Let’s take stock: Expometals.net in 2016

Dear customers and visitors,
2016 is coming to an end, and in line with tradition I take some time to take stock of the evolution of Expometals.net, being myself the creator of the platform. This is the fifteenth year since the launch of the portal, and compared to 2001 – at that time I was still a mechanical designer with an idea – the road we've walked was long. Still, a lot has to be done yet.

I will tell you about what we’ve done this year. As usual, we tried to work on multiple fronts, to enhance the services we offer to the companies present on the portal – pertaining to the wire, rope, cable, springs, fasteners, tubes, flat and long products industries; including machines, tools, lubricants etc.
In an increasingly competitive, globalized scenario, focused on new technologies, a service like ours has – I believe – a growing value.

I divided this brief report in different chapters, concisely listing the major improvements and results:

STRUCTURE, GRAPHICS, FUNCTIONS

- From the programming side, lots has been done. First of all, in April we published the fourth release, named R4Dante after my newborn child, brought to the world at the end of 2015. This new version features a number of improvements on graphics, browseability, indexing, and made Expometals.net really multi-platform, that is available and visible from any device.

- Major attention has been posed to editorial activity. The editorial staff, with Daniela Di Maggio as Editor-in-chief, has concentrated not only on contents coming from companies, but, thanks also to collaborations with journalists and specialized media, on creating useful news of interest to those who work in this field. As you may notice, in the central column of the homepage, next to corporate news, a new section appeared containing only world news.

- After summer we introduced the new newsletter, featuring optimized graphics, fortnightly sent to more than 19,500 registered users.

- In November we obtained the SSL certificate, granting secure connections and the encryption of information given by our users. This gave us the possibility to switch to the HTTPS protocol; online stands can now be converted to this technology, free of charge. We invite interested companies in contacting us ([email protected] – 0341 580139).

- We’ve added filters to all our customers’ contents, in order to better profile the respective activities. Soon it will be possible to filter search results, based on sector of interest: wire, rope, cable, fasteners, springs, tubes, flat products and long products. This will provide a more focused service to the visitor, thus a benefit for subscribed companies.

- The portal header and the “Join now!” section, that shows how can a company benefit from joining Expometals.net, have been completely renovated. We’ve also prepared a page explaining the advantages of registering a free user account on Expometals.net (only at this link, as of today).

- We’re testing Expometals.net’s app, which will be available on Play store for Android users over the next few months.

MARKETING AND SYNERGIES

Lots are the acknowledgements obtained in 2016. One the most important ones was our presence at the notorious wire & Tube fair in Düsseldorf, that recognized us among the most relevant media of the field.
We’ve been Media Partner of the first edition of Fastener Fair Italy, and had proficuous collaborations with many associations and fairs including Blech Italy. Our work on social media exponentially increased, taking us (as numbers can state) to a leading position in the world among our competitors, with 1700 followers on Twitter; around 5000 on LinkedIn; 600 on Facebook and 273 on Google+.

ORGANISATION AND ACQUISITIONS

There have been 50 new entries, i.e. companies from all over the world that in 2016 decided to promote their businesses on this network. The total amount of exhibiting companies has now reached 300. Thanks to the acquisition of new databases we count 6,800 companies currently having a showcase, and the registered users are now 19,682.
We suggest you to read thisrecently published article where we disclosed the 5 best performing companies on Expometals.
A novelty worth mentioning, which is already well known by the online exhibitors of the portal, is the introduction of company tutors. Now each advertising company has a direct link with its tutor in Expometals, who is a web expert able to support and stimulate the enterprise in the creation of a campaign throughout the whole year.

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I really want to thank the whole Expometals community, composed of around 160,000 unique visitors from all over the world (30% from Italy, 70% from the other countries) that this year connected to our servers.
A big thank you goes to the whole staff for their efforts, and to the 300 advertising companies, that decided to trust our professionalism.

I won’t indulge on general considerations; we’re surfing on troubled waters (and I’m not speaking of the web, but of our industry and the international situation).
I sincerely wish you all a serene 2017, both in business and life.

Best wishes,

Davide Dell’Oro,
Management, Expometals.net