Are you a manufacturer with a network of dealers who sell your product? If so, you could be missing out on a terrific opportunity to significantly increase sales. Yeah, I know I sound like a TV pitchman, but for a small investment and support, your dealers could be selling your product online and making money for themselves, and for you.
While the recession continues to batter brick and mortar stores, online sales are still pretty hot (in comparison). When gas prices climbed through the roof last year and no one wanted to leave the house – everything you needed was just a few mouse clicks away.
If you spend any amount of time on sites like Hulu or YouTube, you may have come across this clever new ad targeting small business owners. Advertising the "Recession Aggression Bag," a phony bean-bag style product that a small business owner can physically abuse and verbally demean to feel better about the economy, the ad does no promotion of Office Depot until you visit the intriguing URL promoted at the end of the ad: thesurvivalofthesmartest.com.
Click past the break for the full video.
Once you know what your website goals are and you have defined how much each goal is worth, the next step is to measure how well your business website is actually performing in getting visitors to complete the desired goals. To effectively measure your website performance, it is important to create and understand some Key Performance Indicators (KPI's).
Last week we looked at why you have a business website and why it is valuable to you. In this discussion we concluded that every business website's goal is to make money directly or indirectly by getting visitors to do something on the website, and that it is essential that you clearly define what it is you want your visitors to do and to assign a value to each goal.
Recently Sitepro presented collaboratively with Lee Adelman from CURT Manufacturing at the 2009 Manufacturing Advantage Conference . The presentation, titled "There's No Recession Online", discusses CURT Manufacturing's success using online retail and company reseller sites coupled with engaging media. The company has experienced significant financial success despite manufacturing it's product in a declining market in addition to the current recession. This video featuring Lee Adelman (VP, E-commerce and Retail, CURT Mfg.), Mike Phillips (Owner, Sitepro), Keif Oss (Senior Producer, Sitepro Video), tells the strategy behind CURT's recent success. View this video and learn why "There's No recession Online".
Before you can successfully market your website, it is essential that you truly understand why you have a website in the first place and what the value of your website is.
As a whole society is cutting back on spending and focusing more on saving money. I'm sure you have all seen or heard the commercials for feedthepig.org.
Besides the mascot being outright scary, the site offers great information on how to pinch your pennies. With save instead of spend being on the top of people's mind, why is now the time to start up an online business?
Roth Sugar Bush, a maple syrup farm and manufacturer in Cadott, Wisconsin, had an existing online store where they sold maple syrup and products nationwide. Over the years, they had received a number of inquires about maple syrup equipment that Roth Sugar Bush did not provide.
Thanks to their website team and their dynamic online store, in early 2009 they were able to quickly react to this customer demand by adding maple syrup equipment to their online inventory. They have been receiving high volume sales ever since. In comparing 2008 sales with 2009 sales over the same month span, Roth Sugar Bush has experienced an 89% increase in sales.
To learn more about Roth Sugar Bush’s family-run business, visit them online at www.rothsugarbush.com.
On Thursday, May 14th, Sitepro will be presenting at the 2009 Manufacturing Advantage Conference at UW-Stout. Through dynamic, hands-on demonstrations, simulations and workshops, Manufacturing Advantage will help manufacturing professionals from across the state learn about practices to help them gain the competitive advantage. Sitepro's presentation, titled There's No Recession Online, will be presented by Sitpro client Lee Adeleman from CURT Manufacturing, Mike Phillips, Sitepro President, and Keif Oss, Sitepro Senior Video Producer.
