Otto Transfer hauls the big things others can’t.  Giant telephone poles and other oversized loads are the common freight for Otto’s trucking and hauling services.

Owner Kevin Otto came to Five with two needs.  One was to get a professional website up and the other was to make it a valuable resource for his cusotmers and staff by adding online account management and quoting.  Kevin had tried to put up a Yahoo “do-it-yourself” website a while back and it didn’t quite cut it.  Five’s web design services went to work and created a professional, clean and branded design to show that Otto is a successful and experienced Minnesota trucking company.

Online Quoting & Account Management
Kevin’s idea to streamline quoting and account management through the website was a great idea.  Now his clients can get access to past quotes, pending quotes and submit new ones with ease.  The Otto Transfer staff can update statuses, price out quotes and take advantage of admin features that let them search similar quotes for a faster pricing process.  Easier for the customer and easier for Otto, thats a win-win.  Here are a few sample screenshots from the log-in and account management screen.

We’re pleased with the project outcome and Otto Transfer is too.  This project is a good illustration of web design and web development working to mesh a good looking design with a fantastic business tool. If you see one of their oversized loads on the highway, get out of the way.  This trucking company is going places.

If you have a business process you want to bring online, give us a holler.

It’s right up our alley to produce high end web designs for our clients, but what about our offline image and marketing?  I decided it was time to get some Five Technology apparel to keep us looking good offline for client meetings, events and so forth.   We worked with Peggy Jindra and Great Garments Plus, a promotional products and apparel company out of Rogers, MN. Peggy and her staff did a fabulous job in helping us pick out the right product lines, quality and colors.

The top photo is of our blue golf shirts, we also have black.  The lower picture is of a jacket and Flex Fit hat.

So if you see us on the street with our fresh gear on, just holler at us, we like the attention.

Most small businesses have heard of blogging, some read a few blogs and others have jumped into business blogging already. You might be wondering if you should start a blog for your small business. Most small business owners or management I talk to have some misconceptions on blogging. These “blog fears” are often a combination of misinformation from uninformed sources and their own inexperience.

Lets address a few questions that should help you answer if you should start blogging and also squash some of those blog fears.

1. What can I blog about?
The easy answer is what you talk about. Many business owners and management can talk up a storm on their business, their services, products and how they are different. These same verbal exchanges work perfectly for a blog. I often can lay out at least 20 blog topics for a business within seconds. Writing about product features, industry news, service comparisons, new buzz terms, your process and the list goes on. The biggest takeaway here: Make a list of topics you would talk about (blog about). Share your experiences, your expertise and your niche knowledge.

2. How often must I blog?
Yes, frequency has it’s rewards. Consistency is even better in my mind. Even committing and fulfilling posting once a week is worthy of a blog for a small business. You are far better off to put out solid content once a week then to just throw up a few paragraphs daily. I know blogs that post daily without value, they end up with few comments and their content feels very light. I, myself post once or twice every week and I’ve been very pleased with the growth in audience and SEO in the past 6 months. The biggest takeaway here: Once a week posts are enough, but make them valuable. Check out Blue Tent Marketing’s post on Blog Food for valuable posts and content.

3. What about negative comments?
A common “blog fear” is negative comments, I smirk at this one as my first thought is lets get you enough readers to get people commenting. Many businesses fear the slightest bit of negative criticism, especially in a written form online.  Realize that the majority of comments are positive or neutral, probably even over 95%.  Even if you do get something negative or controversial, rise to the challenge.  The Paramount Granite Blog covering granite countertops had this happen, and owner/blogger Barb Rodgers handled it perfectly.  Barb’s blog is a fantastic small business blogging example. The biggest takeaway here:  You likely won’t get anything negative, but if you do … meet it head on, you’ll learn something for sure.

Hopefully I have helped you answer these three questions for your business or eliminated some blog fears.  I want the overall takeaway to be that you need to look into business blogging further or even get started.  I’m an obvious supporter of it and have seen it’s benefits many times over.  If you are a beginning or seasoned business blogger, I would love to hear your path to starting and the experience to date.  Thanks!

To date this year, Five Technology has donated our web design services and content management solution for two different local organizations.  The first was to the “Vote Yes” committee in Delano for their efforts in getting two school referendums passed.  The second website has just recently been released and is for the non-profit Buffalo, Minnesota Food Shelf.

After I read a local newspaper article on the challenges the food shelf was facing for 2008, I decided that helping them launch a website would improve their ability to communicate with the community to increase support and also offer their services to those in need.

While the web design and site features are very basic, the site greatly increases the food shelf’s ability to gain visibility and share their mission.  One of the fun ways to help is by golfing in their 4th Annual Green Bean Open coming up, for which you can register online.

I also want to pass along thanks to the food shelf Director Jill Ask for the time she put in to helping us gather information to pull the website together.

I work with clients from time to time that are basically ashamed they have never taken the opportunity to acquire permission to market to their customers via email. It’s not a big deal, and it’s better to start today then to wait another week, month or year!

Lets take a look at three tips to remember if you are just starting to build an email list to leverage email marketing for your business or organization. You can also view a quick list of other list building basics.

Tip #1 – Quality Beats Quantity
It’s far better to start with even just 25 email recipients that are current customers, people in your target market or those that have sought out your new e-letter than a list of 2,500 random emails. You want to deliver relevant and useful information to your audience, that is what will motivate them to buy or contact you for new or repeat business.

Tip #2 – Ask For Permission In Person
I often ask a potential client when closing an introduction meeting or phone call for the first time if I can add them to our monthly e-letter. I tell them this is a great way to stay in the loop with our offering and learn more on web design and Internet marketing. Chances are you can easily do the same, you just have to ask!

Tip #3 – Create Some Fun
There are a ton of creative ways to start an email campaign. Prizes, contests, free marketing are all great ways to stir up some excitement. This sports art website is leveraging a contest to build their email list, sign up yourself! A little bit of brainstorming and planning can produce a great kick-off and list build.

If you didn’t catch my drift above, starting today instead of continuing to put it off is the biggest tip I can give you. With a little planning and strategy you can start your email list and marketing in no time. You can always holler at us for a demo of our easy to use email marketing tool as well.