BY CALIN YABLONSKI

Transcription

1 5 CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF AN ONLINE LEAD GENERATION CAMPAIGN BY CALIN YABLONSKI

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS About the Author 3 Introduction 4 Who is this ebook for? 5 1. Local SEO: Gaining Visibility in Google s Search Results 6 2. Google Adwords: Matching Visibility to the Buying Cycle 8 3. Google Remarketing: Reactivating Previous Website Visitors Landing Pages: Increasing Conversions Review Acquisition: Managing Online Reputation 12 Wrap Up 13 2

3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Before we get into the good stuff, I think it s only fair that I introduce myself and explain what makes me the right person to talk about the intricacies of online marketing. My name is Calin Yablonski. I m a digital marketer and designer. Since 2009 I have been running Inbound Interactive, an online marketing agency in Alberta, Canada. I created Inbound with one objective in mind: To help businesses generate more revenue and exposure using the web. Today, 6 years and hundreds of projects later the company has grown into one of the Alberta s most trusted online marketing agencies. Inbound Interactive works with leading local businesses to create highly effective lead generation campaigns. We do it by developing actionable digital marketing strategies. Improving your business s visibility in Google s search results. And then, optimizing the performance of your website and landing pages. If you want to find out more, check out our site at: Or send me an at: calin@inboundinteractive.ca 3

4 INTRODUCTION The web has completely changed our behavior. We even use it to solve everyday problems now. Just think about the first thing you do when facing a burst pipe. Flat tire. Or when having to find a restaurant for a big family dinner. If you re like 97% of customers today, you turn to a search engine for help. And you rely on it to deliver solutions. Product or service recommendations. Business contact details. And even guide you to their premises, if needed. From a business point of view then, the Web gives companies the ability to position themselves right in front of people in their area looking for goods or services they sell. And then convert them into leads. But I bet you know all this already. But what you don t know is how this actually happens. With this ebook I intend to show you how to use the Web to drive leads to your business. I will also highlight the major components of the process. And help you understand what makes a successful lead generation campaign. 4

5 WHO IS THIS EBOOK FOR? Local Business Owners. If you own a local business and need to understand how your company could generate more leads from the web, this ebook is for you. Marketing Managers. If you re a marketing manager recently tasked with having to increase the number of online leads for your company, this publication will help you too. Agencies & Marketing Firms. If you re employed by (or run) a marketing agency, and you offer services to the client types listed above, you ve come to the right place. Let s begin! 5

6 1. LOCAL SEO GAINING VISIBILITY IN GOOGLE S SEARCH RESULTS Every day customers turn to Google for help. Be it finding a garage to fix a flat tire, builder to help with a leaking roof or an ideal venue to host a birthday party, we rely on the search engine for solutions. And we trust those results too. According to Search Engine Journal for instance, leads coming from search engine results close at 14.6% rate on average. New business coming from print advertising and other outbound efforts on the other hand converts merely at 1.7%. Customers also show more positive attitudes towards businesses ranking on top of the results page. Moreover, companies ranking on the first page of Google s results tend to receive the majority of clicks. According to various studies, results on pages 2-3 receive only 5.59% of total clicks per keywords % of searchers however never click results beyond page one. It comes as no surprise then how much effort businesses put into making their websites and business details visible in local search results. The process of optimizing and positioning a website in local search 6

7 results is called SEO (short for Search Engine Optimization). It involves optimizing the structure of the site, its content, speed and other technical aspects as well as increasing its authority in search engines. How SEO fits into a lead generation campaign? 1. Helps to increase a company s visibility to prospective clients. 2. Positions a brand or product in a prospect s search at a time when they re ready to be intercepted as leads. 3. Delivers qualified leads at a higher rate than its outbound counterparts. 7

8 2. GOOGLE ADWORDS MATCHING VISIBILITY TO THE BUYING CYCLE Look closely at a Google s search results page and you ll notice that it in fact comprises of a variety of listing types. Results positioned at the very top and in the sidebar on the right for instance are paid ads displayed through the search engine s Adwords platform. Google Adwords is the paid advertising network allowing companies to display ads for specific keywords. The platform offers an incredible opportunity to control your company s visibility for specific phrases and match the marketing message to relevant stages of your prospects buying cycle. Just imagine that you re running a plumbing company offering an emergency, out of hours service. With Adwords you could advertise it to anyone searching for relevant key phrases (i.e. emergency plumber) in your area. And given that they would probably need help right away, your conversion rate for these keywords could actually be quite high. However, advertising the same services on Facebook for instance would probably yield very little result. For one, customers rarely use the social network to find solutions to their problems. Therefore, unless they would be right in the middle of an emergency, your messaging would be irrelevant. 8

9 Not to mention that if they actually were, they would be looking for you on Google anyway. How Adwords fits into a lead generation campaign? 1. Allows to attract qualified leads, 2. Offers a chance to display relevant messages depending on the prospect s buying cycle, 3. Allows controlling the position and intensity of your paid listings. 9

10 3. GOOGLE REMARKETING REACTIVATING PREVIOUS WEBSITE VISITORS Less than 1% of your visitors will convert on a first visit. Others might require a couple of visits before finally becoming leads. Luckily you can ensure they come back with remarketing to remind previous visitors of their interest in what you offer. Remarketing is an advertising method in which you can display ads to former visitors who indicated an interest in their products or services. When someone visits a site that uses remarketing, it places a cookie file in their browser that identifies the person as a former visitor and allows to target them with relevant ads on other sites. So every time your previous visitor lands on sites that display ads from various remarketing platforms (i.e. Google Adwords), they will see your ad reminding them of their interest in your services. And it works. According to Wishpond for instance, remarketed visitors are 70% more likely to convert. The average click-through rate of remarketing ads is also 10 times higher than Adwords for instance. How Remarketing fits into a lead generation campaign? 1. Reminds previous visitors of their interest in your offering, 2. Re-activates visitors who abandoned the conversion, 3. Keeps your company on top of their mind until they re ready to buy. 10

11 4. LANDING PAGES INCREASING CONVERSIONS Attracting qualified website traffic isn t enough to generate leads. You also need to direct these visitors straight to the information that would help them become leads landing pages. A landing page is a web page that serves as an entry point for a user on the website. In the simplest terms, it s a page you direct them to once they click your ad or organic search engine listing. Typically, a landing page is designed with a single objective, to convert. This could mean inquiring about your services, downloading a lead generation asset like an ebook or Whitepaper or simply clickingthrough to another page (i.e. contact page). A major aspect of working with landing pages includes optimizing them for conversion. Using various strategies like A/B or split testing, you could improve a landing page s conversions and thus, generate more leads without having to significantly increase its traffic. How Landing Pages fit into a lead generation campaign? 1. Provide an entry point for visitors, 2. Display relevant information helping them to convert, 3. Allow to increase conversions without a significant rise of traffic. 11

12 5. REVIEW ACQUISITION MANAGING ONLINE REPUTATION Customers no longer engage with a business on a sheer promise alone. 88% admit to reading reviews to determine the quality of a local business. And 87% trust those reviews as much as personal recommendations. Therefore, a major aspect of any lead generation campaign focuses on building online reputation and soliciting positive reviews. Reviews help build your business credibility. Since Google displays star ratings fed from Google Reviews, having a good number of positive reviews immediately makes your business stand out from competitors. They can also increase the number of clicks to your listings, since star ratings will naturally attract more people to your listing. As part of your campaign you should develop strategies to gather positive customer feedback: Ask customers to leave reviews on sites like Yelp, Homestars or directly on Google. Include link to your Google+ Page in s. Asking customers for a review after the delivery of service and many others. How Reputation Management fits into a lead generation campaign? 1. Builds your business credibility, 2. Convinces more customers to inquire with you, 3. Attracts higher search listings click-through rate. 12

13 AND, THAT S IT. Hopefully now you have a good idea of what s included in a typical lead generation campaign. The next logical step then is to implement this advice and start growing your business through local search strategies. THANK YOU Thank you for reading my book. If you ve found this information useful, don t forget to drop by Local Academy where we share tons of usefula advice about marketing a local business. Also check out other online marketing resources: Organic SEO Onsite Optimization Checklist, Local SEO Onsite Optimization Checklist, Minimalist Content Marketing Strategy. And finally, if you have any questions or suggestions regarding this publication, make sure you connect with me and the Inbound Interactive team at: info@inboundinteractive.ca Phone: (403) Looking forward to hearing from you. 13