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In the Spotlight

Each month Prime Strategies spotlights a small business leader from the thriving small business community. We emphasize ideas that have worked, strategy, profitability and ongoing success.

In the Spotlight this month is Arman Rousta, Principal of Blueliner Marketing, a growing and thriving internet marketing company. Headquarters are in New York City with locations in Chicago, China, Bangladesh and India.

Q: – Tell me about Blueliner Marketing. What is your mission?

A: – Blueliner is a group of diverse, media and web savvy entrepreneurs that know how to put strategies in place for building brands and companies. Our strategies are practical and can be implemented by our consultants or by resources within our client companies – it’s usually a collaborative effort. We take a strong analytical and technical approach to marketing, with ROI metrics driving each proposed tactic. Our mission is to promote and improve companies that offer innovative and meaningful products or services.

Q: – What goals and initiatives are you and Blueliner currently working on?

A: – There are several key projects that we are excited about at this moment. After an 18-month web development effort, we are launching and handling all marketing for UrbanPrestige.com, a social networking site for UPwardly mobile professionals. There is a growth-oriented vibe to the site, with a practical and engaging blog network; for example, Listen UP is the relationship blog, Shape UP for health and fitness advice and Wake UP for spiritual guidance.

We are also relaunching the much-anticipated upgrade of the 401kid.com site and college savings software, ESP Wizard 2.0. This already popular website is teaming up with some excellent sponsors that will support a new banner-ad enabled site, which will allow 401kid to offer more pertinent information and services at a lower cost for parents of college bound students.

Last but not least, Blueliner’s Six Pillars of Internet Marketing ™ are in full effect with SogoInvest.com, a new discount brokerage site that we launched in July 2006. Due to the low cost $1 – 3 per trade price offering of Sogo, it is imperative that they achieve a lower Customer Acquisition Cost than key competitors, such as E-trade and Scottrade. That is why they hired Blueliner, and why our Web Analytics team is constantly working to optimize the media budget and seek new ways of raising awareness for Sogo – one of those recently successful new tactics is Blog & RSS Marketing. We have found that the combination of interactive marketing with traditional public relations is a winning formula for cost effective acquisition strategies.

Q: – What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and how have you addressed them?

A: – Knowledge sharing and professional development are two critical challenges for our operation, and I would imagine our peers. Since we have offices in four countries, including the U.S., India, Bangladesh and China, communicating new knowledge and project requirements across time zones is difficult. Keeping our consultants educated on the latest and most effective software solutions and general marketing strategies is at the top of my list of priorities. Recently, we started a “Watch Me Work” in-house webinar program, where staff from anywhere can link in and observe our top consultants in action, during sessions such as “How to implement a Google Adwords Campaign” and “Setting up an A/B test for an Email Marketing Campaign”. In 2007, we are starting an exchange program, where select staff will travel to other offices in order to spend time and exchange knowledge with others from the Blueliner team.

Q: – What value do you place on having good business systems and strategy?

A: – I put a very high value on good business systems, not only for Blueliner, but our clients. For example, if we do our part to generate leads for a client through their website, but they do not have a quality CRM system and follow-up protocol in place to develop those leads, good money and effort are wasted. Further, as new clients and projects come up, the need to effectively manage our resources increases. Good systems for time and task reporting, goal-setting and best practices development cannot be stressed enough. On the flip side, having good people and empowering them to be resourceful when systems are not perfect, is just as important.

Q: – Where do you see your business in 2 years? 5 years?

A: – It is hard to predict. We aim to be on the cutting edge of new business and marketing strategies, now and always. Considering the growth we have experienced over the past several years, as companies come to understand how much they don’t know and need to know about how to approach the Internet, I foresee Blueliner as a nationally recognized pioneer of interactive business strategy. How can the world, individuals and organizations best adapt to new media and technologies, effectively, without being overwhelmed? While that sounds like a broad, over-arching aim, I find it to be relevant to how we operate and what Blueliner aims to be. This vision is true to our entrepreneurial make-up.