Web Communications

This interview with Catherine Juon, Co-Founder and Catalyst at Pure Visibility, marks the first in our series on "Financing Your Innovation". The series was sparked by the observation across multiple interview participants that they faced common problems in financing their innovative businesses.

Catherine introduces us to the issues faced in financing a services business. As we have covered previously, Pure Visibility is a three year old Internet marketing firm that helps its clients grow their businesses online. Like many services businesses, Pure Visibility has grown through bootstrapping. In their particular case, this has meant:

• They started with immediate cash flow from clients they had garnered in previous ventures so could forego bank financing.
• In addition to contract work, they established monthly recurring revenue streams that guaranteed a source of revenue.
• Working capital, the difference between payables and receivables, has been an issue as the company has grown. Pure Visbility is currently seeking bank financing to help with working capital but has also financed it through credit cards and loans from friends and family.

Last semester, I participated in an innovative partnership between Google and Eastern Michigan University where my classmates and I developed Google Adwords campaigns for several local non-profit organizations. This is the first segment of a case study I have prepared about the challenges we faced and overcame as part of this experience.

My team had the pleasure of working with an Ypsilanti-based organization called Dawn Farm.  Dawn Farm works to assist alcohol and drug addicts obtain long-term recovery. This first case study segment that I'm presenting here provides an overview of the initial challenges we faced in managing this account.  New to the world of pay-per-click advertising, my classmates and I went through the growing pains of learning how to effectively market a company over the internet.  We found that trial and error, actively monitoring our progress, and good communication with our organization were all key to our Google Adwords success.

We were able to establish a strong working relationship with Jason Schwartz, the Clinical Director of Dawn Farm.  This relationship was one of the key elements that helped us figure out an effective strategy for Dawn Farm. Jason provided us with valuable insight regarding Dawn Farm's clients and the advertising needs of the Dawn Farm organization.  As my classmates and I worked dilligently at fine tuning the online ads we created for Dawn Farm, we observed how our efforts caused a significant growth in the amount of traffic that Dawn Farm's website received.  By the end of the semester, it was obvious that our efforts had paid off.  Jason Schwartz reported that the amount of traffic on Dawn Farm's website increased over 60%, and Dawn Farm noticed a growth in the amount of applicants.

Currently I am still maintaining Dawn Farm's Google Adwords account and am also a reporter in Michigan Innovators' bullpen section. In future segments, I will focus on how we brought Dawn Farm's Google Adwords campaign on par with high performing commercial accounts.

As described in our last segment on Wagner Design Associates, the firm started as a print design shop. However, by the late 1990's, it was clear that the web would play a more significant role, at least partially displacing print, so Jill Wagner began the move toward the web. Some highlights from this segment:

• Shortly after the start of the current decade, Jill approached Kathy Roeser because she felt she needed more web expertise.
• Much like Carrie Hensel at Inner Circle Media, Kathy had become a self-taught web guru with a grounding in design and she was actively engaged in teaching others.
• Kathy's design background also fit well with the culture of Wagner Design, smoothing the firm's transition from print to web.
• Wagner Design Associates now does about 50/50 print and web work.

In this 8 minute segment (download iPod compatible, 42MB), Carrie discusses how she wants Inner Circle Media to evolve over the next twelve months. Her first goal is to develop additional productized services like their content management system that they can lease. Lease revenue from these services is an important aide in smoothing out their cyclical service revenue.

Further out, she is considering establishing a second office, possibly in New England. An office there would allow them to remain in better contact with a growing customer base and also reduce the cost of servicing that market.