Webbing It

The Internet is where it’s at in today’s business world. Many scrap recyclers are already reaping the rewards of this technology. Are you?

By Eileen Zagone

Eileen Zagone is an associate editor for Scrap.

You see those letters everywhere these days, the acronym for World Wide Web that precedes most Internet addresses. It seems as if everyone has a Web site—companies, magazines (http://www.scrap.org), trade associations (http://www.isri.org), government agencies, individuals ... you name it.

If you haven’t heard, the Internet is here to stay. And it’s rapidly changing the way we communicate and conduct business.

To understand the Web’s wildfire growth, consider that a few years ago it was primarily a haven for academics and computer geeks, offering limited information and services. As recently as 1995, in fact, there were only about 2,000 commercial Web sites, whereas now there are something like 414,000, with more coming online daily, says Business Week. Also consider this: It took radio 30 years and television 15 years to reach 60 million people, but the Internet is already used by an estimated 90 million people, making it the fastest-growing technology ever, the magazine reports.

Have you joined the Internet revolution?

Perhaps you feel that you don’t need the Web, that your business is doing just fine without it. (You probably felt that way too when you first heard about personal computers and fax machines.)

Conceivably, you’ve at least put your toe in the Internet pool, sending e-mails to friends and colleagues, ordering a novel from an online bookstore, or buying an electronic plane ticket.

But have you put it to productive use in your business? As any Internet aficionado will tell you, learning how to glean information from the Web and establishing a Web site for your company can open up a whole new world of opportunities. The truth is that no company—including scrap processing firms—should underestimate the Internet’s potential to revolutionize the way it does business.

Here’s some guidance on why and how to get caught up in the Web.

The Whys Behind the Web

A few years ago, an Internet search on the topic of “recycling” or “scrap” yielded academic treatises on recycling, information about municipal curbside collection programs—with phrases like “trash recycling” commonly appearing—and a precious few scrap recycling company Web sites.

Today, the Internet is laden with recycling-related sites, including probably a couple of hundred devoted to scrap companies.

Why have all these companies embraced the Web? Four main reasons:

To Gather Information. The Internet can be viewed as a huge storehouse of information, ready to be accessed. You can find online economic and commodity data, market forecasts, industry news, sites on suppliers and consumers, weather forecasts, and details on equipment and services. Also, if you have federal or state regulatory questions, you can consult the department’s or agency’s Web site, probably in less time than it would take to navigate its voicemail system. Whatever information you’re seeking, there’s a good chance it’s on the Web.

John Chen, executive vice president of Tung Tai Trading Corp. (Foster City, Calif.), is one scrap consumer who uses the Internet frequently to mine information. It’s a terrific source, he says, for commodity information, specifics on industry meetings and conventions, and environmental regulation sites. It’s also a great help, he notes, when company Web sites include photographs of staff so he knows whom to look for at industry meetings. And one of the Internet’s greatest assets, he adds, is its convenience in that he can surf for information at night from home when he has free time.

To Communicate Electronically. While the Internet isn’t intended to replace your telephone and fax machine, it does give you another communication option—sometimes a more efficient, expedient, less expensive one. No hoping for the postal or overnight delivery service to bring mail. No voicemail mazes to navigate. No waiting on faxes. With the click of the “Send Mail” button, the Internet can instantaneously transmit an e-mail message anywhere in the world to any person or group with an e-mail address.

Of course, the converse is true as well so be prepared to receive messages. You can get queries about selling or buying material from existing or potential customers. You can receive valuable customer feedback on how to improve your service. Also possible, you can foster dialogue by asking visitors to your site to answer questions. Your staff at satellite operations, and even those on the road, can send you messages any time of day or night. The Web also enables you to send and receive audio clips as well as digital photographs of products and scrap materials, which can prevent problems with a sale or purchase down the road.

To Attract Customers. Web sites are the equivalent of having a salesperson working for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Information about your company is available at all times to the millions of Internet users around the world, which can enhance your service to existing customers and greatly expand your access to potential suppliers and consumers.

Jack Zager, senior vice president of Ansam Metals Corp. (Baltimore), can attest to this benefit. “We do a lot of international business and having a Web site is a good way to get our name out there to people who may not have heard of us,” he says. Though his firm advertises in international publications, it also sees the Internet as “a way to reach those potential customers that may not have access to those publications.” Plus, he adds, the company can continuously change and update its online information, keeping existing and potential customers informed faster than if they filled out a magazine reply card or called on the phone.

Chen, too, is a self-described “big fan” of using the Web for business, especially finding prospects. “Since our company is into international trade,” he explains, “the Internet is very useful and we’ve found customers we never would have found any other way. For an exporter like me, it’s perfect.”

To Increase Visibility and Credibility. While this shouldn’t be the main reason to go online, having a Web site can enhance the visibility, credibility, and reputation of your company—and the scrap recycling industry in general. A Web site can help your firm establish a professional corporate identity as a company that keeps up with the times and masters the latest technology—to the benefit of itself and its customers. A Web site can also educate visitors about your company, and on a grander scale can provide a more accurate perspective on the scrap recycling process and industry.

Building a Successful Site

So, you say you’ve been thinking about developing a Web site for your company, but you just haven’t had time to get around to it?

Well, don’t wait any longer. Experts stress that the time is nigh to get your site up and running—before your competitors leave you in the technological dust. Ash White, who developed the Web site for the Bureau of International Recycling (Brussels) (http://www.bir.org), encourages scrap processors to “start now, start small, and grow over time.” The Web is a dynamic entity, he explains, and sites should change and evolve, so it’s OK to start small because you can always add content and features in the future.

According to Marketing Tools magazine, there are five general types of Web sites: directive (such as search engines and online directories); general informational (such as online publications); specific informational (such as topic- or industry-specific sites); promotional sites designed to publicize products or services; and transactional or commerce sites designed to sell products or services. Sites can, of course, fall into more than one of these categories. Scrap company sites, for instance, could be specific informational, promotional, and transactional.

Before embarking on your site, you should first ask yourself a few soul-searching questions. As the experts say, clarifying what you hope to gain through the site and targeting it to meet those goals is the best way to ensure its success in the long run.

 For instance, do you truly want and/or need a Web site? If so, do you want your site to help your business and marketing efforts? Do you hope it will put you in touch with prospective customers? Or is your main goal to offer additional service to established customers? How about improving public relations and educating the general public about the scrap recycling industry? Everything about your site—its design, content, and technology—will be based on your goals.

It’s also prudent to consider—in advance—the logistics of creating and operating your own site. Will you, for example, need additional staff to maintain and update the site? What training or other resources will you need to do this? How soon do you want the site to be up-and-running? How much do you want to spend? Will you need to upgrade your computer system or other equipment?

After answering these questions, you’re ready to create your own Web site. But how exactly do you go about it? Here’s a guide to the basic steps.

Claim Your Name. First, you have to reserve a domain name—that is, the name you want to call your site. This name—also called a uniform resource locator, or URL—is essentially your postal mailing address in cyberspace. Most Web site names are like this: http://www.scrapcompany.com (or .org). The http stands for hypertext transfer protocol, a communication technique that Web browsers use to grab Web pages from remote computers. The www is for World Wide Web. Then comes your specific domain name and the .com (for commercial sites) or .org (for nonprofit organization sites) designation.

To select a name, you have to contact InterNIC—the official domain name tracking agency—to first check that the name you want isn’t already taken. You can do this by visiting the group’s site at http://www.internic.com. After finding an unclaimed name, you have to register that name with InterNIC and pay a use fee, currently $70 for two years. In subsequent years, you’ll pay a nominal fee to renew use of the name.

Decide on Content. After claiming your name, you have to decide what you want on your site. “Content is the most important value sites have to offer, and the one thing that can really generate repeat traffic,” says Marketing Tools, adding that “successful sites are the ones that offer content that is useful and relevant to visitors.” It also notes that knowing and understanding your target audience—and the kind of information they want and need—is essential to creating appropriate content.

Your site can provide a short history of your company, describe the scrap you handle, provide your daily buying prices, introduce your staff (with photos, if you like), review the locations and contact information of your operations, and much more. The content can basically include anything you want. To save time, if your company has a corporate brochure, that information can serve as the foundation for your site. Also, look at your online and traditional competition to see what they’re doing and what your company can offer above and beyond them.

When planning your content, keep this in mind: One of the hallmarks of successful sites is that they keep visitors coming back regularly. Robert J. Garino, ISRI’s director of commodities and an avid Internet user, notes that some sites are nice to look at and may have some good information, but if the information isn’t updated, there’s no reason to revisit them. “If the audience for your site is professional recyclers, then it’s got to have regularly updated practical information to motivate them to revisit the site,” Garino says. The worst sites are generally those that are simply promotional—giant billboards in cyberspace with content that never changes, which one Web designer calls “really worthless and a huge waste of money for the companies that do it.”

Select a Designer. When it comes to creating your site, you have basically two choices: You can design your site in-house, or you can pay an outside Web design firm to do it for you.

If you go the in-house route, you can create a perfectly functional site using a variety of Web site design programs, including FrontPage, NetObjects Fusion, Adobe PageMill/SiteMill, Claris HomePage, Corel WebMaster Suite, and CyberStudio. That’s assuming you or someone on your staff has the computer expertise and creative talent to develop a worthwhile site. Be careful not to compromise your site’s appearance and functionality just to save money. Remember, there’s a difference between simply having a Web site and having one worth visiting.

Contracting out your Web site design will certainly cost more, but you’ll gain a few more guarantees about the site’s performance as well as more professional creative direction.

When it comes to your site’s design, it should be visually pleasing, communicate your company’s image and personality, and be free of gratuitous graphical elements that will distract visitors or slow the site’s loading speed. Your site should also be designed to work equally well on different platforms and browsers so that visitors with older and newer systems can get the full benefits.

On the issue of cost, that depends on whether you design the site yourself or contract it out, and on how large and advanced you want your site to be. Plus, unless you have the computer resources to host your site in-house, don’t forget to factor in the costs of having an outside Internet service provider—an ISP—host your site. Given the potential for significant cost variations from designer to designer and provider to provider, it’s a good idea to solicit several bids for the design and hosting of your site if you plan to farm it out.

As you review the costs, however, remind yourself that being on the Web can be viewed as a cost of doing business these days, and don’t forget that it’s a cost that has the potential to deliver considerable paybacks. Zager, for one, says that his scrap company gets a “good bang for its buck” from its Web site.

Go Online. After your site is designed and ready, you have to activate it—that is, post it online and make it available for use. To do this, you or your Web designer must contact your Internet service provider—the company that’s providing your connection to the Internet, such as America Online—and request that it make the necessary final connections to “turn on” your site.

Register Your Site. Once your site is online, it’s time to get people to visit it. One major way to do this is to register your site with the major Web search engines such as Hotbot, WebCrawler, Lycos, AltaVista, and Excite Infoseek. Also submit your page to the Yahoo! site directory. Submission services that enable you to file your domain name with multiple search engines include Submit-It (http://www.submit-it.com) and All4One Submission Machine (http://all4one.com/all4submit/). Search engines direct people to your site based on keywords that you provide when you submit your domain name to the search engine. If, for example, someone is looking for sites under the keyword “scrap” and that’s one of your keywords, the search engine will direct them to your site.

You can also attract visitors by asking other companies or trade associations to provide a hot link—a direct connection—from their site to your site.

Promote, Promote, Promote. In addition to registering with search engines, you need to actively promote your site. Print your Web address on your company brochures and catalogs, business cards, stationery, fax cover sheets, advertisements, and other print materials. Promote it through a press release to local and trade media. Refer people to it in conversation. Offer hands-on demonstrations of the site at trade shows and exhibitions. Send postcards or promotional gifts—mousepads, coffee mugs, pens, and so on—bearing your domain name to customers. You can also buy banner ads—electronic ads that link users directly to your site—on other Web sites.

Keep It Fresh. Though already mentioned, this point is so important that it bears repeating. The simple fact is you have to offer new, changing content to entice people to return to your site again and again.

A Web-Filled Future

While the benefits of having a Web site are many, there are some downsides. Your Web site, for instance, obviously can’t reach customers who don’t have a computer or Internet access. Then there are the ongoing service and maintenance costs of operating a Web site. Your site can also generate a lot of e-mail that may swamp your staff. Inevitably, some of this e-mail will come from people who aren’t business prospects but who want information about your company or the industry in general. Some businesses have found, however, that some customers like to shift from communicating via telephone to using e-mail, so you may be able to realign resources and employees from the phones to the computer. Computer crashes and other technical problems can also detract from your site’s utility.

And then there are the naysayers who assert that the local and regional nature of the scrap business makes a Web site inappropriate. This may be true in some instances, but many scrap processors are becoming more and more international. In that case, having an Internet presence is an effective and economical way to access these potential international customers.

Zager, for one, is bullish on the Web’s prospects in the scrap industry. While processors are still easing into using the Internet in their businesses, it’s only going to become more important, he says. Chen agrees, stating that the younger generation of scrap recyclers view the Internet as another tool to do business—and they will help ensure that it will become more widely used and accepted in the industry in the future. •