Landing Page & PPC Case Study
Find out how we boosted IES’s leads by 9x using PPC and improved conversion rates by 290%
The Problem
Our client, IES, is a business software reseller specializing in Microsoft products and solutions. When they first approached us, there were numerous problems with their website and marketing approach that deeply and negatively impacted their business. For starters, their site was not getting sufficient traffic, and the traffic they were getting was not converting. In fact, on average, they were getting less than five leads per month:
While the client had already been using HubSpot as their blogging platform for about six months, they had yet to make any real progress or growth from it. Their blogs were not attracting enough visitors from their target markets, which was due in part to the fact that they had not clearly defined any buyer personas.
The client had also set up their own paid advertising campaigns using Google AdWords, but they received very few conversions and none of them ended up becoming customers. In addition, there was a noticeable lack of lead nurturing, which resulted in losing many of the few leads that they were able to get.
After reviewing their campaign tactics, we narrowed down the key problems:
- Poor Site and Blog Traffic
- Few Conversions and Leads
- No Lead Nurturing Tactics
- Costly and Ineffective PPC Campaigns
The Solution
Once we had outlined which problems needed to be immediately addressed, we started on our plan of attack: 1) Complete onsite and offsite SEO to increase monthly site traffic. 2) Website conversion optimization including new landing pages. 3) Create clearly defined buyer personas. 4) Increase the output of blog content with unique, keyword targeted topics. 5) Content overhaul of the entire site. 6) Set up email campaigns to nurture leads down the funnel. 7) Addition of social ads and complete revamp of Google AdWords campaigns.
1. Complete onsite and offsite SEO to increase monthly site traffic
We found that much of the content on the client’s site was not keyword optimized for relevant markets. Our first step was to focus on their local market—the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. This helped us to maximize our reach to relevant clients who were looking for software providers in the area.
In order to improve offsite SEO, we worked on a plan to create quality backlinks. This included content outreach, social sharing, and valuable comments on forums.
2. Website conversion optimization including new landing pages
In order to maximize the client’s number of leads, we added calls-to-action (CTA) throughout the site and to every blog post. In addition, we created new conversion optimized landing pages with limited form fields, client logos to establish brand trust, and valuable gated content.
3. Create clearly defined buyer personas.
The lack of buyer personas meant that the client couldn’t properly target their content to the most relevant audience. Because of this, the traffic and leads they had were of poor quality. Creating a data-based buyer persona helped us zero in on quality leads that were more likely to become clients. We looked at data for existing customers and used the patterns we noticed to create our buyer persona.
4. Increase the output of blog content with unique, keyword targeted topics.
While the client had been producing blog content already, their content was very short, posted sporadically, and not based on buyer personas. We upped their content output to four to five posts per month, each a thousand words or more. Every blog post was based off of targeted, important keywords that would ensure the people finding the posts would be interested in the solutions and services that IES provides. In addition, we ensured that each post from then on would be informative and offer real value to the readers. This helped to build brand trust and affinity.
5. Content overhaul of their entire site and addition of premium content.
First, we edited some of the key copy areas on their website in order to ensure accuracy and relevance. Second, we decided to improve the quality of their premium content. While the client was producing ebooks and whitepapers, we felt that they could be more professionally presented and with better branding. We also wanted them to offer unique value that would inspire people to download them. Generic content leads to few conversions since it’s common and uninteresting.
6. Set up email campaigns to nurture leads down the funnel.
One of the most critical issues we faced is that the client had no email marketing in place, which was definitely not good for lead nurturing. In addition to sending emails to subscribers every time a new blog was posted, we also implemented a monthly newsletter that went over some of the biggest and latest things happening in the client’s industry.
7. Addition of social ads and complete revamp of Google AdWords campaigns.
The client had already started some Google AdWords campaigns on their own, however, they were not correctly optimized and ended up costing a lot of money with nothing to show for it. We decided to do a complete revamp and launched highly granular campaigns with customized landing pages to ensure message match.
In addition, we started some campaigns on LinkedIn and used the buyer persona we created in order to target the client’s best premium content to the most relevant audience.
8. Migrate entire site to HubSpot
One of the other big problems was that the client was using two different hosting sites—HubSpot for their blog, and Joomla for their main site. This made it very difficult to make changes and to maintain the website. But most importantly, their site was slow and experienced several hours of downtime each month.
Once we migrated their entire site to HubSpot, maintenance became a breeze. And because of built-in CDN, the speed of their website greatly improved and we were able to completely eliminate downtime.
The Results
Our efforts quickly made a massive impact on the client’s success:
- Huge increase in site traffic:
- Massive boost in number of leads:
- Better lead quality:
- Increased site conversion rates:
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