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Minnesota Technology Magazine - Winter 2004
MTI News
Net Worth
MTI's Internet Strategy Development services add value to your company's site.
After witnessing—or experiencing firsthand— the dot-com age’s well-trod rise and fall, companies in the manufacturing and tech sector are wiser for it. You’re probably not as quick to adopt new technology without some assurance that it’s essential to growth. And however confi- dent you are about the importance of a Web site, you eye the Internet a bit warily now. After all, when you lavish time and attention on the company site, how do you know it’s really worth it in the long (and short) run?
MTI’s Internet Strategy Development service helps small manufacturers answer that question. Trained in such fields as data communications, electronics, engineering, business, and Internet consulting, MTI’s e-business consultants are equipped to harness the Internet for your company’s needs, no matter how complex—or simple.
FROM GOAL-SETTING TO GOOGLE RANKING
Ineffective Web sites are borne of unclear goals, says MTI Internet business consultant Jan Hepola. During the dot-com heyday, many companies would “put up something without expectations. But now [those companies] are in a different economic state, and want to use their sites to help out the bottom line,” she notes. At the same time, most smallto mid-sized businesses don’t have the staff—or financial resources—to develop anything more than a static, “brochure”-style site that meets the minimum market expectation. But today it takes more to develop a site that captures the interest of new and returning visitors who are hip to gimmickry and hungry for dynamic, value-loaded content. In fact, a misstep on the Web can be detrimental to a company’s image: “A bad site is worse than no site at all,” Hepola asserts.
Craig Berdie, another of MTI’s Internet business consultants, emphasizes that a common feature of these ineffective sites is their multiple focuses; when using the Internet as a marketing tool, he advises the companies he works with to choose one or two distinctive traits or offerings, and to convey those core strengths as coherently— and swiftly—as possible on the site. Indeed, strategic planning for the Internet should start with a goal that articulates the site’s value to the company, as well as its immediate value for prospective customers.
To that end, MTI’s Internet consultants will conduct a detailed analysis of a company’s site, and the objectives for its development. Want to differentiate yourself from the competition? Reposition yourself for the changing market? With up-to-the-second knowledge and objective advice, MTI’s e-business consultants set about investigating your mission and target audience, sizing up your competition, evaluating existing Web content for its usability and effectiveness, testing links and download speeds, and structuring your site for search-engine optimization— a vital consideration in this age of live-or-dieby- Google-rank. In the process, “we help clients define the value they bring, and how to make the site perform for them,” says Hepola. Berdie agrees: “Strategizing helps clients clarify their thinking,” which saves money in the long run. After all, solid objectives ensure that you don’t over-invest your resources in non-functional elements.
A NEW SET OF EYES
Once a company’s goals are clarified, the insights of an objective outsider become invaluable. Web development requires a specialized skill set and the fresh perspective of a newcomer to a business’s product or service. “We’re able to meet with a client and say ‘Here are the skills it takes to bring this project to completion,’” says Hepola. “We also work to get into the shoes of the customer. We don’t speak the language [of our clients’ business], but we know the language of the customer.” Beyond subjective elements such as design and overall “feel,” MTI’s consultants advise their clients on quantifying their sites’ impact, including search engine ranking and traffic counts. By approaching Web sites as potential customers would, the MTI team illuminates their client’s cyber-strengths and weaknesses; from there, “thinking like the customer” becomes a lot easier.
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Even before they eye the site like a customer, MTI’s consultants have already approached their clients’ business as a competitor. “On average, we put in eight to 10 hours of prep work before we sit down [with our clients],” reports Hepola. The team performs an exhaustive search of top competitors’ products and services, and examines what they’re doing right on their own sites. “This is an ‘ah-ha’ moment,” Hepola says, “because [the client] has to think about competitors in a new light.” This competitive research unearths the industry’s best practices that clients are wise to employ themselves.
SUCCESS STORY: NORTHWOODS DNA
Concerns about search engine performance prompted Ron Burns, president of Becida-based diagnostics firm Northwoods DNA Inc., to call on MTI. A full 95 percent of Northwoods’ clients hail from outside Minnesota, and all of its orders are taken directly over the Internet. In addition to its regular clients in research labs, universities, and biotech companies across the country, the firm relies on Web searches to attract new business. When Burns contacted MTI, he knew that Northwoods DNA wasn’t ranking high enough in search engine results to attract new customers. He also wanted to improve his site’s layout for greater navigability. MTI’s e-business consultants met with him and conducted a thorough Web site analysis, paying special attention to search engine performance, link integrity, download speeds, navigation, and design.
“MTI’s services provided us with an opportunity to grow our business that we would not have had on our own,” says Burns. And the growth was measurable: Thanks to Northwoods’ higher profile on the Web, it reported a sales increase of nearly $50,000 last year. Its search-engine indexing has risen dramatically, and the average number of links to the site has doubled.
NET WORTH TO NET GAINS
As essential—and powerful—as a competitive Web site can be, Berdie reminds his clients that it’s only one part of an overall marketing strategy. With the exception of online order-entry or other e-business components, measuring a site’s impact can be a nebulous task. Will a revamped site make you money? Sell your product? There’s often no way of knowing definitively— but you can know who’s been checking you out, how long they stayed on the site, and how they found you. Again, when you have realistic goals for what your site can achieve, you’ll know what kind of extended investment is appropriate for you. By soliciting objective specialists like MTI’s team, you’ll know what the Internet is worth to your business.
—For more information on MTI's Internet Strategy Development services, call (612) 373-2900 or (800) 325-3073
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