As a municipal bond underwriter, Stone & Youngberg has financed California’s defining infrastructure projects - the seismic retrofit of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the new Playa Vista neighborhood in West Los Angeles, and community redevelopment in downtown San Diego.

Since its inception in 1931 when it financed key irrigation projects in California’s Central Valley, Stone & Youngberg has expanded its underwriting, advisory, and investment services and now has offices in New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Richmond, VA and Annapolis, MD.

In 2007, Stone & Youngberg recognized that its site had become woefully stagnant and out of date. The firm sought a more attractive and functional Web presence to help it become the premier fixed-income investment bank in the nation.

Following a competitive review and selection process, Tenrec was engaged to implement a custom web site and content management system that would be a key driver to Stone & Youngberg’s growth plans.

Challenges:

  • Multiple divisions with competing marketing goals
  • Wide variety of target audiences include private and institutional investors, public agencies, community banks and broker/dealers
  • Live content sources including bond inventory and market data feeds
  • Coordination with in-house IT department


Solution:

Tenrec created a new site design based on the brand and identity design provided by Third Rail Design of San Francisco. The new site was integrated with a custom content management system, tailored to meet Stone & Youngberg’s exact requirements. Our services included:

Custom CMS – Tenrec built a .NET-based content management system that seamlessly integrates the site’s range of content sources and various contributors.

Broker Landing Pages – The new site allows Stone & Youngberg to create individual broker landing pages. These easy-to-create and manage pages provide brokers with key marketing tools for promoting and selling new bond inventory.

Search Engine Optimization – Tenrec continues to work with Stone & Youngberg on optimizing the site to increase its search engine traffic. This effort has included educating the Stone & Youngberg staff on how to manage an SEO campaign and create an effective keyword strategy.

Outcome:

Site visitors can now quickly find and access the information they need from a well organized, up-to-date web site. Stone & Youngberg's new site better reflects the company’s level of expertise and more effectively communicates what the company does, all without compromising depth of content.

Stone & Youngberg’s inventory, resources and news sections perform as robust, up-to-the-minute communication tools. The ongoing SEO campaign has fueled a substantial uptick in first-time site visitors. The broker landing pages have proven to be an effective marketing tool, expanding Stone & Youngberg’s market reach. The marketing and IT staff are able to manage the site content – they only call on Tenrec for specific technical updates or consulting.

And the best news of all is that, as the firm continues to expand, the site easily keeps pace.