Outrank.com

Wdyl? Google wants to know: What do you love?!

At ProfitFuel and Outrank.com, we’re constantly reviewing changes in algorithms, SEO strategies and mobile trends and applications that provide creative opportunities for our customers to enhance their marketing plan.

Every now and again we come across something that’s just plain fun in search. So, here it is: Google’s What do you love website. You simply type in whatever it is you love (anything in which you are interested) and see what results are returned to you. You’ll get quite a variety of results to peruse like photos, blogs, books, maps, businesses nearby and forums covering the topic you entered. It’s fun to say and it makes me think of the song “Who do you Love” written by Bo Diddley and covered by great musicians like The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Santana, The Yardbirds and plenty of other talented guys. Wdyl sparks all kinds of catchy advertisement and jingle ideas. Just me? Anybody? Bueller? Buuuueller?

From the Official Google Blog:

A while back, a few of us wanted to make a little tool that we could use to show just about anybody more of what Google makes. That led to some simple ideas, and then a few more ideas and ultimately, to a challenge: how we could connect people to products they might not know about and may find useful, but make the discovery relevant to them and keep it fun.

Check it out!

Tags: search, what do you love

Monthly IDEAs – ProfitFuel and Outrank Review the Importance of Community Service and Teamwork

At ProfitFuel and Outrank we always jump at the chance to do something good within our community. Working with Children at Heart Ministries and STARRY, we’ve donated Christmas gifts to underprivileged children during the holidays, we’ve donated food to hungry families through our Canstruction initiative and now we’re partnering with the Ronald McDonald House to gather basic household necessities for families during our donation drive.

Together, we are collecting bed linens, cleaning products, batteries, trash bags, shower curtains, and laundry products to help local families. This is part of our ongoing monthly IDEA project, where we alternate each month with community service efforts and team building and some basic bonding and r&r.

Philanthropical projects allow us to be part of large-scale community service, strengthening ties to our home city. Being part of charitable events and efforts also helps us build important working relationships and improve teamwork.

Tags: community service, team building

Outrank Reviews: Rob Zombie Woolite Commercial

In a blog post touching on mobile apps, I mentioned that the popularity of apps has carved out a place for small businesses to really get creative and take advantage of the opportunity to reach customers through special incentives. I talked about making sure your campaign or special offer fits your overall goal. You can give away things for free or provide an insanely inexpensive price on your product but what is going to resonate with consumers? What helps them relate to your message and what will make them want to become a loyal customer?

Sometimes shaking things up a bit is a good way to garner attention, even if a certain promotion doesn’t totally fit with your image — being creative or funny is often what gains respect from consumers.

This Woolite commercial, directed by horror film-maker Rob Zombie, is definitely an example of a company bringing in a new method to build up interest in their brand. Being a huge fan of horror, I’m all for the mash-up!

Tags: creative advertising, rob zombie, woolite

Outrank Reviews: Google city pages

Back in April I talked about the beauty of Google Places. I’ve been keeping up with local events either hosted by Google Places or where they’ve had a presence and it’s been wonderful seeing independent businesses getting love and well-deserved marketing/advertising support. Surely this helps helps drive business while, in turn, the businesses help Google provide a more personalized search experience for users.

The latest Google Places endeavor is their “city pages”. Visit the Google Places blog to read up on the news!

And check out our AUSTIN CITY PAGE! We’re so awesome in this city, dang it! XO

Our team has loved becoming a part of your local communities, connecting with small businesses and bringing Places users together. In the spirit of continuing that mission, we’re excited to introduce our new community city pages. Now you can get up to date info about all things Google happening in Portland, Austin, San Diego and Madison.

On these sites, you’ll be able to browse a list of some of the top businesses recommended by Portland locals by rating, by category (“Restaurant”), and by filter (“Family-Friendly”). Check back often as we’ll be continuing to build out this list of places.

Tags: google city pages, google places, outrank reviews

Yodle Acquires ProfitFuel, Creating the Largest Independent Provider of Local Search Marketing in the U.S.

Yodle Acquires ProfitFuel, Creating the Largest Independent Provider of Local Search Marketing in the U.S.
Yodle now boasts 21,000 clients and a full suite of local online marketing products.

May 24, 2011 09:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time
NEW YORK–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Yodle, a leader in local online marketing, announced today it has completed a transaction to acquire ProfitFuel, Inc. ProfitFuel, based in Austin, TX, is the largest and fastest growing provider of local search engine optimization (SEO) services to small businesses across the United States. With over 11,000 clients, ProfitFuel has achieved breakout growth serving small businesses that have a moderate marketing budget. Outrank, the company’s main service, is designed to generate inbound phone calls and emails cost effectively by delivering prominent rankings on top search engines for clients.

“We spoke to many companies in the industry and felt that Yodle offered the best set of products, highest caliber talent and the most comprehensive vision to outperform the competition and transform this industry for many years to come.”
.Historically, Yodle has focused its local online marketing services on small business advertisers that typically spend larger budgets of $1,000+ monthly and national brand advertisers; Franchise, Multi-location, and Manufacturer/Dealer organizations that advertise locally across hundreds of locations. With the acquisition of ProfitFuel, Yodle now adds a product and a sales force capable of serving a much broader set of clients who have smaller marketing budgets, but who still want the accountability of measuring their marketing performance.

“With ProfitFuel, Yodle is doubling down on its approach of providing a clear ROI to the local advertiser, delivered through a combined 450 person sales and client service team,” said Yodle CEO Court Cunningham. “ProfitFuel’s dedication to customer results and sales excellence made it a natural fit with Yodle. I look forward to bringing Yodle’s expanded suite of SEM, SEO, Social and Display marketing products to market more quickly in collaboration with ProfitFuel’s world class team.”

David Rubin, previously CEO of ProfitFuel, will join Yodle as SVP of Sales. Mr. Rubin has a proven 20 year track record as a successful CEO and sales leader in the technology space. Prior to ProfitFuel, Mr. Rubin was founder and CEO of HomeCity, an online real estate brokerage that pioneered utilizing web-based content to acquire clients. Before founding HomeCity, David held leadership positions at various companies including Intraware as Vice President of New Services Development, BITSource as founder and CEO and Computize as National Sales Director.

“We felt Yodle was the perfect choice to maximize our future potential for our clients, employees and shareholders,” said Mr. Rubin. “We spoke to many companies in the industry and felt that Yodle offered the best set of products, highest caliber talent and the most comprehensive vision to outperform the competition and transform this industry for many years to come.”

Founded in 2000, ProfitFuel has 220 employees and is consistently recognized as one of the best places to work by multiple sources, including Austin Business Journal and Texas Monthly. Yodle will now boast a 300-person sales force and many more talented staffers across marketing operations, client services and corporate departments.

Yodle plans to grow ProfitFuel’s Austin, TX office, making it a major hub, and to fully integrate the company’s infrastructure and technology by year’s end.

About Yodle: Yodle, a leader in local online marketing and named #35 on the INC 500 List of fastest growing private companies in the U.S., connects thousands of local businesses with consumers in a process so simple and cost-effective that business owners can’t imagine any other way to advertise. Yodle has developed an integrated approach to signing up and serving local businesses that are transitioning their marketing budgets online. Yodle is headquartered in New York, NY.

Tags: outrank merger, profitfuel purchased, yodle acquires outrank, yodle acquires profitfuel

Outrank Reviews: The Cloud

This is pretty cool stuff! 100% web. It’s when companies or organizations fully adopt using complete online services to decrease their costs and improve productivity.

Google has teamed up with TechAmerica Foundation’s CLOUD2 – the Commission on the Leadership Opportunity in U.S. Deployment of the Cloud. The goal of TechAmerican and CLOUD2 is to provide the Obama Administration with recommendations for how the U.S. Government could help drive American innovation in the cloud.

The commission will make recommendations for how government should deploy cloud technologies and address policies that might hinder U.S. leadership of the cloud in the commercial space. Recommendations for government deployment will be presented to Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra. Commercial-facing recommendations will be shared with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Commerce Under Secretary Pat Gallagher.

TechAmerica Foundation educates industry executives, policy makers and opinion leaders on the promise of technological innovation to advance prosperity, security and the general welfare.

Google’s role will be to implement Google Apps to invest in technologies that help businesses, educational institutions and governments be productive with a 100% web approach. Google Apps for Business are web applications that exist to increase productivity through communication, collaboration, and organization from anywhere by using the cloud.

Tags: cloud computing, Google Apps, obama administration, outrank reviews, TechAmerica

Outrank Reviews: Google Android Surpasses Apple iOS

Normally, we reserve the corporate blog for general updates and sales news; however, I thought this was an interesting report on Smartphone platforms and since I think everyone at Outrank and ProfitFuel has a Smartphone of some sort — Google’s Android has surpassed Apple’s iOS. The share of both Google and Apple Smartphone subscribers have increased from December 2010 to March 2011 but Google’s increase is slightly above Apple’s — 6 points up to 34.7% whereas the latter rose 5 points to 25.5%.

You can find the full report here.

Mobile marketing and advertising have grown wildly and play a big role in how successful your business will be. Having an SEO partner like Outrank quickly review your current online presence to determine what we need to do to to improve your sales by driving customers to your website is extremely valuable. When someone does a search for a local business it is more important now than ever that YOU easily appear on their Smartphone. That’s why, when we implement our solid SEO strategy to make sure you appear on the front page of search results, you’ll see a substantial return on your investment.

Why is that? Because 86% of people searching for a local service follow up with a phone call or visit your business (TMP/Comscore). And 61% of those people make a purchase offline.

And isn’t that the cutest little knitted Android you’ve ever seen?

Tags: android, apple iOS, seo, smartphones

ProfitFuel and Outrank Little Devils Went Straight to HELL!

photos by Jay Chappell

In January, as part of our collective resolution to start the year off with a healthy start, we launched our wellness initiative. ProfitFuel and Outrank troops have really followed through and are still pushing themselves to compete in new challenges. Recently, team members participated in the infamous HELL RUN!

The Run Down:

Location: Rocky Hill Ranch in Smithville, about 35 minutes southeast of Austin, TX
Length: Two courses — either a 3.45 mile or almost 7 miles of insane mud pits and obstacles

The HELL RUN was rain or shine, had POWER DJ stations pumping and a live KISS tribute band! There was the option to compete in a costume contest and contribute to the Nike reuse-a-shoe program, which collects any brand of unwanted, grungy old athletic shoes to turn into Nike Grind, a recycled material used in building playgrounds and sports surfaces.

HELL runners were encouraged to run for whatever causes were in their hearts but the run benefitted LIVESTRONG. Runners had the option to commit to fundraising prior to the event on the 30th.

Upon completing the course, runners were invited to join in an after party, as described by event organizers: Mud, sweat, and beer! After conquering HELL RUN, celebrate in all your glory with ice cold beer, rocking live music and mud covered bodies. HELL RUN! HELL YEAH!

ProfitFuel and Outrank HELL RUNNERS were super enthusiastic and kicked butt! I’m not going to lie; I did see evidence of coffee, coffee, energy drinks, coffee, double energy drinks, double coffee, energy energy, drinks, energy, drinks, yeah, ENERGY! However, our devils are already a lively bunch with monstrous drive.

There’s already talk of the next run/obstacle course that our little devils plan on competing in.

It takes super motivation and dedication to train and get through a course like this. Like work, like play! Thanks for representing, guys! You did an awesome job and we look forward to seeing you rock it in the next one!

Tags: outrank health, outrank hell run, outrank reviews run

ProfitFuel and Outrank.com Reviewed as Best Places To Work for the Sixth Time!!

Austin Business Journal recently announced the companies that have earned Best Places to Work for 2011. We are proud to say that for the sixth time, Profitfuel and Outrank.com has earned this honor!

To be designated for this honor companies must be nominated through the ABJ. Once their nomination has been accepted a survey is distributed to all eligible employees by Quantum Workplace.

The survey rates companies based on employee engagement, communication strategies, management effectiveness, trust in leadership, compensation and benefits, training and recognition. The most favorably rated organizations based on employee feedback are awarded as Best Places To Work in Central Texas. Awards are based on company size and our company earned the honor in the medium size category.

Our team is very proud of this designation and plans to have a celebration for all of our employees later this summer.

Profitfuel will be recognized and find out their official rankings at a luau themed luncheon and awards presentation on Wednesday, May 11th. We will also be featured in a special supplement of the Austin Business Journal on May 13th.

Congratulations!

Tags: abj best places to work, outrank bbbest places to work, outrank reviews

Outrank BBBest Practices for Successful Sales Training

The leadership team at ProfitFuel and Outrank.com believe that building a strong sales force starts with a solid training program. We have created a program that starts off with the basic fundamentals to develop a strong sales foundation. The program includes intensive sales skills training infused with constant feedback at the peer and leadership levels. We have learned that a strong bond is established within training that lasts throughout each person’s career at Outrank. Our training program is top notch and when trainees graduate – they have all of the tools they need to thrive in our environment.

Our full training program lasts over four weeks. Day One starts with exercises that make it easy for the team to get to know each other. Each team member is asked to share a little about themselves, including their strengths and weaknesses. They also take part in a fun question and answer session to help the group learn more about their personality. Our sales and training leaders join in this portion of the training so they also get to know more about our new team members. Our leaders share their stories of what brought them to the company and why they feel passionate about our culture and what we do.

The next step is to go through extensive sales skills training with our Director of Sales who was one of the top sales people within our company. We also have a peer feedback session that has proven to be very valuable in building strength and unity within the class.

The final step is to spend the last few weeks utilizing everything they have learned firsthand by contacting potential clients and working through the sales process.

After the team has successfully finished training they graduate and join the rest of the sales force. We have a ceremony that includes words of wisdom from our leadership, past training MVPs and the current class MVP. It’s a great ending to the training process and acts as a rite of passage for the new members of our team.

Tags: outrank bbbest practices, outrank reviews sales training