Michele PW and her blogging buddy, Nick.

Michele PW passionately believes that you can bring more business to your company - through the internet.

She didn't figure that out overnight, though. Michele (the PW stands for Pariza Wacek, by the way) explains how she became interested in internet marketing. "1998 was when I started my business, and I really started as a freelance copywriter... if I had been in Phoenix, I don't know if everything would have happened the way it did. Because in Phoenix... you go to one of the big companies, and they give you a lot of overflow writing work. That's how a lot of freelance writers make their living. And that was always the model I saw, so that was the model I was trying to duplicate here in Prescott, which doesn't happen. So, what happened is that I ended up getting a great marketing foundation, because smaller companies were coming to me wanting me to write a letter or a brochure. And then I would end up upselling them other marketing opportunities. That's how I kept clients and kept a regular income stream. Because I did have most of my clients here in Prescott - I had clients outside of Prescott, but most of it was in Prescott."

Expanding her market through the internet

Michele started to look at how things could change. "So, then in 2003, I decided that I was tired of all of this, and I decided there had to be a better way. I had to make more money, I knew writers could make quite a bit more and charge quite a bit more than what I was charging and I figured I just had to get out of this market. So, that's when I started looking at the internet. I had a little website, it wasn't very good," she admits with a laugh. "You can do the wayback search and see my horrible first attempt, which was pretty bad. I decided I was going to do this whole thing and so I started an email newsletter. I bought a lot of info marketing, and one of the things I fell upon was article marketing. Which worked out perfectly for me because I like to write articles, anyway. So the basis of that, is the product I'm coming out with, which is the actual system, is that you write the articles, and then you actually submit those to online portals. Other people will actually pick those up because really what the search engines and the whole internet is based on - it's based on content and it's also based on connections."

Michele stopped for a second, and then emphasized what she had just said. "That's why people are going to the internet, they're going to the internet because they're looking for information, they're looking for content and they're looking for connections. That's the top ones, you can pretty much boil everything into that..."

"So, because of that, the search engines have always rewarded the people that are providing content, because that's what people are looking for," Michele continued. "People are looking on the search engines for information, so if you're a provider of information, which means that you're putting on fresh content on your site, you get rewarded with higher organic search engine ranks. So, it worked out great, and that's why when you do the article marketing, you put the articles out there, people will come and take the articles and republish them. They'll publish them in their ezines, their blog, their websites, the whole bit."

Once she understood that, Michele was able to launch her own products. "What happened was, I was doing it, and I created a system because I couldn't stand submitting articles myself. I ended up hiring somebody that created a system, and then I refined the system and my friend and business partner, Mary Pat, she really refined it and took it to another level. So, I've been doing it for a while, and now I get quite a bit of traffic, and it's all based on this whole search engine stuff. I've since refined it since I've gone along and made a lot of mistakes, that kind of thing. Since then I've added press releases and I've added a whole lot of social networking pieces on top of it all."

Do local businesses need the internet?

But, how important is internet marketing to a small local business, in a place like Prescott, Arizona? Is it significant? Should it replace traditional advertising? Michele addressed that dilemma, as she explained, "A lot of the businesses that have a storefront that is more visible to the community, they really are, for better or worse, married to the traditional forms of advertising. And the traditional way to do it. And there's nothing wrong with that - it still is working to a certain degree, but they are missing a great deal of opportunity. That's fine, if that's what they are comfortable with."

When asked how valuable internet marketing could be for small businesses in our local community, as part of their overall marketing package, Michele replied, "I think it's huge. This is why: There's nothing wrong with the traditional marketing package - I have myself suggested clients do that - but the reality of the situation is this: The phone book is no longer the first place that people go to in order to look for anything. They might go to it to look up a number, but if somebody's trying to find something, a lot of times, they will do a search on the internet and look for stuff and see what kind of pops up in the location."

Michele explained why this is such an important thing to grasp. "You can get more information on a website than you can in a phonebook. And you can do other things, too. You can have signups forms and other ways to suck in your email addresses so you can keep marketing to these people over and over and over again, instead of a one-time one-shot deal, which is what a lot of businesses have. When you're in the store, you ask them if they want to be on the mailing list, and even if you are in the mailing list, they probably don't even mail stuff that often."

What about traditional marketing? Should local businesses dump all traditional marketing for internet marketing? "I think that, especially with the way things are going, it's not quite there yet, here in Prescott," Michele said honestly. "You know, the Daily Courier, really still, people look at it. It's still doing pretty well, it's still profitable."

But, she did note that things are changing for businesses. "More and more, the trend is to do your research online for things. So if you're not online, or if you don't have a website that is going to pop up when people do do a search online, then you're missing the boat. It may not be affecting you now, but eventually it is going to affect you. So, you might as well get this stuff now, so you can pop up when these things happen. And if you don't have a compelling website, you know, that's the thing, the rules change on the internet, so it's easy to click-click-click and you're gone, so you have to know what you're doing. And it's not enough just to put up a brochure website, you have to put up a website that's also a marketing vehicle, and a vehicle to make people sticky. Because, that is what people are going to need."

First steps first

So, where should a small business start? What's the first step? Michele begins with the basics, "Yes, they do need to start with a website, and... No one's going to want to hear this, but it's true - what they need to start with is not necessarily the prettiest website, either. There are people in town that will try to sell them - you know, a lot of people will go with Flash, a nice little animated beginning. That's probably one of the worst things you can do. First of all, it costs money, second of all, it's just an ego thing, people don't care. Most people hit 'skip introduction' - they don't care, they don't want to see it, and it's not adding anything to your website. The worst part of all, is that search engines can't even really read it very well, so it hurts your search engine rankings. So, there's really nothing good about it."

Michele offers a piece of important information, "And a lot of people want to go with something that's really pretty, and there's nothing wrong with pretty websites, but pretty alone doesn't sell, and what sells is copy. They've done tests over and over again, and websites with very compelling copy that are ugly, make more money than pretty websites without very much copy."

So, what do you look for when you're starting to develop your website? "You have to design a website with the idea that it needs to also be positioned to drive traffic there. If you just put up a website, to put up a website, that's fine, if you're telling people to go look at your website. But if you actually want your website to get leads for you - which you might as well, you've got a website on the internet, you might as well have it do everything for you. You've got to design the website with that in mind, which means keywords and putting things on there that people want. And what people want, is content. People want words, and I can hear all day long, and I do hear all day long, 'My customers don't want this, my clients don't want that...' What it really boils down to is that copy-heavy sites outsell sites with pretty pictures. Unless you're doing something that is very visual, like selling jewelry or art online. That's the only thing that I can possibly thing that may be the exception. But for the most part, you need copy, you need content, you need articles and information. Things to educate your client and words to actually sell them. And those are the two things you really need."

So, is Michele recommending ugly sites? No, of course not. "If you have a nice looking website with your brand, that's great too. The brand is important, don't get me wrong, I really love my brand and I spent a lot of time developing it, and branding is a very important part of your marketing mix. But a lot of people lead with the brand first and then they follow with the copy. But the reality is that you can actually get more with the copy and then if you've got the branding mixed in, it's going to add things. But the copy and the designing the site for traffic is what's going to give you the best return on the investment when all's said and done."

"People automatically think graphics," Michele pointed out, and then went on to clarify, "Graphics are important, but what they do is put graphics way ahead of copy, when the reality is that copy and graphics are both important. You really have to focus on copy if you want to get results. The prettiest website in the world really isn't going to get you anywhere. A pretty website with really strong copy, now you're talking something. So, that's why it's important to know and understand that."

She's come a long way from 2003

So, what is Michele doing now? "What I am, I do have a marketing agency, but it's a direct response marketing agency. What I mean by direct response is that I create promotional items that get results on their own. So, they're not support materials like needing a salesperson to do the selling and explain it, and you hand a brochure when you're done. These are pieces that will actually go out and make the sale for you. Or at least sell your customers so that they're 99% sold, and you just come in and close the deal and get the money or the credit card number or check. So, that's what I've created. And then what I do, is that I do marketing strategy, and then I give people the copy ready to do implementation to go with it. And then the other thing that I do as part of this whole agency thing is, I drive traffic, so I do online and offline campaigns, websites, all of that stuff. And then I do the traffic to get people to the website."

She stopped and took a breath before stating carefully, "Because the nicest website in the world, if nobody looks at it... the most compelling and persuasive website in the world, if nobody looks at it... is not going to make you any money. So you need the traffic too, to get them there."

Editor's Note: Call 877-754-3384, ext. 1, to ask about scheduling an appointment with Michele. Or check out her website, http://www.michelepw.com , chock full of valuable information, which includes free articles as well as items to purchase.

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