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Becoming Number 1 in a Competitive National Market

Marketing advice from one of the most successful alpaca farms in North America

Seemingly in the middle of nowhere, a farm in Hillsboro, Oregon, is home to over 300 alpacas. Anyone researching the alpaca industry is likely to hear of it.

Why? Northwest Alpacas is a marketing machine. Evolving from direct mail to the Internet as early as 1998, farm owner and alpaca marketing guru Mike Safley knew the key to the future of the alpaca business would become the Internet.

And right he was. SEO Advantage has worked with Mike since 1998, as his farm grew to as many as 450 alpacas and his Internet presence become an educational resource for new alpaca farmers and industry old hands alike. He’s received calls from veterinarians in the mountains of Peru and had requests to translate his materials into many languages by alpaca enthusiasts around the world. Most importantly, his Internet presence fuels his farm’s growth and alpaca sales.

We recently had a chance to chat with Mike about his marketing success in the alpaca world. See what advice he offers other alpaca farmers here.

What key facts about the alpaca industry have helped shape Northwest Alpaca’s marketing?

“There are 5 ways people first become aware of alpacas—at a fair or event, by word of mouth, driving by a farm, on TV or from a print ad.

Every single person who is interested in more information researches alpacas on the Internet. They determine which farms to visit from Internet searches—and then they buy their alpacas from one of the first 3 farms they visit .

People aren’t necessarily going to the Internet to buy. They’re looking to get information. So if you provide great information to those people searching online, then you have that relationship with them when they’re ready to buy—and they’re going to buy from you. That’s the magic of having a good website, and a website that shows up on page 1 in Google searches.

Yet even today, less than half of all alpaca breeders have a website, and the ones that do cannot be found on page 1 of Google. If you’re not found on the Internet, you’re just not going to do the business you could do.”

On creating an alpaca website that drives your business:

“Northwest Alpacas and SEO Advantage practically pioneered Internet marketing for the whole alpaca business.

I built my site around providing information, which search engines like Google love. Our site has the go-to catalog of alpacas. People who attend our seminars tell me, ‘we just couldn’t avoid your website. It turned up on page 1 every time we searched on something related to alpacas.’ That’s exactly what I want to hear.

A lot of people put most of their budget into the creative design, when it should be put into search engine optimization. You should never design a website without getting input from an expert in search engine optimization.”

The marketing investment that has paid off the most…

“When I started to get those page one rankings on Google, our presence just mushroomed. I cut all other advertising. Literally all our marketing is attributed to our website and our page 1 rankings.

Search engine optimization is results based, and it’s always been extremely effective. Any marketing person can’t ask for more than that. Working with SEO Advantage is probably the best investment I've ever made, even more than the animals themselves.”

How search engine optimization helps alpaca farmers:

“It levels the playing field. If you optimize your site for the search engines, you can create a brand and a market without being dominated by anyone else. This allows you to compete at the level you choose.

First, hire SEO Advantage. Then start building your brand for local Google searches. Then expand it. Start building resources on your site so you can build trust and credibility with people, so they’ll come back to you when they’re ready to get started.

And don’t stop there. Once you’re dominating for your local area, work towards showing up for national searches next.”

SEO is an ever-changing game, you can’t set it and forget it

“SEO strategy changes all the time. Google changes its ranking algorithms all the time. It’s very competitive, everyone’s trying to get an edge, and the search engines are trying to provide the most relevant search results. It’s like a never-ending contest.

The tactics we used way back in the day are useless now. SEO Advantage has come to me countless times with ideas to help us stay up on our rankings. They’ll suggest unique link building strategies and changes that need to be made to the site.

You can’t just do it and rest. You’ve got to stay in the game. And SEO Advantage has kept us in the game and at the top of our game.

I’ve had a wonderful relationship with Stone Reuning, founder and president of the company. He’s absolutely honest, straightforward—he tells you what you’re going to get. And he’s always done what he’s said. We’ve worked together over a decade now to keep Northwest Alpacas front and center online.

I can’t think of a relationship with any other vendor that’s more effective and dependable than SEO Advantage. It’s the ideal relationship. I would recommend them to anyone. They’re just the best at what they do.”

Want to learn how your alpaca farm can implement a successful, results-based Internet marketing strategy, too? Talk to SEO Advantage today. Call Wes Reuning at (706) 258-3544 or email fwr@seoadvantage.com.