Our 2021: Charitable Donations, Community Partnerships, and a Successful Rebrand

What a year we’ve had here at Vessel! Here’s a look back at our highlights from 2021 — partnerships, a rebrand, and community donations — as well as what we can expect in 2022 (and beyond).

SMHeuristics and SMH-Health Merge to Form Vessel

After completing a full rebrand this spring, our company’s transition has been incredibly well-received. (Earlier this year, Boise-based sales and marketing agency SMHeuristics merged with supply chain and logistics management business SMH Health to form Vessel.)

Feedback from our clients and partners has been positive — and we’re feeling empowered by a clear vision, a business model that is easy to understand, and service offerings that are well-matched with our customers’ needs. Additionally, several of our advisors have provided us and our clients with invaluable expertise — all at a critical time, as Idaho businesses have had another challenging year.

In this time, we’ve worked with hospitals, universities, and many Idaho manufacturers. Some of our partners were unable to get what they needed through their distribution channels due to supply chain issues but we were able to bridge those gaps.

Vessel Delivers Medical Supplies to Local Healthcare and Educational Organizations

Thanks to a few of our partnerships, we were able to make several donations (valued at over $290,000) to healthcare and educational organizations throughout the Treasure Valley.

Donation recipients included Primary Health Medical Group, Delta Dental of Idaho, the Boise School District, Saltzer Health, Hands of Hope, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Idaho, Idaho Veterans Research and Education Foundation, Terry Reilly Health Services, Idaho Sports Medicine Institute, and the Boise Rescue Mission. The largest donations included those made to Primary Health, Terry Reilly Health Services, Hands of Hope, and the Boise School District.

This summer, the Vessel team hand-delivered 542 boxes of much-needed medical equipment to 21 Primary Health Medical Group locations in the Treasure Valley — a donation that included 108,400 isolation gowns.

“We were running desperately low on gowns when Vessel came through for us,” says Primary Health Medical Group President Tracy Morris. “They provided the ideal gowns for one-time use, so our staff can be protected while continuing to offer the COVID testing and evaluation services our patients need. The cost of these gowns has increased by about 5x since before COVID, so this donation also saved us a significant amount of money!”

Additionally, as the Boise School District — with its 23,000+ students in 50 schools — prepared to reopen in August, the Vessel team donated and hand-delivered a cargo truck full of 7,200 packs of sanitary wipes to the district.

“We truly appreciate the generous donation of disinfecting wipes from Vessel,” says Coby Dennis, Boise School District Superintendent. “The only way we’re going to be able to ensure our students can continue to attend school five days a week is to aggressively adhere to all of our COVID mitigation strategies, including keeping surfaces sanitized.”

You can read more about these donations in the news — thank you to Idaho Press and KTVB for the coverage!

Channel Partners Bring Valuable Resources to Idaho Businesses

We continue to work with organizations across the state to address manufacturers’ unique needs. And thanks to our growing network of channel partners, we will also continue to point Idaho businesses toward many helpful resources. Below are the channel partners we’ve featured this year:

In 2021, we featured TechHelp, Idaho Commerce, Idaho Manufacturing Alliance, Strategic Tax Solutions, the Idaho Technology Council, Verde Fulfillment, Expeditors, VentureCapital.org, Sage Growth Capital, Trailhead, EOS, SGW Designworks, the New Product Development Lab at BSU, Columbia Bank, Slant 3D, and Just Kitting Services.

What We Expect in 2022 and Beyond

Along with just about every Idaho business, we’ve learned a lot over the past year.

The way people consume products has changed, and former models depicting predictable consumer behaviors are now outdated. The supply chain has also been deeply impacted, and we believe related challenges are here to stay — likely for several years (at least). It’s getting harder to produce, find materials for, and move products. For many businesses, this new reality can be frightening. But we believe there is good news.

Businesses don’t have to be afraid of the unknown. Rather than this being a time of fear, this is a time for innovation. It’s the right time to be proactive, come together as a community, and move forward. On a larger scale, it’s also a time to grow manufacturing in the U.S. (and in Idaho). And with the right tools and knowledge, you can be taking action — rethinking how you do business and rebuilding.

So, to help our community of Idaho businesses to navigate supply chain challenges that present obstacles to their growth, we’ve partnered with leaders throughout Idaho to produce a series of videos that features their unique insights. In 2022, we will be sharing these videos and other success stories on our website, social media, and with our email list. Stay tuned!

We look forward to connecting with you in the new year and thank you for your support.

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If your organization has traction but is experiencing supply-chain-related issues, please reach out. We can help you navigate these uncharted waters.

How to Turn a Visitor into a Customer

How to convert a visitor into a customer

Introduction

Converting a visitor into a customer is the height of success in any tech marketing or smarketing campaign. Sometimes you might think that products sold online are easier to sell than services sold online. However, that is not so true. The end game is defined by the product, the marketing pitch, and the competition. A good marketing pitch will sell an online service as fast as a good e-shop will sell a discounted product. There is no trick to success; it is all down to how you manage words for services and graphics for products.

At the end of the day, selling or making the sale is about dialog. It is about persuading the visitor that you are their best shot. However, once you have a customer, you will need to provide the service or product and need to back up the sale with good service, a good product, and an excellent customer service relationship.

The Holistic Approach

A successful campaign requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account every aspect of the service or product being sold. It also takes into account that a returning customer is more valuable than a one-time buyer. A successful campaign is backed by a successful company. There is no point in making a great sales pitch, converting millions of viewers into customers, and then not providing a product or service. This will kill your company rapidly. One of the reasons why China is suffering from a bad image is due to the millions of scam companies offering great products but selling fake or even dangerous alternatives.

The holistic approach states that you must have an integrated marketing, selling, distribution and customer service operation working together to maximize productivity, reach and quality at all times. While converting a visitor into a customer is different for services and product sellers, the infrastructure for both is identical.

The Identical Infrastructure Parts

1. Marketing Plans

2. Web presence and SEO

3. Supply Chain/Distribution and Returns Providers

4. Payment Partners

5. Customer Service (BPO)

The Different Infrastructure Parts

1. E-Shop for products

2. Wholesalers for products

3. VoIP and Chat with Service Providers

4. Social Media Mix

5. Technical Support for Products

In this article, we will concentrate on e-shops and e-commerce as well as how chat helps service providers succeed with online sales.

e-Commerce/Shops

There are three types of online product selling sites, company shops, e-commerce sites and social media boards. Online shops are site-driven, which means the company has an online shop and sells its products online via the site. E-commerce sites are like wholesalers and malls where you can post your products on their site and sell via their market share. Amazon is a classic example of a western e-commerce site, and Ali-Baba is an example of an Asian wholesaler. Ebay is an example of an online social media board where individuals and companies can sell products.

It is recommended to sell on every available platform, as this spreads out a company’s reach and maximizes their sales online. With products being posted on every site, in every language, and every country, local manufacturers can reach billions of potential customers. Examples of products being sold via multiple platforms are clothing, electronic goods, hotel rooms and air flights. Companies will post their products as well as allow open accounts on sites such as Trivago, Expedia, and Booking.com for travel options as well as Amazon, Ali Express and Lazada for consumer products. What makes the consumer product sites so successful is not just their prices, but also their logistical support. Amazon nearly crashed due to bad logistics and that is the crux of any good commercial platform. Commercial platforms provide a marketing mix and an efficient distribution center to meet demands.

Freelancers and Service Providers

There is no centralized e-commerce site for engineering and production work companies. It’s rather interesting, but all the companies who are online specialize in selling end products. Maybe in the future, sites such as Amazon will open a category for online service providers such as plumbers, electrical engineers, and metal workshops, however, for now, the only way these companies can market their services is to find as many local website marketing boards and of course manage an online-focused marketing profile. For individuals that provide a professional service, online freelancer sites such as UPWorks and Freelancer.com can act as a platform. Linkedin is a useful tool for marketing professional services. Some sites provide a centralized list of all local services that have started to spring up, but they are not truly helpful since they are too anonymous. Successful marketing comes with high page visits and if you place your advert on a thousand sites that receive two hundred local services and have ten page visitors a day, you will get 0 (Zero) hits. So don’t waste time on low-frequency sites. It's better to spearhead with a localized AdWords campaign.

Globalized Services

While plumbers, electricians, and painters come under localized service providers, there is a whole niche of online service providers that can offer globalized services. Lawyers, Accountants, Industrial and Mechanical Engineers are but a few of the engineering and academic professions that can provide online services without visiting the client's site. Globalized service providers fall under the freelancer categories when advertising, but unlike local contractors that need to provide an on-site service, these professionals can offer online services. This changes their approach to online marketing and there is no restriction to advertising to a wider demographic group.

Associated Symbiosis

Until recently, groups of professionals that do not compete with one another, such as an industrial, mechanical, and chemical engineers from different parts of the world meet up online and form a symbiotic group of service professionals that provide an online service. This is also true for web marketing, web development and even creating core engineering groups for large projects that demand the use of more than one same science engineer. These groups multiply their online presence from being so diverse, as each one advertises their group individually. Each one brings a customer that will be able to use the services of another group member, thereby increasing the reach of each member through active participation in the group.

How To Create a Blog and Social Media

Introduction

Blogs are small items of information presented in a scrolling sheet that fits on one screen. The difference between a blog and an article is the format in which it is presented. Articles are part of a website or news service; blogs are a form of a website.

Articles are more informative and formal in tone, while blogs can be a bit more casual and can have more personality behind it. When sharing any article or blog post with someone who might be a paying customer, you should always have a formal tone, however, with blog posts you can relax that tone a bit and make it more conversational.

Blogs are also more conversational in general, while articles are geared more towards providing information.

For companies seeking to enhance and expand their company’s presence, it is important to maintain two blogs. The first one would be an in-site blog feature on their corporate website; the second would be a separate blog page, either on a social media site or in a blog site such as WordPress.

By having two blogs, you’ll be able to first connect with customers and potential customers on your website’s blog, and then you’ll be able to give them more helpful information and connect with them on the other blog.

Wording and Frequency

Since blogs are small descriptive articles, they tend to be no more than 1,000 words. They are usually SEO worded as well as containing at least one graphic to attract the reader's attention. Blog updates should be at least once a day to maintain a following. Blogs can be about anything that is relevant to the company; they can include updates about the executive board, changes in personnel, technological updates, changes in products, and informative articles about the science the company is involved in.

Wording is key to a successful blog. For engineering and manufacturing sites, a successful blog must be concise and informative. I must provide a structured approach so that the information is understood quickly. There must be a title, a brief introduction or summary, and content. All blogs must link the reader to the company’s product sales pages, since the purpose of the blog is to help make sales.

Social Media

Blogs are useful only when they are noticed. Since most corporate sites are not frequently visited, it is imperative to get as many visitors as possible that are interested in the company’s products and services. A blog platform is a great tool when integrated with social media platforms. Below is an indication of social media reach:

While we are proponents of focused marketing, it’s important that you get as much free coverage as possible, and this can only be reached through intelligent social media usage. By setting up social media pages and through automated blog sharing, where you post the blog in one place, and when the bot then shares it all over the web, will you reach a large audience?

Social media pages are important to increase traffic, as well as awareness. We do not expect a billion visitors to land at a chrome plating companies web site, but we do expect individuals that work for companies that need and use chrome plating services to find your blog articles through social media and search engine results.

Wording in Social Media

There is a difference between the wording of a website, and wording in social media. Social media is aimed at everyone, and when you post an article about aerodynamic constraints and factors for the use of Magnesium Alloys in Aerospace Wing Manufacturing, then you are limited by choice of topic on how you word the blog posting. In general, you wouldn’t use blog and social media sites to post such an article. You would however, post the negative, which would be something like: “Amazing disasters due to bad airplane wing faults”. This is the public way to post the professional version titled “Review of structural errors and crystallized metallic fractures in aircraft wing constructs”. Social media requires social wording; professional media requires professional wording. Both must be used appropriately.

Wording in Professional Blogs

A professional blog can also appear in some social media sites. LinkedIn is a social media site designed for professionals and job seekers. If a technically worded article in WordPress was automatically shared in a Linkedin profile, that would be constructive. In fact, making daily professional blogs worded for professionals will drive a higher visitor to customer conversion rate, than a public social media posting. However, both must be produced to create an overall successful marketing arena.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is about releasing an unusual video on social media that is meant to instigate a massive viewing response. Most viral instances are not pre-organized. For instance, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” success is the first 1 billion viewed video was not expected by him or anyone else. (It is now over 3 billion views) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Against this you get organized marketing successes such as Evian’s inner child, where they produced a video that went viral promoting Evian’s product way beyond expectations. It now has nearly 17 million views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-p0CxW87pg

Viral marketing is extremely helpful to get a branded image that will automatically give your company an advantage over your competition. However, branding can also backfire since the more famous you are, the more careful potential customers might be when considering your services. The larger your web presence can also define how potential customers think of your services and fees, as well as forcing companies into a supply chain issue, where expansion can also backfire when the company’s inability to supply products or services due to massive and immediate demands.

Having stated this, if you do decide to go viral, make sure you are prepared for the results. Viral marketing is a great solution for end-product manufacturers; it is not such a good solution for electrical engineering companies. If you are an electrical engineer and you want to make a statement without the intent to be famous, (well actually yes) but for instance to educate people about water and electricity by matching the marketing product with your vision is an important step in reaching a successful campaign.