North American Safety Products | Case Studies

A full-service SEO content program with Thomas has helped the gating and barrier specialist reach new customers and positions the company to expand its business.

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The Business

One Barricade Starts a Safety Empire

Anyone who works in manufacturing knows that safety is paramount. A major part of ensuring employees’ safety on the factory floor is making sure dangerous areas are clearly marked and guarded. To serve this important need, Marty Mobeck founded North American Safety Products in 1996 from a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago, Illinois. The brand got its start selling one type of expandable barricade, and today it offers a wide range of off-the-shelf and custom solutions to customers in the manufacturing, construction, medical, hospitality, maintenance, and warehousing industries.

“It started with one barricade — the Versa-Guard® — and has evolved into facilities, equipment, barriers, and barricades. Machine guarding and pedestrian safety are what we're known for the most,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Pfeiffer said. Pfeiffer runs the company alongside his wife, Nicole Pfeiffer, who succeeded her father, Marty Mobeck, as president and owner.

The Problem

A Need For New Customers

After more than 25 years in business, NASP has become a respected name in the industry and built up a roster of repeat customers. “Everything we have is trademarked, and very powerful people know it by name,” Pfeiffer said. Despite its existing customer base, he knew the company needed to bring in more new customers in order to grow.

To expand NASP’s reach and connect with potential customers looking for safety products, Pfeiffer turned to Thomas. He was familiar with the company’s long history of connecting buyers and suppliers that began with its printed directories, and Thomas’ current full-service marketing solution provided exactly what he was looking for to get NASP in front of the right people.

The Solution

Planting the Seeds for Growth

To increase awareness of NASP and its products, the Thomas team built out a company profile page on Thomasnet, which is now one of the company’s main drivers of web traffic, according to Vice President of Operations Donn Lesko.

NASP’s program also included a new website built by Thomas Marketing Services and an SEO content plan with articles based on keyword research.

Lesko, who has a background in SEO in web design, said working with the Thomas team complements his own efforts and analytics.

Supplier Session Webinar

Future-Ready: Building Resilience in Manufacturing with North American Safety Products

an exclusive interview with supplier Jim Pfeiffer, CEO of North American Safety Products (NASP). We’ll explore how to navigate industry changes and trends, how to lead with resilience, and what it takes to stand out as an enduring brand in North American manufacturing.

The Results

Greater Visibility, Higher Engagement

NASP is reaping the rewards from its work with Thomas, with notable increases in organic search traffic and engaged sessions. Nearly 40% of the company’s web traffic now comes from organic search, and the number of engaged sessions was up 4,154% in August 2024 compared to the previous year.

Lesko said the ability to track user activity on the NASP website has given the company the ability to “almost predict who will be reaching out with a request for quotation.”

Receiving reports and having regular check-ins with the Thomas team also provides a clear picture of the success NASP has had with its program.

Looking ahead, NASP plans to expand on its program with additional content, including e-books, infographics and animated videos. Every time the NASP team meets with Thomas, “we find more and more opportunities and different things that pique our interest that we feel will work just as well as everything else that we've tried to this point,” Lesko said.

NASP also sees opportunities to work with Thomas to grow other parts of the business, including a powder-coating company that NASP recently acquired to bring that aspect of production in-house. With a Thomasnet profile page and a website built by Thomas Marketing Services, NASP plans to grow the powder coating operation as a standalone business.

“As of right now, they don't have a website. They don't have marketing. They're word of mouth — period. So we are about to…rapidly grow that business” Lesko said.

39.7% of traffic

comes from organic search

4,154% increase

in engaged sessions

in 2024 compared to 2023

97.1% increase

in engagement rate