At Pirata Media LLC, marketing is all about the numbers. It’s about showing clients exactly how many visits their Web site got, what sales were generated and at what cost.

The goal is to give clients the tools they need to make good marketing decisions quickly, said Steve Fischer, president and owner of the Bristol-based firm.

If, for example, a client has a new product, say a salt-free Thai peanut sauce, and it wants to gauge people’s interest in it on the Internet, Pirata Media would conduct pay-per-click keyword marketing, which in this case would track Web users’ use of search terms such as “salt free sauces,” “salt free Thai sauce” and “Thai sauce.”

“Every time [the Web site] gets clicked [as a result of the keyword search] it costs the client money,” in fees paid both to Pirata and to the operators of the search engines, Fischer said. “I need to be able to show the client whether that click-through generated a sale and if so how much did it cost.”

After a month, the firm would show the client which keywords generated the most sales and at what cost to the bottom line.

“One of the nice things about working in the Internet-marketing field is that we can begin to gauge the results of our strategy much more quickly than we could in any other facet of marketing or advertising,” he said. “It allows you to think on your feet on behalf of your client.”

Pirata differentiates itself from other players in the market by offering a trademarked product called Vela, which provides a monthly report on Web site and Internet-marketing performance and costs.

The firm also offers a database-driven software application, called POPStar, which allows clients to maintain their own Web presence in-house, meaning they can make changes to their Web site such as uploading new photos or adding new products, etc.

The firm offers POPStar Commerce for companies with an e-commerce component. The application allows clients to manage their own online e-commerce sales by generating sales reports and creating discount offers and bundled items.

“You really want the client to be able to handle these things on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “It’s what they bought. We would like them to come back to us when they need something innovative.”

Though applications such as POPStar are not an uncommon offering, what is uncommon is the fact that once a client pays for the initial application there are no more fees.

Fischer said he decided to take the long-term contract out of the application because of clients’ frustration about getting locked into expensive deals.

“It’s not a good business model to try to nickel and dime clients for small changes to their Web site,” he added. “It’s a better business model to make them successful so they can do new projects.”

Fischer said he recognizes not all of his clients need a product such as POPStar. Pirata’s small business clients, who represent about 30 percent of the business, might not make more than four changes to their Web site per year.

About 60 percent of the firm’s clients are Rhode Island based, and of those that are not, many of them were referred by a Rhode Island client.

“That’s been the main driver of the business really since day one,” he said.

Fischer brought most of them with him after dissolving his former company with a partner, he said. The former company, which he and his partner established in 1998, was based in Newport.

“We still have just about every client we’ve worked with,” he said, including those clients that came from the former company.

Fischer said strength in graphic design and Web programming are important to retaining clients.

“There is a very steep learning curve in the Internet world when it comes to programming,” he said. “A lot of companies that are just sort of Web-design shops – they can’t approach this because the barrier to entry, the cost involved … is considerable.”

During the past 10 years, Fisher has had to hire programmers proficient in ASP.NET and SQL technologies to create dynamic Web sites that can generate the type of reporting he thinks is so beneficial to clients.

“We got this deep into the programming because over the years it needed to be done to keep being relevant to clients and their businesses,” he said. “It’s a goal of ours with all our clients to make their sites make money for their business and most importantly to demonstrate it.” •

company profile: Pirata Media LLC

Owner: Steve Fischer

Type of business: Interactive marketing and advertising agency

Location: 450 Hope St., Bristol

Employees: 6

Year established: 2006

Annual Sales: WND