Executive Data Control spins off Heligonix

Steve Visio, owner of Executive Data Control in Springfield, isn’t a stranger to using technology to transform business.

His company, founded in 1967, evolved from a small-business paper supplier and printer to using computer software to create printed marketing materials and promotional products.

Now, he’s branching out with a separate company that focuses on integrating new technology and social media to reach customers.

In January, Visio officially launched Heligonix, built around a four-pronged marketing strategy that he said is designed to integrate clients’ brands and marketing messages.

“Marketing is getting more complicated,” Visio said. “Companies need to segment their customer base, and they might have different messages for different segments and they need to do it through social media.”

Originally, Heligonix was meant to function as the in-house marketing arm of Executive Data Control, which Visio bought in 2003 from his father, Hank Visio Sr.

Steve Visio said he recognized the need to integrate print and online marketing with branding about a year and a half ago. Through networking with other print and promotional products companies, he learned that it would be counterproductive to operate Executive Data Control and the marketing and advertising business as one entity.

“Some of the companies were either a printer or digital services and when they introduced marketing into the mix, the customers just didn’t buy it,” Visio said. “If it is a separate company, existing customers will know you’re serious in the marketing efforts and new customers see you as that initially.”

Visio said he’s invested $175,000 in Heligonix – including three employees and one who splits time with Executive Data Control, and he hopes to break even in the company’s first year.

Visio’s Heligonix approach is a balanced blend of discovery, data management, creative development and production, he said.

The discovery component involves helping clients figure out which mediums they actually need to spread their messages.

“We have people coming in and saying we need a blog, or we need on Facebook and we ask them why,” Visio said. “This is where we find out where the content is and who are the best customers, and we ask the client if they understand who (those customers) are.”

Data management delves into specific messages for different market segments, Visio said, while creative development ties discovery and data management together to determine creative writing and imagery for the intended messages.

In the production phase, social media comes into play, with the building of Web sites, fan pages and other online messages.

“This is where we act like personal trainers,” Visio said. “We tell them they can’t put a blog post out there and then wait six months to write another one.”

Rather than just telling clients what to do, however, Heligonix takes an extra step to follow up and make sure tasks are completed as recommended.

“Our clients can’t see results if they don’t execute,” he said.

Visio said Heligonix’s target market is small- to medium-sized companies and nonprofits. The company has a roster of eight clients to date, including the Greene County 100 Club, an organization that raises funds for families of law enforcement officers and firefighters who are killed in the line of duty.

Bob Hammerschmidt, treasurer and a founding member of the group, says Heligonix helped the organization build its Web site, www.greenecounty100club.com and integrate it with social media and portals to simplify contributions.

“It’s really just updating the old marketing design – adding a new twist,” Hammerschmidt said. “There is just so much information we have to constantly rethink the delivery model.”

Visio said one benefit to online marketing is that customers don’t have to wait several months to get results.

“They can see who’s coming to their site in real time and change anything they need to change in real time,” he said.

Springfield advertising veteran Jay Nicholson, owner of The Nicholson Agency, agreed.

“Internet and social media applications can be quantified, and I love the quantifiable factor,” said Nicholson, whose company used to do marketing work for Visio’s Executive Data Control. “There are still the tried and true traditional forms of advertising that I still don’t think will be going away anytime soon.”