Below is an article from the Sioux Falls Business Journal, which included the 2009-2010 Readers Choice Awards. Click Rain was honored to receive three separate awards including: best small company, best website developer, and best up-and-coming business leader.  Thank you to everyone who voted for us and thank you to the Sioux Falls Business Journal for the great write-up!

Click Rain succeeds at marketing online tools
Founder Ten Haken builds solid reputation
By Rob Swenson, Sioux Falls Business Journal • December 2, 2009

It’s taken less than two years for Paul Ten Haken and his company, Click Rain Inc., to become prominent forces in the online marketing business.

Ten Haken started Click Rain as the lone employee in January 2008 after working for a total of roughly seven years at Midland National Life Insurance, Electric Pulp and Sanford Health.

Since then, Ten Haken and his small company have expanded and risen quickly in market consciousness.

This year, they garnered three spots in the Readers Choice Awards competition.

Sioux Falls Business Journal readers named Ten Haken, 32, the best up-and-coming business leader. In addition, Click Rain was voted the best small company and the best Web site developer.

Ten Haken, president of the firm, now employs three full-time staff members and one part-timer.

The company is small and intends to stay small, he said.

Ten Haken founded Click Rain because business people were shifting more attention to Web sites and digital marketing tools.

“I thought there was a need in the marketplace to help companies understand these things,” Ten Haken said.

Click Rain helps clients implement and merge strategies such as e-mail marketing, search marketing, blogging and using social media.

Web site development is among the services Click Rain offers but not as a primary focus. It does not try to compete with high-end developers, Ten Haken said.

“A Web site is your headquarters, but it needs all these tools,” he said.

Erin Butler, revenue manager for Regency Hotel Management, said the company started working with Click Rain last July to get help in marketing 22 hotels and resorts.
The working arrangement with Click Rain has been great, she said.

“They’re really kind of taking care of all our properties on a case-by-case basis. It’s really a huge process,” Butler said.

“They’ve really become our go-to people for any of our online marketing needs,” she said.

Jeff Meuzelaar, an online marketing strategist at Click Rain, said he enjoys the flexibility of his work environment. He also likes the integral feeling that he gets from being deeply involved in projects with his office colleagues.

“It’s an exciting industry,” Meuzelaar said.

Ten Haken said a casual atmosphere prevails in the office, but staff members are high performers.

“I expect a lot (out) of people, but we have fun,” he said.

Internally, an open display of religious faith might be a point of differentiation in the way Click Rain operates. At staff meetings, Ten Haken reads from a business-oriented book of devotions.

“We try to operate in a real ethical manner. I’d take it very personally if anyone would perceive otherwise,” he said.

In addition to his church, Ten Haken also is involved in organizations such as Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. He chairs DTSF’s marketing committee.

He’s also involved in the Young Professionals Network and volunteers for the Furniture Mission.

He is married and has two children.

“Faith, family, work is kind of the priorities I try to live by,” Ten Haken said. “Sometimes they get a little reversed.”