed. Maybe next summer.

Find out what the Location3 Media team has been up to-—what they’ve been doing, where they’ve been and where they’re headed.

SES San Jose

"Performance Pricing Models: What Every CMO Must Know!" Andrew attended SES San Jose and spoke on a panel about performance-based pricing models. He explained how Location3 structures these deals for various campaign types and offered suggestions for attendees to create their own performance-based search marketing models.

SEO Roundtable

Andrew was the first guest expert in a new online webinar series from the New Denver Ad Club (NDAC), called 3rd3rsday. He provided SEO management tips and best practices, and answered questions posed by the audience. This inaugural program was a huge success—there were more than 50 participants with a ton of great questions.

OMMA Awards Ceremony

Andrew and Alex attended the OMMA Global conference in New York City and represented Location3 at the OMMA Awards.

SMX East

Andrew spoke on a panel called, "Web Analytics You Should Know." He discussed three of the most important elements of Google Analytics and how to evaluate data to improve search marketing campaigns. Location3 also partnered with SearchReturn to sponsor the free WiFi at the conference.

BlogWorld

We’ve heard a lot of hype about BlogWorld in the past and decided that we needed to see for ourselves. And guess what? Every bit of the talk was true. While exhibiting and strolling the floor Andrew, Tarla, Lindsey and Crystal met a ton of brilliant bloggers and learned a great deal.

DMA09

Always a big deal for us, the annual DMA Conference and exhibition was even bigger this year! We created a Location3 Lounge, where attendees could kick back and gab about interactive marketing. We also hosted a cornhole competition—anyone that could beat the Location3 team won a gift card to Starbucks. Lucky for everyone that challenged us, we’re not that good at cornhole.

IFA’s Annual Convention

We’re exhibiting at the annual conference hosted by the International Franchise Association again in 2010, showcasing our franchise marketing solutions from Local Search Traffic. IFA has been a great show thus far—tons of bright people to meet, innovative strategies and technologies to learn and numerous opportunities to education others on the value of local map listings and franchise PPC. We’re look forward to another successful show in 2010.

Search nerds at play!