Client Spotlight

Use Detailed Product Information on Website to Boost SEO and Sales

“Since we launched our ThomasNet-built online catalog, we were blown away by the amount of search engine optimization this type of program brought to life,” says Ralph Wilton, Marketing Manager of Aerzen USA, a worldwide manufacturer of positive displacement blowers, compressors and vacuum pumps. While ThomasNet cannot guarantee SEO results, it’s been proven that websites with detailed product information are more likely to be indexed by the search engines.

Aerzen USA’s website, with a searchable online catalog, went live in January 2008 and the company immediately saw results. View Wilton's video testimonial on the ThomasNet website now.

Expert's Corner

Ed Edwards, Manager of Sales Development for ThomasNet Web Solutions, shares some of the challenges businesses face regarding their websites.

A. Many times, I find that businesses have a process currently that is working, but when we talk about it openly, some degree of frustration or dissatisfaction surfaces. For example, one supplier who was selling replenishment blanks for their ID tag machines was leveraging internal sales representatives to make these sales happen. But when you look at the nature of the product being sold, it becomes clear that the sales process really can be moved online with no negative impact for the customer, but with a very strong process improvement for the supplier. The solution we proposed allows the supplier's customer base to order these low cost commodity items directly, and have the internal sales resources available instead to focus on selling the larger, more expensive, higher margin ID machines.

Many times, it boils down to a question of looking at a supplier's process and determining how to help them make the process more efficient or make the most effective use of the resources that are available.

5 Steps to Stand Out from Your Competition

Lisa Keltos, Marketing Manager for ThomasNet, provides insights into how you can use competitive intelligence to help differentiate your company and stand out from your competition.

Differentiation is one of the key ways you can gain a competitive advantage online. That’s the whole reason for marketing – to differentiate your company from the rest of the pack.

Before you can differentiate, you need to size-up your marketplace. Competitive intelligence can help your company understand how your products and services are positioned in the marketplace versus other companies.  This will help you determine what strategies are needed to reach new customers and increase sales.

So, how do companies start to differentiate themselves? Differentiation takes some careful planning and time. Here are some basic steps to employing a simple differentiation strategy:

Step 1: Develop/understand your company's marketing plan

Define and understand your company’s marketing plan – product, positioning, distribution, target markets, etc. This information serves as the benchmark for comparing your company to other companies.

Step 2: Identify your competitors

Second, you need to identify your competitors. Keep in mind, competitors are not only those companies that produce the same product and go after the same target customers. They may also be companies that produce products that are somewhat different from yours, but are competing for the same dollars from the same [your] target customers. Or, they could be companies that are producing the same products but are targeting different customers.

You may also want to start grouping competitors into different categories based on how strongly they are competing against your company in
the marketplace.

Step 3: Understand each competitor’s products and strategies

Collect information regarding each competitor’s products and/or services, such as features, pricing, capabilities, and more. You will also want to understand how your competitor is marketing their products.

Here are some sample questions for you to answer in order to understand your competitor's online strategies better:

80 - 85%

80 to 85% of advertisers use their own websites for marketing. They rate this as the most efficient marketing they do for both lead generation and branding.
Source: Annual Advertising and Marketing Study 2008, Outsell, Inc.

News

Supercharge Your Website with Video

How is the 'Bottom of Your Conversion Funnel'?

3 Ways to Stay In Front of Your Email Newsletter Subscribers

5 Steps to Assessing Effective Webinar Training