Epiphany today announced the latest in a clutch of high-profile account wins as it revealed it has developed a new website for experts in consumer data management, Callcredit Information Group, along with ongoing work to oversee the company’s SEO and PPC.

Epiphany Solutions, the UK’s fastest growing search marketing agency, designed the new website for Callcredit, which went live last week, consolidating five of the group’s brands and existing sites in one streamlined, search-friendly website.

Following the success of the website build, Epiphany has now commenced SEO and PPC campaigns for Callcredit, which will be pivotal in the promotion of the website following launch, aiming to drive awareness and generate leads for the industry leader.

Callcredit, whose cutting edge technology and industry expertise provides businesses with better insight to help them reach more responsible decisions and deliver stronger customer engagement, enlisted the help of Epiphany as the company looks to increase its web presence and boost the prominence of key brands in its stable.

Robin Skidmore, co-founder of Epiphany, said: “We are delighted to announce our work with Callcredit and look forward to assisting them as they undergo a significant overhaul of their online presence.

“Callcredit are strong leaders in their field and we are thrilled that they recognised our credentials in web development and search marketing.

“We are delighted with the new website and look forward to seeing the knock-on effects as we progress both SEO and PPC campaigns for Callcredit.”

David Swift, Marketing Director at Callcredit Information Group, said: “We needed a new website that provided a central hub of information that was easy to navigate and had a fresh look and feel and we’re delighted with the results delivered by Epiphany Solutions.

“As our business grows, we look forward to working with Epiphany to continue to develop, enhance and optimise our website.”

The UK’s fastest growing search specialist was chosen by Pets at Home on the strength of its sector credentials and initial results have boasted significant improvements on rankings for key search terms, including ‘dog food’, ‘cat food’ and ‘dog beds’ which rose 64 positions to be ranked 6th on Google!

Epiphany also confirmed that initial work over the past month led to an impressive 13 per cent increase in site conversions from non-brand organic referrals. Pets at Home, which has over 260 pet stores across the UK, is keen to capitalise on its growing online presence through the SEO campaign.

Epiphany will continue boosting Pets at Home’s ranking for key search terms, improving overall site visibility and increasing site referrals as the campaign continues.

Shane Quigley, Chief Executive at Epiphany Solutions, said: “We are thrilled to be working with Pets at Home and to reveal that our initial work on their behalf has already yielded excellent results. We look forward to working with the company as they seek to increase their online visibility.”

Matt Stead from Pets at Home said: “We were impressed by Epiphany’s track record of improving online visibility and search rankings over key terms and we are pleased with the initial results from their work. We recognise the importance of increasing our online presence and we are confident that Epiphany have the skills and expertise to ensure this happens.”

Epiphany Solutions, which won the contract to work with the JD Williams group, has conducted preliminary SEO work on behalf of six main brands.

Initial site modification, in addition to content and architectural changes, have enabled Epiphany to maximise the visibility of JD Williams’ sites.

Epiphany will now spend the next six months modifying the six clothing brands’ websites to ensure they are fully optimised.

Shane Quigley, Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted with the preliminary results from our first six months activity with JD Williams and the positive effect this will have on their business. “To see such dramatic improvement in just six months is testament to the quality of work undertaken by our team and we look forward to further improving the SEO of the well-known and well-loved brands in JD Williams’ stable over the next six months.”

Tony Wood of JD Williams said: “We have been impressed by both the speed and scale of improvements Epiphany has brought to bear on our websites and we look forward to continuing to work with them as our online visibility grows.”

Ventura, which provides outsourced services including contact centres, customer services management and external business processing, employs more than 7,000 people at five UK sites – three in Leeds, where is it based, plus two in Dearne Valley – and one in India.  The company also operates contact centres in Cardiff and Milton Keynes.

Last year the organisation rebranded to reflect its growing dominance and range of services in the outsourcing market – with over £160m in annual revenue in 2008 it is the UK’s second largest outsourcing business.

Epiphany has been appointed to further develop the company’s online presence, starting with a new Ventura.co.uk website, while dedicated SEO and PPC campaigns aim to maximise returns from digital spend.

Johanna Jarrold, Marketing Manager at Ventura, said: “With our rebrand complete, we are moving on to the next stage of our latest marketing campaign and digital is a growing area of importance for us.

“The Internet is one of our shop windows, so in order to make our services front-of-mind with potential buyers we need to make our online spend work harder and smarter.  Epiphany have a track record of getting results, hitting targets and they are a trusted brand in the digital marketing arena, so they’re the right fit for us.

“We’re the second biggest outsourcing organisation in the UK and our aim is to be the first choice for customers.  In order to help cement our position, and following the rebrand, we are launching a new website and enhancing our online visibility with paid and natural online search campaigns.”

Rob Shaw, managing director of Epiphany, said: “Ventura is a huge UK organisation working with some of the UK’s biggest businesses, so to win this account is a fantastic endorsement of our expertise in digital marketing.

“This is a full service piece of business in that we are using all of our digital departments to ensure the client’s online investment achieves the best possible return.”

Ventura has more than 40 years’ experience in the outsourcing industry and currently has 25 blue chip clients in sectors covering financial services, telecoms, utilities, retail, travel, automotive, as well public sector and not-for-profit.

Having recently made the transition from client to my first agency role, it’s clear that both have their own mutual benefits. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference.

In my previous role, the client’s industry was all things power tools, hand tools and fixings. By the end of my time there, I knew all there was to know about power tools – a saw to you and me is just a saw, but to a builder it can be a hacksaw, a mitre-saw, a cut-off saw, a ripsaw…. (I could go on!). But that’s the key in any client-side role – expertise in your field and knowing every little detail about your customer’s needs.

When it comes to constructing a PPC campaign, you have the advantage of using this wealth of knowledge to hunt out the long-tail, where an agency has to start from scratch, building and developing their keyword list over a period of time.

Reporting directly to the MD of the company is also a major plus. Feel like you need a higher budget? No problem. Put your argument together and take it straight to the top.

So why move agency side?

For me, PPC was the most interesting part of my previous role, but also one of the smallest areas in terms of time I was able to devote. In any client-side e-commerce role, it’s quite rare to find someone employed solely to look after the company’s PPC (unless we’re talking huge multinationals). For me, there were many aspects to the job; sales, customer service, marketing, analysis and content management amongst many others. You feel as though you are constantly fighting a losing battle to try and commit valuable time into an Adwords campaign (and this often has to be made up outside of working hours!). Inevitably, in this type of ‘rushed’ environment, you are limited on how responsive you can be to changing conditions.

Making the move over to an agency is like entering a whole new world of PPC. Being able to devote the majority of my time into the PPC campaigns makes an incredible difference, the obvious initial reason being that the increased working hours put into campaigns are always going to offer a more in-depth approach. Keyword lists can be expanded and assessed, new adverts tested on a regular basis, competitor activity reviewed consistently and more time can be spent analysing reports. I have found as a side-benefit, and one that probably can’t be taught, that spending so much time on the PPC campaigns now, I find it much easier to identify patterns and hence to detect potential problems before they turn into serious ones.

I suddenly have diversity, and it feels great! One minute I’m working on a campaign for men’s formal shirts, the next it’s concrete garages, and then estate agents in Central London. Each campaign has a completely different market to understand, with different customers to target. Variety really is the spice of life.

But the best part about working in an agency now is that I’m now surrounded by people who live and breathe PPC (we’re an exciting bunch – promise!). This industry is all about knowledge and experience, which is something an agency can offer in abundance.

In my client side role, my knowledge of PPC was primarily self-taught, and my development was in my own hands. In an agency, my development is paved out for me, and I am surrounded by experts that are happy to pass on their wealth of knowledge (I can see their heads getting bigger as they read this!). If Google decide the change the rules overnight, you can guarantee I’ll know about it straight away. Previously, I always felt like I was playing catch-up.

So is client-side or agency best? For you, I can’t tell you the answer – there are pros and cons to both sides, and only you can decide which suits you best. But as for me, I feel like in 6 weeks, I’ve learned more than I could in 6 years in my previous role, and that tells its own story.

Currently, I speak to about half my clients on a weekly basis, be it over the telephone or via email.  I’ve found myself chatting about going out at the weekend, being a regular golfer and I even have a £5 side bet with a client that my advert will beat his!

There are indeed benefits to these chin-wags:

•    I understand the clients’ business better (better adverts and keywords)
•    I understand what is important to the client (better reporting)
•    The client understands PPC better (more confidence in the service)
•    The client offers ideas (better keywords and adverts)

Everyone is happy!

And when they’re not happy…  I can be honest and say things aren’t going well.  Instead of getting upset, angry or finding a new PPC agency – my client asks “What should we do, Chris?”

Now my client is listening to me.  How many times have you thought ‘I wish people would listen, I know what I’m talking about’? Well, now’s your chance.

As a result of such situations, I’ve been able to persuade my clients to make changes to their websites, invest in website optimisation and try some more radical adverts.

Inevitably, being given the freedom to test bears fruit, and the PPC manager/client relationship grows stronger!