Two things happened last week that had me thinking about Internet marketing and the opportunity for success a business has with it. It also made me think about why companies seem to be held back from exploiting the benefits of marketing online.

Number One: Who’s The Crazy One?
The first was reading a great Internet marketing article from Andrew Eklund on MinnesotaBusiness.com.  The article easily outlined why Internet marketing is a dream (and reality) for any marketing team/person.  Eklund had some great points that anyone could understand and my biggest takeaways were:

1.  Reworking old and tired traditional marketing is not the answer.

2.  Ignoring the medium (Internet) where prospects are, customers are and that allows for complete tracking of your marketing to sale process is plain crazy.

3.  Internet marketing is not risky, not marketing online is risky.

Give the article a read and you’ll hopefully find a spark to push yourself into investing more time and strategy into leveraging the great benefits of Internet marketing. You’re crazy not too.

Number Two: Ignorance Is Bliss? No.
The second thing that happened was a scenario that unfolded in my email inbox.  I received an email from a business development person I know that contained their newsletter in a PDF attachment.  I froze.  They had a great email subject headline on a topic that I wanted information on but … they would never know that.

I couldn’t believe that the company would ignore the fantastic benefits of email marketing after all that hard work.  They put together a well designed PDF, it had compelling and educating content … yet it was only doing half of its job.  It wasn’t going to clue the business in on its relevance, performance and its outcome.

If they had sent this information via an email marketing program they would have gained these valuable marketing benefits:

1.  Who opened their email newsletter

1b.  Better yet, they would have reduced effort (clicks & time) to get to the goods

2.  What links users clicked on to get more info or take action

3.  The ability to fully track users from email to website to conversion

4.  They can still include the PDF version AND see who downloaded that

This marketing campaign could have been so much more.  Don’t just go half way, take advantage of the simple opportunity to get everything you want from your marketing efforts.

So to get to my title question, what is holding your company back from Internet marketing?  As Ecklund’s article pointed out, it offers accountability, sustained progress, sales, leads, return-on-investment, and deep business intelligence.  Let’s add to that affordability too.  Email marketing is an extremely low cost.  Consider though, at any price, the ability to track and measure makes any number realistic when you know what it produced.

So get rid of your fear (or ignorance), make the move, take the right steps, ask questions, get answers and find the ways Internet marketing can improve your business.  There are many.

Last week we launched the Blackwater Coffee Company & Cafe website. While the web design project was small in size on the surface, but its part of a very big service we are rolling out.

The Blackwater web project included the following:

• Custom design elements over an existing CSS layout
• Full CMS back-end for updating of all website content
• Easy to use menu admin that allows for creating unlimited menus, categories, sub-categories, item name, description, pricing and pricing options. We’ll be adding a photo element per item in the near future as well.
• SEO Friendly URLs, on-page optimization, local search optimization
• Email marketing set-up, e-letter design and support
• Interactive calendar that Blackwater will start using next month

Here is a screenshot of their food menu.

The Big Future of Restaurant Web Design

Last year we decided to start building an industry web and marketing solution for the restaurant, bar, cafe, coffee shop, bakery …. any type of food or beverage service business. That solution is called Taste Trend and Blackwater is the first client. We are just shoring up the Taste Trend website that will allow food service businesses to buy a web and Internet marketing package online and get started. Stay tuned for more on that launch next week.

Taste Trend will provide an affordable web solution for the small food service business. The set-up fees are as low as $450 and monthly fees starting at $75, anyone can use this service. We feel we’ve created an easy to use, great looking, value stuffed, SEO friendly web and marketing tool.

Here is just some of what a Taste Trend website package offers:

• Initial consulting and recommendations
• Semi custom design with desired elements over CSS layouts
• Full web management of content and pages
• Robust menu administration
• SEO friendly design & local search help
• Email marketing set-up, service and support
• Detailed web analytics on traffic and sources
• Ongoing support and education
• Many add-ons for photos, video, calendars, gift certificates and more.

All of these great features will be accessible through the Taste Trend account dashboard, called The Kitchen.

So as you can see, we have a lot going on here and we’re super excited about it. Stay tuned for next weeks roll-out of the website. If you are interested in being a BETA client of Taste Trend, let us know. We have a few spots left!

Our latest web design project to be released is for commercial HVAC and mechanical contractor Corporate Mechanical of Minnesota.  Serving the heating, cooling and mechanical needs of the Minneapolis area, Corporate Mechanical asked Five to heat up their web presence with a cool new web design and improvements to other areas online.

For the project we took up the creative task of a new web design and flash element to the home page.  Corporate’s old website was all in Flash and while they liked some of the effect, they disliked the lack of search engine traffic and the inability to update the site.  In building out the new web design on the SMC, they now have full control of their website.

The redesign also gave them a chance to add and strengthen their content on HVAC services, Equipment leasing program and take online service requests.

Some of the web design project highlights:

• Custom web design
• Flash design element
• Built on our CMS, the SMC
• Drop down navigation
• On-page search engine optimization (SEO)
• Email marketing design & set-up

We’re proud to have Corporate Mechanical as one of our clients.  If your not exactly comfortable in your office as you read this, you might want to give the Corporate Mechanical crew a call!

View the new website: http://www.corporatemechanical.com

On Tuesday, January 20th I had the opportunity to present a 3 hour Internet Marketing seminar on Search Engine Optimization and Email Marketing to a great group of attendees in Buffalo, Minnesota. Here is a short summary video with some of the slides (77 slides in total!), photos from the event and a video clip.

Internet Marketing Seminar – Five Technology from Five Technology on Vimeo.

The majority of the seminar was focused on the basics of SEO and the concept of building trust within your website and it’s content/pages. We covered a lot of ground, answered many questions and even reviewed some of the attendee’s websites to offer up suggestions.

I personally had a blast with everyone and learned a lot in preparing a 3 hour seminar and presenting it. I think that everyone there walked away with some great takeaways and tips no matter their level of understanding coming in. I met a lot of really cool people too. Thanks everyone!

Five Technology is very excited to announce an Internet marketing seminar to teach and discuss the basics of search engine optimization and email marketing. The seminar is on January 20th, 2009 from 9:00am to Noon in Buffalo, Minnesota. You can get the full details, schedule and register online by clicking here.

Why Are We Doing A Seminar?
Our philosophy is and has been to share what we know. It’s not about secret recipes, but about the partnership and experience our firm brings when serving our clients. A seminar on Internet marketing is a great way for us to teach, share and help where we can with helping business owners and marketers understand what they can accomplish online.

While many small businesses have a website, very few understand the increased need to utilize the rest of the Internet and it’s tools to drive traffic to their own website.

Our seminar is open to anyone, not just Five clients, to learn the basics and understand how to market online.

What Will You Learn?
Attendees of this seminar will have a solid grasp of how today’s search engines work and what they can do to improve their trust and rank with Google, Yahoo and MSN. We’ll do this with very little “tech talk” and a lot of common sense elements and strategies within search engine optimization (SEO). We’ll also outline the features and benefits to email marketing, addressing the why, the how and the little tips that can make it a big factor in your business.

What Are You Waiting For?
Head over and register online for this 3 hour seminar for just $45.00 per person. We know you’ll be amazed at the amount of information and action items you walk away with. You’ll see search engine optimization and email marketing as a key to driving your businesses success.

We look forward to seeing you on the 20th of January!