Allied Sinterings | Case Studies

Leveraging their full scale Thomas Marketing Services advertising program, Allied Sinterings is boosting its SEO and effectively getting in front of more buyers looking for miniature powdered metal products.

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The Business

Precision Engineering for Tiny Parts

Allied Sinterings has made a name for itself as the “dollhouse of the industry” because of its focus on making powdered metal products for small applications, including miniature components for the automotive and medical industries. “What the industry considers small is really our largest part, which is probably about the size of a quarter,” President and CEO Mark Foster said. Recalling the days of Thomas’ printed directories, Foster described an Allied Sinterings ad with a picture of a quarter and accompanying text that read, “nothing bigger than this.”

Foster’s father, Gifford Foster, founded the company with business partner Axel Madsen in Connecticut in 1959 with the goal of creating smaller parts to fit smaller spaces. Polaroid was among their first customers, and the camera manufacturer used precision powdered metal gears from Allied Sinterings in its line of instant cameras.

Today, the company employs 35 people and remains family-owned and operated under the leadership of Mark Foster and his sister, CFO Diana Foster. Allied Sinterings was the first organization in its industry to achieve ISO 9000 certification, and the company has received numerous awards, including a Grand Prize for Planetary Drive Assembly in the 2015 Powder Metallurgy Design Excellence Awards and a 2001 Metal Powder Industries Federation Award for the design and manufacture of a stainless steel part.

The Problem

Buried on the Fifth Page of Search Results

Allied Sinterings has built up its reputation as a world class manufacturer of miniature parts over the last seven decades. During this time, the way industrial buyers discover and connect with new suppliers has evolved, and the company has invested more in digital marketing.

Some of the company’s earlier efforts to get in front of prospective customers online didn’t pan out. “I would have people…search for us, and we wouldn't even pop up on the [search results] page. All our competitors popped up, and I'm not sure we made it until the fifth page,” Foster said of the company’s initial SEO efforts.

Being eclipsed by competitors in online searches “correlated to a lack of quotes and a lack of business,” Foster said. He knew that Allied Sinterings needed a marketing partner that could help the company grow its online presence. Beginning the company’s advertising partnership with Thomas in the age of the printed “Big Green Books,” and seeing how the company has grown and changed with the times inspired Foster to enhance Allied Sinterings’ Thomas advertising program. The company started using Thomas Marketing Services (TMS) in 2020 for enhanced programs, including website design and SEO. TMS is Thomas’ in-house digital marketing agency speciﬁcally for industrial suppliers, with a team of digital marketers supported by degreed engineers who understand the complexities of industrial businesses like Allied Sinterings.

The Solution

The Building Blocks of Better SEO

When it came to crafting a full-service digital marketing solution, Allied Sinterings had to “walk before we could run,” Foster said. After launching a new website built by Thomas, Allied Sinterings began to tackle improvements to its SEO ranking.

Allied Sinterings’ TMS plan also includes eBooks and other resources to help with customer education. “You can't push our technology. There has to be a need for someone to come to us,” Foster said. Prospective customers who find Allied Sinterings through an internet search for ‘miniature powdered metal components,’ for example, can refer to the company’s eBook on design considerations for powdered metallurgy to better understand the part design process.

“I think the work we did on the design eBook is going to be tremendously valuable because: 1) We can capture contacts, and 2) It generates a better RFQ because if customers can design for what we're doing, then they're going to get a good part,” Foster said. “We're not going to have a lot of back and forth, so it saves everybody time.”

The Results

Growing Impressions, Greater Engagement

Since embarking on its SEO journey with Thomas in 2020, Allied Sinterings has seen increased conversions and higher engagement. “The quality of leads is definitely improving,” Foster said.

Allied Sinterings’ conversion rate increased by more than 40% between 2020 and 2024, and the company’s work with Thomas Marketing Services resulted in more than 10,000 impressions between October 2023 and September 2024.

Foster meets with his TMS account manager – his dedicated Thomas digital marketing strategist – twice per month to review leads and check on marketing performance. He’s encouraged by the results and looks forward to these meetings. “We’re seeing better traffic…We’re getting more eyeballs,” Foster said, adding that Allied Sinterings is “looking forward to converting this traffic to solid sales.”

41.7% increase

in conversion rate

2020 - 2024

62.7% increase

in engagement rate

2020 - 2024

10,200+ impressions

on Thomasnet

Oct. 2023 - Sept. 2024

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