When Surrey snowboarder Jason Mason launched his outerwear company a year ago, top of mind was how to take an "underground movement" into mainstream culture.
As a business startup he wanted to reach as many potential customers as possible and build a globally recognized brand – all with little or no sales and marketing staff.
Mason turned to the Internet, found it to be the "great equalizer" and discovered the power of online marketing.
"I am gaining the interest I set out to collect," he said.
The 38-year-old used his background in video production and learned all aspects of website development and Internet marketing as he went along.
The result: people from as far afield as Korea, Japan and the U.K. began buying his innovative water-repellent, lined, breathable jeans wear.
That made his company, Mason Industries, one of five finalists for a Small Business BC award as best online marketer. (Vancouver's Make It Productions won the award, announced last month.)
His product looks like any pair of trendy weekend jeans, the only difference being that it can also be worn for outdoor winter action sports such as skiing and cold-water surfing.
"I have been contacted by an energy company that wants to outfit their thousands of employees in our jeans," Mason said. "And an Australian distributor wants to sell Mason Industries to the mining industry there."
Mason tinkered with the initial design using a discarded sewing machine he found in his Surrey apartment building but now has his products made in a factory in China.
He said he's confident his online marketing strategies would launch him into the big leagues.
Mason runs the business from his apartment. But it's the website that counts. He said everything from the business name, logo, icons and colour down to the font is with intent and purpose.
The content, mostly videos that Mason recorded and edited himself, shows the likes of Jeff Muirhead, already featured in skateboard and snowboard videos and magazines, wearing the company's jeans.
The website also has links to the media organizations, blogs and publications in which the company has been featured, including Transworld Snowboarding, CKNW and CTV.
All of this, said Mason, helps make the company more credible, extends its marketing reach and makes it appear to be bigger than it is, which in the case of Mason Industries is really a one-man operation.
Creating a slick business image to attract large companies and their reach was a marketing strategy Mason developed as an editor at BTV.
Duane Palmer, founder of Surrey-based Found Online Solutions, described a company's web presence as a puzzle.
"Nowadays it's not just one thing, it's a variety of things together that make a good web presence. It needs to be a website that's search-engine-friendly and user-friendly. It's online reputation as well."
Establishing yourself as an expert by providing useful content is important, according to Palmer, as is building trust. But he said most small businesses fail to make the best use of their online presence.
