After realizing it needed to promote its technology and services, DSI took steps to make that happen.
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Editor’s Note: “Sharper Image” is a 2018″“2019 limited edition series of four quarterly features that speak to how Clover Imaging Group’s (CIG) Amplify Digital Marketing Platform is delivering on marketing support for dealers. “Promoting from Within” is the fourth and final of four installments.
You can also check out the first, second, and third installments, “Digital Upgrade,” “Getting the Message,” and “One-Stop Digital Shop,” which delve into CIG’s successful marketing partnerships with Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises, ASE, and DSI respectively. The first, second, third, and fourth installments are also respectively published in the April 2018, September 2018, December 2018/January 2019, and March 2019 issues of The Cannata Report.
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Top: Jocelyn Gorman, vice president of sales, Document Solutions, Inc.
DSI’s sales team is encouraged to share ideas for posts on dsinm.com’s blog.
Recent blog on dsinm.com underscores the importance of IT solutions.
Credit Jocelyn Gorman, vice president of sales with Document Solutions, Inc. (DSI), for introducing the family business to the value of marketing. The Albuquerque, New Mexico, office technology dealership had neither invested in any marketing initiatives over its first 21 years of operations, nor had it taken the time to promote its extensive community involvement.
“We saw marketing as an expense, not a revenue generator,” acknowledged Gorman who joined the dealership eight years ago. “Inbound sales is the wave of now and the future and if we’re not doing it now, we’re losing out on a lot of opportunity. Knocking on doors and phoning is just not efficient [anymore].”
Things began to change when Gorman hired an in-house marketing director about three years ago, tasking her with rebranding the company and making enhancements to the company’s website. Even though the company name is Document Solutions, Inc., document solutions represent only one element of the company’s offerings. DSI has four different divisions””document output or traditional imaging hardware, IT, security and surveillance, and solutions. It was critical to make sure that information was prominently relayed to visitors to DSI’s website.
Shortly after the initial rebranding, the marketing director left DSI to raise a family. But there was still more rebranding that needed to be done, including creating a single, consistent identity for each of DSI’s divisions. That’s when Gorman reached out to Clover Imaging Group and its Amplify team.
Gorman was first introduced to the Amplify program at an SDG meeting. That presentation revealed to her that DSI was only scratching the surface with its online marketing initiatives. It also gave her insights into the benefits of the HubSpot platform””a platform that could better manage the dealership’s marketing and inbound marketing initiatives.
Outsourcing DSI’s online and social marketing initiatives made economic sense.
“Just like the IT business, it doesn’t make sense for a lot of companies to have in-house IT departments because they might be spending $150,000 for an IT professional who might not have the knowledge base or time to manage it all,” she explained. “It’s the same with marketing, finding that marketing unicorn who knows everything, knows our industry, and can do everything.”
The Amplify team’s first project was revamping the website from top to bottom, along with its marketing initiatives, through content development, blogs, and keyword searches, as well as social media posts. Clover handles most of the heavy lifting, but DSI still has a lot of input into what’s being posted and how it’s being posted, as well as making sure that content has a DSI flavor. Gorman consults regularly with the Amplify team to discuss blog content and other marketing and social marketing initiatives. Recent blogs have focused on volunteering in New Mexico, data security, the difference between toner and inkjet printers, managed network services versus in-house network technicians, and toner recycling.
DSI’s sales team is encouraged to share ideas for social media posts and blogs, particularly anything related to company and customer events taking place in the various markets that DSI services. The dealership has six locations in New Mexico and two in El Paso, Texas.
The company has amped up its social media presence since partnering with Clover, posting 20 to 30 times a month on social media platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. DSI is also more focused on building a social media network and tracking who is seeing those posts as it strives to become more visible in the community with its social media initiatives.
“We’re a locally owned, family business, and our community involvement is massive, but we never shared what we do in the community, so now, we’re able to show off a little bit more,” said Gorman.
Blogs and social media posts often highlight community events hosted by the many organizations DSI supports. Many of these are also DSI customers. For example, DSI helped one organization, a grief center, publicize a big event. Some of the other organizations the dealership supports include Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, and S.A.F.E. House, the largest domestic violence shelter in the country. DSI provides S.A.F.E. House with its office equipment, IT services, and security and surveillance technology. DSI is also one of its key sponsors and providers for volunteer work, and it promotes S.A.F.E House’s annual gala via its social media posts.
“We’re not focusing on what we’re doing for them, but getting people to those events,” noted Gorman.
It’s still too early to get a read on the program’s impact, particularly leveraging HubSpot for analytics and data. That said, she has high hopes for HubSpot.
“We’re starting to use the data we’re seeing even on the service end,” noted Gorman. “It’s a big data world and the HubSpot platform has been huge for us in discovering what website content is working for us and what isn’t.”
At this point, things haven’t been live long enough to see huge shifts, but Gorman has seen a notable shift in the culture of the dealership.
“We’re just at a different level, and the pride in the brand has really grown,” said Gorman. “The professionalism and all the things that go with the image of the company has been lifted a ton. We have consistency in our branding, which is important. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter what kind of brand you have.”
Even though Gorman and DSI are still acclimating to the HubSpot platform, she’s looking forward to the next stage, which will focus on integrating emails, as well as tracking how long recipients are looking at them. She also sees the platform providing DSI’s sales reps with warm leads from businesses that have never done business with DSI before, while at the same time creating more opportunities with existing customers.
“We’re looking to specifically expand services and support for our current print customer base to go deeper and wider,” said Gorman.
She’s also considering hiring someone who can handle multiple roles within the company, including interacting with the Amplify team to make these marketing initiatives even more fruitful. For now, this initiative remains Gorman’s project, and she continues to take pride in watching it grow.
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