case studies: The Greater Mercer Chamber County of Commerce

The Greater Mercer County Chamber of Commerce had a web site, but it wasn't up to date, and it wasn't being visited. They had a strong sense of who their members and prospective members were, and of the benefits of being a member. They felt that the Internet was a resource, but they did not know where to start.

When we went into our first meeting, we knew that our primary goal was to get the information on the site up to date. By the end of that meeting, we had the basic goals of an E-Business Plan.

E-Business Goals:

• Provide better access to information, to members AND to the public
• Create a resource that will help member companies increase business
• Increase attendance at events
• Make it easier to register for events, both for members, and for chamber staff
• Co-brand the Chamber's monthly Mercer Business Magazine
• Increase Membership

Solution: We chose to update the site's information first so the site could be easily maintained by Chamber staff. We then added the following during our first phase of development:

• an online directory of links to member web sites, searchable by name or industry
• site visitors can use the searchable member web site directory, which lists over 400 active Chamber businesses that have web sites. As a member benefit, a company's site gets listed in the Web Site Directory.
• co-branding of the Chamber's publication Mercer Business Magazine
• The Member Benefits page encourages membership with discounts on products and services and it also generates new customers for chamber members offering a benefit.

In the second phase of development, Set Now enabled the site for E-commerce which allows secure online payment and registration for Chamber events. Not only is the new system convenient and saving postage, it streamlines the planning and processing for Chamber staff.

In phase three, we added another membership benefit to the web site as we've posted over 60 radio interviews of Chamber Members. These interviews were produced by John Webber of radio station WBUD, 1260 AM. The radio show airs on WBUD's morning show, and can now be heard on the Chamber's web site as Real Audio. In addition, anyone that has been interviewed can link to their feature from their web site, or in any email marketing they are doing.

In phase four, Set Now created a bulletin board system for members to post announcements and events to be seen by the Mercer County community. We also added an email notification system in which members can choose to "save a tree" by receiving announcements by email rather than snail mail. Set Now developed new marketing opportunities exclusively for Chamber members. Members can place banner advertisements on the most popular pages of the web site and they can also sponsor the email newsletter.

Results: When Set Now started with the Chamber, the existing web site was not generating a single membership lead. Now, the Chamber's web site is their number 1 resource for generating new members. The Greater Mercer County Chamber of Commerce is currently New Jersey's third largest Chamber.

By using the Internet to accomplish many goals, the business processes at the Chamber have been simplified; thereby, allowing the Chamber to focus more on supporting their members.