How to Generate Leads Online
One of the more challenging aspects of running a service-based company is generating leads. There are a lot of techniques that have been used for decades that companies have tried, including cold calling, print distribution, trade shows, etc. Although these techniques might still work, using online platforms has become a popular choice for companies to use to generate leads in more recent years.
In today’s digital landscape, lead generation has evolved significantly with the rise of social media, search engines, and email marketing. Companies are now able to reach a global audience, attract leads with highly targeted advertising, and use data-driven insights to optimize their strategies. The shift towards online lead generation offers businesses a scalable, cost-effective way to connect with potential clients, and tools like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn make it easier than ever to focus on the specific needs and preferences of your target audience. By integrating digital platforms into their lead generation efforts, companies can not only generate leads more efficiently but also nurture those leads through the entire sales funnel with automated email marketing campaigns, retargeting ads, and personalized landing pages.
Below are some of the strategies that will help you generate more leads online:
1. Embrace Multi-Channel Solutions
There isn’t one way that people use the Internet which also means there isn’t one platform that you should use exclusively.
Some people find companies by searching for their services and others get drawn in by a Facebook ad. Even drilling deeper, some people click on Google paid ads as they are the first thing they see on search results, while others ignore ads and scroll to organic search results.
To master online leads, you need to do a lot of tests and you need to utilize multiple channels to be effective. Some of the channels we have found to work to generate online leads include:
- Google (paid ads and organic)
- Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn for B2B, Twitter)
- Email Campaigns
- Online Directories (Homestars, Better Business Bureau, Yelp)
We have successfully generated thousands of leads each month for our windows and doors clients by combining a variety of digital marketing techniques, including Google Ads, SEO, and targeted social media campaigns. Our approach focuses on reaching high-intent audiences with precision, allowing us to consistently attract qualified leads. By optimizing campaigns through data-driven insights and continuously refining our strategies, we help businesses in this industry grow their customer base effectively. This strategy can be applied across various service-based industries to achieve similar success in lead generation.
Tip: When testing multiple lead generation channels, it’s essential to track and analyze the performance of each one using tools like Google Analytics or social media insights. Focus on refining the channels that deliver the best results, but don’t hesitate to experiment with new ones. Regularly reviewing your data will help you allocate your budget effectively and ensure you’re investing in the platforms that bring the highest-quality leads.
2. Separate Service Pages on your Website
If your business offers more than one type of service, it is always in your best interest to separate these services onto their own dedicated pages. Doing so not only allows you to better showcase each service but also improves your chances of ranking each one organically on search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about relevance, and when you combine multiple services on one page, it becomes difficult for search engines like Google to determine which keyword or phrase you’re aiming to rank for. Each service-specific page provides an opportunity to target precise, relevant keywords, making it easier for Google to match your content with user search queries.
Additionally, many of your competitors likely have their services broken down into individual pages, giving them a significant SEO advantage. By dedicating a page to each service, they can increase the relevance and focus of the content, allowing Google to better understand what that page is meant to rank for. As a result, Google is more likely to rank their pages higher than yours in search results because their pages are clearer and more optimized for specific services. Furthermore, separating services on individual pages allows you to write more detailed, relevant content that addresses user intent and answers their questions, leading to better user engagement and higher conversions.
Tip: When creating dedicated pages for each service, focus on writing unique, high-quality content that addresses user intent. Use targeted keywords naturally and include supporting elements like testimonials, FAQs, and case studies specific to that service. This not only improves your chances of ranking higher on search engines but also increases engagement and conversion rates by providing relevant information tailored to each service.
3. Online Contests
If you already have an online presence, hosting an online contest is a fantastic way to generate leads while also expanding your email list and social media followers. Contests tend to attract a lot of attention and engagement, especially if the prize is valuable to your target audience. Participants are often required to provide their contact information (such as an email address) or follow your social media accounts to enter, which helps you build a warm audience that’s already familiar with your brand.
To run an effective online contest, you need to develop a clear strategy that outlines who your target audience is and what you aim to achieve with the contest. Are you looking to generate leads for a specific service, build brand awareness, or grow your online community? The more specific your goals, the better you can tailor your contest to attract the right people. The prize you offer should be directly related to your business or services, ensuring that entrants are genuinely interested in what you offer rather than entering just for a generic prize.
If done properly, online contests allow you to tap into warm leads for your service, but they also give you an audience you can directly advertise to in the future. For instance, you can nurture these new contacts through targeted email marketing campaigns or social media ads, increasing the likelihood of conversions down the line. Additionally, contests can help build brand loyalty by fostering engagement and interaction with your followers, strengthening the relationship between your business and potential clients.
Tip: When creating your contest entry form, include qualifying questions that help identify participants who fit the criteria for your service. This not only helps you segment your audience, but also gives you the opportunity to ask those qualified leads if they’d like a quote or more information about your offerings. This proactive approach can immediately turn contest entrants into potential customers.
4. Create an Online Lead Funnel
An online lead funnel is a structured technique for guiding potential customers through the buying process, step-by-step. Rather than expecting visitors to convert right away, the funnel acknowledges that most buyers need multiple touch-points with your brand before making a final decision. These touch-points can include interactions with your social media posts, visiting your website, reading reviews, or receiving an email. Each stage of the funnel brings the user closer to a purchasing decision by gradually building trust and offering more relevant information along the way.
We’ve previously written about the buyer purchase decision process online, which dives deeper into this topic and explains the psychology behind how people make decisions. One of the most common mistakes businesses make when advertising online is trying to capture leads only at the final stage of the buying cycle, ignoring the earlier phases like awareness and consideration. This approach can be costly and ineffective, as potential customers may not be ready to make a decision yet, and you risk losing them to competitors who nurture them throughout the entire funnel.
Developing a well-thought-out lead generation funnel as part of your online strategy not only helps you capture leads at every stage of the buying journey but also saves you money in the long run. By targeting individuals who have already engaged with your brand, you can focus your advertising efforts on people who are genuinely interested, making your campaigns more cost-efficient. Over time, this precise targeting leads to higher-quality leads, better conversion rates, and a more sustainable, effective marketing strategy.
Tip: When building your lead generation funnel, create content tailored to each stage of the buyer’s journey. Use educational content for the awareness stage, detailed comparisons or case studies for the consideration stage, and compelling offers or testimonials at the decision stage. This approach nurtures leads at every point in the funnel, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
5. Produce Consistent and Relevant Content
This is more of a complementary technique to some of our other points as opposed to a technique that will directly generate leads. With that being said, it is still a crucial point in your long-term lead generation strategy.
In point number 4 we discussed creating a funnel to generate leads. The first stage in most lead generation funnels is bringing people into the funnel through addressing a need or answering a question. This is where having blogs, infographics and videos can help. As soon as a user engages with your content, you are now given the opportunity to either retarget or identify similar users that you can advertise to.
Having consistent and relevant content is also a crucial part of SEO, which will help boost your rankings, which will then help boost your leads.
Moreover, when potential buyers do research on your company, it is always a confidence booster to see that you know what you’re talking about through your content.
Tip: Use retargeting ads as part of your lead generation funnel to re-engage potential customers who didn’t convert initially. By showing them tailored content based on their previous interactions, you can keep your brand top-of-mind and gradually move them closer to making a decision.
Generating leads online is an essential part of growing your business, but it requires a strategic approach. From embracing multi-channel marketing to creating an effective lead funnel, businesses must adapt to the dynamic digital landscape to capture and nurture potential customers. By diversifying your lead generation efforts, optimizing your service pages, and ensuring you’re engaging users at every stage of the buying process, you can increase both the quantity and quality of your leads. Remember, it’s not just about driving traffic—it’s about building relationships and trust with your audience over time. The more targeted and thoughtful your strategy, the more effective and cost-efficient your lead generation efforts will become.
What Is NAP and Why Does It Matter for Your Local SEO Strategy?
When it comes to improving your local SEO, one of the most overlooked yet crucial elements is NAP, which stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. Ensuring that this information is accurate and consistent across all platforms is essential for search engines to recognize your business as credible and trustworthy. We will discuss what NAP is, why it’s vital for local SEO, and best practices to ensure you’re fully optimized.
What is NAP?
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. It refers to the consistent use of a business’s exact name, address, and phone number across all online platforms, such as your website, Google Business Profile, and directories like Yelp or Yellow Pages. Maintaining uniformity in your NAP details ensures that search engines recognize your business as legitimate and trustworthy.
Importance of NAP in SEO
Consistency in NAP information is essential for local SEO. Search engines, like Google, use NAP data to validate a business’s identity and its location, especially when showing search results for local queries. Accurate NAP data increases your chances of appearing in the Google Local Pack (the list of businesses with map locations that appear at the top of search results). Furthermore, consistent NAP improves user trust, as potential customers are more likely to reach out when contact information is correct and uniform across platforms.
Key Reasons NAP Matters for SEO:
- Improves Local Search Rankings: Google looks for consistency in NAP when evaluating businesses for local searches. Discrepancies can hurt your chances of ranking in local search results.
- Enhances User Trust: Accurate and consistent contact details build trust with both search engines and users. Incorrect NAP details could lead to lost customers.
- Boosts Credibility: Inconsistent NAP across directories can confuse search engines, reducing your business’s authority and leading to lower rankings.
- Helps in Citation Building: Citations are online mentions of your business. They play a major role in improving local rankings, but only when the NAP data is consistent.
Not sure what all these SEO terms mean?Our SEO Glossary breaks down everything you need to know, from keywords to link building. Start mastering SEO today by getting familiar with the essentials. |
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Not sure what all these SEO terms mean?
Our SEO Glossary breaks down everything you need to know, from keywords to link building. Start mastering SEO today by getting familiar with the essentials.
Best Practices for NAP SEO
To ensure that your NAP data works in favor of your local SEO efforts, follow these best practices:
- Be Consistent: Use the exact same business name, address, and phone number on all directories, your website, and social media pages. Even minor discrepancies, like using “St.” instead of “Street,” can create issues.
- Use Local Area Codes: Always list a phone number with a local area code, as this reinforces to search engines and users that you are truly a local business.
- Monitor Citations Regularly: Set up periodic checks on key directories to ensure your NAP details remain consistent, especially after rebranding, moving, or updating phone numbers.
- Utilize Google Business Profile: Your Google Business Profile is one of the most important places to have your NAP data accurately listed. Ensure that your details are up-to-date and regularly reviewed.
- Manage Business Listings: Use tools like Moz Local, BrightLocal, or Yext to track and correct NAP inconsistencies across directories and citations.
- Implement Structured Data Schema: Adding LocalBusiness Schema Markup to your website’s code provides search engines with a clear and structured way to understand your NAP information. This structured data helps search engines display your business details accurately in local search results and can increase your visibility in rich snippets.
Tip: How to Add LocalBusiness Schema Markup
- Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper is a free tool that helps you easily add schema markup to your website. Simply tag the relevant elements on your webpage, and the tool will generate the necessary code. You can access it here. - ChatGPT for Generating Schema Markup
You can also use ChatGPT to generate LocalBusiness Schema markup! Simply describe the business details you need structured, and ChatGPT can produce the schema code for you to implement on your site. - Plugins and SEO Tools
For WordPress users, consider using plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math. These plugins automatically add schema markup, including LocalBusiness details, without needing to manually edit the code.
By following these practices, you’ll ensure that your NAP information strengthens your local SEO efforts, leading to better visibility, more leads, and higher customer trust.
Why Your Landing Page isn't Converting on Paid Ads
Are you running paid digital ads with the intention of generating leads? Have your attempts led to little to no success? If this is the case, there could be several reasons for the lack of leads ranging from the paid media source, to the ad creative/copy, to the offer or even the audience. From our experience in running paid digital advertising campaigns for our clients, we have found the most critical factor in generating leads through paid digital advertising is having an effective landing page.
Before we jump into what makes a good landing page for paid digital advertising, let's first define what is considered paid digital advertising. Paid digital advertising is a marketing method that involves businesses paying an online platform to show advertisements to consumers in either a pay-per-click or pay-per-impression model. The most popular forms of paid advertising are paid search, social media and banner advertising.
Now if you are doing one of these forms of paid digital advertising and you are not seeing results, here are some reasons why your landing page isn’t converting on paid ads:
Landing Page was Designed for SEO
When designing a page for SEO (search engine optimization), it is usually put together in a way where it is packed with a ton of information pertaining to the product or service that you are trying to rank high on organic searches.
There isn’t anything wrong with this when you are looking at it from a perspective of SEO. Moreover, when consumers are working through the journey of a purchase decision process (read the linked article to learn more about a buyers purchase decision process), having such pages with a lot of information helps satisfy the discovery and research phases.
When you send potential consumers to this page with the intention for converting them to leads, you will find all of this information is too much.
When advertising to generate leads, you are advertising to an audience that is much further down the process in their purchase decision process. Overloading them with more information will likely cause the future customer to overthink their decision and potentially draw them back into a research phase.
If you are running paid ads and you want to convert leads, do not send these customers to your SEO designed landing page.
Too Many Options on your Landing Page
If you are indeed sending paid advertising clicks to your SEO landing page, now you know to send them to a dedicated page which only those that click on paid ads will see.
Now there are businesses that do this already, knowing that their SEO designed pages are not the best destination for paid ads. Are you still having conversion issues? If so, it is probably because you are giving your visitors too many options to click on.
The first thing that you want to do is eliminate your menu and eliminate your footer. When you paid good money for someone to visit your site and convert into a lead, you do not want them to start exploring your website.
Ideally, you would want this landing page to be as simple as possible with only 1 outcome, fill out the form and convert! Now, if your business sees a high conversion rate on phone calls, this might be the 2nd option available, but that should be it.
If the page that you directed them to has many links or opportunities to leave that area, you run the risk of them leaving before they convert.
Lead Capture Form Needs Attention
So, now that we are sending customers to a dedicated landing page and we’ve reduced the options available to click on, we need to figure out what else can be a barrier to submitting information on your landing page.
One other area that we have found affected landing page conversions was the amount of inputs required for a visitor to fill in before they can submit their information. In some cases, having the extra inputs leads to higher intent inquires, but on the flip side this could potentially deter someone immediately as it might optically seem too cumbersome.
With all of our lead generation landing pages, we incorporate quiz style lead capture forms. What is a lead style capture form? This is a form that hides all of the required fields as steps so that the initial shock of what needs to be completed is not initially realized from the start.
Moreover, with this style of form, you can ask questions that can either filter people out based on criteria, or it can ask specific questions based on answers provided. As an example, if your company installs both windows and doors, you probably shouldn’t ask your visitor for how many windows that want replaced if they came for a new door. This form will help you ask the right questions at the right time.
Do these techniques work?
We ran an A/B test with 10 of our home improvement clients where we sent half of the ad viewers to a page on their website pertaining to a service, and then we sent the other half to a proper landing page designed to convert paid advertising visitors.
Our test ran for 30 days and we made sure that the traffic to landing page A and landing page B were of similar size. The results were as follows:
Landing Page A - Regular Page on Website
- 5.82% of all visitors converted
- Best client had a 8.61% conversion rate
- Worst client had a 2.02% conversion rate
Landing Page B - Landing Page Designed for Paid Advertising
- 11.86% of all visitors converted
- Best client had a 18.57% conversion rate
- Worst client had a 8.06% conversion rate
How We Generate Thousands of Leads a Month for our Windows and Doors Clients
If you are in the Windows and Doors industry, then you know that generating leads is essential for your business. From our experience we have seen Windows and Doors businesses utilize one of the following to generate leads:
- Mail drops through the postal service
- Buy recycled leads from online companies
- Hire a digital marketing agency to do SEO and online advertising
- Do nothing and rely on word-of-mouth
While all of these techniques probably generate a moderate amount of leads, Retailors Group has worked with dozens of Windows and Doors businesses over the last 3 years and we consistently generate over 1000 leads per month for our clients using a tried, tested and true system.
So how do generate these thousands of leads every month?
Facebook Ads Using Lead Forms
Maybe you have tried Facebook/Instagram ads in the past and have not seen the results that you were hoping for. But why is it there are still over 3 million businesses that use Facebook for paid digital advertising?
The reason for this is simple, certain businesses and industries have found the right audience and Facebook campaign that generates consistent and reliable results.
When we launch Facebook Ads for Windows and Doors clients, we always use Facebook’s built-in instant forms. The built-in instant form allows you to collect contact information from people who may be interested in your business or service without requiring those people to leave Facebook or Instagram.
We have found that we generate 4 times more leads for windows and doors clients using lead forms vs taking potential leads to a website or landing page.
Google Search Ads Straight to Lead Capture
If you are generating online leads for your Windows and Doors business, you have either tried Google Search Ads or you are already running Google Search Ads. You are probably also aware that the cost-per-click for keywords associated with Window and Doors tend to be higher.
So how do we maximize on converting the clicks? We have found that straight-to-the-point landing pages that lead consumers to an action work better than leading consumers to a regular website. Moreover, we have found that getting straight to the lead capture form upon the click from a Google search ad, eliminating all of the distractions from a landing page or website, generates 27% more leads.
On top of knowing what works for where to bring clients that click on your ad, we also have the experience specifically with Windows and Doors clients which means we have the list of negative keywords and have the winning copy for ads, both of which help maximize on higher intent clicks.
SEO for Window and Doors
There is a big difference in hiring an SEO company and hiring an SEO company that specializes in Windows and Doors. A lot of our current Windows and Doors clients have worked with another SEO company prior to working with us. What we have seen is other SEO companies treat Windows and Doors companies like they would treat any other industry. Unfortunately, this strategy puts an emphasis on “ranking” keywords vs generating leads.
At Retailors Group we have an SEO strategy that works for Windows and Doors:
- Separate your window pages from your door pages to rank higher intent searches
- Create city pages to maximize local searches
- Content writers dedicated to writing Widows and Doors content for better ranking
Moreover, we will also make necessary changes to your website as required to ensure when consumers land on it, they convert into leads.
Contests that Generate Leads
We see a lot of contests being run by companies nowadays. For the most part, these contests are designed to increase social media followers, increase email subscribers and increase general brand awareness and exposure. While these are all good reasons for contest creation, we have found the formula to utilize these contests to generate leads.
What we do is ask contest entrants a set of filtering questions. Essentially, we want to find entrants that fit the criteria of an ideal Windows and Doors lead. If entrants answer questions that do not meet criteria (ie they are renting or live in a condo), they will be simply asked to enter the contest.
If the entrant does meet the criteria, they will be shown a promotion and asked if they want to get a quote. If they say no to the quote, we at least know that this individual meets the criteria of an ideal customer and we will ask this individual to opt-in to an email list and continue to nurture them through emails and retargeting ads.
Customer Nurturing
As touched on above, when we work with Windows and Doors customers, we help nurture known customers. Who is a known customer? A known customer is one that we have either captured through a contest, email opt-in form or one that we know anonymously through a Facebook Pixel or Google Analytics Cookie.
For those that we know through an email address, we will send them monthly newsletters with offers. For those that we only know via a cookie, we will retarget these individuals through social media ads as well as Google display ads.
To summarize, we are a trusted Windows and Doors Marketing Agency. We put the focus on generating leads vs other vanity metrics that our competitors like to talk about. Still skeptical? Try our guaranteed leads package to experience first-hand a good sample of what we can deliver.
Is your Website Helping you Gain Business?
Many business owners think that by creating a website and making it live, their business will grow.
That is only true if there is strategy; effort and budget dedicated to driving prospects to the website; the website is optimized for conversion, and it truly speaks to your unique value proposition.
In this day and age, it is crucial to have an online presence, however online presence without a strategy can have the reverse impact.
Can your website be found?
The obvious point here is that if your website does not show up on search engines for relevant keyword searches your business will not get any online traffic.
The more dangerous point is that if your business carries a popular name that is not unique. What I mean by that is if you have a business that carries common words in the name such as prosperity, windows, drain, etc.., you might not show up even when prospects are searching your business name directly.
This only happens if your website is not optimized for search engines. The danger here is that if prospects were told about your business, they will search you on Google, and if they can’t find you, they will more than likely click on someone else’s business and convert somewhere else.
Is your website as good or better than your local competitors?
If you think about the user’s experience, how does your website stack up against your local competition? Will users be able to find everything they are looking for? Are the services and products you offer clearly stated? Are the benefits of hiring you presented with your competitive advantages? Do you have testimonials on your website? Is there a strong call-to-action on your website?
If you answered NO to any of these questions, you should re-evaluate your website and make changes to reflect what prospects are looking for. Most website visitors will stick around less than 15 seconds if they don't see what they intended to find.
Think about all the time, energy, and effort it takes to drive prospects to your website. If your website is the first thing your prospects see, then your website is a true reflection of your business, your work, your quality, and your promise.
Are you proud to tell your prospects to visit your website? If the answer is no, then take immediate action.
Are you present on all social media platforms?
Social media marketing is very powerful. For some businesses it serves as a lead generation and customer acquisition tool, for others, it serves as a branding and credibility tool.
If you are working in the home improvement sector, social media is not necessarily a strong lead generation tool (although it might be, depending on the type of product or service you offer), it is really more important for credibility and trust.
If a prospect is about to call you, more often than not they will check your social media pages. Are those pages in sync with your website, your value proposition, and are those pages a true reflection of your business?
Again, if the answer is no, you are potentially missing out on some calls.
Is your Google My Business listing optimized?
If you are a local business, it is highly important that your Google my Business listing is optimized. We wrote a previous article on how to optimize your Google My Business listing that you can read up on.
You want users to be able to find your listing, reviews, description, hours of work, and location when searching for a product or service like yours. More importantly, you want prospects that are directly searching for your business name to see a neat, clean, and relevant listing.
To summarize, it is very important that your online presence on all mediums be consistent, portray trust, professionalism, and the true character of your business.
Step by Step Guide to Facebook Funnels for Lead Generation
If you run a service-based business that relies on inbound leads coming in, then you have probably started to strategize on how to generate leads online.
Facebook ads gives you an opportunity to tap into a large base of users while utilizing their advanced targeting algorithm to help find the right person most likely to engage with your company.
So what is a lead generation funnel? A lead generation funnel is a technique that brings potential buyers along a journey with your brand, allowing for multiple touchpoints, until they eventually convert.
A potential buyer needs multiple touchpoints with your brand before they eventually decide to do business with you. According to Salesforce, it takes 6 to 8 touches to generate a viable sales lead.
We talked about embracing a multi-channel approach to generating leads in a previous article, how to generate leads online, but today we will discuss how you can utilize Facebook to create these multiple touchpoints which will bring you leads.
In a nutshell, what we are trying to accomplish here is to bring in traffic, keep this traffic engaged with your brand, show this traffic what you can do for them, and then aggressively propose to this traffic to do business with you. Finally, at the end of the funnel, get the conversion.
I have mentioned several times in previous articles, big mistake marketers make is trying to cut corners and exclusively advertise at the end of the funnel only. I get it, this is where advertising expenses turn into revenue, but by skipping the other steps in the funnel, you will end up spending a lot more money trying to attract the right customer.
On a high-level overview, this is what the funnel will look like:
Before we get started, there are a couple of pre-requisites required. First, make sure you have Facebook Business Manager setup and make sure you have your Facebook Pixel installed on your website. Secondly, you should have a basic understanding of how to create campaigns, ad sets, and ads in Facebook Ads Manager, as we won't go into the basics of creating ads.
If you have these pre-requisites covered, let's get started!
1. Bring New Potential Leads In
With this being the top of the funnel, it is crucial that we keep this stage as full as possible. Remember, if it takes 6-8 touch points before conversion, you will need time between this first step and the last step. In order for this funnel to work, new fresh potential leads need to keep pouring in.
In order to bring new fresh leads in, we are going to attract them through content.
Content
What problem will your product or service solve? Who is your ideal customer? What differentiates your product or service versus your competition? These are all crucial answers that you need to answer when it comes to developing content that you want to share and use to attract potential buyers to your site.
Seeing that we need approximately 6-8 touchpoints before a lead conversion, I would recommend having a minimum of 3 pieces of content. These content pieces can come in the form of blogs, infographics, or videos. Having a variety of content mediums and a variety of subjects will also help with the effectiveness as it will keep your ads fresh.
Create your Audience
After you have your content ready, it is time to create your audience on Facebook. Ideally, you will want to create a look-a-like audience on your website traffic. A look-a-like audience is basically a set of people that Facebook determines are similar to those that have taken action on your website.
Remember, Facebook houses an enormous amount of data on interests, behaviours, and demographics of everyone that uses any of their platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and even websites that use their Audience Network Ads. Instead of guessing who your audience is, let Facebook do the work on your behalf.
Now, if you don't have a lot of traffic coming to your website, it will be very difficult for Facebook to find commonalities on small sample size. If you're not generating at least 1000 website visitors a month, you will need to create a cold audience based on who you believe is your target audience. Facebook has a tool, Facebook Audience Insights, which can help you create that cold audience.
When you finally go ahead and save your audience with detailed geographical targeting, be sure to exclude previous website visitors and your Facebook fans. The intention of this stage of the funnel is the first contact with your brand.
Create Your Ad
Now that you have your audience created, it's time to run your first ad. Let's go ahead and choose the "Traffic" objective. Since we already created the audience, go ahead and add them to your ad set. When it comes to your ad, choose one of the content pieces that you believe will draw the most traffic to your website.
Our goal is to bring fresh traffic in so we can bring these users along on their purchase journey with your company. Moreover, the more traffic that comes in will allow Facebook to better understand who your target audience is, thus making your look-a-like audience that much more accurate.
2. Keep Potential Lead Engaged
Now that our new leads are starting to visit your site, it is time to keep them engaged with your brand. Remember, we need multiple touchpoints, which is the purpose of this step.
Create your Audience
For this step, we want to target individuals that have already visited the content that you put out. For those with a limited budget, you can simply just retarget ALL previous website visitors knowing that you will hit all of those potential leads from step 1. If you have a bit more of a budget, it will be more accurate to target only those individuals that visited the very specific page where the content you provided is available.
In Facebook Audiences, go ahead and create a custom audience, choose website traffic and add people who visited specific web pages with the URL containing the page of the content you provided in step 1.
So now, we are basically telling Facebook to only show this ad to people who saw and clicked on our first ad.
You will want to repeat this process at least one more time if your budget permits as you want to continue having this potential lead see your ads and content to get familiar with your brand.
Create Your Ad
First this stage we are going to use the "reach" objective for these ads. The "reach" objective is typically a bad campaign to use when we are trying to bring in new traffic as Facebook will show your ad to as many as people as possible, regardless if they click or not. In our case with this stage of the funnel, we want to show this ad to ALL individuals that have already clicked a previous ad, so in this case, this objective works perfectly.
We are going to use this new audience in the ad set and reduce our budget vs step 1 since we are dealing with a smaller audience.
3. Introduce Product/Service
Now that your potential lead has engaged with 2-3 of your content pieces, it is time to start introducing them to your product or service.
Before we start showing ads to promote your product/service, let's make sure your intended landing page is ready to potentially convert. Although we have another step past this one, there is a good possibility that your potential lead can convert at this stage.
Some areas to consider on your landing page:
- Above the fold should clearly state the problem your lead wants to solve
- Multiple opportunities throughout the page to convert (call now, form submission, buy now, etc.)
- Features and benefits of your product/service
- Testimonials
If you are confident that you covered all of these points, let's go ahead and create your audience.
Create your Audience
Similar to step 2, if budget restraints are an issue, it is safe to just retarget ALL website visitors at this step. The problem with doing this is you will potentially be showing this to potential leads that only saw your ad once.
The proper way to do this is to create a custom audience of individuals that have journeyed through the first 2 steps of your funnel.
In Facebook Audiences, go ahead and create a custom audience, choose website traffic and add people who visited specific web pages with the URL containing the page of the content you provided in step 1. You will now click on + Include More People, then click on +And Also to add the URL containing the page of the content you provided in step 2.
Here, we are basically telling Facebook to show our ad to those individuals that have passed through 2 steps in our funnel. If we did this properly, we will now have an audience of potential leads that are warm to your brand.
Create Your Ad
Similar to the prior step, we will choose the "reach" objective and use this new audience for our ad set.
4. Make a Compelling Offer
Now that we have a potential user that has moved along on your funnel, it is time to advertise a strong call-to-action to generate the lead.
So to recap up to this point, our potential lead has now seen at least 2-3 content pieces and has seen at least one ad about the products/services that you carry. This individual is showing a lot of interest in the services you carry and it is time to get them to convert.
Create your Audience
In Facebook Audiences, go ahead and create a custom audience, choose website traffic and add people who visited specific web pages with the URL containing the page of your product/service page that you used in step 3.
Create Your Ad
Since we are dealing with an audience that is showing high interest in your product/service, it is now in your best interest to advertise a strong offer to get them to now convert. My recommendation would be to create a landing page that helps support this specific offer that you are advertising.
If you don't have access to creating a landing page, Facebook allows you to create a lead form that you can use to collect lead information right from Facebook.
5. Convert
Now that you have your lead information it is time to contact your lead and make your sale!
The only portion involved through Facebook for this step is to exclude all of your converted leads into your custom audience in step 4. These converted leads should now be nurtured a separate way for retention purposes.
If you use your own landing page, there will be extra work required. You will need to tag your form and create a custom conversion on Facebook. If you used Facebooks built-in form, simply choose "Lead Form" when creating your custom audience.
Need Help Generating Leads?
Retailors Group is a full sales and marketing agency. We utilize various digital marketing techniques like SEO and paid digital advertising to generate online leads.
Web Design Trends to Take Your Conversions to the Next Level
If you’ve been wondering why your conversion rate has reached a plateau or even dropped, then maybe it’s time to take a serious look at your web design.
Did you know that 75% of users will make a judgment about your company’s credibility based on the design of your website? And as we all know, trends come and go – so if you don’t keep abreast of the latest ones, your potential clients are likely to bounce away from your site.
Thankfully you don’t have to search too far because DesignAdvisor has conveniently compiled all you need to know about current trends in an excellent infographic called “15 Web Design Trends 2018.”
Here you can learn some impressive stats and facts which drive home the importance of well thought out web design. You will also see the benefits of making sure your website is in top condition, and any expense involved will be well worth it in the long run when you start reaping the rewards.
There is a comprehensive list of features that are characteristic of successful web design, so you can check how yours measures up. For example, ease of navigation, engaging content, and good search functionalities, to name a few.
Throughout the infographic, you can find convincing case studies showcasing companies that saw dramatic improvements after making changes to certain areas of their website. Then there are the latest trends in terms of layouts, backgrounds, fonts, illustrations, grids, gradients, page transitions, and much more.
So if you want to take your conversions to the next level, this is a great place to start and get some ideas on how to improve your web design. Stay up to date with the latest trends and see your conversion rates skyrocket.
Infographic URL: https://designadvisor.net/blog/web-design-trends/
How We Tripled a Client's Email List
First, I wanted to share some statistics around email campaigns and the success associated with them. The average open rate for email campaigns across all industries is 21.8% and the average click-through rate is 2.78%.
So, if your email list has 10,000 emails on it, 2180 individuals will open that email. Out of the 2180, you will have 278 individuals click a button in the email and land wherever you have asked them to land.
It varies between industries and I will use retail as an example because it sits very close to the average and it’s relevant to the example I will talk about below. Retail as an industry lands at 21% open rate and 2.5% click-through-rate.
Here are some factors that influence the success rates of email campaigns (open rates and click-through rates):
Mobile Optimization
If your email is not optimized to fit different size screens and devices your click-through-rate will be significantly lower.
Email Subject Line
Research shows that 47% of users open an email based on the subject line.
Value Offer
Be clear on how the recipient will benefit from the value you are offering, whether it’s content or promotional pricing.
Landing Pages
Once you get the user to open the email and click on the desired button, it is important that they land on a page that makes it easy to complete the action you wanted to complete. Simple and loud call-to-actions, solutions for the problems your audience is trying to solve, and unique value are some of the things to be included on the landing page. Too much content and navigation can create uncertainty and can cause the user to get interrupted mid-way or prompt more research.
If you are a retailer, you have plenty of opportunities to capture emails at the point of sale and get permission from your customers to stay in touch. Retailers that ignore email capture are setting themselves back and lose out on potential revenue. The cost of capturing emails in-store is very low, if not free. Setting up an email campaign and managing your email list is not very costly and if the campaign is setup properly, with enough emails, of course, it will always produce a positive ROI.
If you are a multi-location, high transactional volume retailer, the speed at which you can grow your email list is much faster than a single unit, high ticket/low transaction volume retailer. We recently partnered up with a luxury eyewear retailer and helped them triple their email list.
Case Study - Eyeconcept
Eye Concept is a local luxury eyewear retail store, staffed with licensed Opticians and an Optometrist on-site. They are located in Oakville Place and have been there for about 6 months.
We brainstormed with the owner on how to increase awareness in the community around the existence of their store, drive more traffic to the store, and increase their existing email list. Knowing their goals, we planned an event that incorporated all three objectives.
First, we set up an online contest that awarded two winners a free pair of Tom Ford sunglasses. Next, we secured space in the middle of the mall for two days to do a live event. Finally, we launched the contest a week before the live event and encouraged the team at the store to sign people up to the contest, not only when purchasing a product but when they just come in to browse.
While the store was not busy, we encouraged the team to stand outside and engage people walking by to sign up for the contest. In order to sign up for the contest, the user had to leave their email address. Consent to be added to their email list was optional, but we found that 72% of our contest entrants gave consent to send them future promotional emails.
The entrant was able to earn extra ballots by inviting friends to participate through a unique URL, or by liking their Facebook and Instagram page. This add-on helped increase our social media followers.
We promoted the contest on Facebook and Instagram locally as well. On the day of the live event we set up a backdrop in the middle of the mall brought in two digital screens that advertised the contest, and set up an iPad stand to encourage people to sign up for our contest.
We also brought a Polaroid camera that allowed mall patrons to take a picture in front of our backdrop while trying out some models of their exclusive lines of sunglasses and some party props. The crowd was able to walk away with good memory and a printout picture from the polaroid of them having fun under our brand.
We also encouraged all visitors to go down to our retail location and receive a free gift. We had swag giveaways that we distributed to all visitors. This action allowed mall patrons that would normally miss their store to come in, visit the store, get to know the team, the variety of products they sell and helped build more exposure around their store.
The live event was on for two days and we continued the on-line contest for another week. After two weeks of total contest entries and the live event, we were able to triple our clients’ email list. The total number of email addresses collected was almost an even split between the live event and the in-store/online activity.
Not only did we triple our clients’ email list, but we also exposed our clients’ store and brand to the local community increased brand awareness and provided a memory for their future clients. In the following months, we are able to measure the direct impact the contest and the live event had on total sales.
The impact of Experiential Marketing events had been proven tough in terms of hard data and ROI. The experience of the participants can be measured through various surveys, email sign-ups/social media followers increase, and many other such activities.
The measurement of the impact of the event on total sales and revenue however carries a lot of variables in between that can impact that number. Being a Digital Marketing and Field Marketing agency, we have combined the best of both worlds and have created a product that can more accurately measure the impact of Experiential Marketing on total revenue and Sales. Contact us for more details.
Google Tag Manager Basics for Beginners
There is a whole suite of Google services available that makes life easier for webmasters and marketers. More often than not, individuals that run a website will install Google Analytics to track website traffic and they will likely utilize Google Search Console and/or Google Ads for their SEO and PPC efforts.
For the most part, you can run your website and marketing efforts based on these services and do a good enough job with your conversions.
If you are looking to gain greater visibility on what website visitors are doing on your site once they get there, then Google Tag Manager is for you.
What is Google Tag Manager?
According to Google, straight from their site, they say:
Google Tag Manager is a tag management system that allows you to quickly and easily update tracking codes and related code fragments collectively known as "tags" on your website or mobile app. (click here for full overview)
So, what exactly does that mean and why should you care? Basically, the tag manager allows you to track certain events that occur on your website. And what does that mean? Well, if someone for instance clicks the "call now" button on your website, having that button tagged will then trigger an event that you can see on Google Analytics!
Is this the Only Way to Track Events on my Website?
No, not necessarily. If you are good at coding javascript, you can manually tag buttons, links, and other desired events. This is the beauty of using Google Tag Manager though, you don't need to be an expert coder to start tracking these events.
So, Why Should I Care About Tracking Events?
In this day and age of digital marketing, there are various sources of traffic coming in. To properly attribute where this traffic is coming is crucial, but being able to attribute who is converting, where the source of this conversion came from, and what elements on your site are not converting will allow you to better spend your marketing dollars.
Say for example you received 30 phone calls from potential leads to your business last month. Your marketing efforts included SEO, PPC Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Which marketing effort drove the 30 phone calls? Now, one month shouldn't determine how you spend your marketing dollars, nor should one type of event, but at least this is a good starting point for developing a larger digital marketing strategy.
Related Article: How Google Can Help Your Small Business
How Do I Setup Tag Manager?
Here are the steps to setup Google Tag Manager:
1. Go to https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/tag-manager/
2. Sign into your Google account and click Create Account
3. Fill in account information, country, website address and choose web (for website, this tutorial is for tagging your website)
4. Read over the terms and service, accept and proceed.
5. Next, you see a pop up similar to below. This is the most coding that is required before you start using Google Tag Manager. You will need to add a piece of code in the <head> and a piece of code in the <body> sections of your website.
You are now all setup. On the screen, you will see your "workspace". The 3 main components to pay attention too are tags, triggers, and variables.
What is a Tag?
A tag is basically a set of code that gets executed when an event occurs and it then sends information to a source like Google Analytics. In order for a tag to execute, it looks for an event to happen which is usually triggered by a set of rules that you design.
What is a Trigger?
A trigger is basically a set of rules that you design that Google Tag Manager will be on the look for to occur on your website. As mentioned above, once these rules are met, the tag will then communicate this information to Google Analytics as an event occurring.
What is a Variable?
A variable is a compartment used to store values. Huh? Well, to break it down in a way to better understand, a variable in Google Tag Manager is basically things that can potentially happen on your site that you can create rules around. As an example, "click text" is a variable. Now, we can create a trigger that says when the variable "click text" = call now, fire the trigger. Then, we can create a tag that is on the lookout for this trigger, and when it happens, it communicates with Google Analytics information for you to see on your Google Analytics dashboard.
A lot of this can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but the information you receive from tagging your website properly can give you the data you are looking for to properly attribute which marketing campaigns are driving your best ROI.
Check back again for a future article that will show you how to create your first tag on Google Tag Manager.
About Retailors Group
Retailors Group is a results-driven marketing agency. We focus on digital marketing and field marketing.
72 Facts About SEO
Many website owners have problems with getting the desired amount of traffic on their websites. There are many strategies that can help enhance traffic, and even though it is not an appropriate strategy for every website, search engine optimization is one of the best strategies out there.
What Is Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a process that helps the growth of the online visibility of a website so that it gets unpaid (also known as organic, natural, earned) results which are the goal of every webmaster. It may target different kinds of searches such as image, video, academic, news, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
Who Controls the Market?
With 2.3 million searches performed per second, Google is the leader among the search engines, and with 92.59% of the mobile devices and 72.87% of desktop searches belonging to the company, it has the biggest chunk of the market shares.
Other major search engines include Baidu, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex who have control of the smaller part of the shares.
What Are the Ranking Factors?
1. Page speed
Top ranking sites have 1,900 ms page speed.
2. Content quality
Longer and informative content ranks higher.
3. Backlink profile
Rank 1 websites have more links.
4. Bounce rate
The bounce rate of rank 1 websites is lower.
5. SSL Security
27% of top search results use https.
6. Click-through rate
Higher CTR leads to higher rankings.
7. LSI Keywords
These keywords help Google understand what a page is about images – Most of page 1 results have an image on their page.
What Lies Ahead?
With the rapid growth of voice search, 50% of online searches will be voice searches by 2020.
Most searchers are moving mobile as search on mobile devices is starting to dominate. Search engines such as Google are getting along with the trend. They require that websites become mobile-friendly, or get out of the search.
The importance of Google answer box terms is growing as Google answer box gets triggered to about 25% of total searches.
Take a look at the infographic which follows to better understand SEO in 2018.
URL: https://seotribunal.com/blog/stats-to-understand-seo/
