We've moved! Visit
The Keyword
for small business news, stories and resources.
Small Business
Tips and tricks for managing your business with Google’s solutions
Steel + silicon = business success in Detroit
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
.
From time to time we invite guests to post about items of interest and are pleased to have Linzie Venegas join us today. Linzie is head of sales and marketing for
Ideal Shield
, a manufacturing company in Detroit, Mich. that specializes in bumper post sleeves. Based in a city forged in tradition and steel, Ideal Shield has seen great success on the web—a story Linzie tells us in this post.
-Ed.
When my great-grandparents moved from Mexico to Detroit in 1917, they were looking for a better life. They had no idea that one day their grandson, my father Frank Venegas, would invent a product and start a business that would help transform their adopted hometown. Thanks to my dad’s hard work and a little help from the web, that’s exactly what Ideal Shield has done.
Ideal Shield
specializes in manufacturing bumper post sleeves. You may have seen these around—they’re colorful covers that slide over the steel pipes that keep cars from running into buildings. As a young child, my first job at Ideal was to assemble mailers for potential customers. Our mailers were unique—I would place a pack of jelly beans into each envelope. Talk about a great way to get a high “clickthrough rate!” Today, I head sales and marketing for the company, and we’ve taken our family business online with phenomenal results.
Ideal Shield’s father-daughter team Frank and Linzie Venegas in the factory surrounded by bumper post sleeves and guard rails.
We began using Google AdWords in 2004 to help potential customers find our product because many people didn’t know what it was. We were drawn to AdWords because everyone could see our ads—but we only had to pay for the customers who clicked through to our website. We also found that the leads were very qualified and had a higher close rate than leads from other sources. So far this year, for every $1 we've spent on AdWords we’ve gotten back $22. We’ve been able to have great success—without jelly beans!—using Google AdWords.
The energy we’ve put into our online presence has produced tremendous growth for our business; we’ve been able to grow our workforce by 20 percent. We’ve also focused on building our local community of Southwest Detroit. Each year we hire many interns from the local high school, Detroit Cristo Rey, and teach them skills that will last a lifetime. We’ve outfitted the junior and senior classes at Detroit Cristo Rey with Chromebooks so that they’ll have access to the power of the web anywhere, and many teachers there use the free Google Apps for Education suite with their students. This year, we were proud to hear that Detroit Cristo Rey achieved a 100% graduation rate and a 100% college acceptance rate. We also work with the Michigan Minority Business Development Council to teach other small businesses in the community the importance of an online strategy and how the web can help small businesses thrive.
My dad started Ideal with himself, my mother and a couple of laborers; today this family business has more than 35 employees and annual sales of $14 million. With help from the web, his hard work, determination and “out of the box” thinking have made Ideal a symbol of strength and renewal in Southwest Detroit. My father has always told me that if you take care of the community, the community will take care of you. Detroit is our community—it’s our heart, it’s our home. We’ve been surprised and delighted at how much the web has contributed to Ideal Shield, and we’re happy to share that success with Detroit. We can’t wait to do more!
Posted by Linzie Venegas, Head of Sales and Marketing, Ideal Shield Detroit
Labels
Brazil
1
Business Photos
2
Chromebooks
1
consumer surveys
1
Economic Impact Report
3
Education
1
English
419
Events
3
Get Your Business Online
7
Gmail
8
GoMo
1
Google Ads
61
Google AdSense
4
Google Analytics
7
Google App Engine
1
Google Apps
60
Google Apps for Work
2
Google Calendar
6
Google Docs
18
Google Domains
3
Google Forms
1
Google Maps
15
google my business
16
Google Offers
1
Google Partners
2
Google Places
45
Google ReWork
1
Google Search
6
Google Shopping
2
Google Sites
7
Google Small Business
20
Google Small Business Blog
419
Google Small Business Community
9
Google Tags
4
Google+
9
Google+ stories
8
Help Desk Hangouts On Air
20
Holiday
3
Learn with Google
4
Livestream
1
Local Services
3
marketing
1
mobile
13
mobile optimization
4
mobile sites
4
Mobile Speed
1
National Small Business Week
3
Newsletter
3
Online security
3
Primer
2
Research
1
reviews
1
Rio de Janeiro
1
Road Trip
1
site design
1
Small Business Saturday
1
Small Business Week
4
Street View
1
TalkBin
2
Test My Site
1
Training
2
Webmaster Academy
2
YouTube
7
Archive
2018
Dec
Oct
Jul
Apr
Feb
Jan
2017
Oct
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
2016
Nov
Oct
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
2013
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Feed
Follow @googlesmallbiz
Follow
Site Feed
Follow
