Chamber member
is maximizing potential

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Marc Berman has seen the power of technology at work in the business world. In fact, Berman and his wife, Susan, have for the last three years been making it work for them in their local travel agency.
Not one to keep a secret, Berman, a former party disc jockey and radio personality, now wants to share his wealth of knowledge with other area businesses that may not be capitalizing on World Wide Web marketing.
That’s at the top of Berman’s agenda as he becomes the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s newest executive board member.
"There are things that I’ve learned that I truly want to share with the board to get the chamber more recognized on the Internet," Berman said. "Remember, the Internet is ‘World Wide’ but it’s also local."
Few know that better than he does. The Northeast natives who recently moved to Cherry Hill opened Berman Travel in June 2002. Their intent was to operate much like a conventional walk-in agency specializing in trips to Mexican, Caribbean and Central American resorts.
But when they started up their own Web site (www.bermantravel.com) less than a year later, online sales began to outdistance walk-in business by increasing margins. Folks weren’t necessarily logging directly into the site, but rather browsing onto it through prominent search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Taking that cue, Marc Berman submersed himself in learning the ins and outs of the hidden World Wide Web, how to build his agency’s Web pages with the proper codes, and identifying words and phrases to get listed at the top of search engine results.
"We’re a small agency," Berman said. "But if we can get fifty Internet leads a day — how many agencies get fifty people to walk through the door each day?"
Today, the business claims $2 million in annual sales with 90 percent of that coming via the Internet. Its clients stretch across the country, as well as Canada, Europe and other parts of the world.
"I’m pulling (customers) from a big country," Berman said. "We have an ‘office’ on every computer in America through the Internet."
Other local businesses can do the same thing, he believes, regardless of the goods or services they supply.
"I want to tell the small-business owners who may not have a Web site how to get an affordable Web site, using chamber members, and how to market their Web site like Berman Travel did," Berman said.
Marc is his business’ marketing and public relations man, while Susan heads a five-person sales team. It’s her job to close the deal on the leads generated by the Web site.
Marc Berman believes that the Internet can help not only the smaller individual businesses in the chamber, but also the organization as a whole.
"I’d like the chamber as an organization to be more noticed in the business community through the Internet," he said. "If their Web site reflects what the chamber truly does, people in other states will say, ‘I really need to be in the Philly market.’"
According to chamber president Al Taubenberger, the board will welcome Berman’s energy and activism. Founded in 1922, the chamber has more than 900 members and is growing with a new recruitment campaign, but not all members are active participants in the group’s activities.
Admittedly, some members simply pay their dues, put the chamber sticker in their storefront windows and wait for good things to happen to them. It doesn’t often work that way, however.
Rather, Berman — who was formerly the chamber’s Ambassador of the Year and was elected as its 35th board member — believes that you only get out of the business organization what effort you put into it.
"People who are active in the chamber of commerce show that they are not willing to sit back and let themselves stagnate," he said.
"That is absolutely the correct philosophy," Taubenberger agreed. "You not only join the chamber, you hire us as a staff to help your business."
The organization is currently advocating for lower city business taxes, Taubenberger added, "so that businesses to survive and prosper, they don’t have to leave the city."
The chamber has about 200 members based outside of the city boundaries. Most are in the immediate surrounding areas, including Lower Bucks and Eastern Montgomery counties and South Jersey.
The organization’s main activities include regular networking events, as well as the aforementioned government affairs work and educational programs.
"It’s a world of information," Berman said.
Accountant and chamber treasurer Bill St. Clair directed one recent seminar for members on tax preparation strategies. Taubenberger, who graduated from Northeast High School at the same time as Berman, envisions his former schoolmate doing the same thing for chamber members with online marketing.
"(Business) people have to become more understanding of it," the chamber president said. "Some business owners aren’t computer savvy, and even those who are, have to learn what the Internet can do."
"I know how to market," Berman said. "I have the skills to get my company’s name in front of people in print and on the Internet." ••
For information about the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, visit www.gnpcc.org. For information about Berman Travel, visit www.bermantravel.com
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com