One of the nicer things that’s been happening of late is that I can now count certain people at Butler Sheetmetal Ltd as regular Tinbasher readers. (If we’re being honest, they’re probably the only regular readers. But such is life.)

Only the other day, both Deborah and John were having a gander and showed a particular post having a dig at Craig to Matt and he commented about it being all well and good but how the hell did the post in question manage to sell any planters or draw an enquiry.

Now this is as valid a question you can ask of any marketing effort within any business. It’s the age old ROI chestnut, which often gets slapped down by certain parts of the blogging fraternity for being too metrics focused.

However, I don’t think it’s too much for a boss to ask how much a blog costs his company and how much it can bring in.

Now I look at a blog as part of a team. In respect to The Tinbasher, it’s only part of team web presence; it’s your engine room - the midfield general/playmaker that runs box to box, pops up to score the odd goal and still shields the back four - part Maradonna, part Beckenbauer. It manages to support the other two web sites we have as well as attracting people in its own right. It’s part SEO tool that’s managed to promote the main Butler Sheetmetal site to such a degree that it now ranks #6 out of 17,000,000 on Google for the term “sheet metal”. And not a single bought link in sight nor some tedious or fluffed up linking campaign in sight either.

Now I know the purists don’t like all that SEO talk as it’s only one step away from sploggageddon and it still doesn’t answer the question as to how it sells any planters. On this score, I have to say that in relation to the SEO thing then if somebody is looking for a company selling stainless steel planters or to do some sheet metal fabrication work then they’ll find us ranking #1 and #4 respectively for those terms amongst others.

The next thing somebody might do once they’ve decided to click on your site that’s been pushed into position by the blog or a blog post that you’ve written about your own services or products is to investigate further if they choose. And that’s the whole point - it’s the choice of the person doing the clicking. From this point in you have to be quite zen about it all. If you fit the bill then splendid and if not then also splendid. Let’s just pretend that in this day and age the punter is very much like the modern woman - they know what they want and they know how to get it. (We could take this further by claiming they’ll screw you something rotten if you don’t treat them right, but I don’t want to sound too pussy-whipped.)

And then, if you take all the glorious mentions we’ve got from all branches of the media then you realise we’re onto something. Especially when you consider that Butler Sheetmetal hasn’t got where it is today by throwing ridiculous amounts of cash at anything. That isn’t to say the boys are a pair of tightwads, it’s just that they have a budget and it’s not remotely on a par with that of General Motors.

We’re what Hugh Macleod decribes as a Global Microbrand. (And there’s us thinking we’re more local contraband.)

I’m not saying that other methods might not be more effective, but they would cost more initially. I don’t see this as either/or but as an integrated team effort like I said before. There’s still plenty to try and improve upon - yes, this has been far from perfect irrespective of what you might’ve heard elsewhere.

But, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not about shifting the maximum amount of units and squeezing the living daylights out of a punter but about matching needs and supplying enough information to satisfy them by being honest and open about your business and products or services.

Then again, you may disagree.

I’ve well and truly learnt my lesson about spouting my mouth off, counting chickens and all that palava after the many disasters that have befallen mostly me to be fair.

Things like:

The Canary Wharf Garden Show. (Rubbish, sold bugger all and half-wrecked the hire van.)

Free photo shoot in Gardeners’ World. (They took the photos but never told us that the planters weren’t going to be in, but we still told all and sundry to buy a copy. (All and sundry then laughed at us.))

Planters on the telly.(Rushed around like loons for a paltry link from the Channel 4 website.)

Those three things are the ones that stick in the mind, but there’s one or two other things that also crashed and burned.

And the one thing they had in common?

I bleated mercilessly about every single one. I’ve become so convinced that any prior mention on this blog renders a project useless that I’ve decided to stop doing it so I don’t put a hex on anything. (I must be more superstitious than I let on.)

So, it’s with a certain amount of relief that I can report we’ve finally been approved for a NeedIT grant to invest in computer stuff and e-commerce.

This means that we’ll have a far better computer setup and we’ll finally be able to trade properly online and show our full product range as opposed to leaving it to your imagination.

We’ve spent enough time now with a computer that’s more tempremental than your average menopausal fishwife; it also has to be said that we’ve been awfully slack with things like brochures and other offline marketing efforts aswell - or at least that’s the conclusion me and John came to in the pub after six pints of Kronenburg. (You really don’t want to know of any conclusions drawn after that.)

It also just so happens that Robo-bender Matt and Deadly Derek have finally sorted out the press tool to make up square planters without the need to get them lasered. I think we might just have the production side screwed down. (More on that another day.)

It obviously would’ve been bloody marvellous if we’d sorted out the grant and the tooling before the spring/summer as opposed to afterwards, but the point is it’s sorted.

I’d also recommend using your local Business Link, who were extremely helpful and efficient in doing our micro business review and sending us down the right path.

For designer stainless steel for your designer home, it has to be said that you can find all sorts over at Trendir. There’s still some life in that old stainless steel dog yet.

It’s not that I have a current thing for sinks at the moment, but here’s another that’s made from 16swg 304 stainless.

I do like how they throw the grade of stainless out there like a badge of honour.

They’re doing us a great favour by raising public awareness.

We regard 304 stainless as being a bit of a middle ranking stainless; it’s not as expensive or high a grade as 316, but it’s not nearly as cheap as 420.

We make most of our planters from 304 stainless as it looks the same as 316 and won’t cause you any real problems unless you’re leaving rusty spanners on them and you live on Blackpool front.

Do you recall how John trounced the competition alive in the Trawden Container Competition but I was unable to show you with what?

Well now I can.

This is the lovely little number that actually romped home in first place - not forgetting that there were only three entrants in the first place.

I never knew John had such a flair for planting.

And here’s a couple of cylindrical rusty planters in his back garden.

I’ll upload these and a few more into our flickr gallery and Tinpot Alley fairly shortly.

Here’s something I’ve managed to resurrect from the Tinpot Alley stainless steel planters archive. (By that I mean that I’ve found an old lead to download pictures off my camera!)

There would’ve been more but some over zealous security chap prevented me from doing so in case I was casing the joint to bomb it. I’m sure after five days of worthless exhibiting I may have felt suitably miffed, but when you’ve had a big sign saying Tinpot Alley and most of your business cards handed out, I doubt if I’d have gotten away with it.

You may recall the collective Butler Sheetmetal Ltd breakdown that took place trying to get organised for that damn Canary Wharf exhibition. Well this picture proves that it was more than worth being plonked in the middle of an underground mall whilst most people stole pebbles, booted the balls and vented their fury at us for the poor state of the ‘garden show’ in general.

Although, we did manage to flog one of the bay trees. It would’ve been two, but the guy would’ve struggled carrying them both on the tube.

John’s become very philosophical about the whole affair and his twitch is hardly noticeable as he mutters ‘You live and learn’, or ‘Just put it down to experience.’

Anyway, the above ribbed stainless steel planter was by far and away the crowd favourite from a planter and plant perspective - until the price was mentioned, of course. (For the record, it’s a John design )

No wonder we try and stick to bespoke.