February 20, 2004

NetNewsdesk lets companies target online audience

BROOMFIELD — After 20 years in marketing, eight of which were running his own traditional marketing company, Steve Miller went into R&D mode to create Web-based software that would enhance the work of other marketers.

At the time, the Internet was breaking loose and turning marketing into an affordable way for a company to get its name out. People also were starting to see problems in relying on the Internet as a primary mode of marketing.

“Most Web sites were only able to attract an audience one, two or three times,” Miller said.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Ways to thank a caregiver

If you have a caregiver or know someone who has been serving as a primary caregiver, March 3rd is the day to reach out and show them how much they are valued!

“There was just too much out there for people to look at.”

If companies could send their Web sites to potential customers rather than waiting for those potentials to find them, however, the visual overload problem could be reduced.

Taking the business directive of diversifying seriously, Miller decided to increase his commodities.

Creating a tool that could deliver Web sites and selling it to marketing agencies that in turn would sell it to their customers would expand Miller’s service business into the product arena.

Three years later, he looks back at the investment as a good business decision.

“It’s taken about a half-million dollars to get to this point,” Miller said, referring to the past three years of research, development and rollout. “All the work we did getting here was funded by IdeaSource.”

He continues to operate IdeaSource, a traditional marketing agency, working with about 40 clients. He just doesn’t go looking for new work.

Those efforts are spent on building up NetNewsdesk, his online publishing and broadcast system company.

“NetNewsdesk is the tool that builds Web sites. It has two components,” Miller explained. As a composition tool, it helps businesses create publications like press releases, articles, newsletters, surveys and catalogs and publish them online. NetNewsdesk then helps clients broadcast any page of the publications to their subscriber e-mail lists.

The system manages the lists and automatically generates personalized e-mails from them in either HTML or text format. The Web sites can be updated at any time and linked to an existing Internet site.

“The great thing is that you don’t need any expertise to do this, and you can build any layout you can imagine and repeat it,” Miller said.

NetNewsdesk doesn’t allow unsolicited e-mails to be broadcast through the system, according to Miller. Anyone who uses it is required to have an opt-in mailing list.

Each microsite, the name Miller gives the Internet sites that contain published materials, requests notification if the information received is unsolicited. “We monitor our clients, and if we get even a moderate number of complaints, we’ll close their account. We’re the opposite of spam,” he explained. “They can’t bring in a third-party list.”

NetNewsdesk has been gaining clients since it was launched in October.

“There are about 70 business groups total in the system,” Miller said. “A lot of these clients are in the demo mode, and about 30 of these 70 are active clients.”

Clients include ad agencies, public relations firms, Web developers and graphic design companies.

Large companies that have in-house marketing departments use NetNewsdesk as well. Those companies include Millennium Hotels and Six Flags Elitch Gardens, according to Miller.

Rates are based on the number of e-mail broadcasts a company sends out. The cost starts at $199 for 2,500 broadcasts and unlimited publications and tops off at $3,600 for broadcasts in the range of one million. Clients also pay $500 for setup, which includes about three hours of training.

Miller just finished his business plan and is preparing to search for investors to take his company up a notch. He’s looking locally for $3 million. “One priority is to find an investor who wants to get involved in the business,” he said.

“Without the new investment, we should be seeing a positive cash flow in about one year,” he said. “With the $3 million, I expect to see a profit in two years.

“We’ll keep going on at a slower growth rate if we don’t get the funding,” he added. The extra dollars would go into building marketing and sales for the company.

As sole owner, Miller runs NetNewsdesk with five employees.

Melissa Beatty, director of account management at Karsh & Hagan advertising agency in Denver, considers NetNewsdesk’s ability to track the effectiveness of e-mail broadcasts as a primary advantage. Karsh & Hagan employs 70 people and has been in business for 26 years.

“NetNewsdesk tracks the open rates and the click-through rates and reports those to us,” she said, referring to broadcasts she sends on behalf of clients. The e-mail material could be a promotional piece that offers a deal in an opening box or in the piece’s content, for example.

When she sees which placement gets the most click-through response, she gleans more information about the target market, their preferences and what works.

“We couldn’t do this before,” she adds.

Beatty describes her company’s relationship with NetNewsdesk as a partnership. “The difference between a partnership and a supplier or vendor is that partnerships bring ideas and help us get things done,” she said.

In addition to providing the open rates and click-through rates, NetNewsdesk provides her with quarterly reports that compares projects and outlines the commonalities between the most effective ones.

NetNewsdesk.com

510 Compton St.

Suite105

Broomfield, CO 80020

(303) 666-4604

Web address: NetNewsdesk.com

Broomfield, CO

Steve Miller, owner, chief executive

BROOMFIELD — After 20 years in marketing, eight of which were running his own traditional marketing company, Steve Miller went into R&D mode to create Web-based software that would enhance the work of other marketers.

At the time, the Internet was breaking loose and turning marketing into an affordable way for a company to get its name out. People also were starting to see problems in relying on the Internet as a primary mode of marketing.

“Most Web sites were only able to attract an audience one, two or three times,” Miller said.

“There was just too much out there for people…

Categories:
Sign up for BizWest Daily Alerts