What is United Widgets? What do they do? What does he do? How can you connect with him?

You haven’t a clue. You look at his card: just the company name and his contact information. He stands there smiling expectantly.  The conversation sputters to a stop, and you awkwardly move on to the next person.

So the question is – how can you prevent others from having the same response to you?

The solution? Your elevator speech:  a simple sound-bite of an introduction that answers the unspoken questions of every person you meet: Who are you? What does your job or business have to do with me?

So John Doe the widget wizard might say something like: “I create viral online buttons that can send people streaming to your site.” In 12 words, he’s told you what he does, what a widget is, and how he can help you. In other words, he’s given you his unique selling proposition.

So how do you create a powerful elevator speech that markets your work in 30 seconds of face-time?

Share what you do, not your title or employer.

It may be a shock to realize this, but for most people, your title and company name will mean very little – it’s what you do in your company that makes you interesting. So start by describing the primary benefit that your work offers to your listener, in 25 or fewer short, punchy action words – nothing over two syllables if you can help it.

Focus on your service, not your status.

Imagine someone telling you “I’m a lead facilitator for Intermediaries International. I have a Ph.D. in interpersonal relations with a specialty in transactional analysis and have trained at the Berne Institute.” Without similar interests or experience, this is going to mean nothing to you.

Now imagine him or her saying: “I help to defuse tensions in families and in the workplace, and I spend my vacations helping to resolve conflicts in hot spots around the world.” Instant relevance, marketability, and adventure.

Offer Your Card to Lock In the Connection

Only after making that strong personal connection should you identify your company and hand over your card. If you make your meeting memorable, and follow up shortly afterward, that card will hold the energetic charge of your introduction. It will serve as your ticket to further conversations….and potential sales!

So you’re a loyal regular at all the networking mixers and business builder groups…you’ve handed out your cards at more events than you can count..but have you stood at a podium to offer an educational talk about your field of business to the general public, and fielded their questions?

If not – why not?

I’m not talking about presenting your products and services in pre-set sales appointments. One of the best-known ways of forging a personal connection with your local target audience is simply to show up in person and share your expertise as a friendly, approachable local expert.

But how would you know what to say? Well, if you’ve ever fielded volleys of questions from  confused prospects, you have material for a public presentation. You’re not there to prove a point, preach a sermon or to sell them on your services – you’re giving them information you know they need, while you imprint your face, voice and company name on their memories in the process.

But wouldn’t a strategically-placed ad or local Google campaign do just as well? Indeed not! When those local prospects need a service like yours, who are they going to remember – the faceless company name in the Yellow Pages, the plain-vanilla listing on a Google search page — or you, who made such an impression by showing up and  speaking directly to their questions?

But what if nobody comes to hear you? Well, that’s always a risk. However, you can take some simple steps to ensure that you have a ready and eager audience…

• Begin promoting your talk as early as possible. Even before you schedule it, you can put a teaser on your website or blog:  Be sure to come and hear me answer your toughest questions on (name your topic) – watch this space for details!
• Base the title and topic of your talk on your customers’ most urgent questions, using their language, values and priorities. If you are reaching for a skeptical, not-yet-green audience, for example,  don’t plan a lecture on “Cutting 20 Tons of CO2 From Your Carbon Footprint” – instead, title it “Three Simple Tips to Save Hundreds of Dollars on Your Annual Energy Costs.”
• Gear the time and place of your talk to attract the largest possible number of people interested in your topic. If you run a nonprofit offering services to veterans’ families, see if you can book space at an Armory or VA hospital around Memorial Day or Veterans’ Day.  If you’re a nutritionist advocating organic/seasonal/local foods, check to see if you can speak at your local weekly farmer’s market.
• Along the same lines, piggyback your talk on a larger event, such as a conference or expo. Yes, you’ll be one of many speakers – and you’ll have a captive audience, and a ready-made promotion for your exhibitor table. Plus, you can develop all sorts of collaborative and joint-venture possibilities with the other speaker/exhibitors.  Speaking opportunities at such events are gold – don’t pass them up!
• Use all possible media to announce your talk, well ahead of time – press releases to the newspapers, TV stations, and PRWeb.com;  Facebook events, calendar items for your local Chamber of Commerce, community associations, churches, and schools, and so forth. Not to mention a special announcement for your email list if you have one!
• Set up a page on EventBrite.com or a similar service to let people register for your talk, even if it’s free – this allows them to opt in to your list to learn about later events, while you get a general ballpark figure for attendance.

So you’ve decided on the title and topic of your talk, you’ve got it scheduled and it’s on the community’s radar – now how do you plan what you’re going to say?

Focus on the problems that you’re in the business of solving. Your audience doesn’t want to know the technical details of the latest whizbang gadget – or even how to use it. They want to know how to solve a problem. As Internet marketing guru Perry Marshall says, “Nobody buys a drill because they want a drill. They buy a drill because they want a hole.”

For example, if you’re an electrician in a community of vintage houses, you might want to speak about  avoiding the dangers of pre-1950s knob-and-tube wiring.  If you’re a plumber in the same neighborhood, you might want to talk about solving the problems caused by old cast-iron plumbing.

What’s the purpose? Simple – you’re establishing yourself as an authority on the topic, warning Do-It-Yourself renovators about the genuine risks they can face, and giving them an alternative: you! Such talks contribute significantly to public awareness and safety, while also building your business.

Remember, your audience isn’t just coming to hear you deliver abstract information – they could get this on the internet or in a Rodale manual. And they’re not coming to hear formal speechmaking with finely-crafted turns of phrase – they could get this by tuning in to a Congressional hearing.

They’re coming to hear you as the driving force behind your business – your personal expertise and teaching stories, your solutions for your clients’ unique problems, your concern for their well-being. Your passion for making their lives safer, healthier, happier or easier through the work you do.

Show that knowledge and passion to your public, and they’ll never forget you.

Ah, the website that simply sits there – the “brochure site” that’s listed on company business cards but rarely shows up on Google or makes a sale. It can be the biggest money-waster on a business budget, not only for the money you spend getting it online and keeping it there, but for the money it doesn’t bring in!

Brochure sites are actually a relic of the days when business first noticed the Internet…the days when printed marketing collateral was still the Number One way for companies to inform the public about their products and services. In those days, marketers didn’t realize there was any difference between printed and online media.

In fact, there are two major differences: time and competition.

A brochure is designed to be absorbed in slow time – it may sit on your desk for a few days, then be picked up again, thrown in a drawer and emerge a month later. With plenty of time to work its spell, it can afford to be unusual, or perhaps self-consciously creative. It is interacting with you alone – unless you intentionally seek out similar companies, you are not distracted by competitors.

Visitors coming to your website, on the other hand, are usually searching for something specific, and know that a Google page full of competitors is just a few keystrokes away. If your content does not capture their interest within seconds, they will move on. And you will probably never know they were even there.

Clearly this online audience demands a whole new level of writing – focused, direct, with no frills or fluff. No flowery welcomes, no Home page rhapsodies about your company history – there simply isn’t time!

So how do you create a site that actually brings in revenue? It’s a complex process, but this is the core:

First of all, before you even begin to design the site content, you need to define its purpose, exactly, and know your audience, intimately:

• Who do you want to come to your site, and why?
• What are the benefits your visitors are seeking – what problems do they want you to solve? How do they want you to make their lives or work easier or better?
• What solutions can you offer them?

Once you have identified your audience and their needs, you need to structure your content toward providing solutions, moving from fewest words to most words, least detail to greatest detail, big-picture benefits to in-depth specifications, all directly focused on your prospects’ needs.

With only a few seconds to convey this information, your home page headline needs to be short, simple, strong, and laser-targeted.

Then, once you’ve captured your visitors with the practical benefits your business offers – the ways in which you can make their lives or work easier -  your body content has only one further purpose: to entice them to a detailed product or service page.

Once they click to the next level, you have plenty of time to give them all the details. They’ve already realized  your obvious knowledge of their needs and desires; they’ve seen that they need what you offer,  and they’ve taken the initial steps toward buying. From there, it’s a few clicks to the shopping cart and a sale!

Traffic generation can get complicated, there’s no doubt about it…but the underlying concepts are really quite simple. Having the right keywords, of course, is important…but even beyond that, there are additional factors.

First of all, Google is notoriously slow to notice new sites, even after they’re submitted for indexing…it can take three months or more for a newly launched site to show up in searches! So your first job is simply to get noticed.

There are two parts to this job – first of all, providing high-quality content that will catch the attention of the Web-crawling spiders, and second, giving that content credibility with incoming links.

But, you might say, “I’ve already set up the content on my site, and it gives all the necessary information about my company. Isn’t that enough?”

Not really. You’ve heard the saying, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there?” Same principle here. Your site could be brilliant – and if all your content creation stopped on launch day, that site will be far down in the rankings.

Why? Google loves fresh content – the fresher the better. It’s the hallmark of a living site, sign of a living online business. Remember your high-school biology class and the signs of life? Same principle. If it reproduces (i.e., aquires new content), it’s alive. Otherwise – who’s to say?

So having a frequently updated blog, or a reader’s resource page of articles about your industry, products, or services, or other forms of  new content, is key to the success of your site.

Next – credibility. As a wise Internet marketing guru told me:  Google is rather like New York’s A-list Runway nightclub. If you try to get in on your own, you’re not likely to pass the bouncer. If you show up hobnobbing with Angelina Jolie, however, you’ll probably be ushered right in and treated like royalty. On the other hand, if you arrive with Lindsay Lohan, you may get in, but find yourself treated rather differently.

In other words, on the Internet as in life, you’re judged by the company you keep. You can affect your Google ranking by the quality of your incoming links (that is, the sites that link to your site).  High-ranking professional organizations’ sites and networking sites in your industry are good, and incoming links from these will earn you a higher Google ranking. Local Chamber of Commerce sites are also good…and these are just a few examples. You can also contribute marketing articles to a high-ranking content site like EzineArticles.com to build credible incoming links.

On the other hand, “free-for-all” link farms and free link exchange sites (also called banner exchanges) are bad, and Google will penalize your site with a low ranking – or worse – if you participate in these.

What do I mean by high-ranking sites? These meet Google’s standards for content and credibility. They show up at or near the top of the screen when you run a search for one of the logical keywords identifying your field of business.

So, for example, if you enter “green business” as a Google search, GreenBusiness.net shows up high in the rankings. Listing your site on this membership site for eco-entrepreneurs could boost your own Google ranking.

How can you get listed on these sites? Posting your company information and URL (Web address) in their member directories is one way. Purchasing an ad gives you an additional Google boost. And most of these sites offer ways for you to link to them in return, by placing their logo graphic or widget on your site.

Why would you want to post a reciprocal link on your site? Several reasons: first, of course, the credibility. If you’re a green business with a Green America seal on your site, for example, you’re demonstrating that you’ve passed their screening, thus earning a level of instant respect from green prospects. Second, posting other logos, such as a Buy Local seal, quietly tells visitors that you offer special values to qualifying customers.  Finally, by posting some logos, you can earn not only credibility as a member of a respected organization, but also enhanced membership values for your own business.

In other words, gaining a high Google ranking for your site isn’t that different from building a reputation offline. Prove that your business is alive and growing, that you have reputable associations and credibility in your field, and you’re halfway there.

But the other night, I attended a networking gathering that was practically an online marketers’ convention – out of the 30 women there,  at least eight provided services related to web-based business promotion.

Sounds like a tense situation, doesn’t it, with all those competing businesses? Actually, no. It was pure magic. Instead of going into a competitive posture, we began seeking opportunities for connection…

• Where did our businesses not overlap?
• Where could we cross-refer, joint venture, collaborate?
• Where, in relation to each other, were our services or approach unique?
• How did our missions and markets align?

One woman’s service package might not include exactly the service that another woman offered. And even where we provided similar (or identical) services, we found we served different niche markets, and could create collaborative products for a crossover audience. Several of us discovered we were passionate about similar missions, and pursued complementary approaches. We came away energized, with a sense of connection, possibility, and mutual support, and plenty of appointments scheduled for discussing new opportunities.

How different this is from the traditional networking model, where similar businesses are assumed to provide basically the same limited products and services, in competition for the same undifferentiated audience.

But think for a moment – could the same marketing package and approach, for example, could serve every audience? Not by a long shot! And I would venture to say it’s the same for many other fields of business. By knowing your essential approach and your ideal audience, you can not only serve that audience better, but you can also create relationships with other businesses who might otherwise have been your competitors.

Yes, times are tough. And yes, budgets are thin, and prospects may be fewer. But that networking meeting proved to me that while the market may be more challenging, opportunities can actually multiply…if we honor our uniqueness, honor others’ uniqueness, and work together.

Oh, and about that Law of the Jungle? Actually, science has established that the natural law of the jungle  is one of interdependence and self-regulating balance…a living system in which each part has a role to play in relation to the others. Rather than competition for dominance, there’s a dance of complementarity.

There’s no reason why businesses can’t do the same.

If you’ve never written for the web, it can seem like a relatively straightforward – if baffling – question. To web insiders, however, there’s a secret tactic that will clue you in to the best words to describe your field of business, and ensure that those words bring you the best search engine rankings.

It’s called “organic search engine optimization” (OSEO for short) and it’s one of the best ways to give your site credibility with the search engines and draw in targeted traffic.

In using OSEO, you have two goals:

• To prove to the search engines that your site provides high-quality, relevant content on its stated topic, thus moving it closer to the top of the listings
• To include in your content the keywords that people are most likely to use when they search for products or services like yours – thus ensuring that your site shows up in those search results

So, for example, let’s say your site is OrganicPetFoods.com, and you want it to show up when people search for pet food, organic pet food, organic foods, pet supplies, pet health, etc.  So logically, you need to include those words, and related words, in your content.

This is not to say that you should have a paragraph like this: When you shop for pet foods, you should only buy organic pet food because organic foods are among the highest-quality pet foods you can purchase for optimum pet health.

This is called “cramming” the keywords, a practice that will indeed catch the notice of rudimentary search engines, but will rapidly lose the interest of any intelligent person who clicks on that link. Google, like a savvy reader, picks up on this spamlike practice also, and rewards it with a low ranking.

Instead, you need to gather your keywords into logical groupings, and use one grouping per page in a natural flow:

Where your home page might start by discussing organic pet foods generally, you could have subsequent individual pages dealing with organic cat foods, organic dog foods, etc.  You could have a page addressing the question “why organic?” and one providing “organic resources” for those seeking more information. And so forth…

Sounds fairly simple, right? In principle it’s not difficult at all…until you start looking at the best keywords to include. If 99% of organic pet food suppliers are focusing their sites on the words “organic pet food” and there are 1,000,000 competing sites using those three keywords, how quickly do you think your site will rise to the top?

Certainly, a large number of good incoming links and high-quality content  will help, but it’s also important to choose your keywords strategically.  Fortunately, Google comes to your aid with a package of free OSEO products:

• Google Analytics – when you install the snippet of code from this tool on your website, Google will analyze the number of visitors who come to your site, which site or search engine sent them to you, the keywords they used, and much, much more. This is the best tool you can add to your site to see how it is performing and how you can improve that performance.
• Google Trends – using this tool, you can evaluate the popularity of any keyword or keyphrase by year, country, city, and language.
• Google Adwords – while Google Adwords is  designed for Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns, it also offers a standalone Keyword Generator which is perfect for suggesting keywords and gauging their level of searches and competition.

Another service, Market Samurai, is not free, but if you’re going to do any serious OSEO or plan to use Google’s PPC options, it’s priceless…a small one-shot payment for a lifetime’s return on investment. This multi-faceted tool analyzes each keyword and gives searches versus competition, search engine traffic, Adwords traffic, Adwords value, and much, much more (this is the tool I use before I begin to write any client’s website content…and for a limited time I can offer it at a greatly discounted rate).

Now that you have all these tools…now what do you do with them? If your site is going to rank high, you want to reduce the number of sites you’re competing against. So you look for keywords that apply to various aspects of your business (for example, “organic pet food,” “organic cat food,” “organic dog food” and so forth) that show up in more than 100 searches per day, but have fewer than 100,000 competing sites using them.

Once you have identified relevant keywords with plenty of searches but few competitors, you’ll want to add these to the appropriate pages on your site.  It’s important to do this for every page of your site, so Google can index every page, thus giving your visitors multiple points of entry.

Obviously, this is a very simple explanation of just one part of the OSEO process, but it will help you at least to get started. Of course, a professional copywriter can help you to find your best keywords and to place them effectively – and gracefully – in your site for the maximum impact.

For example, what is copywriting?

I’ve often been faced with this question at networking gatherings.  I introduce myself as a copywriter, and again and again the first question is something like:  “I’ve been thinking of a really great invention. Could you help me to trademark it?”

No, I tell them, I’m not a patent, trademark, or copyright expert…for that type of advice they’d need an attorney. I am a copy writer – that is, I help companies to present themselves in the best possible way by writing marketing copy, for example, web content, sales letters, brochures, etc., etc.

“Ahhhh,” they say, the light dawning…”Could you do that for me?” And the conversation begins…

The same thing happens when I introduce myself as a consultant for sustainable businesses. Again and again I receive a puzzled look and a comment like:  “My business recycles paper. Does that mean we’re sustainable enough for you?”

So over the past months, I’ve collaborated with eco-consultant Geoff Stack of Stack Coordination in joint presentations to not-yet-green business audiences. We talk with them about the  benefits of sustainability (a.k.a. “going green”) – saving energy, improving employee health and morale,  and saving money in multiple areas (this will be the topic of a Continuing Education course at CCBC in Fall 2010…watch Fresh Green Image for updates).

Geoff likes to respond to the question “What is sustainability?” with a slide of more than 100 tiny definitions, with Rocky Mountain Institute CEO Amory Lovins’ definition superimposed:  INDEFINABLE.  He follows up with Natural Capital Institute founder Paul Hawken’s definition:  “improving the quality of life for all living beings within the capacity of nature to provide that life.”

That’s a big definition, covering a lot of territory…it can potentially fit businesses ranging from alternative energy suppliers to zookeepers, depending on the values and policies that guide their operations. In practical terms, sustainability or “greenness” is a set of values that can be adopted by any business in any field.  It’s not an industry or a niche.

So we come to the question – how do you identify your business? How does it – and how do you – embody a role in your chosen field? And how do you define it for your clients?

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty says:  “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” While I’m not advocating this psychotic use of language, the truth is that when you choose an identifier to describe your business, you become your clients’ experience of that word…the way it shows up in their reality. They may not explore its meaning beyond the meaning you demonstrate through your actions.

For example, how many mainstream consumers see Walmart or Clorox as defining green business – and thereby completely miss the larger social/environmental/ethical meanings of sustainability?

On the positive side of the fence, my husband was a master of this art of branding-by-being. As administrative director of the local center of a men’s international organization, he embodied a vision and set of values that went far beyond those of the actual organization.

From his interpretation of the organization’s mission, he created a reality that went far deeper than its official menu of services. Men were attracted because of his vision and values; they came, experienced healing through his role in those services, and helped to carry on a spiritual legacy.

When you promote your business, what are the vision and values you are projecting? How do you embody the gift that your business – and your industry – brings to the world? And how do you offer that gift to your clients?

That is the key to branding your business.

Actually, no, it’s not. Unless your visitors entered your website address (URL) directly from your business card, or click a link from a public listing or review of your business, they aren’t coming to research your company. They’re coming with a problem in mind, looking for a solution.

And if your site doesn’t look like it’s likely to provide the solution those visitors want within seconds of their arrival, they will – repeat will – move on, no matter what your credentials are. If you can’t direct them to the product they need, and tell them how to use it, they simply aren’t interested in your 30-year history at the forefront of your industry.

In other words, while your website may superficially seem to be about your company, your products and your services, it’s really about your visitors, providing answers to their needs and solutions to their problems.

What are some indicators of a site that serves your visitors’ needs, versus one that simply promotes your business?

• That simple three-letter “y” word – you. How many times does your content use “you” instead of “we”, “I”, or your company name?
• Ease of use. Does your site put the information your visitors need on the landing page, or does it bury useful information below several sub-menus? Does it use a clean, easy-to-read style with black text on a white background, short paragraphs and plenty of open space, or does it cram as much information as possible onto high-tech pages designed in white-on-black reversed text?
• Helpful headlines. Do your site speak directly to the visitor’s needs with a home page headline like “The Right Gadget for Your Purpose…Every Time” or does it begin with a generic headline like “Welcome to Our Site” or “Leading the Gadget Industry Since 1979”?
• Understandable language. Does your website speak the same language your audience uses – or does it drown them in technical terminology and jargon?
• Features versus benefits. How much do you tell about the ways in which your products or services can solve your visitors’ problems, instead of describing the details or specs of whatever you do or sell?
• Educational content. Does your site offer additional information such as an FAQ, a blog, or an article library to help your visitors make good decisions, or does it assume they have all the background information they need?
• Continuing connection. Does your site offer an educational newsletter, a special report, or some other free information product for the visitor to download (which also puts a lasting reminder of your expertise in their hands and gives you an opportunity to get their contact information for your mailing list)? Or does it just tell visitors to call or write for more information?

Bottom line – treat your site visitors as you would treat individual prospects in a personal presentation. Let them know you care about their needs and want to solve their problems. They’ll reward you with their trust and business.

That kind of confidence is great…but it doesn’t help from a marketing standpoint.

To sell effectively to your audience, you need to know them as individuals – what are their interests, their wants, their needs, their dreams, their struggles. Why they need your product. What about your service resonates for them. How their lives could be made easier by your offerings.

Everyone is not going to buy your product or service…but individuals might, if you communicate its value in terms that resonate for them.

“But I researched that when I developed my business plan,” you may be thinking. “Why do it again?” Well, just take a look at the ways in which a major corporation like, say, McDonald’s has reinvented itself: first a hamburger joint for teenagers…later a convenient dining place for busy families…more recently, a place to grab a (supposedly) healthy snack; now, a coffee bar of sorts.

The audience changed, and with them, the company.

Even if your target market was clear at the beginning, times change. Society changes. People’s level of awareness changes. Don’t assume that what was true when your business opened its doors is true now.

Sure, you can get a general sense of the trends by networking and keeping up on the news in your community and your industry. But unless you’re doing some significant research in those trade mags and local newspapers, or pumping your networking contacts for information, you’re going to need a more focused approach.

Yes, you can hire a marketing company to survey your audience for a hefty sum…and there are times when that can be critical to your company’s survival. But to gather general data to assess and tweak your company’s direction, you may be just as well served by using a DIY approach and a nifty free tool called SurveyMonkey.com (www.surveymonkey.com).

After you set up your SurveyMonkey account, you can create basic surveys and send them out to your client base by email or through the SurveyMonkey servers. You can generate a link and place it on your website, your Facebook page, or your blog, or email it to your list. All of this free of charge. Even if you elect to upgrade to the paid service while you’re running your survey (and there are distinct benefits, like being able to download the results), the charge is small, paid month to month with no long-term contract.

As marketing master Seth Godin wrote, “Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don’t.” If you have the data to address the current needs and interests of your audience, they will be that much more receptive to your message…and your products or services.

Now what? Somehow you locked yourself in to create not just one standalone piece of riveting, enlightening marketing collateral to add value to your site and bring clients to your door, but an ongoing series of posts, stretching into the distant future!

Before you begin to wonder what on earth you were thinking of – take heart. In fact, if you’ve ever had casual conversations with clients or prospects, you have all you need to write a blog (except possibly the time, but that’s another matter).

For example…

• Do you talk with clients about news in your industry or your company, and how that news affects them (for example, describing how reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act will affect the ingredients in household cleansers) ?
• Do you repeatedly field the same basic questions from clients (for example, “what is the difference between “organic” and “natural” on the label of a processed food product?”)
• Do you need to educate clients before they can choose the product or service they need (for example, demonstrating how to find the VOC content of paints, caulks or adhesives)?
• Do you advise DIY-minded clients who want to call on your services after they’ve dealt with basic problems (for example, walking them through installing a new sink aerator to fix a dripping faucet)?

These are just a few of the topics you can explore in a blog post. Just picture yourself talking with visitors to your store or office…what do they ask, what do you tell them? Those conversations hold an important clue: you’re sharing the information they want, need, and request.

Now think of the articles you read: probably they address issues that interest you personally or affect your business, family, or lifestyle.  If you read about new products or services, you’re probably looking for the ways in which they would benefit you, or the ways in which you could use them to make your life or work easier.

Your readers are looking for the same information.

Remember – your business blog isn’t a vehicle for self-expression. If you need that sort of outlet, set up a personal blog or buy a journal. A business blog is a service for your clients, adding value to your business and building their trust by providing them with clear information and perspectives to make their lives easier.