Source: L’Economia della Marca Trevigiana. By Silvia Trevisan

Trevisosystem.com submits its 2007 annual report to users and all the readers of EMT, in the same way as a company presents its results to partners.
Even a web project needs to be aware of the statistical results of its achieved activities, in order to develop a marketing plan and consequently outline its strategy.
This article will make a report of statistical data, trying to provide enterprises with information on the actions that have determined the success, with the aim of sharing this project as a useful tool to check their corporate website through a comparison.

The corporate website turns out to be a tool of great importance in order to present, protect and manage an enterprise, within a global market in which Treviso ranks seventh among Italian provinces as for exports (data of the 2nd quarter 2007).

The website www.trevisosystem.com is on the web since 2002, it was planned by Treviso Chamber of Commerce and implemented by its special agency, Treviso Tecnologia. It is thought as an instrument of territorial marketing, which aims at showing the planning ability of Treviso economy and providing incentives for investments within the territory by means of presenting Treviso attractiveness and its excellences. It is now a reality that is consulted also within the territory.

The strength of this portal lies in the fact that information are gathered from the sources of origin, thanks to the collaboration with the press agencies of trade associations and institutions: it presents itself to users as an information aggregator for activities and projects that are carried out within the territory.

Furthermore, it has been able to break down the barriers of information so as to communicate with everyone, including blind and partially sighted people, with the birth of www.trevisoaccessibile.it: in this way, also elderly users can possibly approach the web more easily.

In 2007 the portal registered a surge of 185.23% compared to 2006: there were a total of 579,857 accesses, with an average of 1,586 visits per day.
As a comparison, we report a statement of the last three years, from 2005 to 2007.

The growth trend is constantly enhancing: as a matter of fact, in 2007 there was a higher increase than in 2006, when we registered a rise in visits of 45.11% compared to 2005, with an average of 857 visits per day. Visits per day increased by 85.17% in 2007 with respect to 2006.

Even if we consider the visits per month, it is evident that each month in 2007 saw a growth with respect to the same month in 2006, reaching even a 198.79% in the month of July.

The average visit length augmented too, going from 10.50 minutes to 12.34 minutes. This is the evidence that content selection and the style of news writing arose more interest in users, who probably found what they were searching for in the portal.

Also the number of users who visited more than once grew: in 2006, they were 27,713, while in 2007 they reached the amount of 43,124, with an increase of 56.53%.
The last data are indicative of an improvement in user loyalty compared to the previous year.


Subscriptions to the portal until the 31st December 2007 were 3,039, considering the 641 new registrations too.

The user profiling system, which is possible thanks to time users dedicate to this process while subscribing, is an instrument of great help in order to select contents, because in this way we can make reference to a specific target.

Within the registration form, new jobs have been added. A new update will be soon achieved, both as a project to know new professions emerging into the market, and to have a more and more detailed user profile, with the aim of offering contents in line with activities and professions.

The updating of fields in the English/Spanish registration section and the addition of privacy policy in English granted the website a soar in subscriptions from foreign countries: Lithuania, Nigeria, Finland, Germany, Mauritania, UK, Romania and India.

As for Italy, we gather subscriptions from 73 different provinces, taking into consideration that province selection was added to the registration form only in the 2nd four-month period of 2006.

Subscription within the portal allows users to download all the documents for free, to receive newsletters and to receive updatings from the editorial staff.

As far as 2007 is concerned, we report a considerable surge in the number of subscriptions and accesses in the 2nd four-month period, in which some important documents, such as the Economic Reports, have been offered to users. Download trends confirm the guiding role institutions play towards users.
 
Thanks to Research Offices and Press Agencies, economic reports are now available online the same day they’re published, or a few days later, on trevisosystem.com.

Furthermore, the period from May through August saw the presentation to users of some other important data and events: for example, they were provided with the economic data related to Veneto region and Treviso province in 2007; an important exhibition was held by IUAV university; the mini-site dedicated to the claDEM bachelor's degree in Fashion Design was published on the web (go to University and training section); the project “Il Talento delle Idee” was closed etc.

When the documents presented to users presuppose a great amount of work and research, it is advisable that they are submitted to registration, in order to gather useful data.

The following analysis refers to downloads in the Italian sections of the website. Where possible, we provide you with the links to the English corresponding sections:
• As the most downloaded, data highlight the “Economic Report” by Treviso Chamber of Commerce, with 2,752 downloads (Economic Reports section);
• The second is the report on UNI standard 11155:2005 (Operational activities of enterprises - Performances measurement), with 2,131 downloads;
• The paper “Treviso in maps”, edited by the Ufficio Studi of Treviso Chamber of Commerce, with 2,040 downloads;
• The research on restaurant industry in Veneto, edited by the Accademia della Grappa e dell’Acquavite supported by Treviso Chamber of Commerce, with 1,762 downloads (related article with link to research in Italian);
• Offers and requests for technological collaboration from Veneto Innovazione, with 1,451 downloads (opportunities section)
• The guide “Constitute your business enterprise in Treviso” edited by the Nuova Impresa office of the Chamber of Commerce, with 858 downloads as for 2004 edition, 665 as for economic profiles 8 edition (Management and control section)

Moreover, documents edited by the Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad (dedicated section) keep playing an important role as far as downloads are concerned: an example could be the economic bulletin of the Italian American Chamber of Commerce in Midwest (Chicago), with 716 downloads.

The monthly publications of offers and requests for technological collaboration from Veneto Innovazione always obtained considerable results.

As regards the most visited sections, TvDotCom ranked first with 92,531 visits in the Italian version, and 38,554 in the English one: these data confirm the choice of highlighting this section within the homepage, besides promoting it systematically through news.

It is indeed very important to update the website whenever a service or a section turns out to be meaningful.
The concept is the same as in supermarkets, where everything should be put in the right place so that customers could easily reach and make use of it. Nevertheless, services offered by the portal are completely free of charge!

As we mentioned before, the portal focuses on TvDotCom because it’s an effective promotion tool for local businesses, which are not asked for any contribution.
Registered enterprises benefit from trevisosystem.com excellent web positioning: when looking for an enterprise using a search engine, it can often be found in the first top search results within the first page, if registered to TvDotCom.

The second most visited section was that of news in Italian, in which 675 articles were published in 2007, with 61,480 visits.
Web content writing guidelines are applied in editing the articles.

News are grouped into different channels: economy; courses and meetings; events; promotion; opportunities.
News are always aimed at providing users with useful information that can be employed in their activities.

Moreover, accurately selected images are added to news in order to make the reading more intuitive.

The textual equivalents provided for images are intended to visually impaired people with all the information they need. Trevisoaccessibile.it, the ‘accessible’ version of the website, registered 13,092 visits.

The translation service keeps operating as an essential tool to promote Treviso territory and enterprises, as well as a service for local entrepreneurs carrying out activities abroad. Many economic texts are available in their English version, and some of them can be consulted in Spanish too. English news marked 14,447 visits.

Furthermore, the strategy to promote the articles published in the column “Il Punto” and the articles of EMT publication contributed to the interest raised by the section “Economic news” , which, for the first time, marked 11,871 visits.

The Italian newsletter has been sent with a three-per-month frequency, reaching a total of 37 mailings in 2007. The highest accesses per day were marked:
as for the first four-month period, on the 8th March 2007 there were 2,015 visits;
in the second period, trevisosystem.com registered 2,893 on the 12th July, and 2912 on the day after;
in the third period, on the 20th November visits have been 2,136.

The online customer care activity comprised the sending of 734 emails, plus events promotion aimed at enterprises.

During 2007, Trevisosystem.com participated in 46 among conventions and press conferences within the province of Treviso, in the provincial capital and other provinces of Veneto region: 34 articles were written and published in order to inform users on the contents of those conferences.

Trevisosystem.com pays particular attention to CSR activity (Corporate Social Responsibility) and attended the related course, arranged by Treviso Tecnologia. In addition, it keeps up with Treviso Chamber of Commerce’s CSR office to get communications, and business best practice (see Business Services section).

The above statistical data have been gathered and processed by means of a statistical survey package monitoring log files.

Silvia Trevisan