Press – Akron Beacon Journal 2/2/2009
Page: B6
Memo:ABOUT PAGE ONE WEB SOLUTIONS
Location: Cuyahoga Falls
Owners: Patrick Sullivan, Chris Sullivan
Phone: 800-872-0291
Web Site: http://pageonewebsolutions.com
Business: Sales and marketing solutions, phone-call tracking software
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
MARKETING ACCOUNTABILITY
Paula Schleis, Beacon Journal business writer
Patrick Sullivan calls up the data for a professional client and can instantly see which of the client’s marketing efforts are working and which are a waste of time. A software program tracking sales calls knows exactly what promotion the caller laid eyes on before picking up the phone and how much he or she spent by the time he or she hung up.
That kind of knowledge is more important than ever, said Sullivan, who along with his brother Chris own Page One Web Solutions in Cuyahoga Falls.
”In this economy, marketing is often the first thing to go,” Chris Sullivan said, ”but what do you eliminate? This tool helps companies home in on exactly what advertising dollars are doing for them.”
The program begins with a simple premise: different phone numbers for different ads. Many companies already employ software that tracks what ads online customers clicked on to find the company Web site. But what if the customer picks up the phone instead?
”If someone sees you on Google but calls you to place an order, who gets the credit?” Patrick Sullivan said. ”Unless you ask every customer how they found you, you don’t know.” But if the phone number provided on a Yahoo ad is different from the phone number on a Google list, and those differ from phone numbers in print ads, the phone book, even business cards, then the software knows what promotion caught the customer.
Caller ID technology records the name and number and the program allows the salesperson to record what the caller purchased and how much was spent. That data allows for quick calculation of how much money a marketing effort brought in.
Lee Strange, owner of the Kent laser manufacturer H-W Fairway, said subscribing to the Page One service gave him the confidence to shift his marketing budget. The company was doing all of its advertising with an Internet manufacturing register, he said, but after a couple of months tracking sales calls, it turned out that most people were finding the company through popular search engines.
”So I made an educated decision about where to spend my advertising dollars,” Strange said. ”We’re still spending the same amount, but we’re able to target it where it needs to be.”
The program costs $150 a month to track five different phone numbers. Other levels of service are available.
A code is embedded in the company’s Web site , a 10-minute process that Page One can do remotely , and the client has complete control over collecting, viewing and compiling its data.
”It’s as easy as logging in to check your e-mail,” Patrick Sullivan said.
Chris Sullivan said about 60 percent of Page One’s customers are manufacturers, but he expects most future growth to come from professional services, such as doctors and attorneys. ”They are very behind in Web marketing, so something like this is the proof they’ve been waiting for,” he said.
The Sullivans are New Jersey natives who moved here a few years ago to learn their father’s marketing business as he prepared to retire. But the company they were inheriting proved to have too many financial problems, so they ended the enterprise and launched their own. Page One opened for business in 2006.
Chris, 35, studied marketing in the 1990s, a time when ”it was obvious how important the Web was going to be for business sales.” Patrick, 29, earned a degree in information systems in 2002.
Together, their backgrounds blended perfectly, they said.
But they won’t be working in the same office for long.
Chris is planning a move to Florida to open a new Page One office. Patrick expects to eventually move west to expand the company into new markets there. And a friend, Patrick Robinson, came on board as a partner to open an office in Maine. The headquarters, which employ three Web site and software designers, will remain in Cuyahoga Falls, they said.
”You can run the business by phone,” Chris said. ”We have clients we’ve never met face to face. But it really helps to have a personal presence.”