Complete Website Redesign Achieved Within a Single Day? Seriously? with Miranda Imperi

Andy Splichal:

Welcome to the Make Each Click Count podcast. This is your host, Andy Splichal, and we are happy to welcome this week's guest to discuss today's topic, which is complete website redesign achieved within a single day. Seriously, today's guest is the founder of Marketing Juice, a northern Ohio based marketing company servicing small to medium sized local businesses with custom marketing plans and strategies. A big welcome to Miranda Imperi.

Miranda Imperi:

Hi Andy, thanks for having me.

Andy Splichal:

We are excited to have you. Now, what really caught my eye were your one day websites. And I know I just did. True Online Presence. My agency website. And it took about five months from the time I signed the contract with the redesign agency to the time where they pushed the button and it went live. So I'm curious, I mean, how do you create a website for clients in just one day?

Miranda Imperi:

Yeah, so that's a great question. This is actually a service that I just launched last year, really born out of frustration with the typical agency process because I've been building websites for 15 years now and I've been through a lot of that five, six month development timeline with my clients. And what I really realized when I took a deep dive into how we were providing the service is that the time that it takes that long drawn out timeline actually isn't the development, it is the communication back and forth. And most of the websites that I've built are for a small business. In the last 15 years, websites have come so far and there's really not a whole lot of reason to go to the drawing board and write entirely new code templates for any one business. Pretty much all the functionality that any website or small business might need has already really been built and you're just creating conversion optimization pathways and style guides that are specific to the business. To me, that can all be accomplished in a single day. I mean, if I can sit down and have an uninterrupted seven to 8 hours to work on a website, I can knock out all the design and the content in one day.

Miranda Imperi:

And so really I came up with this idea, like, workshopping with another agency friend of mine, but I thought it would be an interesting exercise to offer it in front of a client. Really? So the delay between us communicating like, I like this or I don't like this is actually eliminated because they are in the room with me.

Andy Splichal:

Oh, interesting.

Miranda Imperi:

Real time.

Andy Splichal:

So this service, they come and they work with you all day as you're putting it together.

Miranda Imperi:

Yes, and I know it's a big time commitment, but it's less of a time commitment ultimately in the long run because you're really just committing one day. And so it's so cool too with the business owners that I work with because not only are they giving me real time feedback on the design that I'm producing for them. But they're also learning how to utilize the website back end while I am designing it. So I'm showing them everything about what I'm doing and why I'm doing it and how I'm doing. So that when it comes time to, at the end of the appointment, launch the website and then walk them through the content management system. They're already familiarized with the backend and with the content placement, with editing because they've literally been watching me do it all day.

Andy Splichal:

Now, you said small businesses, but I see it's also e commerce too, right?

Miranda Imperi:

Yes.

Andy Splichal:

Now you are in northern Ohio. When you've done these, have people come to you, do you go to them? How does that work?

Miranda Imperi:

Everyone so far has come to me, but I am willing to travel to a client. I have portable screens that I can bring with me so that I can make sure that the client's participating. I mean, pretty much every conference room in the United States has some kind of projection capability too. So I'm happy to travel to wherever anybody is because it really, truly is one day. I do try to work locally with the focus. The bulk of my business is local so that I can experience my clients businesses, I can be part of them, I can understand their communities better because I feel like that makes me a better marketer for them. But for the website design clients, that can happen anywhere and it can also happen virtually. So if traveling is out of the cards, like this podcast that we're doing right now, it's pretty simple to share screens and have somebody watch what I'm doing virtually as well.

Andy Splichal:

I've never heard about somebody even doing this. I'm fascinated. Is anybody else offering a one day website service?

Miranda Imperi:

I think there are a couple of small agencies out there that are offering something similar. I don't think that I've completely invented this. I'm sure there's other agencies that are offering something like this. I like to think that my services, though, that I offer at Marketing Juice are less cookie cutter. So I think that a lot of these services that exist now are like standard three page website for one day design. And I am a lot more flexible with my clients. I don't like to standardize really anything that we offer because every business deserves the ability to be uniquely positioned in their market.

Andy Splichal:

And is there a page limit?

Miranda Imperi:

No, I don't have a page limit. I mean, really, it's kind of like a case by case basis, like within reason sometimes when we have clients who have had a website, for instance, we did a really interesting website last year that was a burial ground, like a sustainable burial ground alternative to a cemetery. They had had a website for a long time and so they had a pretty sizable blog. And so that's something where that's not always something that we can copy and paste into a new website in one day, but it's something where we build the framework for the client and then we give them ample training and education on how to migrate the content over there. We get them like 99% of the way and then they have full control of that website back end and can polish it off after you launch.

Andy Splichal:

Now, when you design a website, I mean, conversion, it's got to be one of the biggest battles that a company can grow through that's going to lead to their growth. What key elements are you looking at that you include to improve conversion rates for specifically an ecommerce website?

Miranda Imperi:

I typically approach conversion and optimization in a different way than most agencies. I like to put the priority on the end user and so I'm always very focused on user experience, interface those criteria in the design rather than search optimization. And so there is a lot of research that goes into developing the target customer profile of who that website is hoping to achieve as leads or conversions or purchases or whatever I will typically go through ahead of time. And look at those demographics and look at the competitor demographics and look at the consumer populations and the priorities behind those consumers age ranges. I think that a lot of that stuff is often missed website design because we tend to, as agencies, lean into whatever that client preference is. But most of the time I find that the client preference is typically like opposite of what their target consumer preference is, and so I put a heavy priority on that. So for instance, if we have a target population that's like over 45 that we're looking at, and that's very general and broad, we try to get more narrow, but over 45 is going to need a high contrast in colorization on the website in order for it to be readable for them. And typically it's easier for people over 45 to read light text on dark backgrounds.

Miranda Imperi:

And I know that that comes into play now a lot more often with the Ada compliance that has kind of been like buzzing around for the last couple of years. So if your website's not optimized for people with disabilities, there could be issues and also lawsuits even, that I've heard small businesses getting hit with for not now.

Andy Splichal:

Do you have an example that you like, I designed this for this kind of company and I nailed it on that. Look at the conversion rate they got afterwards.

Miranda Imperi:

Yeah, we just did a one day design for a company that's targeting women who are over 40 and it's a unique personal use toy. And that was an interesting project because it's difficult to communicate what exactly that product is without falling into lines of adult only content. Right?

Andy Splichal:

Yeah, I can imagine.

Miranda Imperi:

Yes. When we were doing research on what types of images and things like that, we might want to include. We did a lot of really simple, classy, classic Hollywood like black and white stuff to draw that audience in. And we were designing a website pre product launch. So the goal of the website was to get people on a waiting list and get subscribers and stuff. And once the website was launched, the client had more than enough interest to purchase their first order within the first two months, which is really awesome to see. And they are thriving. They've built like.

Miranda Imperi:

And what's great to see, too, is when we do this one day design service, the client gets a lot of training on how to use the back end, and I love to watch those websites grow from there, because the client then built out a really robust resource section with sexual health articles and professionals that their target customers could take advantage of. And it was really great to see them really take control of the technology because that's something that I find a lot of small business owners struggle with is they buy into a service or they start using an outside agency and they just have no idea what's going on with anything. And I like to empower clients and make them feel like they have ownership and they have control over the assets that they have.

Andy Splichal:

Now. Is there a preferred platform that you're designing these websites on?

Miranda Imperi:

Yes, I exclusively design and build on squarespace. I find that to be the best platform for handing off to a small business client, so they feel really comfortable utilizing that space and they don't really have to have any coding knowledge or like high level design knowledge in order to use and manipulate it. I've been a preferred developer on that platform for the last six years, I want to say so I believe the last 60 or so websites I've designed have been on that platform.

Andy Splichal:

For clients coming with you to you for ecommerce redesign, what are some of the most common mistakes that you have seen?

Miranda Imperi:

The most common mistakes that I see with ecommerce specifically is usually the number of clicks to conversion. I see a lot of websites are maybe doing too much, to put it simply. It's too many things for the end user to do before they actually get to a place where they can convert. And what we see as content is being literally spoon fed to us. More and more people just don't want to do anything. They don't want to have to do anything. So all the social media companies that have adopted an ecommerce platform within the platform have done that for the simple reason that people just don't want to click too much. They don't want to have to go looking for things.

Miranda Imperi:

And so misunderstanding that target audience and how they behave online is like, it's huge. It happens all the time.

Andy Splichal:

So how do you solve that?

Miranda Imperi:

I really believe that the solution is in remembering that we're dealing with actual people. And I think what happens too often is that we group people into these profiles, these demographics and stuff, and we forget that we're talking to individuals. At the end of the day, I think that marketing design, it's all for this end user. And if this end user is some faceless nameless, population or statistic, we lose sight of that. So I really think that if you really stay focused on who the people are that you're talking to and you're trying to serve with your product or service, that you aren't going to fail with communicating what it is that they need or why they need your product or service.

Andy Splichal:

So we've been talking about your one day website, but I mean, you offer a ton of other services. I'm curious, what do you find is the biggest problem that people come with you, especially ecommerce companies. What are they bringing to you?

Miranda Imperi:

I think the biggest problem that we end up seeing is that they have a mismanaged expectation of what they should be receiving from certain internet strategies. And I think the biggest one is like the social media marketing just completely. I think people just don't understand what it is or what it's for. And I think most of the time when people are coming to us, they're like, oh well, we've been paying so much money for boosted posts or shared content or content creation on social media in an organic method. They're not seeing the engagement and they're not seeing increase in sales as a result of the engagement and they get really hyper fixated on the total post engagement or the views or the followers. And I just think so many companies get sucked into that way of thinking where it's really not that important, that at the end of the day, it's about the conversion, and it's about whatever action your customers are taking. That's ending up with money in your pocket and a like on a social media post or a follower on a social media channel is not that educating our clients on that is typically the first step when they come to us like, oh, I don't like what my agency is doing because I'm not viral on these posts or whatever. And it's like really the follow up question to that is like, well, what do you expect to receive from being viral? Because that does not equal sales.

Andy Splichal:

It's like the old saying you can't cash clicks unless you could expand that you can't cash views and you can't cash likes. It's really about the conversion. So that's a great point. Now, what is your specialty? I mean, what is marketing juice your agency really known for?

Miranda Imperi:

I think we're just really known for being the small business agency. We offer this flexibility that so many other agencies haven't been able to really nail down. And I am really proud of us for that. We've helped so many small businesses get to a point where they've been able to grow, to be able to hire their own in house marketing team. And that's always like, the goal that I'm trying to get these small businesses or solo entrepreneurs that I'm working with. You don't always want to outsource every part of your marketing, and working with an agency helps you by reducing the amount of time and budget you might spend on marketing, but ultimately you want something that's going to position you as this unique business in your industry. And I think that that's where we really excel. All of our content and our content strategies and the way that we design things for clients is really specific to the client.

Miranda Imperi:

So it's not like we're reinventing the wheel. It's not like we're doing anything that's super special or crazy or different from other agencies when it comes to the implementation. But the creation of the strategy and the mindfulness that we have behind the strategy for that specific client, I think really makes us stand out.

Andy Splichal:

So one of my favorite questions I like to ask is, if I gave you a crystal ball and you could see the future, where do you think the next twelve to 18 months ecommerce will change?

Miranda Imperi:

Honestly, I know I thought about that question ahead of time, but it still kind of stumps me because post 2020, I feel like everything with Internet marketing for everything is just completely unpredictable. It's like chaos. Like, every other month, something's changing in a way that is really hard to foresee. I do think that we can probably expect that the social media channels will dig in deeper with offering the e commerce tools because we're just seeing, like, TikTok having the TikTok shop stuff now, like, every other TikTok video that gets served up to people has something to do with a product feature. And so I think that we'll see just more of that and we might see Amazon create more carved out small business spaces to invite more people to their ecommerce platform. And that ecommerce companies will have to invest more time and energy into making sure that they have placement and products available on all of these different channels because that's where the conversions are going to be happening most.

Andy Splichal:

Now, one of my favorite questions I ask is, as an entrepreneur yourself, have there been any business books that you can attribute to your journey?

Miranda Imperi:

Honestly, no, I don't read a lot of business books. I yeah, I can't really think of the last all right, honestly, I don't have time to read books anymore.

Andy Splichal:

Now, what about do you have a favorite success story of one of your clients that you could share?

Miranda Imperi:

Yeah, I have this client who is in the diet and weight loss management industry and has been in that industry since the 1970s. And they at one time had a bunch of remote centers and franchise offices and stuff. But since Weight Watchers and the ecommerce era came in and kind of overtook their franchise centers. They were pivoting to this ecommerce strategy but had a very old website. They had literally three people on their staff to support a national weight loss supplement management program company with hundreds of thousands of emails on their email lists and stuff. So I came in and developed a strategy for email marketing to their lists that featured products on a bi weekly basis and redeveloped their ecommerce sales that they were having. Their strategy previous to working with me was to do one day a month of free shipping on all of their products for their various websites. And so what they had done is literally trained all of their customers to wait until that one day every month to buy their products.

Miranda Imperi:

And we started a strategy where we offered sales on specific products, seasonal sales that surrounded the season that we were going into or the holidays around that season, and then really detailed content emails with suggestions on weight loss and stuff that didn't have to do necessarily with the products. And I think that they were very hesitant to go with that strategy at first because they came from an era of like, we just talk about the products in our advertising and buy this product, it's great, blah blah blah. And they were really surprised to see how effective it was to really how effective was it? Well, they ended up increasing their total annual revenue by over $100,000.

Andy Splichal:

Wow, great. Now. I like your agency name. I like marketing juice. Where did that come from?

Miranda Imperi:

That actually comes from early in my career I was responsible for link development at a different agency. And when that used to be a very viable strategy of building links for clients, we used to refer to the power and effectiveness of the link that we were building as Link Juice.

Andy Splichal:

I've heard that phrase. Yeah.

Miranda Imperi:

When I was at that agency, I had developed a network of bloggers that I worked with and I started really focusing on content rich links instead of keyword stuffing and using some of those black hat strategies that a lot of agencies were using. And that's really the concept that I built the agency off of. And so I just call it Marketing Juice because I also really like all the puns that we can make out of the yeah.

Andy Splichal:

Now I know we've been talking about the different services you had mentioned the email, of course, done the one day websites, but what are all of the different services that you offer at Marketing Juice? And I guess who's the perfect listener for your services?

Miranda Imperi:

So we've recently adjusted some of the services that we offer because I find that especially in the social media realm, it's better for a client to have more control over their social media instead of outsourcing that completely. And so I'm actually working on redeveloping our service page right now so that social media marketing isn't the thing that we're talking about. It's more of like a content maintenance program. So we do local listing management, which is really helpful for people with like a local business footprint. We do content maintenance for social media, we'll do content maintenance for websites, and then we also offer a pretty cool service called a Brand Blueprint, which is basically like a media kit and a mission statement and a design style guide for a business that's like merged into one document. That's super helpful for small businesses to use with agency partners or media partners or even just internally with their staff so that everybody gets on the same page about how to talk about this business and who the business is really going after for their target customer. And so, really, my ideal client is a small business with less than 20 employees, somebody who is looking to grow and not just maintain the status quo with their company and really just would like to have a little bit more time to run their business and grow their business rather than having to be in the day to day monotony of marketing and content maintenance and all of that. So I think those are the people that we can really help the most.

Miranda Imperi:

We can also help people who are looking to start a business and they just need that foundation built. Really, the foundations we've been able to build for our small business clients are super solid. And in fact, a lot of our clients don't have to take advantage of paid advertising online because of the organic foundations that we build.

Andy Splichal:

And how can an interested listener learn more about working with you and with Marketing Juice?

Miranda Imperi:

Just going to our website at Marketingjuice Biz.

Andy Splichal:

Well, this has been great. Is there anything else that you would like to add before we wrap it up today? Miranda?

Miranda Imperi:

I don't think so. I'm very honored that you asked me to be on the podcast, so thank you.

Andy Splichal:

You're welcome. Well, thank you again for joining us today. For listeners. Remember, if you like this episode, please go to Apple podcasts and leave us an honest review. And if you're looking for more information regarding Marketing Juice or connecting with Miranda, you'll find the links in the Show Notes below. In addition, if you're looking for more information on growing your business, check out our Podcast Resource Center available at podcast makeeachclickcount.com. We have compiled all of our different past guests by show topic and included each of their contact information in case you would like more information on any of the services I've discussed during previous episodes. Well, that's it for today.

Andy Splichal:

Remember to stay safe, keep healthy and happy marketing and I'll talk to you in the next episode. Bye.