What is true is that we’ve just been selected to create an identity and establish a Web presence for Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti-born biotech startup, DeNovo Sciences. (Now that’s our skill set.)

DeNovo Sciences has been getting a lot attention recently because they’re on the path towards being able to detect and capture cancer cells in the bloodstream before they find a landing site in the body and metastasize. As they say it:

We hope that this would one day lead to the holy grail of detecting cancer even before the discovery of  primary tumors.

Pretty cool, huh?

So is the fact that this local startup company is hiring a local company (us) to develop their brand with funding provided through Ann Arbor SPARK.

And this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s part of a movement.

There’s a whole lot of high tech entrepreneurship going on with support places like SPARK, Tech Transfer, and in labs, basements and small businesses around town. We think a flood of good news for the region is about to break.

And, even though Hile Design will never be the source of a life-changing medical or technological breakthrough, we think it’s pretty cool that we get to shine a spotlight on the folks that do.

In Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug gives a spot-on guide to website usability— all that stuff that helps visitors to your site find what they’re looking for. What Krug’s book doesn’t touch on is the relationship between usability and search engine optimization (SEO) —how visitors actually find your site in the first place.

I really don’t fault Krug for this (too much) since it’s not his area of primary expertise, and there’s plenty written elsewhere on SEO. Still, a nod to SEO might have been nice since some principles of usability that Krug advocates can appear to be in conflict with best practices in SEO.

If you’ve read Krug’s book along with a few guides to SEO, you probably know what I mean.

The current maxim for SEO is “content is king” with textual content sitting high atop the searchability throne. If you want search engines to find your site, you need good copy. A picture may say a thousand words to most of us, but to bat-blind Web crawlers, a picture only whispers whatever you can squeeze into its alt tag.

In contrast, to make sites more user-friendly, Krug suggests you “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.” (Cue hearty shouts of approval from graphic designers everywhere.)

When less is more and when less is just less

In my first fresh-out-of-a-college writing job, I was confronted with a harsh reality: the 12 pages of brilliant verbosity in my college essays as an English major was not necessarily going to be rewarded in the business world. I’d just written my first article for the agency magazine, and I proudly passed it on to the graphic designer. It was promptly returned with “You need to cut at least 500 words to fit the page” written on top. How could I cut 500 words from perfection? And for what? “White space”?

Left with no alternative, I began the painful task of cutting my precious copy. I cut and reworded and cut and rephrased. When I was done, something miraculous happened: the fluorescent light above my cube glowed a little brighter as I realized my article was actually better, not worse. I hadn’t amputated any limbs — I’d performed lyposcution and lost the excess fat.

I think what Krug is advocating for is simply good writing. Unfortunately, the Web isn’t always the place to find this. With the lack of physical limitations like paper size, and the speed with which content is generated, the time and motivation to write tight-skinned copy is in short supply. Couple this with a sloppy understanding of SEO and “more” can feel like value added when, in fact, more is mess.

What’s a writer to do? Know thy audience(s)!

Fortunately, most of the principles of writing well apply to both SEO and usability. The key is to remember who you’re writing to. Every good writer knows that “identifying the audience” is step one. For writing on the Web, you have two audiences: the visitors who will use your site and the search engines who will drive them there. Do your due diligence on both. By researching what terms people actually use to find your products/services, you can make educated decisions about what terms are key (avoiding less is less) and what are superfluous (avoiding more is mess).

Consider the following examples of copy for RickySticky Widgets, a small company that helps users improve the performance of their Quicky Stickets:

Example 1:

In order to improve and enhance the quality of the performance, efficiency and speed of your Quicky Stickets, try our newly redesigned and highly innovative RickySticky Widgets which are the trusted and proven source to provide the perfect cutting-edge solution to resolve your Quicky Stickets’ performance issues. Buy your RickySticky Wickets Today!

Problem: the writer is making SEO the enemy of usability by cramming in every searchable keyword he can think of including many that are likely low-value. He loses clarity, and readers, in the process.

Example 2:

Buy our new RickySticky Widgets.

Problem: This is quite usable for a visitor who knows exactly what they’re looking for (and many will), but, with the important search term “Quicky Stickets” omitted, how many visitors searching for “Quicky Stickets” will never reach the page?

Example 3:

Newly redesigned for 5x greater efficiency, our second generation RickySticky Widgets are guaranteed to optimize Quicky Widget performance.  Shop online

Much better: This includes a few high-quality search terms but doesn’t overwhelm hurried shoppers with so much text that it obscures the action (i.e., “shop online”).

The good news is nearly all principles used to optimize a Web site for usability (alt tags, titles, clear navigation, etc.) are also things search engines reward. Which audience your site copy is most heavily weighted for (visitors or search engines) will depend on how well established your site and brand already is. And, if you want to have a bit more freedom in how much you write and a place to be a little freer with keywords, start a blog like this one. If I’d written the above advice on a page of the Hile Design site, it’d probably of kept it to 50 words or less. (Hint: notice how many keywords related to good Web design are included in this post.)

Poetry and fiction may be more personal works, thus requiring seclusion from the distraction of others. But agency copywriting is a different ball game altogether.

Marketing writing is a form of communication that is constantly evolving, and to be successful copywriters need to be actively involved with others. I have learned a few things from my experience in writing copy for Hile:

1. Swallow your pride. As a young writer in the advertising world I had to learn very quickly that not everything my creative little fingers typed out was gold. Writing copy for a website or a script for a video is not your personal memoir, so take a dose of humility and make adjustments, edits, and rewrites where the client wants them.
2. Respect the input of others. An advertising agency is a diverse community; there are designers, programmers, project managers, copywriters, etc. When your writing is under review (and it will be) don’t discount the critique of the web programmer just because he took fewer English courses than you in college.
3. The more perspectives the better. Think of the workplace as a microcosm for the larger, diverse communities of people that will eventually read your writing. So, send your copy to more than just your boss for review. This doesn’t mean you need to adhere to every single suggestion that you get back, but it will give you a better idea of how your work will be read by the public and the client.
4. Designers are your friends. Marketing materials are composed of both images and words, and the best kind happen when words and images are married to form a happy union that we dub “advertising.” As the writer, it is crucial that you work with the designer rather than simply expect him or her to create images that conform to your writing.
5. Don’t always expect a high-five. Writing is a personal endeavor because it is a form of intimate creation. It is also a measuring stick of your intelligence and creativity. But, just because the copy you wrote for that coffee company brochure is riddled with metaphor and alliteration, don’t always anticipate getting a pat on the back. Writing for the media is a job, and while it’s nice for good work to be recognized, don’t take every project as a personal appraisal of your worth as a writer.

In the words of the poet Richard Tillinghast, “humility is naturally rare, particularly among young writers, for whom the value of doing something remarkable is vastly increased when they can say it only took them fifteen minutes.”

Writing for the media is not about sitting down at your computer and producing a masterpiece of copy in “fifteen minutes.” In fact, no type of writing should be about quick and easy creation. Working in an advertising agency is a good way to learn that the best copywriting comes from collaborating with the people around you, whether through requesting editing and revision, a wider range of perspectives, or a simple dose of inspiration.

Maggie Tibus is the Copywriting Intern at Hile Design.

As I peruse LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ as well as other professional social sites I see marketing people describing themselves as Visionaries, Gurus, Luminaries and Pioneers. There are enough people out there labeling themselves as such that I can’t help but think, “C’mon, all these people can’t be Visionaries!” Besides, “Visionary” and “Guru” are such subjective titles—especially when ascribed to oneself. And for whatever reason, most of the people describing themselves with these monikers seem to be involved in the social media arena, which seems ironic.

As far as I know Albert Einstein never described himself as a genius. He left that to others. Albert Schweitzer, one of the greatest humanitarians in history, never considered himself such. In the arts Marlon Brando pretty much singlehandedly redefined acting, delivering a realism that forever changed the industry. But in interviews he described himself just a working actor, and nothing more. The great writer Ernest Hemmingway…. uh, wait a minute. He was a brilliant writer, but a braggart and a lout. My point is that we who are involved in marketing and social media consistently remind our clients that they need to be authentic, and not make subjective claims. As marketing Guru (my assigned term for) Marty Neumeier so eloquently states in his insightful book Zag, “Your personal reputation, like a company’s brand, lies outside your control. It’s not who you say it is­–it’s what THEY say it is.”

So, what attracts us to a company’s brand, or a person for that matter? How about honesty, authenticity and (dare I say) humility? Imagine if I saw you in a café and wanted to get to know you better professionally. Perhaps I knew that you were in charge of marketing for your company and in need of creative services. My best opening line might be something like, “Hi, I’m Dave Hile and I’ve heard a lot of great things about what you’ve been doing with your company XYZ. If you are ever looking for a creative firm to work with, please consider Hile Design. We would love to come in and meet with you. Some of our clients within your industry include…” Now compare that line to, “Hi, I am Dave Hile and I’m a marketing GURU! My pioneering efforts…blah, blah, blah.” OK, my example was a bit over the top, but I am making a point. Shouldn’t we use the same etiquette defining ourselves on professional social sites that we do when meeting someone face to face? I believe corporate and personal humility is a virtue that others are drawn to. So when I meet with prospective new clients I usually mention that I can arrange to have them speak with three or four of the existing clients we serve. I will leave it to our clients to define the value of working with us. (I know—when I talk about humility and hand out advice, I run the risk of not sounding humble!)

To clarify, I am not defining humility as a sappy, self-deprecating, fake modesty. If I weren’t totally convinced that my company and I weren’t providing significant expertise to move our clients forward and increase their sales, I ought to get out of the business. My point is that I can say whatever I want about our expertise, but in the end others will be the ones who will define my company’s talents and effectiveness.

Finally, the value of humility, whether corporate or personal, leads to the ability to continue learning. Have you ever been to a Twitter page, whether for a company or an individual, that has thousands of followers but chooses to follow only a few others? Whether true or not, it conveys that they want to speak and be heard, but they aren’t particularly interested in hearing what others have to say. I’ve been in the ad business for nearly 30 years and I am still (happily) learning every day, and often from people decades younger than me. Beyond listening to and learning from others, humility makes good business sense. In Jim Collins’ landmark book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, his main definer of what separates truly great companies from so-so companies or companies that don’t stand the test of time is corporate humility, from top management on down.

I apologize to any of my industry peers, whom I may have offended with this blog post. You may indeed be a Guru. But I definitely am not—unless you say I am.

Hile Design: Can you share a bit more about Lisa’s background, and tell us more specifically about what your company does today?

Oneupweb: Prior to Oneupweb, Lisa attended college with a focus on commercial advertising photography, worked as a forensic photographer, a mounted policewoman in Florida, and was a pretty serious musher with her own sled-dog team in Alaska. When she stopped racing competitively, she started a guided tour business. People would visit Alaska to learn how to mush dogs, and Lisa would act as their guide. In 1996, she wanted to bring in more business, so she went to Wal-Mart, bought a computer and taught herself how to use it. Word spread that she knew how to design websites, and the customers started pouring in. But they wanted their websites seen by more people, so Lisa methodically went about figuring out how to make that happen. The result was Oneupweb, a search marketing company. A few years ago the company moved to Traverse City, and just last year we moved into our new 23,000 square foot global headquarters on Grand Traverse Bay.

Today, Oneupweb is a recognized leader in digital marketing, providing services that include: natural search engine optimization (SEO), paid search marketing (PPC), conversion improvement and analytics, podcast production, online media planning and placement, social media marketing and search marketing consultation for in-house marketing teams.

HD: SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a service many companies ask about but may not fully understand. What are some common misconceptions about SEO and how does your company differ from others that offer SEO services?

OUW: One of the biggest misconceptions we deal with is the misconception of what SEO is today. With the introduction of blended search, it’s not just about optimizing a website or placing a pay per click ad-although those are still very important. The major search engines are now indexing news sites, videos, blogs, photos, social profiles and podcasts as well. Companies who want to be successful with SEO in 2009 will understand the importance of integration.

How we differ is something we constantly ask ourselves. Yes, we offer some pretty great services. But how we really differ is in who we are. The culture at Oneupweb is like no other. We’re fun, outgoing and we have that strong Midwestern work ethic. And we tell it like it is. It’s all part of our human approach. We don’t automate everything like a lot of companies in our space. We believe skilled, professional oversight is needed for a truly successful and proactive digital campaign. And, we don’t believe in touting services unless we have the technology to support them-all of which is built in-house and can be customized as needed.

HD: One of the more interesting, and less well known, solutions you provide, is Eye Tracking Analysis. Tell us a little bit about it.

OUW: Eye tracking allows us to look at a website through the eyes of a typical visitor to literally see what on the page is attracting them-and what’s not. To get into the nitty gritty, we actually track the physiological movements of the human eye and analyze the psychological implications of those movements. Then we use that information to make the necessary adjustments to website design and usability to help our clients increase conversions.

HD: How has social media marketing (like podcasting, My Space and Facebook, blogging, Wikipedia, and YouTube) changed the fabric of marketing, and how can companies tap into it?

OUW: Marketing and advertising are no longer about talking at your customer-it’s about talking with them. Let’s face it, people are going to talk, and they’re going to talk about your brand. It’s important for companies to know what’s being said about them, and to join in the conversation. Companies should be monitoring social media channels. And now is the time to truly get engaged. Decide which social media outlets are right for you-it’s not always a Facebook or MySpace page. And remain active. Create a company blog that you update regularly, shoot a YouTube video, start a podcast. There’s a million different ways to get involved, and with blended search results, it’s more important than ever to tap into it. Just make sure you have the time and resources needed to dedicate to your social media efforts. And it never hurts to hire a company that specializes in that sort of thing.

HD: We know that many large corporations invest a lot of their marketing budget in online advertising, but many of our clients are small to mid-sized firms. What are a couple of simple steps smaller companies can take to increase their online presence, and what kinds of mistakes do companies (large and small) make in this area?

OUW: First, check your natural search positions. Where does your business show up on Google when you type in words that describe what you do or sell? If your market is local, include the name of your city or area. Prices for localized keywords can be pretty affordable. Then, setup a blog for your business, submit your site to Google Maps and be sure that you are using the same branding messages online and off. You can also evaluate your website’s usability (design, navigation, checkout) to ensure it’s working for you, and not against you.

Many companies think that online marketing is a set-it and forget-it thing. They think if the site’s been optimized, it will stay that away. Which is entirely untrue. Online, things can change overnight-and positions drop. When that happens, business tails off quickly. So online marketing is an ongoing commitment.

HD: We know you are experts at helping your clients with their online marketing, but how do you approach marketing your own company? Are you strictly advertising online, or do you tap into other advertising media such as direct mail, print advertising, trade shows and seminars, etc.?

OUW: We market Oneupweb both online and off. Online we engage in natural search engine optimization, paid search marketing, social media, online pr, podcasting, online advertising/banner ads and more-we preach integration, and we follow it ourselves. We also reinforce that message through print ads, direct mail, the occasional trade show and more. We’ve even been known to do a radio ad or two.

HD: Gaze through your crystal ball and tell us in broad strokes where you think online marketing is headed?

OUW: Search has changed. As we invent more technologies, and provide consumers with more ways to interact digitally, online marketing will continue to change. Those that realize that, and prepare for it, will be successful. Pay attention to the digital world that surrounds you, and evolve with it.

HD: Your offices are beautiful, and you are situated right on Grand Traverse Bay. How in the heck to you get any work done in the summer?

OUW: A strong Midwestern work ethic. That, and summer hours.

To learn more about Oneupweb and their services, visit their website at: http://www.oneupweb.com.