In only their first 9 months as a SiteSwan Website Builder white label reseller, the Genesee Valley Penny Saver has significantly enhanced their customer relationships. Having already designed over a dozen engaging and effective websites, with even more in production, the family-owned publishing company founded in Avon, New York back in 1948 has, "rapidly evolved into a one-stop solution for our local businesses," reports Marketing Manager, Mary Shepard.
As second generation owner Steve Harrison approached his company's seventh successful decade, he became convinced that creating and maintaining responsive small business websites was the next asset that should be added to the award winning community paper's marketing solutions portfolio. The free weekly paper had already grown to serve readers and advertisers in 6 counties containing 11 separate print editions. Their in-house, sister company, Penny Lane Printing & Promotions, had similarly grown to provide virtually any object on which one could place a logo.
Their embrace of SiteSwan's website building "business in a box" provides multiple solutions. "We were always looking for much more than just the easy gains in new and recurring revenues," Mary explains. "Having access to their website gives us access to reporting and to valuable insights. Now, we finally have the ability to clearly demonstrate the impact of our integrated marketing plans. We can show with clear metrics that their print ads are driving traffic and generating interest. We can put numbers to the level of engagement pushed by print, direct mail, email, banner ads and social media."
Celebrating 70 years in operation, the Harrison Family still measures its publishing company's success, in large part, by the success of their small business clients. Delivering the best possible results, by tailoring solutions to each small business client's individual needs, requires quality analytics. The Genesee Valley Penny Saver team needed the capacity to mine meaningful metrics and hard data and to show what is working. They were seeking the capabilities that would provide the coordinated marketing and sales teams insights to share, and offer even more powerful integrated solutions to the business communities they hold dear.
Becoming a white label reseller and building effective, response-generating websites on the SiteSwan platform, the amazing solutions team at GVPS moved beyond the insights gleaned from just banner advertising. "Now that we're building and maintaining websites, we can tell clients and prospects 'the rest of the story,'" relates Mary. "With SiteSwan, we can close the loop, show how many potential customers clicked through, downloaded coupons or the rebate form, all the actions taken as a result of our integrated multimedia campaigns. Having these response metrics is already a game changer."
"At the young age of 70, we're finally able to actually track results and make solutions-focused recommendations grounded in hard facts and figures," hands-on owner Mr. Harrison explains. "In less than a year with SiteSwan, we've accomplished so much more than sustainable new revenue streams. Our family enterprise is breaking new ground with different categories of advertisers." Among once arms-length advertising categories now onboard is local government, as they seek to provide better public notice.
And among once-elusive examples from the private sector are stores tied to national brands and under burdens and restrictions from corporate. Forced to use one-size-fits-all cookie cutter websites, GVPS had few digital options to promote their top business categories. "With SiteSwan, we're able to provide local, custom solutions. We create custom landing pages with a look and feel tied to print, promoting unique URLs in print. Now, essential lines of business are booming, and even corporate is taking notice," Mary observes with pride.
"In less than a year, and in connection with our historic anniversary -- which only a select group of businesses can ever hope to achieve -- we're actually younger, more energized and more empowered today. We're truly taking 70 years of community trust to the next level on our anniversary," Steve Harrison observes of the multifaceted rewards of building effective, response-generating websites on the SiteSwan platform.