In a recent interview with Michigan Entrepreneur, Pure Visibility co-founders Linda Girard and Catherine Juon shared their secrets for business success.  Citing a responsibility to both clients and their team as key drivers of continued growth, the Pure Visibility leaders offered a business model that other entrepreneurs could follow.

Girard described the company’s business as focused squarely on Internet search marketing.  As the company has evolved over the past six years, so has its client base from smaller companies to global brands.  In a competitive market, Pure Visibility credits its distinct focus on metrics for helping it stand out from the competition.

“Our responsibility and accountability for our clients’ sales is a key difference between Pure Visibility and others (in the search marketing industry),” said Girard.  “Our attention to metrics makes Pure Visibility stand out.”

Internally, Juon explained that Pure Visibility’s culture is what helps the company attract the best and brightest talent.  From quarterly charity events that serve as a way for the team to celebrate reaching quarterly goals and milestones to daily stand ups where the team shares successes or asks for assistance, Pure Visibility’s culture is another way the company continues to outpace competitors.

Michigan Entrepreneur airs on various channels in Oakland County.  Check the program listings for a program schedule and other info.

At the Inc. Growco conference last week we had many, many conversations about the best ways to set up websites. As a general rule of thumb, here’s a rundown on a few of the platforms commonly mentioned.

WordPress
We love WordPress – it’s easy out-of-the box if you want to start a simple site (with many templates to choose from or buy at a small fee) and upgrade to a custom-designed template later. It’s highly customizable for SEO, and imposes a structure that naturally leads you toward good search engine optimization tactics from the start. It’s flexible enough to manage small and large sites alike, and offers many plug-ins that extend functionality without the need for expensive custom programming. One of the factors that makes WordPress particularly “safe” for entrepreneurs is their large developer community – you will never be at a loss to find someone who can pick up where your last developer left off. Most unbelievably, it’s free – music to the ears of most entrepreneurs!

Drupal
We love Drupal, too! With the launch of Drupal Gardens, you no longer need a hard-core programmer to start using Drupal, making it an option for companies just starting out. We’d generally recommend WordPress unless there was a specific feature of Drupal you needed, just because of the larger development community with WordPress (for now). One of the features that distinguishes Drupal is its ability to manage permissions – giving specific people or departments access to different parts of your website. Along these lines, it also handles workflow management / approvals far more naturally than WordPress. Generally, it’s more extensible than WordPress, making it a great tool to create sophisticated websites while maintaining easy-to-edit content.

Squarespace
Squarespace looks promising, but as a newer entry, it’s unclear what their claim to fame will be. Some of the SEO features require upgrades, and it’s simply too new to have the same kind of following WordPress or Drupal enjoy. However, if you know of a feature that makes Squarespace unique please let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear about it!

Love collaboration? Helping folks gain visibility and clients for their businesses? Love coordination? Love laughter?
Then, you might be right for Pure Visibility’s Relationship Manager position. Please check out our Relationship Manager position opening.

We were excited to see Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s Rework. In it they share some of their iconoclastic, iterative, and wholehearted approach to doing business.

The book reflects their clean design sensibility, with pages of drawings interspersed with quick blog-post-like narrative snippets. It is a quick read, but worth contemplating. I’ll summarize the book by sharing some of the subtopics titles within a few key chapters.

Given my day job as a project manager, I particularly value their approach to creative productivity. They’re minimalists. They advocate reducing interruptions “interruption is the enemy of productivity” and reducing time in meetings “meetings are toxic”. Why? Because “inspiration is perishable.” So you have to get the dross out of the way to be able to act.

Other recommendations they emphasize quick iterations “good enough is fine”, “quick wins”, and “make tiny decisions”, and being realistic about your human-ness “go to sleep”, “long lists don’t get done”, and “don’t be a hero”.

Want some quick inspiration? Go get Rework!

Pure Visibility is looking for a curious, enthusiastic Internet search analyst that believes in a bright future with our growing team! The ideal candidate will have experience in creating and implementing visionary strategies in B2B and B2C environments.

With a strong backbone for business analysis this individual will be able to map client’s business goals to an Internet marketing strategy that turns the clients site into an online sales engine. Speaking fluently in margins, profit, and ROI this analyst will tell stories that clients understand. This team member will have the ability to see the big picture while developing, launching, managing and optimizing paid search, organic visibility, and social media campaigns for clients across multiple search engines. This position has a high level of client exposure ranging from providing timely and insightful analysis and reporting of online activities to conducting coaching sessions and training classes with clients.

Interested individuals should submit their resume and cover letter by July 16, 2010 to jobs@purevisibility.com.

We created a Pure Visibility Bookshelf (Amazon Associates Link) to share the books we use and often recommend. We’re voracious readers so the list will surely grow – this “starter” list represents some of our all time favorites and current reads.

On Entrepreneurship
MASTERING THE ROCKEFELLER HABITS: This book is our handbook for being – we follow the one page plan, hold quarterly meetings, daily standups, etc. This is the closest thing to a how-to manual for business we’ve seen.

SMALL GIANTS: If you believe that business has a higher purpose than just making money, this book is for you. Bo does a great job of presenting his research on really neat companies and the common threads that make them Small Giants.

THE KNACK: I wish I’d had this book starting out in business. You, too, can have the knack and Bo and Norm are great teachers to learn it from!

THE E-MYTH: Perhaps “the” classic for any new entrepreneur growing from a team of 1 to 1+. This book created the mantra “Work ON the business, not just IN the business.”

GOOD TO GREAT: Jim Collins has done an amazing amount of research on successful businesses (publicly held ones, because there’s more data accessible to analyze) and found some incredible similarities. You’ll hear the phrases he’s coined in Rockefeller Habits and elsewhere such as the “Hedgehog concept” and “Get the right people on the bus”.

Corporate Culture
STRENGTHS FINDER: Way more than a book, this includes an online survey that provides an assessment of strengths. Once you’ve completed the survey you’ll get tips for supporting those strengths personally, as teammates, and as leaders. Buy this for your whole team. (We did!)

DELIVERING HAPPINESS: This book by Zappo’s CEO makes a nice complement to Small Giants, focusing on how creating a happy corporate culture leads to happy clients and a happy bottom line.

REWORK: The focus of the founders of 37Signals on keeping things simple is refreshing. Even the book is simple – you can polish it off in an afternoon. (We also love their project management tool, Basecamp.)

GUIDE TO GIVING GREAT SERVICE: Zingerman’s wrote the book on great service – both figuratively and literally. Personally, I’d recommend checking out their service (and the food) first hand. And while you’re in Ann Arbor, stop by and say hi!

DRIVE: Daniel Pink’s research flies in the face of conventional wisdom about carrots and sticks, making this a must read. (And if you’ve got a teenager at home, this book will prove to be priceless.)

Selling Online
TRUST AGENTS: Chris’s book is the most comprehensive primer I’ve seen on what makes online marketing “tick”. The focus is largely on social media, but it’ll get you on the right track.

PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL: This book wasn’t written to be about selling online, but the message couldn’t be more relevant. Understanding buying behavior is critical to selling online. As someone once explained to me, if consumers strictly chose rationally, no one would carry American Express (higher fees, used in fewer places, etc.) This book puts research you can use behind why we make those choices.

Getting Visible
SEARCH ENGINE INC: To sell anything online, you’ve first got to get in front of the right people. This 400 page book is the most comprehensive reference to the mechanics of search engine marketing you’ll find.

SEARCH ENGINE VISIBILITY: Back in the day when we were answering questions at networking meetings like “What’s a Google”? Shari wrote what must have been one of the first books on search engine marketing. This 2nd edition of her original is still a good primer on visibility.

WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION: This book bridges a lot of categories, with about half of it dedicated to making your site visible. We’re a bit biased about the quality of this book, given that we contributed the two chapters on paid search. That said, if you’re just getting started we’d recommend the books above first – this is definitely a technical read.

Websites That Work
DON’T MAKE ME THINK: This classic came out when I was designing my first websites, and the general principles in it remain just as true today. Generally speaking, the simpler it is to make a transaction on your site (e-commerce or otherwise) the more results you’ll generate from your site.

WEB ANALYTICS 2.0: If Avinash writes it – read it. He believes passionately in the power of data to transform marketing – as we do! The bulk of our work these days is collecting data and making the case for site changes that ultimately help users and drive bottom line results. It’s a big, huge deal and most of your competitors aren’t paying attention to these kinds of details. THIS is how you create competitive advantage in today’s online world.

And that’s the perfect book to close out this initial list with, given that it captures the essence of what we love about online marketing!

P.S. In full disclosure: If you purchase any of these books through our store, the bookworms among us thank you – you’ll be fueling our reading and book sharing fund. Thanks!

As fellow entrepreneurs, Linda and I are often meeting with friends and colleagues looking for the best way to get started with a new website. And the great news is, today’s tools for building websites are remarkable equalizers. Here are a few of our favorite tips and tools, written with entrepreneurs in mind. If you’re a large corporation in a competitive space, your “to-do” list will be more complex. However, many general principles apply across sites of all sizes.

Be Findable
The easiest way to be findable as an entrepreneur on a limited budget is to use tools designed from the ground up to be easily read by search engines such as Google. WordPress is a great choice here. You can start with a freebie version and customize things along the way as you have budget and time. Yes, there are other similar tools – although comparing them is a job for another article. Trust us when we say that few platforms have a vibrant community of coders and designers that support them like WordPress, so among other advantages, it’s simply going to be easier to find people to help you when you adopt a mainstream platform.

Keep Your Design Simple
Because we’re a little biased toward making sure you’re findable, we’re going to encourage you to focus on content and moving forward with the simplest design possible. Save your energy for the content. Custom design is awesome and great, and we love our design friends and we want you to keep them busy! We also want you to get started as efficiently as possible, to which end you may consider starting with a ready-made WordPress theme. More than a simple template, themes allow you to customize many aspects of a site formerly left to true coders.

Did We Mention Content?
Being findable is all about having content on your site that your target audience will be searching for. This requires understanding the language of your target audience, as well as having some volume of content that fits that audience. Building your site in a framework such as WordPress encourages blogging/content generation, and blogging naturally adds a diversity of keywords and keyphrases to your site. Even blogging once a week is enough to make a difference, and as you add new content, you’ll find that your site is found for a wider variety of searches – without having to pay to show up in search. There’s a lot of nuances we’re skipping here, but none of them matter if you’re not generating content in the first place. Writing is your secret weapon. If it’s not your bag, hire a copywriter to interview you and write articles. It’ll be the best investment you’ve ever made.

Include A Call to Action
What’s a call to action, you might ask? Just conjure up an old Billy Mays ad: “Call Now!” “Order in the next 15 minutes, and get a second one a free!” etc. If you’re bothering to attract someone to your site, you need to know what you want them to do when they get there. That’s your call to action. Make it clear. Make it big. Make it bold. Just like Billy.

Measure!
When you’re starting out, it’s tempting to say that you’ll know when this is all working because the phone will ring. While true, that’s a lagging indicator that doesn’t provide sufficient feedback to guide systematic improvements to your site. To gather that data, there are two free tools every site needs: Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. There are others, but if you’re only going to do two, start with these.

In addition to installing those tools (start collecting data now, even if you don’t plan on using it right away) we recommend measuring a couple more things:

• Track phone calls. Eliminate guessing. Know exactly which phone calls came from the web. One of our favorites tools for phone tracking is Mongoose Metrics, which scales nicely from a single phone number designed to track all web leads, to enterprise class solutions with staggering numbers of unique phone numbers and sophisticated tracking that integrates with other systems like Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
• Use contact forms. Avoid using simple email/mailto links like the plague. Use a contact form to collect information – just enough information and no more. In the early days, chances are you would prefer to follow up and ask a few more questions than risk losing the lead because the form scared a prospect away. And if at all possible, make sure the contact form flows automatically into some sort of customer database / CRM tool. With tools like salesforce.com this is cheap and easy even for small organizations. And it’s a lot easier to implement when you’re still small. Do it now.

While this list may not sound very “SEOy”, that’s the ironic thing about how Search Engine Optimization has evolved. It used to be about title tags and such, but these days those tactics are often just the cost of entry. It you want to turn your website into Your Online Sales Engine, you’ll need more than the “traditional” SEO tactics – you’ll eventually need to build a system like the one we’ve outlined here.

Keep us posted on your progress – we can’t wait to hear your results!!

If you’ve been lucky enough to hear John Hill speak, then you can skip this post. He’s positively brilliant about explaining how LinkedIn is a cornerstone of any job search.

I wrote two years ago in this blog how shocked I was that students are not counseled by career services in networking online; and today I’m glad that people like John and Terry Bean are out there preaching, because the situation hasn’t changed nearly as much as it should.

In talking recently with a current student at the University of Michigan, I was encouraged to hear they were counseled to “reach out to friends and relatives” – terrific advice. But the idea of doing that through LinkedIn as well as the real world hadn’t been broached.(!) While I’m sure that the UM is so large that it’s happening in some places and not others, my point is that LinkedIn coaching is still not standard practice at many educational institutions.

Why am I so passionate about this? In part, I know too many people looking for jobs. It’s a tough time to be in Michigan. But it’s also a great time to be in Michigan! There are people creating jobs in all sorts of places! And where are you going to find the movers and shakers? Online.

Who’s connected to the movers and shakers? Build a network in LinkedIn, and you’ll have access to the address book of everyone you know. Then look up a company you want an intro to, and find out who can make the intro for you. Easy peasy.

Then learn how to ask for an intro. It’s an art. Learn what a good ask looks like. Talk to Terry Bean – he is a great coach at the ASK. He’s also got a great book on business networking that ought to be required reading for anyone in a job search – the same rules apply. For nine bucks you can’t afford not to check it out.

John has some great tips on the ask, too. In particular, he suggests tapping into alumni networks. He’s done an exemplary job of building the MSU alumni network – and using it to help students – and the university make helpful connections. Every college needs someone like John!

If you haven’t already checked in out, LinkedIn has added an invaluable job search feature. You can search jobs by keyword and by zip – both within LinkedIn and through the aggregator Simply Hired. Take a gander if you’re doubtful about the existence of jobs in Michigan. My bet is that you’ll be (pleasantly) surprised.

Happy hunting!

We’re hiring!

We are looking for an enthusiastic Internet Search Analyst to join our team. The ideal candidate will have experience developing, launching, managing, and optimizing paid search, organic visibility, and social media campaigns for clients across multiple search engines. This position has a moderate level of client exposure ranging from providing timely and insightful analysis and reporting of online activities to conducting client training classes and coaching sessions. Google AdWords Certification is required. Google Analytics Individual Qualification is desired.

We are also searching for a dynamic Relationship Manager to serve as the main point of contact for many of our internet marketing campaigns. The ideal candidate will have excellent communication skills and a proven track record of delivering quality service across multiple client engagements. Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is desired. Industry experience preferred.

Follow this link for more details on the open Internet Search Analyst position.
Follow this link for more information on the open Relationship Manager position.

I am frequently asked about online tools for managing event registrations, so this time I dug up an analysis Mark wrote while evaluating which tool we would use here at Pure Visibility. It’s not an exhaustive list; rather, we focused on some of the most inexpensive event management services and the major points of differentiation between them.

Eventbrite
We chose Eventbrite because there is no charge for free events (like our Donuts & Search Engine Marketing) and they charge 2.5% of the ticket price for paid events with a maximum charge of $9.95. They recently implemented a survey feature which is convenient, and they also allow you to accept many types of payment methods. They allow a little bit of customization to the event page for your event and they offer many different ways to promote your events (feeds, buttons, etc.) They offer good reporting features, the ability to print name badges, and the ability to offer discounts.

Brown Paper Tickets
This is a free solution that allows you to set up a page on the Brown Paper Ticket site where you can post events and links to your site. You cannot actually sell tickets through the site; they use a 3rd party which charges the same fee as Eventbrite (2.5%). Eventbrite is more of an all in one solution whereas this site is more like a Craigslist for events.

RegOnline
RegOnline appears to be a good tool, but they charge no matter what type of event you are hosting (free or paid events.) $4.75 per registrant for events under 120 attendees, and $3.50 per registrant plus $150 for events with more than 120 attendees. There is also a charge to accept credit card payments. It appears that they offer more customization and support with registration forms/event webpage; they allow you to print name badges, and have some good reporting features. It has many of the same features as Eventbrite, but the price point made Eventbrite win out.