Driving
Up Profits
By
Joseph C. Panettieri
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Forget foot traffic. Many small businesses are picking up new customers on the Information Superhighway.
Ask Mark Kini to describe how his Web site stretches his limo service
to its fullest potential, and he has time to utter only three quick
sentences: “I’ll have to call you back. My phone’s
ringing off the hook with customers. You can bet our Web site has a
lot to do with that.”
With fewer than 20 employees, Kini doesn’t have the marketing
budget to blanket Boston-area publications and Web sites with advertisements.
As an alternative, a friend recommended that he investigate Google Inc.’s
AdWords service, which generates text-based advertisements on Google
and other popular Web sites. At a cost of as little as 5 cents per ad
respondent, Kini immediately signed up.
It’s money well spent. Whether it’s an international business
traveler or a local bride, anyone who types “Boston Limo Service”
into Google’s search engine immediately finds “Boston Chauffeur”
listed atop the results. “In many ways, AdWords levels the playing
field between big enterprises and smaller businesses like mine,”
says Kini, who now regularly fills his fleet to capacity.
Boston Chauffeur isn’t entirely unique. Rather than spending big
bucks on flashy Web sites that nobody can find, entrepeneurs across
the nation are launching moderate (but professional) sites and promoting
them through search engines, targeted e-mail marketing services and
traditional materials such as corporate brochures.
Just ask Mitch York, CEO of Janatrox LLC, a Sayville, N.Y.–based
company that operates one of the East Coast’s most successful
smoothie franchises—Maui Wowi New York (www.mauiwowiny.com).
“We spent about $2,000 designing and launching our Web site in
2002, and it returned our entire investment in one job,” York
says.
In order to maintain a consistent corporate brand, York registered his
business Web site and e-mail addresses through Network Solutions LLC
(www.networksolutions.com).
The process takes about 30 minutes, requires only a credit card and
costs about $35 a year for a Web address (www.yourcompanyname.com).
Many small businesses try to get by with consumer e-mail addresses (such
as janedoe2004@aol.com), but that can give potential clients the impression
that your business is home-based and running on a shoestring budget.
Boston Chauffeur, Janatrox and other savvy small businesses also reference
their Web sites in all promotional literature, including business cards,
product literature, newspaper ads, brochures and personalized mailings.
Many also link to online civic organizations. “These steps give
us instant credibility as a real business, not just some mom-and-pop
shop with blenders and a bunch of bananas,” quips York.
Dialing (Up) for Dollars
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| Boston
Chauffeur, Janatrox and other savvy small businesses also reference
their Web sites in all promotional literature, including business
cards, product literature, newspaper ads, brochures and personalized
mailings. |
Some small businesses are
transforming their Web sites from cost centers into profit centers.
Through a service like Google’s AdSense (not to be confused with
the aforementioned AdWords), small businesses can automatically accept
related advertisements on their Web sites.
TriFuel Inc. (www.trifuel.com),
a small business that serves triathlon participants, is running strong
with AdSense. The company’s Web site features ads about swimming
gear and exercise clothes. “With AdSense, I can focus on my business
instead of worrying about finding and retaining paying advertisers,”
says Paul Lieto, founder of TriFuel.
Google doesn’t publicly discuss its financial formula for sharing
AdSense revenue with TriFuel and other customers. However, a Google
spokesperson says AdSense partners receive revenue in $100 increments
on a monthly basis. Balances of less than $100 carry over to future
months.
Entrepreneurs
have also discovered the power of targeted e-mail marketing, otherwise
known as push messaging.
When done correctly, e-mail marketing can strengthen bonds with current
customers and corporate partners—and pique the interest of new
customers and partners. Yet many businesses mismanage their e-mail marketing
campaigns, sending far too many messages to far too many recipients.
“In-boxes are extremely cluttered, and consumers are sensitive
to spam,” says Al DiGuido, CEO of Bigfoot Interactive, an e-mail
marketing firm in Manhattan. “You’ve got to leverage the
data and knowledge you have about prospects and customers to serve truly
relevant e-mails that benefit the recipients.”
Rather than blasting e-mail to thousands of unknown recipients, small
businesses should use permission-based e-mail, says Clayton Banks, CEO
of Ember Media Inc., a digital marketing firm in Manhattan. In this
scenario, your target customer signs up for your e-mail marketing messages—either
all of them, or by opting in to certain categories like “new products”
or “sales and special offers.
Don’t have an IT manager? Consider outsourcing to an application
service provider (ASP). For a monthly fee, ASPs manage e-mail distribution
lists and generate e-mail traffic reports for your review. An e-mail
marketing campaign can cost about $3,000 to set up and $0.005 (half
a cent) per message, with additional savings based on volume, says DiGuido.
A tracking system can identify how many people opened the message, which
links they clicked on and so forth.
Many e-mail
marketing services were designed for large enterprises, but some are
tailored for small businesses. Roving Software Inc. charges small businesses
$10 to $25 per month to manage their e-newsletters. Through close relationships
with Pitney Bowes, among others, Roving has attracted thousands of customers.
“For a small business, there’s no better way to communicate
with customers and prospects than e-mail marketing,” says Janet
M. Muto, vice president of marketing. “The low cost, instant response
and time to market beats every other avenue out there.”
In addition to Roving (www.roving.com)
and Bigfoot Interactive (www.bigfootinteractive.com),
other companies that offer targeted e-mail marketing services include:
Creative Media Alliance (www.creativemediaalliance.com),
e-Mail Networks Inc. (www.e-mailnetworks.com)
and Microsoft Corp., through its bCentral.com Web site.
Stay
Current
Without frequent updates, Web sites and e-mail marketing campaigns can
quickly resemble yesterday’s newspaper—or worse. Contact
information require constant updating to reflect staff departures, new
hires and office relocations. Many small businesses circumvent these
updates by offering site visitors generic contact information (such
as info@companyname.com or sales@businessname.com).
Other businesses use companies such as Websitenow.com to host, secure
and update sites at any hour of any day. Through user names and passwords,
Websitenow customers can edit their sites from any Internet-enabled
computer. Sites ranging from five to 20 pages cost $50 to $150 per year—or
less than 50 cents per day.That’s money well spent.
| Five Ways to Master the Web |
Location,
location, location: Is your company’s Web site
address simple (www.acme.com) or tricky (www.theacmeco.com) to
remember? If customers can’t easily find your site because
it has a peculiar name, visit www.register.com
or www.networksolutions.com
to search for more intuitive site names. |
