RIA Connect

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The Challenge

Breaking into a new online market and utilizing the web to enhance customer service, streamline business operations and gain leads.

The Project

When we first engaged RIA Connect (then RIA Electronic) in the early 1990's, an Internet presence for a company in their industry was almost unheard of. RIA wanted to capitalize on emerging technology to improve services for its Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and distributors, which in turn would give the company an advantage in its market by allowing it to provide unique and superior service to its customer base. Over time, we have helped RIA meet business needs by:

• Designing adatabase to house RIA's full product inventory and specifications, engineering diagrams, newsletters and other data for viewing or download on the RIA site.
• Programming simple and advanced search features to give site visitors access to RIA's inventory through a simple drill-down category search, or through an advanced search option that included search by full or partial product number.
• Developing reporting tools that allow distributors to access up-to-date stock inventories.
• Building a cross-reference function that allows OEMs to cross-reference more than 15,000 terminal blocks from over 10 manufacturers with RIA's equivalent products and then locate distributors by state or area code.
• Building a content management system so that RIA could independently update its web site including photos, content such as news and press releases, product specifications and inventory.
• Implementing a search engine optimization campaign by researching industry keywords, editing and writing copy, and monitoring rank and analytics to increase the site's exposure and lead generation.
• Setting up and managing a Google AdWords campaign targeting multiple international markets.

The Benefits

We have worked with RIA through several redesigns and multiple feature enhancements as their business has changed and grown over the years. Since their initial success taking advantage of an emerging market, some of the benefits to their business include:

• Improved customer service. With vital and frequently requested information available electronically along with advanced search and research capabilities, RIA realized a noticeable reduction in its sales cycle. Engineers, distributors and OEM buyers were independently and immediately able to have their technical questions addressed, assisting them in making quicker, more educated purchasing decisions and providing RIA's customer base with superior customer service.
• Time and money savings. With the ability to make all significant site updates in-house, RIA kept maintenance costs to a minimum. Changes were easy to make and required no additional knowledge of technology.
• Increased web site leads. The search engine program achieved higher rankings for the site, which led to an increase in traffic and more web site requests.

Our Client

RIA CONNECT manufactures RoHS compliant terminal blocks, modular jacks, Ethernet connectors and UBS ports for the global market. RIA is an international company with their USA headquarters located in New Jersey and parent Metz Connect in Blumberg, Germany. They supply products to a regional network of distributors, contract manufacturers and OEMs.

Custom Content Management

It's simple, form-based, and gives RIA the ability update content on their site in a timely fashion without having to make a single call to us. From news to images, product specs to distributor information, this system has served RIA for many years. Good planning led to the development of a system that hasn't required any major upgrades and still does its job.

A Quick Look Back

Design trends change, but with the core functionality in place, it was easy to see RIA through several redesigns to keep their site fresh and modern.

A Decade Of Difference

RIA has always made it a priority to stay ahead of industry trends. They were the first business of their kind to break onto the online scene more than a decade ago. Their knowledge of their industry, combined with our technology know-how put RIA ahead of competitors.