Here is your
NoSpin Debunker for May 6, 2004
Tales of 3 Web Sites--that get
results
Sorry, I've just been
too busy the last few weeks to get my regular biweekly NoSpin
Debunker out (and I will be moving to monthly Debunkers at
this point). No other excuse. We've put up a couple new sites
(see Classic
Handyman and Healthcare
Venture Professionals) and done other projects--and tried
to keep up the best we can with ongoing clients. It's been a
very good year thus far, and I am truly blessed.
I'm going to take a
short break from my Cold Calling series (read Part
I and Part
II), but I will return to that important topic. One hint,
though, the #1 hardest thing to do cold calling-wise, I've
found, is to actually DO IT and do it regularly--preferably
even a couple new calls every day (even if you have to
schedule them with yourself). Cold calling is indeed a numbers
game, and you get better and better--as with everything
else--by repetition. And your chances of success depend on
playing those numbers.
Most people these
days are not very patient about very much at all, but an even
higher percentage of business people are even less patient
about their own businesses. Everything seems to require
immediate results (along with limited investment and risk).
One consequence: 95%+ of business websites are mediocre at
best. Most are garBAGE, crud, crap--junk wasting space on the
Internet. Ah, but that is also an opportunity...
Winning Web Sites
So we're going to
take a look a 3 NoSpin
Marketing web sites (co-developed with InfoAdvantage
which constructed the sites, developed the graphics, and
performs ongoing webmaster services) and show you the flip
side: 3 companies that had the guts and foresight to take the
leap and put up something of value online that generates
tangible results day in and day out. One of those web sites is
brand new. The other is just over a year old, and the 3rd will
be two years old this fall. Good sites evolve and mature and
become more and more successful-IF companies keep tending them
like gardens.
None of these 3
sites--nor any web site I've seen--is perfect. Rather all are
works in progress. Even though we've had our fair share of
disagreements along the way, I continue to work with each one
of these 3 companies. What my clients tell me my best trait is
that I force them (that is impose a discipline) to do regular,
common sense, creative "marketing." I take that as a
compliment, but I think my best trait is that I continue learn
from every client--even at age 50. I've learned tons from
these three clients and several others since I started NoSpin
Marketing 3 years ago this month!
I've picked these 3
clients to highlight because of one thing: they let me serve
them with the goal of success. They have listened and allowed
me to help them continue to implement the two most important
components of web sites: 1) compelling content and 2) search
engine optimization--that helps web surfers locate products,
services, and companies.
Many businesses have
essentially given up on their web sites or have not a clue how
to make them successful. Although top-flight web sites are not
for every business (see below), you may be very surprised that
your business, too, can have a winning web site that generates
prospects and sales--even if yours is not an e-commerce
site.
Winning websites have
2 major things:
1) Compelling
content--with good enough value that entices visitors
to trade contact information (and/or buy goods and services
directly) and visit your site more than once.
2)
Location, location, location--They can be easily
located via searches on the first pages of major engines (for
the "keywords" that are relevant to that business).
Each of the
following sites were co-developed by NoSpin
Marketing & InfoAdvantage,
and both NoSpin
Marketing & InfoAdvantage
continue to work with these companies on an ongoing
outsourcing basis.
The First Tale: a brand new website--Healthcare
Venture Professionals
Check out Healthcare
Venture Professionals, a healthcare services company that
has a very different--and practical--twist on developing
ambulatory surgery centers and other joint ventures with
hospitals and physicians. HVP
ONLY does ambulatory surgery center (ASC) joint ventures (and
other outpatient ventures) in concert with hospitals (often
cut out of the mix) and physicians. HVP
is still a relatively young company and--like many new
companies--had put up a rudimentary brochure site for its
first several months in business. Then several weeks ago, the
company took the plunge to dump its site and start
anew.
In the couple weeks
since their new site went up, the company has gone from a mere
handful of visitors of week (and no online contacts) to over
50 visitors a day (and growing) and an average of 1-2 online
requests a day (including prospect contact information) for
information about their unique hospital physician joint
venture services. Their compelling content "hook" is a very
detailed checklist covering more than 200 items critical to
developing a new ASC. The new HVP
website developed by NoSpin
Marketing and InfoAdvantage
is search engine optimized- including aggressive bidding for
dozens of relevant keywords on Google Adwords and Overture. As
an example, type "ambulatory surgery center" into any top
engine and check the sponsored (pay) rankings. HVP
is in a very early phase of its website marketing success and
is now complementing those efforts with email marketing and
trade journal marketing.
Note that Google
rankings (for any particular keyword) are quirky and can
always vary by time of day e.g. if daily limits on a
particular keyword are reached-try again the next morning if
you don't see the listing.
The Second Tale: a site after one year--ZHealth
Publishing
Results--that is,
sales--are what really count. Right? ZHealth
Publishing, an ongoing NoSpin
Marketing client since the spring of 2003, will have
approximately 50 people attending its latest medical coding
conference in Nashville this week (at $1500-$1900 a person).
You do the math. This will be ZHealth's
2nd conference of 2004, and at least 2 others are planned this
year. Most of the company's ongoing marketing is via its web
site and email campaigns. It also does some direct mail and
trade show marketing--and gets referrals from its consulting
clients (and vice versa).
ZHealth
Publishing specializes in interventional radiology and
cardiology coding publications, seminars, and coding
consulting services. In April 2003 the site (co-developed by
NoSpin
Marketing & InfoAdvantage)
started with about 30 visitors per day and a small seed list
of email contacts. In just over a year-using its website as
its primary marketing vehicle-the company, headed by Dr. David
Zielske, has expanded its outstanding initial medical coding
publications into profitable conferences (as well as its
ongoing consulting services). ZHealth
now averages more than 130 unique visitors per business day.
Type "medical coding seminar" into virtually any top search
engine. See the sponsored listings. That is only one of dozens
of "keywords" used by ZHealth
to drive quality traffic to its site.
Not only is ZHealth
Publishing an e-commerce site (and by definition has
"compelling content" to sell directly online), but it also
signs up 30-40 people a week to its ZHealth
Online service by 1) offering registrants free access to
ask interventional radiology and cardiology medical coding
questions 2) a free biweekly coding newsletter and 3) other
proprietary coding information. Dr Zielske posts answers to
coding questions online. Now, that's compelling content! Those
folks (who provide basic contact information online), in turn,
become the best potential customers for the company's books,
other publications, conferences, and consulting services. Over
1200 visitors have signed up so far for ZHealth Online and
receive biweekly emails--a nice, growing base to continually
sell to.
Hard work, no short
cuts, and excellent, growing results-after a year of
persistence. As with Healthcare
Venture Professionals, a huge % of ZHealth's
new website traffic is generated via aggressive bidding on
Google Adwords and Overture. But it also gets tons of return
visitors to view the coding questions and answers-and to
purchase books, other publications, and conference
registrations.
The Third Tale: a site approaching 2 years--Integra
Software Systems
But, you say, you
can't sell your stuff directly online like ZHealth?
So what's the point in investing in a good site since yours
isn't an e-commerce site? Ah, but you can still be very, very
successful if you have compelling content (and collect contact
information) and aggressively get your site ranked highly on
top search engines.
Integra
Software Systems sells sophisticated software products to
mortgage bankers, brokers, and other lenders to help them
automate their mortgage loan origination and loan processing
functions. Integra's primary product, DestinyLOS, starts at
$50,000. Obviously, Integra
can't sell Destiny by credit card online--and typically has a
several month sales cycle.
Prior to NoSpin
Marketing and InfoAdvantage
completely scrapping Integra's previous site in September 2002
and creating a new one from scratch, Integra
got very little site traffic and almost no contacts online. In
2004 both NoSpin
Marketing and InfoAdvantage
still work with Integra and continue to enhance its site
content, optimize the site for search engines and bid for
keyword on Google Adwords and Overture, and coordinate online
and offline marketing initiatives.
For its size Integra
(which has doubled its client base and office space in a year)
makes a very significant investment in pay-per-click search
engine optimization, and this initially took some serious
patience (related to their sales cycle) to start seeing
results. But the results came. The company now getsover
100-120+ visitors per business day and 4-6 software demo
requests per day (which require contact information). Their
email list has grown from virtually zero to nearly 2000.
Suffice to say that the investment in "pay-per-click" SEO has
paid off in sales revenue multiples. And besides its web site
and SEO, we also handle Integra's
email marketing and offline marketing initiatives as
well.
Also read NoSpin
Marketing testimonials from ZHealth
Publishing, Integra,
and others.
Yours Can Be the Next Tale of a Winning Web
Site
Those are a few real
tales of web sites that have been transformed into essential
parts of 3 companies' ongoing marketing. If you think web
sites are a waste, read 'em and weep-and remain in the pitiful
masses of companies with lousy, unproductive sites. On the
other hand, if you're open to revisiting that assumption, give
me a call. Or talk to one of our clients.
In particular, if you
sell products or services and your company has one or
more of these characteristics:
- National market or
international market (or other reasonably sized
geography)
- High dollar
products/services
- Lots of
products/services to sell
- High sales volumes
of products/services
- Products/services
that can be sold directly online
...then you need to
have a top notch site with compelling content and "location,
location, location" on search engines. No question. And there
are other exceptions that might warrant serious consideration
of a major web site upgrade that will truly drive prospects
and increase sales online.
Tom Ranseen,
Principal
NoSpin Marketing
615.473.1404
