Enter Larry Genkin. Larry is CEO of Larstan Publishing, most known for publishing “Blogger and Podcaster Magazine” and the “Black Book of …” series of books. Larstan is not just a publishing company but also has a consulting arm that builds web sites and incorporates social media strategy into their overall online presence. I was able to sit down with both client and consultant and talk about the process of overhauling a successful small business site that has traditionally worked in the past more on referral than on a full court-press web site promotion. This is part two of a two part article. Here is the transcript of that interview:

Steve: Since you really need to draw people in, what are your plans for getting people to the site through search engines and paid advertising?
Larry: In many ways Dr. Glazier makes my job easier because of his level of expertise and communication skills. Old school marketing is where you use the media to put your ad message in front of prospects. What I do with my clients is turn them into the media. Dr. Glazier will take his expertise and use it to educate others through podcast radio and tv shows, ebooks, special reports and the like. He won’t need to “rent” the media to promote his practice…he’ll BE the media. Not only does this more thoughtful approach generate more leads, it results in higher closing percentages at premium pricing levels. Marketing through building trust and credibility is very powerful.

Steve: What do you plan to implement to convert them from prospect to customer when you might only have one chance when they find the web site?
Larry: The most important thing at the outset is custom landing pages. Every ad will have it’s own landing page that will deliver precisely on the value proposition promoted in Dr. Glazier’s marketing. Next is lead capture. Right now when people visit the site they can browse around and Dr. Glazier has no idea who they are. We need to change that. We’ll offer up free resources for people to access, in exchange for giving us their contact information and permission to contact them. This way, even if we don’t sell them right away, we’ll have permission to build a relationship that will win them over, over time.

Steve: Since this is a type of business where you get one time customers for Lasik, how do you convert them to regular annual long term customers?
Dr. Glazier: Steve, happy lasik patients are patients for life.  They refer friends and family, and we instill in them the importance of annual eye health check-ups – just because you can see doesn’t mean the eye is healthy.  I prefer in the article you use the word “patients” instead of customers.  Offering LASIK sets our practice apart from other practices and staying on top of the technical know how also sets us apart.  Many patients curious about lasik turn out not to be candidates and continue to seek our expertise in glasses, contact lenses and a new exciting non-surgical alternative to lasik called OrthoK.
Larry: You really have to look at the lifetime value of the customer. Lasik is only one of the services Dr. Glazier’s practice offers, so a satisfied Lasik customer will likely be a regular customer. And, because Lasik is such a powerful, yet scary, technology, when a client is successful with Lasik the word of mouth marketing leads to significant additional business.

Steve: This one is for Larry. What are the Top 5 things small businesses should implement on their web site to make it more appealing to potential customers and make it easier to find through a search engine?
Larry:
1) A Blog – Search engines love them. If you want to learn about this you can get a free subscription to Blogger & Podcaster Magazine at www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/subscribe.php;
2) More Pages w/Less Copy – Don’t make your prospects work to do business with you;
3) Educational Content – Show off your expertise with original content, this is the number one thing you can do to attract search engines;
4) Lead Capture – Offer free resources in exchange for contact information. Compel everyone to want to tell you who they are so you can build a relationship with them;
5) Cross Promotion – Find partners and link/promote each other. Inbound links score well with the search engines and the 3rd party endorsements are a powerful trust builder with potential customers.

Steve: To close our interview I would like to get a sense from both of you what your goals are for the web site going forward?
Dr. Glazier: To be a virtual practice where services that can be offered after hours are, patients can order new contact lenses, set up appointments and interact with the staff as needed.  To stand out among the many eye care practices in our area.  To offer the highest level in customer service and care outside of excellent doctoring.  To stay ontop of technology and maintain our reputation as a practice on the cutting edge.
Larry: I want Dr. Glazier’s site and marketing program to be effective at allowing him to expand his business as he desires. This means creating a reliable system to result in sales. The main components of this program are: 1) effective lead generation; 2) effective lead conversion; 3) Continuity marketing program that turns prospects into customers over time. When we do this the website turns from an expense into the businesses revenue generation engine.

Enter Larry Genkin. Larry is CEO of Larstan Publishing, most known for publishing “Blogger and Podcaster Magazine” and the “Black Book of …” series of books. Larstan is not just a publishing company but also has a consulting arm that builds web sites and incorporates social media strategy into their overall online presence. I was able to sit down with both client and consultant and talk about the process of overhauling a successful small business site that has traditionally worked in the past more on referral than on a full court-press web site promotion. This is part one of a two part article. Here is the transcript of that interview:

Steve: This business has been through many growth phases and the web site has evolved over the years. When you initially approached this project, what were your goals for the site?
Larry: Initially the project started because Dr. Glazier was spending a fair amount of money advertising on Google and he wanted me to examine his ads and make sure they were as effective as they could possibly be.
Dr. Glazier: There has been a fundamental shift over the past 15 years in how patients find my practice.  When I started I felt it imperative to have a yellow page ad, then around 1996 I found it important to have a website parallel to that.  This year I totally eliminated my yellow page ad and market externally specifically with the website, making the website imperative, and Larry helped me understand that to stay ahead of the competition it was imperative to improve the functionality of the website, incorporating bells and whistles that are imperative in todays more successful websites.  This also creates the impression that our practice is cutting edge, modern and concerned with the needs of our patients, which it is, of course.  My goal was to modernize the website and make it central to our external marketing efforts in this way

Steve: Has it changed over the course of the project?
Dr. Glazier: No
Larry: An ads’ effectiveness is determined by more factors than just the ad itself. It’s relatively easy to get someone to click through on an ad. What’s infinitely more challenging and vastly more important is to get the RIGHT person to click through. If they’re not a legitimate prospect then the ad was a complete waste. Then once you get the click through what happens to that prospect on your website. If they’re not quickly and compellingly directed to exactly what they’re looking for they’ll leave your site and never return. And who can blame them?

Steve: Larry, you mentioned that you “recommended that all Internet advertising designed to drive traffic to www.youreyesite.com should be put on hold while the site is redesigned to make it significantly more effective at turning that traffic into business”.
Larry: Absolutely. Dr. Glazier’s website looks beautiful and professional to the untrained eye. However when it comes to converting the leads he’s paying into clients it’s wholly ineffective. Why should he pay to drive traffic to his website if none, I mean absolutely zero, of these prospects are turning into business? Doesn’t make any sense. He understood and to his credit, stopped in the middle of our meeting when I made this recommendation to log into Google and pause his campaign on the spot.

Steve: How do you see Social Media tools like blogs and social networks adding value to a site like YourEyeSite.com?
Dr. Glazier: I see our practice standing out in the fact that I make my email available to my patients and prospective patients to communicate with me.  This has impressed a lot of people; social media tools are the next step in accessability.  It also provides a marketing opportunity within the marketing opportunity the website provides.   I have a practice facebook page, which I haven’t totally taken advantage of, and am considering other social networking tools to help the business grow.
Larry: Eye doctors are a dime a dozen. However few practices have the skilled level of doctors as YourEyeSite.com. Social network tools are invaluable for allowing Dr. Glazier and his team to demonstrate their expertise and thought leadership. When it comes to eyes, not all doctors are equal and these technologies allow Dr. Glazier’s vast expertise to shine through.

NEXT TIME IN PART 2 – We continue our conversation on advertising and SEO, we talk about transforming site visitors to customers and we get a top 5 list on making your web site more appealing.

Well, Network Solutions has taken a completely different approach and created a beautiful site dedicated to all things Network Solutions.

Because I have a background in User Interface (UI) design I am often critical of sites that don’t properly layout their information or are just plain lazy in how they market themselves. Granted, marketing web sites are different than e-commerce web sites but they do have one thing in common, they must sell/convince the customer to buy from them. Many companies who throw a web site up without a concern for brand continuity or good messaging are just hurting themselves. They wouldn’t waste money on print collateral or send out proposals that are ugly. Well, they might but they will never win any clients. This is why I come back to the fact that companies must spend time on all aspects of their web presence, including the “About Us” section. Here is what is so great about the new “About Network Solutions” site that you should apply to your own site:

Show customers that you are strong and reliable

People don’t buy from companies that they don’t trust. You should definitely have what you do as a tab with your product/service offerings so you look like a focused company. More importantly, you should talk about customer success stories because nothing says it better that you know what you are doing when other people who have bought from you are willing to share it publicly.

If you have been around a while, give them a time line of your progress and growth

Sure, you can give people an overview of your company, but what makes the “About Network Solutions” site stand out is their use of an interactive time line. The time line uses flash in a proper context and goes into not only a history of Network Solutions but the evolution of domain names and how everything came to be over the last 50 years. Very cool and educational.

Don’t just list careers or job opportunities, tell people how great it is to work there

Almost every company web site has a careers page where you can search for available positions. This is kind of expected with established companies that get lots of resumes and post jobs on a regular basis. It is a great way to manage submissions into a resume database. But after the listing and maybe a page on benefits, what else do you know about the company? The Network Solutions Careers part of the site does a great job by talking about the culture so you can see if you are a good fit before you think about sending your resume. It also includes testimony from staff that work at Network Solutions and what it is like to work there. This a great approach to emulate on your site.

Use photos of your people instead of stock photography

Most web sites use generic stock photography to covey their message or idea on a certain page. This was fine for a while but many people end up using the same images. It makes you look like you were not very creative and quite possibly lazy. Each of the pages on the “About Network Solutions” site has candid pictures of Network Solutions staff relevant to that particular part of the site. In fact, our very own “Social Media Swami”, Shashi Bellamkonda is the one you see when you go to the Online Community page that mentions our Solutions are Power blog.

Check out the new “About Network Solutions” site today

To see what I am talking about, check out the new “About Network Solutions” site at about.networksolutions.com and give us your feedback in the comments.