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Keller Engineers, Inc. Employees Earn Certifications

Posted on by Chamber of Business & Industry Centre County

Keller Engineers, Inc. is pleased to announce that Adam Charles, PE; Nathan Patrick, EIT; and Tate Russell, EIT have all earned certifications in Water System Operating, Bridge Safety Inspection, and Engineer-in-Training, respectively.

Adam Charles, PE, a Project Manager in Keller Engineers’ Water/Wastewater Division,recently became a Certified Water System Operator in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is now authorized by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to operate Class E water distribution systems. Adam is also certified in Pennsylvania as a Wastewater Operator. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering Technology, and has been with Keller Engineers for three years.


Nathan Patrick, EIT works in Keller Engineers’ Transportation Division as a Highway Designer. He recently became a Certified Bridge Safety Inspector (CBSI) by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is now authorized to perform bridge safety
inspections in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Nathan has been working for Keller Engineers for over five years and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering Technology from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Tate Russell, EIT recently earned his Engineering-in-Training certificate and is now well onhis way to becoming a Professional Engineer. Tate works in Keller Engineers’
Water/Wastewater Division as a Designer. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil
Engineering from West Virginia University, and an Associate’s degree in Civil Engineering from Potomac State University. He is a recent hire at Keller Engineers, starting in May of this year.

Email Marketing Trends to Grow Your Business

Posted on by Chamber of Business & Industry Centre County

SUMMARY

  • Email marketing remains a crucial tool for businesses due to its direct reach to subscribers, bypassing algorithms of social platforms.
  • Businesses should focus on nurturing relationships through emails by providing value-added content, including insider tips, trending news, and solutions to customer problems.
  • Pairing email marketing with regular website content updates can increase traffic significantly. 

681 Words ~ 3 minute read

Every day four billion people open email. While social media posting and paid advertising can play a significant role in small business marketing campaigns, experts agree that emailing subscribers remains one of the best marketing tools available. Why? Emails go directly into your subscriber’s inbox and bypass the mysterious algorithms associated with social platforms and paid traffic. And if your business knows how to leverage the latest email marketing trends, you have an instant advantage over your competition. 

Here’s what you need to know about using email to grow your business. 

Nurture Audience Relationships through Email 

Beyond sales and promotions, email marketing is a great way to demonstrate your value to subscribers. Avoid sending too many emails just for the sake of ‘staying in touch.’ Instead, obsess about your customer’s problems and create email content that includes insider tips, trending news and ways to help your audience get ahead. Also, a smart website strategy should also include email. Whenever you add new content to your website, make sure to nudge subscribers with highlights and direct them to read more online. 

How often should you post new content to your website? According to the content marketing experts at HubSpot, it depends. They recommend first running a website audit to determine how often you should post. Then, it’s all about your goals. If your goal is to drive more traffic to your site, then you might need to post 3-4 times a week. If your strategy is to raise brand awareness, then publishing less frequently may work just fine. By pairing email marketing with website publishing you naturally increase traffic to your website without paid advertising.

Find Your Next Content Idea with AI

You’ve probably heard by now that AI is equipped to help you do everything from compose mysteries to finish your kid’s homework. But the truth is AI is only as smart as its user. Many businesses are finding that the best use of tools like Open AI’s ChatGPT and Jasper isn’t to do your work for you, but to do some thinking for you. Rather than starting with a blank page, try utilizing AI as a ‘content assistant’ that can pitch email subject lines or outline email content. 

Know How Privacy Changes Affect Deliverability 

Measuring the success of email marketing used to be a lot easier. However, a side effect of tech giants like Apple creating Mail Privacy Protection (MMP) to help users guard their personal information is that traditional metrics like open rates and click-to-open rates have become less reliable. As of June 2022, 89% of iPhone users adopted iOS 15 which gives users this option.

These updates don’t change the reality that email remains a highly effective marketing strategy. The difference is that you’ll want to look at other metrics such as ROI, list growth, email forwards, and unsubscribe rates to help determine what’s working and when to adjust. 

Turn Subscribers into Fans 

The reason people subscribe to your list varies, but we know that most subscribers are motivated by access to deals, shortcuts, rewards, discounts and hot tips. In other words, they love special treatment. 

You can nurture customer loyalty and repeat sales when you treat your email subscribers differently than everyone else. Rather than making special offers to everyone, reward email opens with exclusive opportunities. This strategy will also help you determine which sales are coming from email versus promotions running on your website, ads or social media posts. 

Are you growing your list? 

Your email marketing efforts are only as good as the health of your email list. To keep your list growing, make sure you have a variety of lead magnets designed to trade exclusive content or discounts for a person’s email address. After you have new subscribers added to your list, your email marketing strategy begins. Far more than a trend, you can kickstart your new email relationship with a series that both initiates and rewards new subscribers. Connect it all to automation, and you have a simple, reliable email marketing campaign to help you make more sales and grow your business. 

How to Turn Your Business Expertise Into Thought Leadership

Posted on by Chamber of Business & Industry Centre County

Does your organization place due emphasis on brand building? If not, it’s high time you reconsidered. Elevating your brand’s visibility and perception by establishing your organization as a thought leader can create an immense impact. In this age of digitization, even the smallest businesses in our community have the potential to reach vast audiences. Utilizing the internet to solidify your thought leadership can be one of the most effective strategies for cultivating a robust audience and enhancing conversions.

What is Thought Leadership?

Thought leaders demonstrate expertise in their field by expressing ideas in unique ways that will keep visitors coming back to their website, blog, or social media feed. Business leaders often strive to achieve the status of thought leaders, but it takes hard work, patience, education and a well-developed strategy. Fortunately, many small business owners and managers already have “education” as experienced business people in your respective fields. So how do you go about becoming a thought leader?

How to Become a Thought Leader

The first step in becoming a thought leader is determining what you want to be an expert in. As a business owner, you might think this is simple—it’s your area of business, right? To a point, this is true, but you might want to narrow it down a little. For example, if you run a shoe shop, you can’t necessarily be an expert on all areas of the shoe business, but you might know what shoes suit particular people or what the upcoming trends in shoes are.

Use Your Own Voice

Once you’ve figured out your niche, you need to create content. However, using an authentic voice that comes over naturally to your readers is essential. The best way to do this is by using your own voice. Your passion for the subject will go over naturally and keep your readers interested. Trying to be too “sales” or fake is obvious to most readers, and they will quickly lose interest.

Don’t Self-Promote

Using your own voice does not mean talking about yourself or your products all the time. Over-promotion is another big turn-off—79% of editors of online publications say that over-promotion is the biggest problem with contributed content. A better way to connect with your readers is by educating them, providing thoughtful insights, and sharing new ideas.

Produce Content Consistently

As a thought leader, you need people to remember you. If you don’t publish new content regularly, they will forget you; a few strong articles won’t establish you as a thought leader. Remember, it takes perseverance and dedication.

Publish Widely

Only publishing posts and articles on your website or LinkedIn profile might gain a small, dedicated readership, but you will need to be more widely recognized. So instead, submit guest posts to other people’s blogs within your field, find out what websites are popular with people in your area, and submit articles to those too. Of course, not everyone will want your articles and guest posts, but you must persevere.

Use Your Team

Thought leaders rarely work alone. People in your business will undoubtedly have ideas and knowledge that will help. Make sure they understand what you’re trying to accomplish, and everyone in the company will benefit from their endeavors. If you’re too busy at times, there will always be someone to take up the slack—always ensuring that the business comes across at all times with the same authentic voice.

Becoming a thought leader can bring tangible benefits to you and your business. As we said earlier, it’s all about dedication, strategy, and perseverance, but it will be worth the effort in the long run.

Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County Opposes Adoption of Centre County’s Proposed Responsible Contractor Ordinance

Posted on by Chamber of Business & Industry Centre County

The Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County firmly opposes the adoption of the Responsible Contractor Ordinance (RCO) currently under consideration by the Centre County Board of Commissioners. The RCO, intended to ensure the hiring of responsible contractors for County-funded infrastructure and public works projects exceeding $250,000, poses significant challenges for local contractors and ancillary businesses.

During today’s commissioner meeting, Greg Scott, President and CEO of the Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County, made a public statement. In his statement, he highlighted the Chamber’s concerns, which reflect the collective sentiment of the Chamber’s board and membership.

Scott stated, “While the Chamber supports the County’s aim to ensure accountability, this ordinance imposes excessive restrictions that will negatively impact our local contractors and ancillary businesses. The Chamber believes in fostering a competitive and inclusive business environment that benefits our entire community. The Chamber urges the Centre County Board of Commissioners to reconsider this ordinance and seek alternative solutions that uphold quality and safety while preserving access for our local contractors.”

The Chamber recognizes and appreciates the County’s objective of promoting accountability, quality, and safety in public projects. However, the RCO’s requirements, such as the mandate that 70 percent of the craft labor workforce have completed a formally registered apprenticeship training program, and the adherence to the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act, 43 for offsite custom fabrication work, will impose unnecessary and burdensome restrictions on local contractors.

If the RCO is adopted, this ordinance will effectively exclude many of our local contractors and business, potentially in favor of out of County entities, from participating in County projects exceeding $250,000, limiting their ability to contribute to the growth and development of our region.

The Chamber also extends its gratitude to the Centre County Commissioners for their continued dedication to the well-being of our community. While we respectfully disagree on this particular issue, we remain committed to working collaboratively with the Commissioners and other stakeholders to explore solutions that support the growth and success of Centre County’s businesses.

Ribbon Cutting Celebration for New Ownership of Eyes on the Diamond, a Member of Vision Source

Posted on by Jeannine Lozier

Eyes on the Diamond, a proud member of Vision Source, recently hosted a ribbon-cutting celebration to commemorate its new ownership.

The event showcased the expertise of esteemed eye care providers Dr. Whitney Territo, O.D., and Dr. Scott Bauer, O.D. Their clinical interests encompass a broad spectrum, including primary care optometry for patients of all ages and the management and treatment of diabetic eye disease, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and dry eye syndrome.

The ribbon-cutting celebration provided attendees with the opportunity to network, meet the dedicated staff of Eyes on the Diamond, and explore the comprehensive eyecare services offered by the clinic.

“I am excited to celebrate the new ownership of Eyes on the Diamond and our unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional eye care services,” said Dr. Territo. “Our team is dedicated to meeting the vision needs of the community with expertise, compassion, and cutting-edge technology. We eagerly await the opportunity to welcome both existing and new patients to our clinic.”

To learn more about the comprehensive eyecare services provided by Eyes on the Diamond or to make an appointment, please visit https://eyesonthediamond.com/ or call 814-466-2020.

About Eyes on the Diamond

A leading provider of quality vision care products and personalized optometric services in Centre County, since 2010, Eyes on the Diamond has been the leader and preferred provider of quality vision care products and personalized optometric services to patients in State College and the surrounding areas. Our mission is to provide the best eye care services possible, using advanced, state-of-the-art diagnostic technology and eye care products. We are committed to educating our patients and providing personalized eye care services.