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Dec 27
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Meet the Advisory Board, Part 2: Ryan Samson

By ViziSites News

Nowadays almost everyone with a phone is familiar with the term “Big Data” – it’s become a buzzword, synonymous with Facebook, analytics, advertising, and basically anything you do online. On a much smaller scale, businesses like ours use analytics and data to help our clients understand how consumers find their business. These analytics allow us to optimize marketing strategies, increase conversions, and more. Data analysis is a key part of marketing of all kinds – which is why we are so proud to have a Strategic Analyst on our Board of Advisors at ViziSites.

Ryan Samson, Data & Strategic Analysis

If you missed Part 1 of our Meet the Advisory Board series, we invite you to go meet Asaf Benhaim, Chairman of Our Board.

Today in Part 2, we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Samson, Data and Strategic Analyst. Ryan is a Principal at SECOR Asset Management and handles Portfolio Management and Research. His specialties include Portfolio Management, Research and Trading of Quantitative Strategies with a focus on Equity Volatility, Macro Events, and Cross-Sectional Equities.

Here at ViziSites, he advises on Operational Insights, Pricing & Market Strategies, and, you guessed it – Data Analysis.

What led you to your current profession and what do you enjoy about it?

A: I went to school at Caltech, where I studied Economics with a strong focus on mathematics, statistics, and programming. During my senior year, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do after graduation. Caltech focuses far more on preparing their undergraduate students to enter PhD programs than on preparing them to enter the working world, but I was more interested in starting a career. Coincidentally, around that time I got back in touch with an old high school friend on Facebook, which was still relatively new in 2004. I knew next to nothing about finance or investing, but he thought my skills and personality would be a great fit for quantitative research on Wall Street and encouraged me to apply to those types of jobs. He was right, and soon after I started a job working on quantitative research at Goldman Sachs, a field I’ve been in ever since. I work on applying advanced statistical and machine learning methods to data in order to predict stock returns. It is a challenging and competitive field, but I enjoy the fast pace and the need to employ both strong technical and creative skills.

What do you feel your experience & knowledge brings to the board of ViziSites?

A: While I focus on the stock market, I have a strong understanding of data science, prediction techniques, and how they can be applied in a variety of contexts. As ViziSites continues to evolve as a business, I’m certain there will be opportunities to employ data science in the creation of innovative product offerings.

What excites you the most about ViziSites as a business?

A: The people behind ViziSites are what excites me the most about the business. At all levels, they’ve shown a dedication to doing the right thing both for their customers and for one another. This corporate culture of integrity is part of what helps them to produce excellent products while keeping the company strong, and will help them stay ahead of the rest of the industry.

What up & coming technology/science are you the most excited about?

A: I’m most excited for how much advancement is still to come in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). AI as it exists today is widely misunderstood and misreported by the media. There have been some incredible recent accomplishments, such as AlphaGo Zero, an AI program developed to dominate the game of “Go”, considered a much more challenging strategy game than chess. However, all of these accomplishments are programs designed with a very narrow focus – they are good at solving one well defined problem. When it comes to more general intelligence, mimicking even simple brains, the field still has a long way to go, and the potential for such technology is incredible.

What is your favorite book, article, or podcast you've heard lately?

A: I’m sorry this will have pretty limited appeal, but I recently got a copy of “Statistical Learning with Sparsity” and think it is a great technical reference for a certain subset of machine learning approaches. It is well written with clear mathematical notation, it covers a lot of cutting-edge techniques, and has great lists of references for further reading. For those mathematically inclined and interested, the book is free to download.

Stay tuned for Part 3 to meet Rainer Villa, our Cybersecurity Advisor.

Dec 10
Love0

The Importance of Branding: A 3-Part Series!

By Marketing

Whether you are starting a business or own one that has been around for 30 years, branding should be an important part of your marketing strategy. The importance of consistency in branding should never be overlooked. Yet we regularly find clients who have not even considered their branding. Even more shocking; their marketing agents haven’t helped them with it either. This has made branding a main element of our service, even a manifesto of the design team, if you will.

Help small businesses establish branding through their online presence.

Branding is the magical element of marketing that allows me to say “Target” and you think of a bullseye, the color red, big block lettering, and maybe even a little white bull terrier. Or “Google” and you think of primary colors in sans-serif font. Maybe you wouldn’t have the words to describe what comes to your head, but the image is there, instantly. You have created a memory of that business. What they offer, what they stand for, and any interaction you have had with them. By simply saying the name, or seeing a red bullseye, all of those things are brought to mind.

Why is this so powerful?

Entrepreneur.com said it best, “consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company’s products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product–and customers will pay that higher price.” Better branding leads to stronger recognition. Stronger recognition leads you to being seen as more trustworthy by your consumers. Being more trustworthy means you can draw a larger client base and/or charge more for your product.

Simply put: better branding = better business.

Consistent branding is carefully planned, well thought out, and completely intentional by these companies. Decisions like where to use a color or what font to use are just some of the factors they consider. Branding permeates into every aspect of your business: starting with your logo (icon, colors, typography), your tagline, core values & messaging, online and printed marketing materials, even down to how you interact with customers.

How does branding work?

The trick is… branding is not “magical”. Consistent branding is attainable by even the smallest business, and is important to create recognition and – most importantly – something memorable in your customer’s minds. In this series, we will break down 3 key elements of visual branding: logo, colors, and typography. These are the foundation of your branding. Stay tuned and follow our branding series in 3 installments:

  1. Components of a Good Logo
  2. Applying Colors with Intent
  3. Typography – the Visual Component of the Written Word

If you already know you need help with branding – contact our Internet Marketing Consultants today. They’ll show you how our designers can guide you through this process from beginning to end!

Nov 19
Love1

Turning Language into Design: Behind the Developer’s Curtain

By Website Guidelines

Ever wonder how those image modules change color, or how that dropdown menu on a website animates? We all know that design plays a strong role in how our sites appear to the public, but what about the functionality? What makes the site really tick? This is where developers come in: they give your custom website that extra “wow” factor. Today, we have a special little segment we would like to share on the magic of development and how they make modules on a website function. If you’re interested in learning, let’s take a look at a few things that makes these elements possible…

We’re going to use a set of modules from a client’s site our developers have recently worked on. First, let’s start with the code types used to make all of this element’s features come to life.

The Code

As we all know, this process can become quite complicated. More function and style in the element means more lines of code are involved. Here, we will discuss the three coding languages required for the element above: HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

HTML

HTML is the skeleton of the page or element. This tells the browser to display the hard elements. (Images, Copy/Text, and objects like menus etc.) As you can see in the image below, there is nothing visual except the links and text of the elements.

CSS

This code is like the muscles and flesh of the element. All layouts require CSS to stylize and format the objects in relation to what is around them. This is the same language behind CSS Paintings – an awesome form of digital painting (well, at least we think it’s awesome)!

In the example below we see that the modules are now styled with color, shape, and size. There is animation attached to this through CSS, but we don’t quite have a complete product yet. These modules still require function. That is what leads us to adding Javascript.

Javascript

This code is the brain language of the page or element. Javascript tells the elements how to function. This could be movement/animation, or a hover effect such as disappearing/appearing.


[Video above has no sound. Captions not needed.]

An Understanding of Layout

It’s important for developers and designers alike to understand spacing and placement. This is required for all elements to work together and create a finished product. This is why we apply a solid system of responsive features on all of our websites. Our Development and Design departments work hand-in-hand to make sure none of the elements on a page are crashing into each other and adhere to rules of alignment on all of our sites.

In the build process, we are careful to code assets in a way that makes them responsive from the beginning. This means building elements to look good and function well from a large desktop all the way down to a small phone. Even with that in mind, there may be adjustments needed as small details on the website change. This is why it is important that each developer understands which code applies to each section of the site, and uses the correct language to make the needed change. Because if you accidentally use the wrong bit of code, or take out a piece of code that had a different purpose than you thought…

 

Patience and Problem-Solving

There is a lot of code used to make all elements of design look good and function. This naturally creates problems the more complicated the designs and layouts become. Most often, developers spend more time solving problems related to writing code for a brand new element than fixing code on a broken element. This is the nature of creating elements on any platform whether it be apps for a device or websites for a browser. With a lot of patience and hard work from developers, they are able to untangle the metaphorical “wires” that get all bunched together when a lot of work is put into projects.

So the next time you see an element on a website move, change colors, or appear on a website – maybe you’ll have a developer brain moment and be able to take a guess at which language of code was used to create it!

—–

Have more questions about what impressive custom features ViziSites’ developers can build on your website? Check out our portfolio of websites, or contact a consultant today for a free demo!

Written by ViziSites’ Development Team
Connect with Josh on LinkedIn

Nov 02
Love2

Meet the Advisory Board, Part 1: Asaf Benhaim

By ViziSites News

An internet marketing entrepreneur, a stock market data analyst, and a military cybersecurity expert walk into a room…

Why, you might ask? To help ViziSites better serve you, of course!

You may have noticed on our social media that we recently started featuring an Employee every month. Allowing you to get to know each part of the great team working for you. This got us thinking… why not introduce you to our Advisory Board as well? Even though they may not work on the website and marketing themselves, they play a very large role in the development of our services and help us provide the high quality service you’ve come to know with ViziSites.

Asaf Benhaim, Chairman of the Board

As the first installment of a 3-part series, we would like to introduce you to Asaf Benhaim, the Chairman of our board.

If you are heavily involved in Veterinary or Chiropractic internet marketing, you may already know the name Asaf Benhaim. He founded, owned and operated Internet Matrix Inc. for 12 years. During that time, Asaf exemplified hands on management in all aspects of the business, and led iMatrix to become one of the nation’s leading health and veterinary internet marketing companies. This is one of the many reasons that we connected with him and brought him onto our advisory board – his expertise and wisdom when it comes to navigating the waters of a fast growing company is invaluable to our management team. With his experience at our disposal, we are confident in ViziSites continued ability to provide a high touch service & outstanding product at an accessible price for years to come.

What led you to the internet marketing industry and what do you enjoy about it?

A: It was my freshman year of high school 1994 when I visited Cal State University Northridge's computer lab, our class was lucky enough to visit their state of the art facility. Aside from the rows and rows of computing awesomeness in their high tech facility, I was amazed by the lightning fast internet connection they had. I remember downloading a large photograph from a server half around the world. It appeared on my computer in a matter of seconds and I just thought it was the coolest thing to be able to share this image from so far away. Looking back, that experience was the first time I was enamored with the internet and really started to think of the reach and power it had. Having been part of a successful internet marketing company during a time that the internet marketing industry transformed from a nascent fringe ethereal concept to the culture defining revenue producing industrial complex it is today has been quite the ride. In terms of education and financial freedom, this industry has largely defined the path of career, lifestyle, and social awareness for me and for an entire generation.

What do you feel your experience & knowledge brings to the board of ViziSites?

A: Well to put it bluntly, I've seen this movie before. 🙂 I feel my experience can guide the company to avoid pitfalls that can slow growth. In addition, bringing a more strategic thought process at an earlier stage will assist in making more impactful decisions.

What excites you the most about ViziSites as a business?

A: I think ViziSites has enormous potential ahead of it. Internet Marketing while very competitive, can also be very rewarding. Rewarding to the clients who choose VS services and rewarding to employees and owners who run the company. But to answer your question more specifically ViziSites is exciting to me personally because VS leadership has shown an eagerness to propel the company faster into the future. VS already has a strong foundation rooted in a top shelf customer experience. Their unrelenting hard work, passion to do right by the customer, and aggressive pursuit to be leaders in their respective markets is a competitive advantage.

What up & coming technology/science are you the most excited about?

A: I’m really eager to experience Tesla's New Roadster.

What is your favorite book, article, or podcast you've heard lately?

A: I’m not an avid reader, but very impressionable books I’ve read include: Winning by Jack Welch, The Nordstrom Way, Universe in A Nutshell by Hawking, and anything NDGT (Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Sep 04
Love0

Optimizing Social Media Platforms for Veterinarians

By Veterinary

Establishing a comprehensive social media platform that resonates with pet owners is essential to online marketing in today’s competitive veterinary industry. Consider it your online marketing toolbox.

Understanding the best possible way to use the tools available is imperative to successful online marketing. So which social media outlets are most likely to attract potential clients? What type of content will engage their interest? These are questions to consider, along with gaining a fundamental knowledge of the delivery mediums.

Here are some of the marketing objectives you should consider:

  • Search engine optimization, which is essential to driving new patients to your website
  • Providing information that shows the benefits of adhering to a treatment plan
  • Providing information helpful to your existing clients
  • Increasing your client base through referrals

Here are some of the social media platforms that are most successful in attracting new clients and retaining existing clients:

Facebook

Facebook is one of the most popular mediums for people to connect and share their experiences. Consequently, it has become an essential marketing tool for attracting new clients and keeping existing clients engaged. A well designed Facebook Business Page is easy to maintain, and with good content, can reach many new potential clients. Through sharing pet photos, upcoming events, heart-warming pet stories, and information of interest to pet owners, you give social media users the opportunity to share, like, and comment on your page. When users interact positively with your page, it shows their trust in your veterinary care, a definite advantage in bringing new business to your practice.

A Blog

Having a blog on your website gives you an extremely effective tool for communicating with your clients to disseminate information on a variety of subjects. It gives you the opportunity of keeping them updated on the latest veterinary technology, new products you might have available, promotions, community events, new services offered, and more. You can share information on pet care, specific treatments, pet industry news, and personal interest stories on your veterinary team. Blogs can be enhanced with photos and videos as well.

A blog on your site is a valuable tool for expanding on the services you offer, giving the reader a more comprehensive understanding of your practice, and the philosophy behind it. This can further enhance the probability of acquiring new clientele.

To maintain a successful blog, it is important to keep it current by updating regularly, at least every week or two. Either set aside a time to update it yourself, or employ a staff member who enjoys writing. Another option is to hire a professional blogger from a company with expertise in the veterinary industry who can manage the blog for you. The more fresh & relevant content that is added to your site on a regular basis, the better. This will have a positive impact on your search engine rankings, and give you a powerful online presence.

Instagram

Instagram is a powerful platform for creating visual content for your veterinary practice. Many refer to Instagram as a high engagement platform, since it allows you to connect with pet owners, listen to their feedback, and build relationships through meaningful conversations. You can share a photo of a new veterinary service and then ask your clients for feedback. Creating professional-looking images to promote your veterinary services and highlight your practice has never been easier or more affordable.

The final result is a visual platform that is doing more than just generating engagement, it will also drive new patient acquisition.

If you’re new to Instagram check out this tutorial.

Twitter

Twitter is an excellent marketing tool for communicating time sensitive information quickly in just a few words. It also offers another medium for connecting with clients and other veterinarians. Share updates on events, special offers, and more. Because Twitter is interactive, you get instant feedback that allows you to discern customer needs, and answer questions immediately. With just a few minutes to spare, you can reach many potential clients in your area.

To gain the most from your Twitter account, post often, with topics of interest to pet owners. Keep an eye out for interesting tweets that relate to your industry, then retweet if you feel your following will be interested. Always remember to link back to your website and Facebook page when you post. Follow Twitter accounts that relate to veterinary practice, pet related blogs or interests, pet products, etc. Use keywords, links, and informative or trending topics to grab the reader’s attention.

YouTube

You might think of YouTube as a network for creating or watching videos, but it is also a powerful search engine. In fact, it is the second largest search engine worldwide. Users can watch videos of interest you create, then follow the link to your site. Pet videos garner a great deal of interest. By posting videos of innovative treatments that bring healing to specific pet ailments, pet owner testimonials, or perhaps happy animal patients you’ve successfully treated, you can increase awareness of your practice. If your clients enjoy your video content, they’ll likely share it with friends through their social networks. Btw – You don’t need a slick (expensive) setup. Check this smart and effective way to start capturing your practice footage.

Contests, Promotions, and Sweepstakes

All the social media platforms available to you can be utilized for running promotions, contests, and sweepstakes. This can be a powerful way to make your business more visible to the community, engage current clients, and reach prospective clients. Facebook is the perfect network for this form of marketing. Think of the potential! ‘Cutest kitten contest,’ ‘Enter to win a free pet spa day,’ the ideas are limitless.

When marketing through contests and sweepstakes, be certain to abide by the rules regarding online contests. Make sure to monitor and stay within Facebook guidelines and follow government regulations. Be certain your contest platform allows you to collect contact details of all those who enter your contest or sweepstakes since this is imperative for marketing to them in the future.

Establish Your Marketing Objectives

To get the most out of your social media platforms, it is important to have an explicit objective for your marketing campaign. Once you’ve firmly set your intentions, you can make the most of what each social media platform has to offer.

Aug 24
Love1

5 Keys to Creating a Successful Veterinary Website

By Veterinary
You may be saying to yourself, “there is so much more to building and maintaining a successful veterinary website than just these 5 things!” And we agree. However, we feel these are 5 areas that should not be compromised on in any way. Take a look through our top 5 and then let us know what you think!

1. Contemporary, Professional Design

At least 50% of potential clients judge the professionalism and credibility of a business based on website design. Your veterinary website should be clean and professionally designed so that it makes a positive first impression. It should be immediately recognizable as a veterinary practice; retain continuity in design, color scheme, and content; and employ images that accurately depict the demographics you serve, as well as the animals/breeds you treat.

2. Elements that Garner Trust

Before people are willing to entrust the care of their beloved pets to a veterinarian, they need to feel as though they know something about him or her. Most importantly, the veterinarian’s credentials and experience, but also some more personal aspects of their life. There are many ways to impart this important information. A doctor’s bio, including photos, is an excellent way to encourage a sense of trust. It should be concise, keeping to relevant information, such as education, personal hobbies, family, and perhaps why the doctor was drawn to their profession. It is also advantageous to relay some information about the veterinary staff, along with photos.

Testimonials and reviews are extremely helpful for creating a level of trust in potential clients. Be sure to make some popular review sites available to your current clients as well, and encourage them to write a positive review that will encourage potential clients to make that first appointment.

3. Multiple Ways for Potential Clients to Contact You

Every page of your site should include contact information, clearly visible in the upper right-hand corner. This is where visitors automatically look to find it. Make contacting you as effortless as possible. Don’t allow people to feel the slightest level of frustration. Encourage contact with a ‘call to action’, such as, “Call for an Appointment Today!” Include location, Google map, office hours, phone number, and a link to your online inquiry form.

4. Perfect Coding

As important as design is to a successful website, the way it is developed is equally, if not more essential. If pages are loading slowly, or links don’t always connect, your credibility and professionalism are destroyed. Potential clients will quickly log out of your site and continue their search for a veterinarian elsewhere. It’s also imperative that your site is mobile-responsive. More often than not, today’s internet users conduct their searches on smartphones. Your website design needs to adapt to the smaller screen of mobile devices.

If you would like to find out how your website measures up, you can click here to use Google’s free mobile-friendly test tool. If your site is non-responsive, you’ll quickly realize how detrimental that can be to bringing new clients to your practice. In an effort to force website owners to keep up with the mobile first world we live in, Google recently implemented a new algorithm which gives preference to responsive sites. That means that if your site is not mobile-friendly, you’re losing an incredible amount of search engine traffic, which equates to lost revenue.

5. SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the optimal way of making your website more visible on Google and other search engines. With this tool working in your favor, when people search for veterinarians in your area, your site will rank high. Increasingly, Google is used by people to locate veterinary services. They often don’t scroll any further than the first page. Organic clicks go to the first three top-ranked sites. To take advantage of this tool, do the following:

  1. Add your practice to local listings. Major search engines offer free business listings. This means your veterinary practice will show up in results for your city. This is totally free and generates traffic to your site. Use keywords in your web content to alert search engines that your site has valuable information for the user. Come up with short phrases or words that users might enter into the search engine when looking for veterinarians or related services.
  2. Consider adding a blog. This will allow you to add multiple keywords and more content. If you are unable to keep up with adding blogs on a regular basis, consider asking one of the staff, or hiring a freelance writer to update your blog once every week or so.
  3. Use back links. Websites that employ them rank higher. One of the best ways to generate them is to join online industry forums where you can engage and perhaps answer questions. Or link to other relevant businesses and have them link to your site as well. If you have a business page on Facebook, Yelp, Angie’s List, LinkedIn, or any other popular business directories, then ensure your URL is linked from those pages to your website.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can use these tools in your own veterinary internet marketing, contact us today. Our internet consultants will provide a free website analysis and help you understand how to bring in more business from your online presence.

Aug 16
Love1

5 Keys to Success in Business

By Business

In a recent interview with Jesse and Rebecca Davis, co-founders of ViziSites, Jesse detailed the things that he attributes their success to thus far. Simply stated, it came down to 5 things. Family, and 4 valuable character attributes: gratitude, a student mentality, consistency, and competition.

Here’s what he said…

My family has been with me during the ups and downs of this entrepreneurial journey. The initial hurdles of running a successful business can be daunting, however, your family and close friends will sustain you. ViziSites is successful because of the strong support of our network.

Gratitude will keep your thoughts positive even when things get very tough. Dealing with negativity and anxiety is very common in the corporate setting. I’ve found that having authentic gratitude eliminates these inferior feelings.

Maintain a student mentality, always learning. Understand that the market is always changing, you must be humble enough to adapt to new ideas and strategies. Have humility and listen to your clients, they are the ones on the ground floor, they will have experienced industry trends before you can act on them. This mindset will keep you in the forefront of other consultants in the industry.

Consistency is key in a world that lacks follow up. Many aspiring businessmen and women give up before reaching their goal. Pick up the phone, make another call, close the deal! This mentality is extremely important for all aspects of our company. Day to day, we work hard to execute with grace and professionalism.

Competition means setting goals and meeting them. If you are not executing, then you are simply not competing. Having deep willpower and the drive to be number one is extremely important. A strong work ethic often comes from the day to day grind of competition.

Interview by Jesse Davis, Co-Founder and CEO
Email | Connect on LinkedIn

Aug 09
Love9

The Family Behind ViziSites

By Business

In a world increasingly filled with large corporations, we feel there is a lot to be said for the value you find in working with a family business. ViziSites is the brainchild of Jesse & Rebecca Davis, who founded the company in the spring of 2013. Ever since then, they have been growing a team of people who are motivated by a passion to make small businesses more successful online.

Where did this idea come from? How do they keep driving the business forward and setting the bar for veterinary internet marketing while keeping a happy family life? As someone who has watched it grow from nearly it’s inception, I thought there would be lots of fun tidbits of information and wisdom that our readers would appreciate in the ViziSites story.

So, I sat down with Rebecca and Jesse to have a candid conversation about where ViziSites started, where it is now, and where they want to go.

Taking a Risk

In the spring of 2013, Jesse had spent the last 6 years working for one of the internet marketing industry leaders, helping to build the team. He had launched 2 brands for 2 different companies and through that process, realized there were key elements missing from the market that could be filled using the skill sets he had acquired, and a little bit of risk.

His wife, Rebecca, wasn’t quite as convinced at first. “Oh my… I was a little worried to be honest. He is the risk taker, I am very conservative and calculated so I was not the type to just jump into things and leave a good paying job to start a company that I wasn’t sure would pan out. But that’s when trust comes in. He had the experience and I knew he had the ability to do it and make it work. I was just worried about how we were going to pay our bills in the meantime. I trusted him implicitly and it worked out!”

What was your mission when you started ViziSites?

[Jesse] “The standard corporate answer is that I knew the market was oversold and under delivered. There was a hole that needed to be filled, and we knew that our idea would blossom and ViziSites would take off. The more interesting answer, is that my wife and I created ViziSites to free the constraints of the corporate scene that was both taking up our time and offering us limited financial freedom. It was our time.”

Is that mission the same today, 5 years later?

[Rebecca] “Our mission hasn’t changed. The reason we started this was because we noticed a real need for high quality websites to be priced more affordably. High end websites can cost 5 or 10 thousand and that deters business owners from investing in one. Affordability without compromising quality – that’s been our mission from the beginning.”

What are your favorite things about working in this industry?

Jesse has worked in internet marketing for over 10 years, starting with a company called VetMatrix. The experiences he had building a team there, and in other positions since provided valuable perspectives on both personal and professional development. In both aspects of the business – helping the team and helping clients, Jesse found that he loves “helping people reach their goals! Even with the task of building ViziSites, I still look forward to the day to day interactions with our staff. I believe that this core belief of wanting to help people permeates my life. We have been fortunate to build a team that truly wants to help small business owners achieve their goals. Our team understands the peaks and valleys that entrepreneurs are faced with on a daily basis. Sharing this vision with our clients and then executing on a successful marketing campaign builds lifelong partnerships and ultimately friendships.”

What many might perceive as daunting in this industry is actually what a lot of people who work in internet marketing thrive off of. In the office, we often say that we are a team of extreme perfectionists and obsessive researchers. Funny enough, this is just the thing that makes Rebecca love the job. “My favorite thing about this industry is it’s never boring because the internet is constantly evolving. Right when you think you’ve learned it all and you’ve nailed Google’s requirements, something changes, so it keeps it exciting. We pride ourselves on staying ahead of the curve so our research and learning is never-ending. I love that part of the business, it keeps us on our toes.”

What is your favorite thing about working with your clients?

Jesse often uses a phrase with the team: “stay in your lane” – we are not trying to be renaissance men, rather a team of elite specialists who excel in their individual fields. By doing this, we can each take pride in our piece of the puzzle. Our clients notice this, too, and Rebecca loves that about them. “Our clients trust us completely and do whatever we recommend. They know we are the experts and they don’t fight that. There is truly an appreciation for what we do and they want our help, so we end up establishing such a solid relationship with most of our clients that they end up feeling like an extension of our family.”

To what do you attribute your success so far?

Jesse attributes the success of ViziSites to 5 main things: family, gratitude, a student mentality, consistency, and competition. He had so many good things to say about this that we put them up in a separate post – “5 Keys to Success in Business“!

Rebecca appreciates the well known Ryunosuke Satoro quote “‘individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean’, I can say from personal experience that that is the truth. No one member of our team can succeed in this business by themselves. It takes a focused group of people with individual strengths and talents and when combined together it equals something so powerful that success is inevitable. Also I should add that if it weren’t for my risk taking husband, Jesse, we wouldn’t be here talking today!”

What has it been like working together during this time? Do you have any advice for other families or married couples going into business together?

Rebecca and Jesse both have learned that as a business owner, it’s easy for work to take over your life and become something you eat, breath and sleep. “We often talk about the business 24/7, and with that said, it’s really important to make time for date nights and quality bonding away from work – with each other and with the family…it’s quite the balancing act. My advice to other couples is to remember not to live to work, but work to live. Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. We are on our 6th year working together and we haven’t killed each other yet so we must be doing something right!”

Jesse seconded that, “Rebecca and I have been married for almost twenty years! If we can do that, we can do anything!”

Tell us about your kids – what do they think of the business? Do they want to be involved?

Rebecca started us off, “oh gosh, it’s so funny…Our 15 year old said that he wants to eventually be our CFO. He has always been a math whiz. So he tries to sell us on the fact that we need to move him into this position because he’s going to ‘improve our bottom line’. Our 6 year old, the youngest and only girl strongly believes she is going to take over the company one day. She says ‘I’m going to be everybody’s boss!’ – she’s a high achiever so I don’t doubt that she can be a success.”

Many might assume that starting off a family business in their home would have been detrimental to the family dynamic. On the contrary, kick-starting the business out of their home proved to be a great learning opportunity for the kids. It also provided a chance for Rebecca and Jesse to show them what it took to make a dream come true. Jesse explains, “it started off as a dream, we formulated an idea, and that idea was really incubated inside our home. Our entire family was a part of the growth of ViziSites… the kids saw our hardships and everything. This influenced each of our kids in a different way – they have thought about how they might use their skills in the business at a later date, and it’s really exciting for us to see our kids show interest and excitement in the family business.”

How do you think your personal interests and priorities have played a role in your business decisions, if any?

[Jesse] “Our faith as a family has led to a strong foundation as it relates to ethics, morals and integrity. It permeates our lives as a family and has been a natural extension in our business. We feel our clients benefit because of that. Our entire 6 person family is also involved in various sports. We practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai, and are just generally an active family. We’ve gained strong will power, a healthy sense of competition and character through practicing martial arts together.”

When it’s time to take a break from work, what do you do as a family?

I have to say I loved the excitement from both of them in answering this question. You can really see the appreciation they have for a work:life balance. As part of the team, I really appreciate the emphasis they place on this for the entire company. “It depends on the season! In the summer we’re at the beach or the pool and working out. During winter we’re on the mountains snowboarding – even our 6 year old loves snowboarding, too! In the spring or fall we go camping or take road trips. Oh! I have to tell you about one of my favorite memories! One summer it was our goal to hit a different beach every weekend, we couldn’t repeat beaches. It was a way to discover new amazing spots in San Diego that we never knew about and add variety. The kids loved it!”

You can truly see the effect this has on the entire family. Jesse added, “if we have any free time at all, we spend it with our family. We aren’t out partying leaving the kids… Rebecca and I spend every bit of time that we have off with the kids, and that has brought us closer together.”

“It’s kept our family tight.”

If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting their own business – what would it be?

Rebecca and Jesse’s individual styles of running a business resonate in the bits of wisdom they shared in our closing question. Jesse is without fail the risk-taking entrepreneur always ready to push the limits. “I believe the entrepreneur is one that takes calculated risks. There is a saying that has always resonated with me, which is, ‘fail forward fast’. I wish everyone success in their endeavors!”

On the flip side, Rebecca finds benefit in techniques that have stood the test of time. “Find a mentor who has done it before you and done it well. Whoever that person is will be able to guide you through hard decisions on the journey. We have mentors who are now on our board of directors and they have been invaluable.”

The balance of their personalities has really proven to be the yin & yang for this business – we are all truly looking forward to the things to come in ViziSites’ near future!

Interview by Cassandra Parsons, Director of Client Experience
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Interview with Jesse & Rebecca Davis, Co-Founders of ViziSites
Connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn | Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn

Jun 26
Love2

Trade Show Exhibiting: A Day in the Life

By Business

Packing and shopping and selling, oh my!

As our team is busy preparing for the AVMA Convention starting on July 14 in Denver, we are reminded of all of the checklists, deadlines and orders that are involved in exhibiting at a conference. Many industries have trade shows, conferences, or the like for industry experts to learn about or sell new products. These shows happen all over the world, in all kinds of industries. For those of you that have not had the pleasure to go to one (as an exhibitor or attendee), we thought it would be fun to give a little bit of insight into what a show week might look like for an exhibitor.

Enjoy reading through a typical “day in the life” of an exhibitor, and if you are planning on attending the AVMA Convention – don’t forget to stop by and say hi! You can find our smiling ViziFolk team at booth #932!

Day 1

7:00am
Wake up, text your coworkers in other rooms to see if they’re awake yet. They’re not, so go back to sleep. You did travel all day yesterday, after all.

8:00am
Wake up for real this time or you’ll have to rock your “I woke up like this look” which, quite frankly, isn’t a good one.

10:00am
Drive all over the place picking up the last minute items needed for a successful show – candy, gifts, carpet, copies of forms… are we forgetting something? I feel like we’re forgetting something.

5:00pm-9:00pm
Do a full day’s worth of work in 4 hours – a tradeshow doesn’t mean we can keep our clients waiting!

Day 2: Exhibit Set Up Day!

9:00am
Load the car (which is really only meant for 4 people’s worth of weekend-luggage) with our backdrop, tables, tablecloths, monitors, computers, lights, gifts, carpet, candy, giveaways, and all the odds and ends that we bought yesterday. Somehow squeeze ourselves into the car along with all of the aforementioned supplies…

11:00am
Start setting up exhibit. That part goes a little something like this:

Day 3: 1st Day of Show!

8:00am
Walk onto show floor, ready to conquer the world. Set up booth. Drink your coffee. And begin.

9:00am
Talk to people. Over, and over, and over. Get them just as excited about your brand as you are, because after all, you have some of the best services and products to offer to this industry! Don’t just talk to business owners. Talk to consultants, bankers, other marketing representatives, giant companies, anyone you can get your hands on to tell them just how awesome your company is.

10:00am
*pause* Where’s the pens? Oh…that. That was the thing we were forgetting. Tell your team that we have to go to the store on the way to dinner to pick some up.

10:05am
Talk to people some more. You’re in the tech industry after all, you don’t need no stinking pens!

12:00pm
Lunch. Sit in the exhibitor lounge, and realize for the first time all day just how loud it is on the show floor. Embrace the quiet, take a few deep breaths and walk back onto the show floor, ready to conquer the world.

1:00pm
One of your clients comes to visit! After they tell you how happy they’ve been with the service so far, remember to ask them for a video testimonial. Those look something like this:

Day 5: 3rd Day of Show

*repeat*

4:00pm
Realize you have been on your feet so much that your shoes are now separated from the sole… tell your team that you have to go to the store on the way to dinner to buy new shoes. Decide you are going to start investing in better shoes after this show.

6:00pm
After buying new shoes, go to dinner and celebrate an already successful show, because you know you won’t have time to celebrate when you get home (it’s going to get busier, after all!)

ViziSites Team Member with a Visiting ClientDay 6: LAST DAY!

8:00am
Walk onto show floor, ready to conquer the world. Set up booth. Drink your coffee. And begin.

10:30am
Talk to a very important attendee that came back to see you because you made such an impression on them last year that they want to know more. Try to contain your excitement… at least until they are out of earshot.

2:30pm
Tear down the exhibit… Donate the table and chairs, give away the last of your candy to every passerby you meet, and once again, fit a clown-car’s worth of equipment + 4 people in a car that magically seemed to still have room.

5:30pm
Arrive at airport. Check baggage, run into someone who recognizes your team from the show, and board the plane.

6:00pm
Pay for in-flight wi-fi because our clients can’t wait just because we are 30,000 feet in the air! Besides, if you take care of those emails now, you can go straight to bed when you get home.

7:30pm
Land. Pick up luggage, take a Lyft home, and sleep like you’ve never slept before. There are big things coming your way after all – you need your beauty rest!

  • trade show client visitors 2
  • trade show booth set up 2
  • trade show booth set up

At the end of the day, these shows are exhausting. But, they are also incredibly rewarding! There is nothing like the energy of a show floor, the excitement of the people you get to talk to, and the information you learn in the process. If you are a veterinarian, we hope to meet you at the AVMA Convention from July 14-16 in Denver – find us at booth #932! Want to talk before the show? You can contact us online anytime.

Written by Cassandra Parsons, Director of Client Experience
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Jun 12
Love2

A Bad Review! Now What?

By Marketing

The first time you get a negative customer review can be, well let’s face it, downright depressing! You can’t help but take it as a personal assault. Not to mention that it maligns your professionalism, or perhaps the professionalism of your staff. Worse, it is often visible on social media and internet services such as Google. So, after your initial negative reaction, how do you move forward with damage control?

Use It As A Tool to Improve

Don’t despair; it’s not the end of the world. In fact, you can use negative feedback as a tool for improving customer service, and believe it or not, build a more positive relationship with your clients. Now take a deep breath, and let’s analyze the reasons for bad reviews objectively, and how to take advantage of the opportunities they offer.

what to do with a bad review

To begin with, no matter how much you focus on providing the best client experience possible, there are bound to be disgruntled customers from time to time. The larger your clientele, the more likely you’ll experience some bad reviews, for whatever reason. It’s impossible to please everyone. Once you come to terms with that reality, you can look at the reviews with objectivity.

Here are some things to consider when dealing with negative reviews:

  1. You can’t always give a client the outcome they desire. There are times when their expectations are unrealistic. Often, this type of person will deal with their disappointment by posting a critical review, rather than voicing their opinions in person. This is bound to happen occasionally, especially because pet owners are emotionally invested in their pet’s well-being. Recognize that you’re not going to please clients 100% of the time.
  2. Satisfied clients don’t always write reviews. In other words, if you have some bad reviews, that’s to be expected, but you can’t expect happy clients to run home and get on the internet to write a glowing review. So how can their positive experience help you? Ask clients who express their gratitude for your care of their pet to help promote your practice by writing a good review. When prompted to do so, most grateful pet owners will be glad to show their appreciation online.
  3. There are negative people out there who don’t need a good reason to write a bad review. People like this might be looking for attention, or simply getting some sort of perverse pleasure from vilifying others. Their vitriolic words usually give away the fact that they’re simply individuals with an ax to grind with the world. So, try not to let them succeed by causing you distress.
  4. When you get negative feedback that you believe, upon review, has some merit, instead of reacting defensively, think about how you might learn from the experience. With a positive attitude, you can use the information to improve customer services. You’re not perfect, and neither is your staff. We all make mistakes or fall short of our best work occasionally. If you feel the client is justified in their response, reach out to them to make amends. Rather than losing a client, showing them that you are concerned over the situation and want to make things right, might foster a future loyal client who will sing your praises through social media.

can I get rid of bad reviewsSo, Here’s the Final Scoop

The last thing you want to do is actively campaign to remove negative reviews from your online presence. Don’t lose the opportunity to turn negative reviews into positive outcomes for both you and your clientele. Focus on identifying the cause of the problem, then put your efforts into coming up with a solution.

Listen

Listen to what your clients say, and respect their feelings. Being empathetic to what might have caused a client to complain, allows you to understand their perspective. This is the first step to resolving the issue and creating better customer relationships. Let them know that you care about their concerns and wish to make their experience positive.

Apologize

If you feel you have made a mistake, or there has been a misunderstanding, make an apology. Don’t defend your position or actions regarding the issue of contention. Nothing will make a client feel more vindicated than contrition on the part of you, or your staff.

Resolve

Attempt to bring about a satisfactory resolution to the problem as fast as possible. The sooner you put the issue to rest, the better it is for your internet brand. Respond publicly to online reviews in an empathetic and conciliatory tone. If you were unaware of the problem, ask questions that will help you better understand. Other clients and potential clients who are reading reviews, will see that you treat your customers with respect, and truly appreciate their concerns. The final impression you leave will be a positive one.

how to get good reviewsAnother beneficial outcome of responding to bad reviews in a positive, conciliatory way, is that very often the reviewer will feel sorry they dealt with things negatively. They can delete their review, or perhaps edit it to reflect the positive way in which you dealt with their concerns.

Garner Positive Reviews

Make the effort to garner as many positive reviews as possible from your client base. When you have a large number of good reviews, they will far outweigh the few bad reviews that inevitably come with the territory of online reviews. If you are using services such as Yelp and Amazon, actively seek to increase positive feedback there as well as on your social media platforms.

Don’t let the prospect of bad customer reviews cause you undue stress. By taking the time to assess the problem, respond in a positive way, and resolve the issue, you can turn a negative review into a positive marketing tool.

Written by Jesse Davis, CEO of ViziSites

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