BendTech

This is a repost of this G5 article

A few weeks back, we threw a party. But not just any kind of party…

It was a recycling party…one that celebrated the death of the yellow pages. We had members of the G5 team find yellow pages wherever they could before the event. At the event, we asked everyone to bring yellow pages. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a repost of this G5 article

Come one, come all – BendTech community.

G5 is celebrating summer and technology – and we’re using alcohol as a celebration tool.

That’s right – we’re putting together a little happy hour at G5 Worldwide Headquarters here in Bend (906 NW Harriman St.) and we’d love for you to attend.

Bring a cup, bring your yellow pages (we’ll recycle em for ya – you don’t use em anyway) and bring your networking hat.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Details:
Wednesday, August 26th
5pm – 7pm
Beer, Wine and Light Snacks will be served
G5 Worldwide Headquarters
The Old Cigar Building
906 NW Harriman St. (@ Irving)

This is a repost of this G5 article

Today, it’s official. We’ve been growing like crazy, we’ve been working long hours, skipping lunch and doing everything in our power to make our clients happy.

And now, we have proof – national recognition, in fact, that it’s working.

G5 has been named the 146th Fastest Growing Company in America by Inc. Magazine.

And we couldn’t be more happy about it (well, unless we moved even higher on the list…)

Watch out for us next year Northern Capital Insurance…

This is a repost of this G5 article

Nobody knows.

This is further proven by the video our engineering team put together. They went around and asked the company. Nobody seemed to be able to put their finger on it. Exactly.

The truth, of course, is they build our Local Marketing Platform – and in so doing give our clients visibility into which of their advertising sources work. They create the backbone that makes the G5 engine run.

Great job on the video guys. And great job on the platform, too.

What does the Engineering Team of G5 Search Marketing Do? from Devin Davis on Vimeo.

This is a repost of this G5 article

Say you’re a mid-level company who works in, oh, assisted living. Say you have around 20 communities. And let’s just say you have an occupancy rate of, oh, 80%.

Now, what you need, is more people staying in your communities. But the question is, how do you find those people.

That brings us to a blog post we read, earlier this week, from Matt McGee. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a repost of this G5 article

It’s summertime, and G5 has been quiet on the blog-front…but busy on the other side of things. However, a scintillating piece of research on eMarketer has caused us to brush the proverbial dust off the proverbial pen of our blog.

And it’s to talk about measurement – and where, exactly, branding falls into that.

eMarketer labels it as two basic components:

1. How successfully and efficiently did I reach my intended target consumer?
2. Did my advertising campaign influence the consumer’s attitudes, perceptions or behaviors associated with the brand?

And what is the difference there? Read the rest of this entry »

This is a repost of this G5 article

This is very nearly as long as the actual “American Pie” song, but quite a bit funnier.

It is also, very, very true.

Wanamaker said it best…ROI really does matter…

Thanks to @JVascellaro on Twitter (Jessica Vascellaro from the Wall Street Journal) for sharing it with us…

This is a repost of this G5 article

G5 has done it again. We’ve posted our best quarter on record. Again. For revenue. For client growth. For employee growth.

In virtually every way, G5 is getting bigger and better.

And we’re shouting it from the rooftops. Or, at least, from the businesswire. And our web site.

Here is a little snippet from the release we put out this morning:

Along with impressive revenue increases, G5 has also posted growth in its number of employees, client roster, geographic reach and services. Co-founded by Hobin and CFO Greg Meier, the company has grown from two to 40 employees and anticipates continued job growth through 2009. G5’s client base has tripled in the past year, and the company now serves more than 1,500 client locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. G5 has also expanded its Local Marketing Platform to include a Print Yellow Pages Analytics Tool, G5 Mobile Coupons and Social Media Advertising.

And, of course, how our CEO feels about the growth:
“In light of the current economic climate, we feel extremely fortunate to be in the growing local Internet advertising space,” said G5 CEO Dan Hobin. “We are now on track to hit our fourth consecutive year of 100% plus annualized revenue growth.”

That’s right folks. We’re excited. But we also realize we’re very lucky to be doing so well. We’re grateful for our current situation and excited about the future…

This is a repost of this G5 article

G5 is located in Bend, Oregon. Right in the heart of one of the greenest (lots of trees) and green-minded states in the entire country.

So it’s shouldn’t come as a surprise that we, as a company, do everything we can to be more energy efficient and environmentally aware.

For example:

- We all bring in our own coffee cups
- We all bring in our own water bottles
- We all bring in our own beer mugs (for our famous G5 Kegerator)
- The company only purchases post-consumer recycled paper products
- We have a compost container that is emptied weekly
- We have incentives built in for our employees that carpool or cycle/walk to work
- We recycle religiously as a company
- A percentage of the energy we purchase for our building is obtained through ‘green’ methods
- We have a special committee (the Green Team) to initiate environmental changes both to our building and company-wide
- Perhaps most importantly, we’re doing our part to put the Yellow Pages out of business.

That’s right. As we’ve mentioned many times before, the Yellow Pages are less likely to be used for local research. The Internet is quickly replacing them in that all-important local search process.

As this has become the case, concerned citizens have seen unused phone books pile up at their homes and places of business.

In a state as eco-conscious as Oregon, this distresses people. So, the legislation begins.

According to BlueOregon.com:

The Legislative Assembly finds that the annual, if not more frequent, distribution of hard copies of telephone directories by multiple publishers to persons at their residences without first determining whether such persons want or will use the directories constitutes both a waste and misuse of paper and natural resources and a harm to the environment without justification. The Legislative Assembly declares that it is in the public interest to establish a prohibition on the distribution of hard copies of telephone directories unless a person specifically requests the delivery of an identified telephone directory. (2) A person may not distribute a hard copy of a telephone directory to another person at the other person¢s residence in this state unless specifically requested by the other person to do so. A request under this subsection may be made in writing or submitted using the Internet.

If this passes in our state, it could easily move on to other states. It is, in essence, treating phone book sellers in a similar manner as a spammer, or, more famously. the telemarketer ‘do not call list’ made famous a few years back.

It also, however, makes a point to ensure the green effects of not printing phone books are noted.

Interesting times, indeed…

This is a repost of this G5 article

Sure, we beat the drum.

“Advertising is changing” we say. “Local advertising is moving online at a rapid rate” we say. “If you’re a local business, you have to have a presence online in order to be successful” we say.

Well. We hate to say we told you so…but…well…um…yah. We’ll just imply it.

You are likely seeing it all around you. We certainly are. Newspapers closing (major ones – Seattle Post Intelligencer, Rocky Mountain News). Yellow Pages companies (RH Donnelley, Idearc) likely declaring bankruptcy.

It’s becoming a brave new world. And, frankly, that’s at least marginally because local users are moving, more and more, to the web for their news, their information and, in general, their life as a whole.

Enter a Borrell Associates report from earlier this week. The company follows the local space and the online media space. Yellow pages, too.

The report “Main Street Goes Interactive ” predicts a 275 percent increase in SMB spending on streaming audio and video, almost 140 percent increase on e-mail and direct ad formats, nearly 35 percent increase in paid search spending, and an 8 percent increase in standard display ads. According to the report, there are more than 14.6 million SMBs in the U.S.

Defining an SMB is varied depending on the type of business, of course. According to a ClickZ look at the report:

Even though the research firm cautions smaller advertiser accounts can be labor-intensive, Borrell stresses that when approached systematically and thoughtfully, the local SMB market has potential. “First you have to define what these things are,” said Borrell VP of Research Kip Cassino. “One size doesn’t fit all. The definition of SMB changes according to the kind of industry it’s in.” For example, a department store with 200 employees is considered small, but a law firm with the same number of staffers is “a damn big law firm,” Cassino noted.

At G5, we get it. Not only do we work specifically in the local space, but we’ve been watching this change occur. We know how to speak to local prospects online. We know what they want to hear and we know what they’re going to do in order to move from prospect to customer. And we’d love to show you how that works.