Why “Content is King”
I started learning about online lead generation in the fall of 2008. The company I was working for was branching out into the educational sector selling leads to post-secondary schools, and I was hired as an account manager.
Some of our clients included triOS College, Everest, Trillium… everything from business to aesthetics schools, the plan was to acquire all the big and small fish and start selling them leads. (Prospect students looking to enrol in programs either to continue education or learn a new trade).
Those shopping around for the best schools to attend would be usually typing into search engines keywords like “Personal Support Worker Toronto” or “Early-Childhood Education Vancouver”. (Program name and location also known as long-tail words). Our campaigns were visible on the paid placements of Google, Yahoo! And MSN pages. Anyone clicking on our links would get to our landing pages. On the landing pages, end-users would fill out contact forms with all the necessary information that we decided with our clients would constitute a qualified lead – name, email address, phone number, desired location of study, and so on. Some would have more specific criteria like visas, prerequisites and other qualifications. Once an end-user would fill out a form, we would pre-qualify the lead to make sure everything fit the criteria and send it off to our clients. From there on our job was complete and it was now up to the schools to close the sale.
I began to understand that the method for cold-calling was being applied in online marketing and lead generation. You see, the lead is the most precious thing for a business to have…
I realized that because no one is actually selling face-to-face on the web, the art of selling through verbal speech was now transformed into the art of selling with the written word. Every medium online was being used by businesses to sell. Websites, landing pages, sales letters, etc. – and all these required words (excluding videos ofcourse).
The biggest part of the game was to place PPC advertisements where they would be seen by targeted prospects. It became quite obvious that the magic was all in keywords and targeting the right ones.
Garry Halbert explains this in his “Starving Crowd” letter: the only advantage that he looked for when selling hamburgers was to find “A Starving Crowd”.
And so we enjoyed success generating an average of 50 leads per day. We found the starving crowd with keywords like “Personal Support Worker Toronto”… “Early-Childhood Education Toronto” and other programs schools needed to fill seats for and were ready to pay good, cold hard cash to make this happen.
Increasing conversion rates (generating more leads in this case) was a matter solely dependent on tweaking keywords. Our landing pages became more successful when changes were made that would satisfy the prospect and entice him or her to leave info. One word could be the deal-breaker- either someone was encouraged to leave their contact information or they weren’t.
The art of selling online is done with copywriting. Website copywriting, landing page copywriting, sales letter copywriting and every other method you’re using to sell your products and services.
Everywhere You Want to Sell, You Have to Use the Right Words at the Right Time to Come to the Ultimate Goal of Selling.
The whole sales game online starts and ends with words. What product are you selling and where are you going to find your “starving crowd”? Where are your prospects looking for the products and services they desire to buy, and are you there offering them your business.
And for this you have to get into the mind of your prospect…
What kind of mindset are they in when they are ready to make a purchasing decision? How are you going to find your “starving crowd”, present to them your products and services, offer them exceptional customer service and gain their trust?
Ok, how to come around?…
This article first started off with a purpose to compare PPC with SEO (what I see my career now being immersed in most), but then it shifted to the focus on keywords (in the context of targeting prospects in the right “real estate market”. As they say…“location, location, location”.
So let’s leave with some food for thought:
First, start reading Gary Halbert’s Letters if you’re looking to get into the world of Copywriting.
And second, targeting the right prospects is important to generate sales. So get into the habit of thinking like your perfect consumer. Speak their language, and advertise online where you think your prospect is shopping!
That’s it for now…
Anna @ Toronto
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