A 25-year-old Chicago manufacturer of custom event credentials and bag tags, and the official credential supplier to national bodies including USA Swimming, USA Hockey, and Ironman. Roughly 800 schools, athletic departments, conference organizers, and youth sports groups order from them each year, from clubs and events across the country.
Twenty-five years had built a trusted name, but almost entirely through relationships. Nearly every order and quote still came by phone or email from an existing contact or industry partner. The website drew visitors but rarely turned them into buyers, quote requests, or even inquiries — and the higher-margin, self-serve online channel they wanted was barely a channel at all.
- Effectively invisible for the terms buyers actually search — findable only by people who already knew the brand name
- No tracking or follow-up process for the inquiries that did come in
- Little to no presence when buyers asked AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini for supplier recommendations
We rebuilt their online presence around how their actual buyers search and decide — not around generic marketing best practices.
- Monthly SEO grounded in their real buyers — blog content and landing pages targeting the terms and buying patterns of each customer segment
- A site redesign that moves buyers from first visit to submitted quote or order in fewer steps
- AI-visibility work so their pages get cited when buyers ask ChatGPT or Gemini for recommendations, not just ranked on Google
- Tracking on every inquiry, so online became a measurable channel instead of a black box
Within a year the website went from a brochure to the company's fastest-growing channel. Organic search traffic rose 80%, organic search became their single largest revenue channel — ahead of direct and paid — and online sales grew 200%.
- Inbound quote requests and inquiries now arrive steadily from buyers with no prior relationship — found through Google or AI, not through an industry contact
- AI search visibility climbed from 16% to 43% — the brand is now cited in nearly half the ChatGPT and Gemini queries buyers use to shortlist a supplier
- 76 keywords now rank on the first page of Google, with more terms reaching the top 3 every quarter
- Online became a measurable channel — every order and inquiry now tracked, not lost in a phone log
