Web Putting Small Businesses in Driver's Seat

More small businesses are using Internet marketing to drive their sales.

"One of the biggest things we realized about the Web is simply by turning it on you create revenue," said Bill Miller, president and chief executive of AutoXRay Inc., a provider of automotive diagnostic scanners in Tempe.

"If a business doesn't have a Web site and use it for marketing, they're foolish," he said.

Since his company started using the Web for sales and marketing two years ago, revenue has increased eight-fold. The advantages of Internet marketing are superior targeting, speed, flexibility and lower costs, he said.

Valley e-marketers say Web technology has become more sophisticated since the days of early experimentation.

In the late 1990s, in the early days of business use of the Internet, a heavy emphasis was placed on banner advertising, direct e-mails and content. Today e-marketing has added the interactive marketing tools of e-mail newsletters, and "blogs," the name coined for informal online journals.

These two tools, while not replacing conventional marketing and sales methods, can be an effective and targeted way to complement a company's marketing efforts, say e-marketers.

"We don't think a startup or existing business can effectively market without a good Web site," said Stephanie Houser, a principal with the Launch Inc. marketing firm in Tempe.

"It's an integral part of their marketing. It gives a company credibility when a lot of thought and resources have gone into its Web site."

Startup businesses looking for help to connect with customers online, need to know certain things to look for in an e-marketing firm, e-marketers advise.

"The best way to tell if you are dealing with a reputable e-marketing firm is to review its Web site portfolio," said Ben Laurienti, vice president of BBB Systems Inc., a Web site creation and e-marketing firm in Glendale.

Clicking on the sites the company has created shows its design expertise, he said. The special marketing features they have incorporated into the site show their marketing savvy.

Usually the sites will have contact numbers business owners can call to ask how a client liked the company's services, Laurienti said.

And, as with any product, you get what you pay for, he added. The sites his company creates usually average about $1,700. He said a customer should allow two to three weeks to get a site set up. Clients usually provide the content and images that go on the site, he said.

Small-business owners should look for e-marketers that are members of local chambers of commerce, or the Better Business Bureau, Laurienti said. Customers can then go to these organizations to try to mediate any problems.

Laurienti said many e-marketing firms also will work with clients on their printed marketing materials.

"We try to match the Web site design with the printed materials we can provide businesses, for a consistent look," he said.

AutoXRay is a Launch client. It now uses special features on its Web site, including a press room for journalists with background information and product images. The site also offers content in English and Spanish.

An increasingly important aspect of e-marketing is the creation of e-mail newsletters, say Houser and Miller, touting their cost-effectiveness.

In an e-mail newsletter, for example, a business can create a personalized message for the intended reader and can send thousands of e-mail messages out quickly.

However, businesses must be aware of anti-spamming laws requiring all newsletter recipients to request the information. A key in using e-mail newsletters is to have a special customer list, Miller said. "The people on this list are telling us, I want to be getting your information about new products and services."

Maintaining the list also keeps businesses on the minds of their steady customers."There's no better customer prospect than a current customer," Miller said.

In addition, blogs are the newest wrinkle in the evolving e-marketing technology.

"I think blogs are definitely the wave of the future in business communications," Houser said. "You can post all sorts of dialogue about products and related services."

Miller said his company uses its blog in a highly creative way.

One of his customers reported on the blog that he had installed an AutoXRay product intended for cars on his experimental airplane engine. Now the company is marketing the product for use in airplanes.

"The inventiveness of the general public far exceeds the creativeness you have in-house," Miller said.

Because the nature of blogs is to solicit honest and uncensored opinions, some reactions to products may be negative.

Miller said if a comment is too offensive for children to read, it should be removed. Barring that, even negative comments about products should remain.

"If someone has written a negative comment about your product, and you know it's true, it's up to you to answer what you are going to do to fix the problem, and when," Miller said.

Launch has a link on its Web site to bBlog, an Internet company that provides free blog software and templates with uncomplicated updating and editing systems.


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