Recognizing the need to streamline and update its web presence and social media strategy, ASE turned to Clover’s Amplify for direction.
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Editor’s Note: “Sharper Image” is a 2018 limited edition series of four features that speak to how Clover Imaging Group’s (CIG) Amplify Digital Marketing Platform is delivering on marketing support for dealers. “One-Stop Digital Shop” is the third of four installments, with the remaining installment slated for a March launch in-magazine and online.
In the meantime, you can also check out the first and second installments, “Digital Upgrade” and “Getting the Message,” which delve into CIG’s successful marketing partnerships with Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises and ASE, respectively. The first, second and third installments are also respectively published in the April 2018, September 2018, and December 2018/January 2019 issues of The Cannata Report.
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Top: Screenshot of the vertically organized ASE homepage on ASE’s new destination site, asedirect.com.
The blog landing page of ASE’s new site is clean, accessible and socially empowered.
Nashville, Tennessee-based ASE had a problem. This dealership had found success in offering multiple hardware and service offerings and serving multiple vertical markets. But rather than having a single website, the company had been managing multiple micro-websites, each with its own .com name, to represent every division and segment of the business, even though all those divisions were physically located under one roof in Nashville.
However, ASE’s core business wasn’t website design or management, and the company had spent much time thinking about how it was being portrayed on the web. Sticking to its core competencies of selling products and services and dealing with day to day business operations, ASE began looking outside its own doors to determine a new direction for its online presence.
Realizing the need for consolidated, standardized messaging, the ASE team reached out to its supply partners at Clover Imaging Group and its Amplify team to completely rebuild the ASE website so that it could effectively market the company on the web.
Working with precision, the Clover Amplify team brought all of ASE’s diverse business lines and fresh content, including blogs, together into a standardized 65-page website. Clover Amplify also helped ASE clearly identify a social media strategy to support its HubSpot platform.
The new and vastly improved website now succinctly tells ASE’s story, identifies the vertical markets it serves, and highlights the diversity of its product and services offerings.
“That’s a big success story right there, having one domain and being able to go into all these other offshoots,” observed Jud Clift, president of ASE.
The Right Site for a Non-Traditional Dealer
ASE is not a traditional copier dealer. The company sells traditional imaging hardware, MPS, and supplies, and has divisions that serve the healthcare, pharmaceutical, government, and commercial (SMB, enterprise, banking and financial, legal and accounting, and manufacturing) markets. In addition, ASE is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business, co-founded in 2005 by Jud and his brother, Bo Clift, a West Point graduate and service-disabled veteran. Over the past 13 years, ASE has become a GSA Schedule Contract Holder, full-line medical/surgical supplies distributor, as well as a fully licensed pharmaceutical distributor (controlled substance Class 3 ““ 5, and OTCs).
Initially, ASE’s website was managed entirely in-house, and as noted earlier, micro-site centric. Whenever a new division was added, the company would create a new website just for that division.
“It was a melting pot, if you will,” acknowledge Jud. “Every site looked like a different company, and there was no consistent or disciplined messaging. You could imagine the operational challenges behind that.”
The new single site presents a more complete picture of ASE and its products and services offerings. When a visitor logs on to ASE’s site, www.asedirect.com, they now view “ASE’s Vertical Market Solutions,” where visitors can link to pages that describe the offerings from the ASE divisions serving those specific vertical markets. Previously, those were all separate sites, and nothing was standardized.
If a customer was interested in MPS, or had a pharmaceutical question, they’d visit a separate AES MPS site or their question would go to a different inbox. By consolidating the various divisions into one site, ASE can now effectively cross-sell its products and services to customers and prospects who might not have realized previously that they could acquire certain products or services from a single source.
As website construction goes, this was a quick process. The Amplify team started conferring with the ASE team in January 2018, and within 90 days, ASE’s new site was up and running.
Jud has rave reviews for Amplify, particularly about the time and effort the team put into learning about the dealership and its various divisions, which allowed the designers to more effectively present ASE’s story on a single website.
“It was methodical and meticulous, and not a generic Q&A,” recalled Jud.
Another example of how the Amplify team raised the marketing bar for ASE was when the dealership’s healthcare group wanted to promote the dealership’s environmental sustainability initiatives in an ad in a local healthcare publication. With the assistance of the Amplify team, the ad was turned around within 48 hours.
“Not only did we get the publication advertisement, it also looked so good we incorporated it in the site,” said Jud.
Most recently, in preparation for Veterans Day, the ASE team filmed a video interview with its CEO and Service-Disabled Veteran Bo Clift, who discussed his time at West Point, his military experiences, and what Veterans Day means to him.
“Veterans Day is an important day for us,” said Jud. “If it weren’t for our veterans who have been willing to stand, fight, and die for our country, companies like ASE wouldn’t be afforded the entrepreneurial freedoms we are so very grateful to have.”
A huge benefit of the Amplify Program is the access to creative marketing strategies and initiatives. The Amplify team is also responsible for managing AES’ site and has monthly meetings with the ASE team to discuss social media marketing campaigns, website content, and blog posts.
“Prior to working with the CIG Amplify team, we did not have the capability under one single, consolidated website to reach out to our 25,000-plus customer base with high-quality video content messaging via the ASE website,” said Jud. “Thanks to the Clover Amplify team, we now do!”
An effective website is a work in progress and next on the docket is enhancing the service portion of the site so customers can schedule and track service calls online.
In a multifunction world, it’s better to have a single-function website, and that’s what ASE has now.
When asked if he’d recommend Clover’s Amplify program to other dealers, Jud jokingly observed, “If it was a dealer in my backyard, I’d tell them, oh man, do something else. But if it was someone I cared about and wanted to see grow their business, I’d make the referral.”
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