Burgess builds business and brand value through SEO
Burgess, the superyacht industry leader, has climbed into the top five Google rankings in just two months, following its appointment of Make It Rain. Burgess has also already seen an increase of 43% in search visits year-on-year since the campaign began in May this year.
Burgess specialises in the sale & purchase, charter, new construction and operational management of yachts over 40 metres and its discerning customers are increasingly using the internet to connect with ultra-exclusive brands. Make It Rain’s brief is to build long-term online brand value and awareness for Burgess through an integrated PPC, SEO and Social campaign that in turn drives business value.
In addition to increasing click-throughs from organic search listings and PPC, Make It Rain is also undertaking a strategic link-building campaign with luxury sites and social channels to support SEO and build a strong foundation for future social media activity.
Justin Hayward, managing director at Make It Rain comments: “Burgess is already the market leader for superyachts and our brief is to enable the brand to achieve the same status in online share. Luxury sector and premium brands are our speciality and we have a great track record in enabling market leaders to outperform their competitors through search and social.”
Lucy Thornton, marketing manager at Burgess comments: “Our brand attracts a select group of international clients that are increasingly searching online for specific, luxury goods and services. It’s critical that they are able to locate us quickly and easily within their search category and Make It Rain is working in close collaboration with us to engage and capture all available traffic through search. We’re really pleased with the SEO results to date and looking forward to expanding the breadth of our online activity to focus on establishing Burgess as the number one superyacht brand for online share in the longer term.”
ThirdForce appoints Make it Rain as sole search marketing agency

Make it Rain has been appointed by ThirdForce, the UK’s leading e-learning provider, to provide all Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services.
Elaine Kauder, marketing manager of ThirdForce, comments: “The recent dramatic advances in technology and the usage of the Internet, both in the home and on the move, demonstrate the importance of our company’s presence on the World Wide Web. We were looking for an experienced organisation that could deliver an immediate, measurable and cost effective online marketing strategy. We look forward to a fruitful relationship with the team.”
Justin Hayward, managing director of Make it Rain, explains: “As a leader in its field, ThirdForce’s training portfolio reaches a range of sectors, and so, we look forward to implementing an array of innovative online campaigns.”
ThirdForce is an established provider of technology enabled learning solutions and services deployed in more than 30 countries. Working with over 2,500 customers across all major industries, our e-learning and e-assessment solutions have reached over 17 million learners.
Superyacht Brand Burgess appoints Make It Rain
We’re really excited to win another prestigious client!
Burgess has appointed Make It Rain as its sole search agency to provide all PPC and SEO services.
Burgess is the superyacht industry leader with 9 global offices including Monaco, Miami and New York, uniquely specializing in yachts of over 40 metres. Burgess guides it clients through every aspect of the yachting experience including sale and purchase, new construction, management and charter.
With a noticeable shift from traditional industry channels, Burgess are placing increased emphasis on search engine optimization and pay per click in 2010 following a recently refreshed website. Lucy Thornton of Burgess said “We had great chemistry with the team at Make It Rain and were impressed by their understanding and integrated approach to search marketing.”
Make It Rain Managing Director, Justin Hayward said “ Burgess is a premium luxury brand and the leader in its field. We’re excited to be chosen as their online partner, which reflects our agency focus of working with best of breed brands. We’re delighted to be working with them in 2010.”
About Burgess
Founded in 1975 with 9 offices globally, Burgess is the superyacht industry leader. Burgess has been involved in the sale of many of the most significant yachts afloat, while their new construction division is currently managing the build and development of a diverse range of superyachts. Burgess’ first-class charter service offers a portfolio of the finest yachts in the best cruising destinations around the world. The superyacht credentials of Burgess are unmatched in the industry, ensuring that clients enjoy the highest level of customer service.
Make It Rain wins Best Western Hotels Search Account

We’re excited to announce that hotel brand Best Western has appointed Make It Rain as its search agency following a competitive three-way pitch including incumbent Bigmouthmedia and Greenlight. Make It Rain will provide all PPC and SEO services to Best Western Hotels.
Best Western are placing particular focus on pay per click and search engine optimization in 2010 with the imminent launch of a completely new and re-vamped website. Jason Munslow, Interim Head of Ecommerce and Distribution for Best Western commented “Make It Rain showed great understanding of our brand and the travel sector and we believe they are the right agency to maximize our competitiveness against the many aggregators and other hotel chains”
Make It Rain Managing Director, Justin Hayward said “ Best Western is a great brand with huge potential to increase market share by advancing their search marketing. We’re delighted to be working with them in 2010.”
About Best Western
Best Western is the largest group of independently owned and managed hotels in the UK and worldwide. Member hotels maintain their independence, charm and personality, while benefiting from being part of the Best Western brand. Hotels benefit from sales and marketing activity available to them by joining with like-minded independent hoteliers.
Five steps to better PPC
We believe every PPC campaign can always be better as there are many elements to consider. Think about how seasonality, competitors, messaging, budgets, sales targets and search engines can change.
With this in mind, Justin Hayward along with Econsultancy will be presenting ‘Five steps to better PPC’ in London on 26th November. If you can’t make it to the event Econsultancy will also be running this session as their first ever webinar on 1st December!
We’ll be covering:
1. KPIs and objectives – What do you really want to achieve and is it feasible?
2. Keywords & account structure – Long tail, brand, ad groups, have you got it right?
3. Creative ad writing – Is your message better than the rest?
4. Site landing pages and SEO integration – What happens when they get to your site? Designing for conversion.
5. Tracking & technology – Data blindness? Are you analysing the right stats?
All details can be found at the Econsultancy site
How to brief social media
Starting a social media project can be a minefield; where to start, what channels to use, and how will it affect my brand are all major factors to consider. As with all successful projects though, it starts with a good brief. The iab are running an event to help both clients and client service teams to understand their options and get the brief just right.
The event is on Wednesday 4th November at the iab offices from 9am. There’s a number of great speakers including our own Justin Hayward who will be presenting ‘Understanding the relationship between search and social media’ which is an extremely hot topic right now.
You can now download the presentations from all speakers over at the iab site.
Econsultancy SEO Buyers Guide 2009
A starting point for many clients for choosing a prospective SEO agency has become the Econsultancy SEO buyers guides.
These are extremely useful as a quick side by side check for working out which agency would suit your project and culture best without getting them all into pitch.
This edition has 31 suppliers and we’re happy to be included as a featured supplier. It makes for some very useful reading if you’re thinking about your next SEO partner, so go and check it out.





