Environmental Expert’s 2000th customer is as exceptional as it is representative

On February 26, 2013, Environmental Expert added a new red letter date to its historical timeline when Taiwan-based Yes-Sun Environmental Biotech Co. Ltd. told our long-time sales consultant Bernie Jack they would like to send a dedicated email blast to a segment of our users opted in to receive messages from third parties. On that day, Yes-Sun Environmental Biotech, developer of an innovative organic waste treatment technology, became Environmental Expert’s 2000th customer.

While our 2000th customer seems, at first glance, to be an exceptional case (Yes-Sun is our first ever customer in Taiwan and they didn’t purchase one of our popular subscription-based lead generation packages), it is in many ways representative of how Environmental Expert has developed over a 14-year history that began back in 1999 in a tiny apartment just across the street from Madrid’s Retiro Park.

Back when the Y2K bug was still scary and internet startups were wondering who would be left when the dot-com bubble burst, Environmental Expert was forging a business by offering an affordable alternative to trade show lead generation that could unite markets across the world. Our first customer, an air dispersion modelling software company called Lakes Environmental Software, joined us in the summer of 1999. Lakes was based in Waterloo, Ontario, nearly 4000 miles away from our Madrid headquarters, and it only took a few phone calls to start a business relationship that lasts to this day. Yes, our first customer, Lakes Environmental Software, is still with us 14 years later.

Soon after Lakes signed up, Environmental Expert began helping businesses all across North America and Europe generate valuable online business leads for their environmental solutions. Expansion into every continent of the world would soon follow, right about the time the dot-com bubble burst, as a result of a firm commitment to helping businesses reach markets they would have trouble reaching without a truly global platform like Environmental Expert to give them a hand. That commitment would eventually allow us to help over 30,000 suppliers and vendors generate leads, of which over 2,000 are now paying customers. At a time when our Asian audience has finally surpassed our European audience, a Taiwan-based business becoming a client doesn’t really come as such a surprise.

And it doesn’t come as a surprise that Yes-Sun chose to purchase an email blast rather than one of our online lead generation packages. Environmental Expert has always been committed to generating leads for our customers, no matter what channel could work for them. At times, a strategically-placed company profile in a smart directory does the trick. Other times it’s a newsletter sponsorship. White paper distribution may be what it takes to garner interest for some, while for others uploading a full product catalog to a trusted platform like Environmental Expert may be what it takes to catch the eyes of industrial buyers. Yes-Sun needed to reach a very specific market so an email blast was the answer for them. What matters is that they generate leads at an affordable price, just like it was in the beginning.

The other constant at Environmental Expert from customers one through 2000 has been a diverse staff. Bernie, the sales consultant behind customer number 2000, is from the United Kingdom but the same can’t be said for the colleagues sitting on either side of him. We currently employ 17 full-time staff with 11 different nationalities. Back in the days when we were bringing our first customers on board, I had a Dutchman sitting behind me and a New Zealander to my left (I’m from the USA), all three of us packed in the bedroom of a tiny apartment.

The diversity has remained a constant and a pillar of our success. I’m proud to say we’ve long since abandoned our apartment and we’ve been in a proper office for many years now. Even though the office has changed, the fundamentals (affordable lead generation solutions, treating the global market as one & staff diversity) have remained the same over the years. Our 2000th customer, Yes-Sun, unique as it may be, is also representative of what Environmental Expert has been, is, and will continue to be.

Check out Environmental Expert’s improved site search

Environmental Expert is all about helping environmental industry professionals find the right suppliers & solutions and stay up-to-date with industry trends, policy developments and new technologies.

That’s why we’re excited to start 2013 by upgrading our site search functionalities and making your job even easier.

Here’s a rundown of the new features you should take some time to check out today:

Search intelligently

A general search on Environmental Expert now defaults you to the section of our site where you’re most likely to find what you’re looking for, thus saving you time. Searching on “waste management” provides a list of services. Enter “skimmers” and you get a list of equipment. Search for a person’s name and a list of matching members of our pEEple network is displayed…

Effortlessly search in other sections of the site

If the intelligent search doesn’t get it right on the first try, not to worry. The top filter on the left sidebar shows you the number of results for your keyword within other sections of the site so you can switch in a flash.

Drill down without the guesswork

The new search makes it easy for you to get to the specifics. For example, if you run a search on “aerators,” the Related Terms filter on the left sidebar will reveal a list of all the different types of aerators we have on the site.

Enjoy the improved design & user interface

And of course we’ve implemented a few changes in the search design and interface to improve usability. Easy-to-remove filters, breadcrumbs & a prominent page title show you exactly where you are, unfolding filters to avoid clutter…

We hope you enjoy the upgraded site search. Give it a try today.

Additional upgrades to site search will follow throughout the year, so if you have suggestions for improvements, feel free to send us your feedback.

Environmental Expert attracts 26 new premium suppliers at IFAT ENTSORGA 2012

IFAT ENTSORGA 2012

Response to Environmental Expert’s B2B lead generation solutions for suppliers of environmental equipment, software & services was at an all-time high at this year’s IFAT ENTSORGA show (May 7-11 in Munich, Germany), which was attended by Maarten Van Donk, Environmental Expert founder and CEO, and Paul Webster, Head of Sales. At the show, a total of 26 companies signed up for our premium sponsorship packages, which are designed to deliver qualified leads from a community of environmental professionals that consists of engineers, project managers, experts, and industry buyers.

This year’s IFAT ENTSORGA show attracted approximately 125,000 visitors and nearly 3,000 exhibitors from around the world, breaking previous records. Since 2005, Environmental Expert has partnered with IFAT ENTSORGA and its organizer, Messe München, to promote the exhibition to  a broader audience of environmental professionals, while IFAT ENTSORGA has promoted Environmental Expert’s permanent online exhibition to its audience. Environmental Expert cooperates with environmental industry shows around the world to facilitate matching of buyers and suppliers, whether it be face-to-face or online.

Environmental Expert’s nearly 30,000 suppliers benefit from a steady source of leads for their sales pipelines year round from a targeted audience of 250,000 professionals from around the world visiting the site every month. We make performance tracking easy by providing an online tracking report, complete with electronic business cards and lead segmentation tools, for all of our suppliers, whether at the free or premium level.

Find out how to become an Environmental Expert premium supplier>>

Check out Environmental Expert’s product catalog >>

Stay tuned for IFAT ENTSORGA 2014>>

Environmental Expert becomes a PRWeb distribution partner

We’re pleased to announce that we have recently been accepted as a PRWeb distribution partner, meaning Environmental Expert will be streaming all relevant news from the PRWeb network through the news site & RSS feeds, with selected stories included in our e-bulletins, Twitter & our Facebook Page.

PRWeb, a service of Vocus, is a leader in online news distribution and online publicity. PRWeb “democratized” news distribution, transforming the “press release” from an expensive tool used by large corporations to an inexpensive yet highly effective way for organizations of all sizes to distribute their news on the Internet.

We feel this partnership will further expand our coverage of what’s going on in the environmental industry and provide you with insights from a new group of high-quality sources.

Check out a few of the most recent PRWeb stories on Environmental Expert!

New Feature! Publish your company’s memberships

Companies and organizations listed on Environmental Expert can now easily publish the professional organizations to which they belong.

Industry organizations offer a myriad of services for their members: networking opportunities, professional training, discounts on conferences & exhibitions and much more.  Apart from enjoying the benefits offered directly by professional organizations, member companies can also gain credibility and online reputation within their industries by making their memberships public.

If your company is already listed and you’d like to publish your memberships, simply visit your company account page and click on the Memberships option on the left-hand menu.

If your company’s not yet listed, add your company today.

And if you use the Environmental Expert site to research and source products and services, we hope this new feature enhances your ability to choose the suppliers that are right for you.

Environmental Expert and Waste Advantage Magazine partner to deliver waste industry analysis

We’re happy to announce Environmental Expert has reached a partnership with Waste Advantage Magazine, a US-based monthly publication focusing on the North American solid waste and recycling industries, to deliver fantastic articles from waste industry experts to Environmental Expert users and subscribers.  The expert articles cover public and private hauling companies, demolition contractors, scrap dealers, recyclers, landfill operators, transfer stations and more.

To keep on top of what’s going on in the waste industry, you may subscribe to our waste & recycling articles RSS feed or sign up for our monthly waste & recycling ezine.

Be sure to also check out the Waste Advantage Magazine website for more details about this great publication!

Make your content titles count

Did you ever consider that the title of your product or software has huge importance to its´ searchability on our site, or in general on the whole web? Well it´s true. The way you name your product greatly impacts visibility in search results. Environmental Expert understands how important this is and we have now made it easier for you to update your product or software title so that not only can it show up in search results, but also put you on the path to generating more leads.

We have added 2 new fields to the title of a product, Model # and Brand. So let´s say PipeTech wanted to add their pipes as a product on our site, the Model # would be 9735, the Brand would be PipeTech, and the product title would be Wastewater Pipe. By having your product or software featured this way on our site, you have better chances of showing up on a particular search because now you have 2 more fields in the title. You have to take into consideration the fact that everyone has a different way of searching and one person may search by the model #, whereas another will search by the brand or title. This way you guarantee that your product is covered in all search criteria.

Update your product title

The Quick and Effective way to get Relevant Leads

Reach new prospects with our Direct Email Marketing Campaigns by being able to build a targeted recipient list. We have a database of more than 120,000 professionals which you can filter by industry, location, job title, and more.

From now until May 6th, for every 2000 recipients that you buy, we will add on 1000 more. So take this opportunity to:

• Promote upcoming events, courses, webcasts, early registrations, etc.
• Send Announcements
• Distribute Newsletters
• Run Promotions
• Get brand exposure
• Promote Product Releases
• and more

Build a list and see just how many new prospects you can reach.

**Offer ends May 6th**

Welcome to the Environmental Expert Blog

Hello and welcome to the new Environmental Expert blog.

As part of our ongoing mission to provide professionals with unique tools for researching and discovering solutions to their organizations’ environmental compliance issues, the Environmental Expert team is constantly poring over user feedback and implementing the highest priority improvements to our website and services.  Because listening to you has allowed us to make the right changes and grow over these past 12 years, we feel we owe it to you to create this blog to regularly highlight what changes are being made and what’s in store for the future.  Updates to this blog will also be posted on our LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter channels for the folks following us there.

Additionally, we’re eager to hear back from you.  Post your comments and give us your honest opinion.  Which site features do you like?  Which do you dislike and how would you like to see them improved?  What would you really love to see from Environmental Expert?  What questions do you have about the service?  No inhibitions please.

So let this be the start of a new era in our conversation about Environmental Expert, an online community of environmental professionals you’ve helped build.  Sign up for our blog alerts or follow us on RSS or one of our social media channels.

We’ll talk again soon.