Category Archives: Lead Generation

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Why Local SEO is an Important Lead Generation Channel

Why Local SEO is an Important Lead Generation Channel written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Justin Sturges
Podcast Transcript

Justin Sturges

SEO tools and strategies are constantly changing. All the while, it’s never been more important that you get found online when people go out there searching – particularly if you’re a local business.

Your website is the foundation for how you get ranked and found locally. It’s important to have a well put together website with unique content that is tailored specifically to the search results you want to show up in.

It is very difficult to rank for your most desired keyword phrases without great content.

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Justin Sturges. He is a local SEO, website building & lead generation expert, Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultant, and co-author of the award-winning book The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Local Lead Generation. We discuss SEO, website design and the keys to getting your business to rank.

Being immersed daily in SEO, Sturges knows what works (and doesn’t work) to help small businesses rank locally.

Questions I ask Justin:

What are common SEO mistakes that businesses often make?
What role do reviews play in your ranking factor?
What are some good resources for local SEO?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

The driving factors in organic placement
Key aggregators often missed in citations
How using the right extensions can increase your click-throughs

Key takeaways from the episode and more about Justin Sturges:

To learn more about Justin Sturges, visit his website here.
Click here to find out more about Justin’s book The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Local Lead Generation.
Connect on LinkedIn.

Interested in joining Justin as a Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultant? Find out more about the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network and attend a Discovery Call here.

5 Tips to Get More Accurate Data and Improve Your Lead Generation

5 Tips to Get More Accurate Data and Improve Your Lead Generation written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing

If you can measure it, you can improve it – Peter Drucker

Tracking your lead generation campaigns allows you to get more info about the effectiveness of your campaigns. When you know which campaign performs well, you can improve your lead generation tactics and get more qualified leads.

In this post, I will show you five tips you can use to get more accurate data and improve your lead generation.

Tip 1: Create UTM tags for referrals

As a marketer, it is important to measure the success of your campaigns. One tool you can use for this is the UTM tags.

UTM (Urchin Traffic Monitors) are coded short text snippets added to the end of URLs. It helps you to track the success of your campaign such as:

Social media channels traffic to your website
Guest posting referral traffic
Clicks on the content on your blog, etc.

You can also use it to track the incoming traffic to a web page.

Below is a sample UTM code from a Hubspot article:

How to create a UTM tag

You can create a UTM tag using Google’s free URL Builder as shown below:

The form is easy to fill. You can start by:

Pasting your campaign landing page URL inside the “website URL” box.
Type in your “campaign source” e.g. Blogs, Newsletters, Google, Twitter, etc.
Type in the “campaign medium” i.e. the content or image you want to use. This can be an email, a banner, etc.
Type in your “campaign name”. This can be your product or service name, promo code or slogan.
Type in your “campaign term”. This is where you can type in your paid keywords
Type in “campaign content”. You can use this feature for A/B testing and content targeted ads. This feature is optional.

Once you finished filling in the information above, submit it. Google will generate a campaign URL for you that you can use to track your website visitors.

Tip 2: Create UTM tags for paid traffic

As a marketer, you may want to track the traffic coming from your ads. This will give you the data you need to evaluate if the campaign is profitable or not.

You can do this by creating UTM tags for paid traffic, such as Google AdWords, Facebook ads, YouTube, Bing ad, LinkedIn Ad etc.

There are two tools you can use to achieve this task. They are Google analytics and UTM tags.

For example, if you created an ad on Facebook and wanted to track incoming traffic i.e. where your visitors are coming from, you will need to add a UTM tag to your destination URL. This will enable Google Analytics to collect data for you and give you a report on the people visiting your website.

The first thing you will need to do is to create a UTM Tag. Follow the steps highlighted in tip 1 above to create it.

When you have finished filling in the information, click submit to generate the UTM tag. Copy the UTM tag and paste it in Facebook as the destination link you want to promote.

You can view your campaigns in Google Analytics to know how it is performing.

To do this, log into your Google Analytics, under your website profile, click on Acquisition – campaigns – All campaigns. There you will see an overview of your campaign as tagged using the UTM tags.

You can click on the campaign name to see the details as tagged using the UTM tags.

Tip 3: Set Google Analytics goals

A goal, according to Google is defined as:

In other words, goals help you to measure how and when users take a specific action you want them to accomplish.

How to set up your goal in Google Analytics

Setting up your goals in Google Analytics is simple. For instance, you can track when a visitor signs up for your free ebook on your website. To do this, you need to set up a goal for it in your analytics by following the steps below:

Click on the “admin” tab
Click “goals” under the third column (All website data)
In the goal section, click on “+new goal” as seen below:
The image below shows different kinds of templates you can set for goals. The goal that matches what we want to do is the acquisition goal i.e. a goal to track successful sign-ups. So, click on “create account” under the Acquisition tab.
This will take you to a page where you can describe your goal as shown below:

The goal description here will be “e-book download“, click “continue”.

The next step is to enter in your website URL, where your visitors will land after completing the action i.e. signing up for the free ebook.
When you are done, click on “save”. You will see the information arranged as shown below:

Your goal is now active and it will start recording the data as visitors download your free e-book. This data will help you to track all visitors that complete the goal.

You can set up more goals. In fact, the more goals you set, the more data you will get to help you improve your lead generation strategies.

Tip 4: Use the Facebook Pixel

Facebook pixel is a tool you can use to add a code to your website. It helps you to track your website visitors so you can advertise your product or service to them at a later date. This process is referred to as retargeting.

A Facebook pixel also help you to track the behavior of your previous website visitors when they come back to visit your website. This will enable you to know more about the people that are visiting your website. You can use this data to produce products or better content that your audience loves.

You can also use the data to target your Facebook ads to the right audience that will convert. The pixel will also help you to track the people who got to a specific page on your website but did not take the required action.

A Facebook pixel can help you to generate leads and also track your campaign results.

There are two types of Facebook pixels – the custom audience pixel for retargeting website visitors and conversion pixel for tracking website conversions.

How to create a Facebook pixel

To create a Facebook pixel, click on “the ads manager”. Under the ads manager menu click on “pixel” found under the “asset column” as shown below:

Click on “create a pixel” and name your pixel as shown below.

Click “create” and the code for your pixel will pop up.

There is a plug-and-play tool you can use to create a custom audience for your campaign. It is called Pixel enhancer.

It will help you to create custom audiences that you can target with your ads.

Tip 5. Use Offline Conversions

A great challenge for most digital marketers is how to track and measure offline conversions resulting from an online marketing campaign.

How do you know that a marketing campaign or online ad has led to physical sale/ purchase in the store? This is the essence of tracking offline conversions from an online campaign.

It serves as a tangible proof to marketers that their marketing campaigns are performing well online and offline.

Recent development and technology advancement has made it possible to track offline conversions from digital campaign particularly from Facebook and Google AdWords.

With a proper setup, marketers can track their store visits, offline purchases and phone calls to merchants from a consumer. This will help you to generate more sales and calculate your ROI.

How to set up an Offline conversion on Facebook

Connect your Facebook to your CRM. For example, if a user signs up for your free e-book or resources, you can add him to your customer’s list on your CRM. If the user views your ads, Facebook will match the data and track the conversion.

When you do it this way, Facebook will help you to optimize your campaigns. It will be easy to understand your advertising game. You will know how many sales you get from your ads online and it will be easy to know the ROI of other channels.

For example, if your ads generated 20 sales running campaigns on Facebook and Adwords. If Facebook data reveals that you got 15 sales from Facebook, you know automatically that the remaining 5 sales are from Google AdWords.

Conclusion:

You need data to succeed in lead generation. To generate data on your website visitors, you can create UTM tags for referrals and paid traffic, set Google Analytics goals, use the Facebook pixel and offline conversions. The data you collect from these sources will help you to be effective in creating marketing campaigns that will perform well. This will also help you to get more qualified leads.

What methods are you using to collect data from your website visitors?

About the Author

CEO and co-founder at LeadsBridge. A suite of automation tools for Facebook Advertisers. Social Advertising and Marketing Automation enthusiast.
Download my Facebook Ads Insider’s Hacks here.

How to Make Your Business More Referable

How to Make Your Business More Referable written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

“How can I make my business more referable?” I get asked this question all the time but the question people should be asking is “who do people refer?” Having the answer to that question will better prepare you to take advantage of this powerful marketing tactic.

Having been in this business for decades, I’ve come to the conclusion that people make referral decisions the same way they make purchasing decisions. They decide something is the right price and fits their needs (which is the logical part), and then, they determine they will have more life, impress their friends, boost their confidence, and so on (the emotional part).

Here’s the thing – emotion typically comes first.

In order to increase your odds of getting referred, you need to tap into this emotion/logic formula. People have to believe you can help them and that you will deliver what is promised (logic), but, they must also feel good about helping you, trust that their referral will be treated well, and genuinely like the experience they have with your business (emotion.) The businesses that get the most referrals solve their customer’s problems while also providing a fun or unique experience.

If you are not getting referrals naturally, take a deep look at the previously mentioned formula and how it applies to your customers.

Now, let’s say you run a more serious business, like a law practice, that doesn’t typically have anything fun about it. In this situation, I’d think of ways that your business can make a genuine emotional connection with your clients and make that one of core elements of your business.

I have a lot of opinions on this topic, so below are a few tips I’d recommend implementing to boost the odds of your business getting referrals.

Tips to make your business more referable

Create a referral engine

No, this is not a shameless plug for my book. Creating a referral engine is absolutely essential if you want to bring in consistent referrals for your business. The key to getting more referrals from your existing clients is to create and focus on a referral process that you operate on a consistent basis. Once the process is in place, it will be easier for your customers to refer your business.

I usually suggest that every business build multiple referral programs and offers in each of the following four types.

Direct referrals

With a direct referral program, you simply state to your existing clients an offer for the act of creating a referral that turns into a client. “Refer a friend to our marketing firm and we’ll give you a free website review” is an example of how to use this approach. It’s motivating and describes what the business does.

Implied referrals

This type of referral is terribly underutilized. In an implied referral program you want to do things that make it very obvious you are doing work for someone, without necessarily asking for a referral. This sets up a situation where a friend or neighbor might simply ask you to refer the person running an implied referral program.

Tangible referrals

With a tangible referral, you put something in the hands of your customer that has real value and that they can give to a referral source. The thing we like about this tactic is that you can run it three or four times a year as a low cost, low exposure way to keep referrals top of mind.

Community referrals

There are so many community organizations that need and deserve your support. When you partner with a non-profit player and support their mission, events, and needs you can also offer promotional support by running the occasional promotion that benefits your partner. “When you buy this week or sign a contract this week, 10% of the proceeds go to benefit our community partner” is an example of how this would work.

You can build one program and then simply keep adding to it until you have referrals coming from numerous sources while promoting how referable your business is.

Show your personality and rock the customer experience

People don’t generally remember businesses, they remember other people. Having a personality is essential for getting referrals. When you can develop personal connections with your business, you give them a reason to remember and recommend you to others. Make their experience with your business one that they will never forget.

Target your influential customers and related businesses

Seek referrals first from your most influential customers. Note, these people may not actually be your best customers, but they are the people whose opinions carry the most weight with others.

I’m a huge advocate for building up a strategic partner network for your business, and it’s important to use these partners to boost your referrals. These businesses should provide complementary services to your own.

Build relationships

Building off the importance of strategic partnerships, it’s imperative that you focus on your relationships in an effort to boost referrals. This takes time, but it’s a must because many of your most influential customers won’t provide referrals until you gain their trust.

Offer incentives

Incentives can be tricky. For example, I wouldn’t recommend money offerings alone for referrals as they are poor motivators. Don’t be afraid to test offers to find out what works best. Sometimes trial and error gets you to the best solutions.

I personally believe is far better to work on making your business more likable before you offer any kind of incentive for referrals, but incentives are good to keep in the back of your mind when needed.

Make it easy for people to refer you

Make the ask. What do you have to lose? When you go in for the ask, be sure to do it at the right moment, and that moment is when your customer is likely to be happiest of all, and that is the moment right after they buy something. Use a post-purchase survey online or encourage your customer to write a review. The more you can do to get someone to recommend your business right after purchase, the more referrals you can generate.

Be sure to create tools, education, and follow-up systems as well to rock the referral marketing world.

What makes things catch on?

In Jonah Berger’s book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, he explains there are six essential factors that make things catch on. These include:

Social currency: We share things that make us look good or help us compare favorably to others.
Triggers: Ideas that are easy to remember spread. Viral ideas attach themselves to top-of-the-mind stories, occurrences or environments.
Emotion: Emotions move us in irrational ways. This means that when we care, we share.
Public: People tend to follow others, but only when they can see what those others are doing.
Practical: Humans love giving out advice and tips, but especially if they offer practical value.
Stories: People do not just share information, they tell stories.

Take a look at the factors above and see how you may be able to apply them to your business (you don’t need to address all of them to be effective, but strive for at least a few.

Wha have you implemented in your business to increase referrals?

5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns

5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing

What if you have impressions and clicks on your Facebook ad campaigns but no conversions? This is where most marketers get stuck. You are showing the ads to the right audience, getting a good amount of engagement yet at the end of the funnel, users are dropping off. People are not getting convinced where they land. The culprit?

The Landing page.

The solution? A/B test your landing page to find the biggest issue that is causing the user to go away. In this post, we’ll take 5 examples of different types of Facebook ad campaigns and solve the issue of conversion.

Let’s discuss some of the likely reasons why your Facebook ad campaign is failing and what changes you can do on your landing page to avoid that from happening:

A/B test

A/B Testing is a marketing strategy in which two versions, A and B (the control and the treatment) are tested against each other. The goal is to identify changes that increase the chance of conversion.

Now, there can be numerous A/B tests that can help in optimizing your Facebook ad campaigns but let’s start with the most obvious ones.

1. Call-to-Action

The impact of your call-to-action depends on two things: the placement and the text on it.

Putting your call-to-action above the fold is not always the answer. It depends on the product or service that you are offering. For example, for an eCommerce website, it is advisable to put the CTA right in front of the visitor, whereas for more complex products like SaaS etc the CTA should come once the user has been educated about the offering. Michael Aagaard of Content Verve got 304% increase in conversions by moving the page’s CTA below the fold.

5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns

The second most important factor of the CTA is the phrase. A convincing CTA can go a long way in conversions to happen.

5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns

As you can see, using “Get” in the call-to-action increased conversion rates by 14.79%. even though both calls-to-action provide the same offer.

2. Message mismatch

The best online ad campaigns consist of key features or variables to provide viewers with a seamless, coherent experience from end to end. What if the users are not getting what they expected from the ad they saw? Low conversion!

Message match means the keyphrase you’re targeting should also show up in the headline of your ad and on the headline of your landing page too.

Here is an example from Oliver Wicks, let’s say you see an ad that looks like:

5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns
When you click on the ad, you get this on the landing page:

5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns

The landing page is in coherence with the ad copy shown. If your landing page is showing completely different message your ads are bound to convert less.

3. Test your landing page copy

Passive voice has a weak quality and can be boring. Active language excites, energizes and drives action.

The company L’Axelle, which sells underarm sweat pads, ran an A/B test on the product landing page. Their original page used a passive headline. The second used direct language and strong verb.

Version A

5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns

Version B

landing page test b
This change in copy led to a 93% increase in clicks and a conversion rate of 38.3%. This implies that active voice can cause users to take action more promptly.

4. Form fields

A large form can scare away even the most interested person. Don’t ask questions that the user needs to think before answering. Asking a person for their first name is one thing, but asking for their credit card details is another.

So what is the right number for form field entries?

Just don’t add anything that doesn’t NEED to be there. Make sure every form field is 100% necessary before you add it. For example, unless you’re going to use it in an email, you don’t need to ask for a person’s last name.

Here is an example of a great form. H.BLOOM’s landing page has some great conversions elements: an above-the-fold form, just the required number of fields and the bright orange “Submit” button.

5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns

5. Testimonials and social proof to add credibility

Add testimonials, media coverage, and a few social media mentions to give your brand reputation and credibility. Studies show that reviews are 12-times more trusted than product descriptions and sales copy. When users land on a page that has testimonials or social proof, they tend to trust the brand more and their chances of converting become higher. Add social sharing buttons and use exact numbers and data in your testimonials if you can. Here is an example of Robbie Richards’ blog.
5 Most Important Landing Page A/B Tests to Optimize Your Facebook Ad Campaigns

Conclusion:

There can be so many things to test on your landing page when your ads are not working but starting off with the most important ones can definitely fetch you results. We can try and implement what worked for others and achieve results but at the end of the day, we have to find what will work for us.

About The Author

Thomas Kriebernegg can look back on over 10 years of experience in Online Marketing and 5 years in App Marketing. He is an app enthusiast and the CEO at App Radar, an online App Store Optimization Tool that helps app developers understand and optimize their app store appearance.