You built the website and landing pages, but inquiries never come in. You're spending on ads, but the ROI is invisible. This is a frustration shared by many small and mid-sized business owners. Today we spoke with Mr. Maruyama, representative of TM Project LLC — a practitioner who has helped multiple companies grow their revenue through AI-powered customer acquisition funnels built around landing page production, video editing, and YouTube channel management. He shared the full essence of the "web strategy that sells," shaped by seven years of hands-on experience.
Mr. Maruyama Representative of TM Project LLC. Based in Kanagawa, Japan. Specializes in landing page production, video editing, and YouTube channel management, delivering AI-powered marketing support across industries. Equally fluent in copywriting and design, with a strong track record in real estate, recruitment, and education. His wife is also a designer, and they collaborate on creative projects as a couple. Seven years in the industry.
Building a Website or Landing Page Is Just the Beginning — Without a Strategy, Nothing Changes
—— Could you start by telling us what your business does today?
My core focus is landing page production, combined with YouTube channel management, social media setup support, and designing customer acquisition funnels powered by AI. In the past, I offered individual skills — design, copywriting, video editing — as separate services. Now I've consolidated everything under a single axis: how to use AI to generate leads efficiently, with reproducible results.
—— So just creating a landing page or a video isn't enough to get results?
Exactly. A landing page on its own doesn't work. What matters is building a funnel by combining the landing page with video. You build awareness and trust through YouTube, then convert that audience into inquiries and purchases through the landing page. Designing that complete flow is what makes sustainable customer acquisition possible.
In one real estate company we supported, we hit 500,000 impressions within three months of launching the channel — and inquiries increased 30 to 40 times over. With a fraction of the ad spend. YouTube has what I'd call "asset value." Content you create once keeps generating leads for months and even years. That's something advertising can never give you.
AI Makes It Possible to Run Landing Page A/B Tests in Minutes
—— Can you walk us through specifically how you're using AI?
The biggest shift in landing page production is the speed of design changes. In the past, if you wanted to redesign the hero section, you'd hand it off to a designer and wait days. Now you can give instructions to AI and have an entirely different landing page ready in minutes.
I showed a live demo of this: a landing page with a simple, monochrome gray design was reworked into a trend-forward visual — and it took a matter of minutes. Once you add the adjustments to keep it from looking too AI-generated — layout, imagery, tone of copy — you end up with something that's entirely ready for real-world use.
What this means is that the A/B testing cycle becomes dramatically faster. You swap out underperforming variants immediately and test the next hypothesis. The ability to run that PDCA loop at high speed is, I think, the single biggest advantage of AI-assisted landing page work today.
—— What mistakes do small and mid-sized companies most commonly make when considering a landing page?
The most common trap is making "building a landing page" the goal itself. A landing page is just one component of a customer acquisition funnel. If you want more inquiries, you first need a system that drives traffic to the page.
Separating design from copy is another major failure point. A page that looks great but doesn't get read is useless. A page that gets read but doesn't drive action is equally useless. Combining strong visuals with strong writing is the baseline condition for a landing page that actually converts.
Most Companies Still Don't Know What YouTube Can Do for Them
—— Could you go a bit deeper on using YouTube for customer acquisition?
Honestly, corporate use of YouTube is still in its early days. Especially among small business owners, there's a strong assumption that "YouTube is for individuals." But in reality, results are being achieved across all kinds of industries — real estate, recruitment, education, retail, and more.
Our standard plan is built around producing eight videos per month. Maintain that output for three months and you've built a customer acquisition funnel with hundreds of thousands of impressions — without any ad spend. And once a video is made, it compounds as an asset. The cost-to-performance ratio compared to advertising isn't even in the same league.
—— Does it work across all industries?
The fact that it works across industries is what makes YouTube acquisition so powerful. The critical variable is content planning — what you're actually saying. Delivering what your audience genuinely wants to know, tied to timely trends: when you get that right, you can scale consistently regardless of industry.
We also offer a full-commitment plan where we handle everything end-to-end — from strategy and production to landing page integration. It's a complete accompaniment model that includes everything from strategy development to LINE-based support, so business owners who aren't sure where to start can feel confident from day one.
Localization Is What Determines Whether Overseas Expansion Succeeds or Fails
—— Leap works on multilingual website production. How do you see the connection between what you do and what Leap does?
Hearing about Leap's work, I immediately felt that our business directions are very closely aligned. Especially the approach to localization. Rather than building a website based on a Japanese sensibility, you design with the language and context that resonates specifically with people in Singapore, or wherever your target market is. That thinking is exactly the same as asking "who are we delivering this to?" in landing page production.
In landing page work, a page built without accounting for the target audience's cultural background and purchasing psychology simply won't perform. A landing page that truly resonates makes the reader feel: "this was written for me." If you're expanding overseas, having that realized in the local language and with local visuals is the non-negotiable starting point.
—— What advice would you give to companies thinking about building websites and landing pages for overseas markets?
The first thing I want people to understand is that "translation" and "localization" are not the same thing. A site that's been translated into English won't reach overseas users. What actually drives inquiries and purchases is optimization to local standards — local search behavior, preferred visual styles, and the information structures that build trust. All of that has to be calibrated to how people in that market actually think and act.
In that sense, a system like Leap — where you can edit your website and landing pages through an AI chat interface — makes a lot of sense to me. If you can intuitively say "change this image" or "adjust the tone of this text for the local market" and have it happen, the precision and speed of localization improves dramatically.
What Seven Years of Work Has Revealed About Companies That Get Results
—— After supporting so many companies over the years, what do the ones that actually get results have in common?
Three things.
The first is consistency. It sounds obvious, but it's the hardest thing to maintain. Whether it's YouTube or the PDCA cycle on a landing page, you won't see results unless you commit to a three-month or six-month timeframe. Unfortunately, many companies quit after one month saying "it didn't work."
The second is not outsourcing production entirely. When you hand everything to an outside party, every revision takes time and the improvement cycle grinds to a halt. The ideal is: build strategy together, then outsource only the production. The business owner or manager needs to hold the vision, and the structure needs to support translating that vision into the work.
The third is not being afraid of AI. AI today is like the smartphone — it's simply a tool you have to learn to use. Whether you develop that skill determines whether the same time and cost produces completely different outcomes. Small and mid-sized businesses in particular stand to gain the most from AI-driven operational efficiency.
—— Finally, do you have a message for the small and mid-sized business owners and global expansion managers who are considering building a website or landing page?
Just start. Build something. Moving and iterating is always faster than waiting for perfection. A/B testing, localization optimization — all of it only functions when something is already live and in motion.
We're in an era where AI allows even a small-scale start to produce professional-level landing pages and content. If you're thinking about going global, the sooner the better. Building a globally-ready customer acquisition funnel before your competitors catch on is, I believe, the single greatest competitive advantage available to small and mid-sized businesses today.
To learn more about Mr. Maruyama's services and track record, contact TM Project LLC here.
