A Conversation With ... Michael Wehrenberg

It’s a full-service Web development and Internet marketing company. I started it in 1997 as a student at Drury University, just as a means to figure out what I wanted to do. My degree is in studio arts. I just taught myself, read a lot of books, and then my mentor, Larry Friend, (had) some clients that (needed) some help getting a Web site done. As I got feedback, the more I liked doing it, and the more people said ‘You should think about doing this professionally.’ There are almost 200 clients that I’ve worked with.

How can businesses use Web sites for marketing, and what are the challenges?

A Web site is more than just a brochure, and (clients) should look for ways to improve their day-to-day or annual efficiency. I’ve partnered with a company called Constant Contact, an e-mail marketing organization that allows you to easily send out graphic-intense e-mails, and it has some tracking capabilities that insulate from spam filters. That’s a challenge, sending out mass e-mails with your own domain name … because (it) can get your domain name blacklisted, so using a partner to insulate yourself is a good idea. Marketing your business through search engines is the next step. Most businesses have recognized that they need to put their Web addresses on all of their collateral material – cars, signs or whatever. Now, the first question I get after we launch as site is ‘How do I get to where if (people) type in our name, we come up in Google?’ And that’s the million-dollar question.

How do you answer that question?

We get very research-oriented with competitive analysis and finding out what the market is for (a client’s) particular industry on the Internet. We provide reports to clients (with) the Top 50 or 100 keyword phrases that people actually searched on within the last 30 days. We can also say ‘Here’s where you’re currently ranking.’ We’re able to take that knowledge … and optimize the content of the client’s Web site based on those keyword phrases. Natural placements are (search) results that aren’t paid listings, and are by far, the most effective results you can get. With Google, there are (about 160) characteristics that they look for when it comes to placing your site, and we take into account all of those.

How can businesses generate Web traffic?

Things like weather and stock tickers, I typically try to steer clients away from, simply because there are hundreds of Web sites that do it way better than they can. What I’ve found is that a lot of people use those things … as crutches to fill their sites. Instead, think about redesigning (to fill) that space, or doing something that’s going to market the business. For banks, the No. 1 thing that brings people back is that they can access their accounts online. For restaurants, photo galleries are the No. 1 thing that bring people back to the Web site. It’s all about targeted traffic and relevant topics.

Why did you decide to add site maintenance?

I was given a tip-off by my mentor, who said that one of the things that nonprofits sometimes struggle with is, obviously, money, and making decisions in a board environment. So what we do is, we design Web sites for free. It doesn’t cost anything up-front … and then, once we launch the site and it’s up and running, (clients) pay us a monthly retainer for a minimum of a year. That includes the development costs, any maintenance that you need or if something new comes out that (clients) want to take advantage of … they can call me and we add it in and there’s no extra costs involved.

Tell us about your client base.

Ten percent of my clients are outside this area, but the vast majority are in southwest Missouri, (including some) in Branson, Marshfield, Nixa and Ozark, and a lot of them here in Springfield. One of my unique clients is Kim Parrish who I’ve never met, is an on-air personality for Home Shopping Network. She lives in Tampa, Fla., and she has her own line of clothing that she markets on HSN, and she needed a Web site for her collection. She’s somebody I’ve talked to, maybe three times on the phone, and the rest is by e-mail. I’ve got a pocket of clients in the Philadelphia area (that) all stems from one contact I had there from when I was an employee with SIFE World Headquarters. … I’ve got a pocket in Topeka, Kan., from a referral … that led to other sites.

Tell us about your family.

My wife, Valerie, technically is the vice president. Before we had kids, she did a lot of work with me, but she stays pretty busy now. We have twins, Zachary and Taylor, who are 3. Taylor was born first. She’s 17 minutes older, and she’ll never let Zachary live it down. They’re the main reason that I went out on my own.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.