Client Spotlight
Design a Website Customers Really Use
Travis Horton, Executive Vice
President of Ohio-based Riten Industries,
says, "We are 3 times the size we were 5 years ago. 50% of our growth
has been due to new customers finding our website and having a great buying
experience." Riten's goal was to create a website where
users can draw their own tools. About 40% of Riten's business is custom
tooling.
Developed by the Web Solutions team at ThomasNet, Riten's website features
an online catalog and a CAD design tool which allows users to create custom tool
drawings. Adds Horton, "Because of the CAD technology available from
ThomasNet on our website, we find that 8 out of 10 of those inquiries become
orders."
View a video testimonial
from Riten Industries on ThomasNet.com.
Read more...
Expert's Corner
Use Online
Video to Help Your Website Sell for You
By Rita Lieberman, Director of Marketing
Communications
for ThomasNet
It’s a fact. Online video has taken off and is here to stay.
According to ComScore, the viewing of online videos in the United States
totaled 12.7 billion during November 2008, a 34% increase over the same month
in 2007.1
How can video help your website increase sales, bring in
more leads, and provide better customer service?
With potential customers coming to your website to find out about your
company, it needs to convince them that you have what they need without any
direct contact from you or your sales force. You need to do the best
job of “showing and telling” the benefits of buying your products
or services.
In addition to detailed product information, online video can demonstrate
your expertise in the marketplace in a familiar and entertaining format.
Read more...
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Strategic Sourcing - Getting into the Buyer's Mindset
Steve Belli shares ideas on how to get
into the mindset of the strategic buyer. Steve is the CEO of
Source One Management Services, LLC,
a Procurement Service Provider (PSP) which provides strategic sourcing services
to organizations, ranging from $100 million to the Fortune 100.
Steve, what is strategic sourcing?
Strategic sourcing is a process in which the skills of the supply industry are
harnessed in order to optimize a buyer's sustainable competitive advantage for
their business, as well as their final consumer. The main focus is on the development
of a secure and responsive supply base with the capabilities of meeting current
and future business needs. Companies ("buyers") may engage in strategic sourcing
whenever a purchase needs to be made in the marketplace - especially when the
purchase is repetitive in nature.
Many of our readers are suppliers marketing to industrial buyers.
Based on your experience, what are buyers really looking for when they are
sourcing?
High quality, sufficient quantity, reasonable costs, easy-to-use technology,
great flexibility, quick delivery, and excellent customer service are key
factors considered in the selection of a qualified supplier. This is where
strategic sourcing offers many benefits.
It allows companies to reduce costs, allocate and focus their resources
correctly, and also establish long-term supply relationships when appropriate.
Strategic sourcing gives both the buyer and the supplier the opportunity to
have their needs and desires considered and assessed.
What can suppliers do to gain the attention of buyers in the
marketplace?
At Source One, when we help buyers engage in strategic sourcing, one of the
first things we recommend is that the company look at its spend categories and
classify them into four different groups: tactical,
leveraged, critical, and
strategic.
Let's look at each classification from the buyer's perspective and see what
a supplier can do to differentiate their offering in the marketplace:
Read more...
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1 second
According to website usability expert
Jakob Nielsen, response times on our websites must be
“less than 1 second for navigation to feel seamless.”
Navigation response times above 1 second mean
that website users are “more likely to leave, because the
slower a site is, the more unpleasant it is to use."
Click here
for more details.
News
The
Value of a Unique Value Proposition
“Every landing page needs one
[unique value proposition],” says
Bryan Eisenberg on grokdotcom.com. He adds,
“How strong is your unique value proposition? It could be the key to a
better conversion rate.”
Read more...
Write
Sales Copy for Website Conversions
On SearchEngineWatch.com,
Tim Ash writes, “We've found that changing your approach to writing can
often lead to a double-digit increase in conversion rates.”
Read more...
Twitter 101
In the Wall Street
Journal, Katherine Boehret says she “put together a basic
Twitter guide that explains how to use it, Twitter lingo, privacy options,
mobile applications that can be used with the service and problems that it
has.” She adds, “Let's get started.”
Read more...
More
News Readers Drop Print Media for Digital
The Internet now surpasses most media (except
TV) as a source for news. A recent article on eMarketer
reports, "In yet another sign that news readers are dropping print for
digital, the Internet has now surpassed all media except television as a news
source."
Read more...
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