Having superior content material isn’t the be-all and end-all of a profitable content material advertising technique. Should you’re not being deliberate about the way you ship your readers down your advertising funnel, you’re not going to see outcomes.
On this episode of the Call to Action podcast, co-founder Oli Gardner remembers how Unbounce used an e-book to generate leads earlier than our product was even prepared.
Then, Unbounce’s content material strategist Dan Levy and Michael Karp of Copytactics focus on tactical methods which you can put your content material to work and achieve certified leads within the course of.
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On this episode: Stephanie Saretsky chats with Oli Gardner, Unbounce’s co-founder. Then, Dan Levy, Unbounce’s Content material Strategist, interviews Michael Karp, founding father of Copytactics.
Stephanie Saretsky: Let’s return to the very starting, lets? Nearly six years in the past, six males bought collectively and determined to start out a enterprise. That enterprise would lead to over 2 million touchdown pages being created. However first, it needed to let entrepreneurs know that it existed, and that meant producing some leads.
Oli Gardner: I’d by no means even heard of the time period earlier than. I imply, I grew to become a marketer the day we began the corporate.
Stephanie Saretsky: That’s Oli Gardner, cofounder of Unbounce. And the time period he’s speaking about is lead technology. The Unbounce weblog launched months earlier than the product was prepared. And Oli’s early posts centered on educating entrepreneurs about what touchdown pages have been and why they wanted them. However with the intention to get folks to fork over their e-mail addresses, he wanted to place collectively one thing even larger.
Oli Gardner: Form of a joke. I made a decision I needed to do an e-book for lead gen. And our CTO Carl stated in passing to Rick, “What, is he actually gonna waste two weeks writing an e-book? Absolutely there are extra necessary issues to be carried out, like constructing our web site, blah, blah, blah.” I held a two-hour brainstorm, bought a complete bunch of stickies on a wall. Then went and pulled an all-nighter, wrote the e-book, got here again, slapped it on the desk (digitally) the following day. Kinda of an f you.
Stephanie Saretsky: That f you got here within the type of Unbounce’s first e-book, 101 Touchdown Web page Optimization Ideas. The e-book took off and generated round 1,200 leads for the fledgling firm, which had the crew fairly excited.
Oli Gardner: It’s so thrilling while you’re beginning an organization. I keep in mind – identical as once we began getting our first – we’d have 4 clients in a day, and we’d be like, “Ooh, that is so superb!” We’d get leads. And you then take a look at them, and a few of them are whole spam. However you then get some actual ones, and also you get – the thrilling half is while you get ones with an precise firm identify in them, so not Gmail. That’s form of thrilling.
Stephanie Saretsky: That’s the ability of nice content material. It’s not solely useful – and dare I say pleasant – for the viewers you’re focusing on, however when nice content material has a strong technique behind it, it might probably flip your readers into keen leads which are pumped to check out your new product. However it’s not as straightforward at present because it was again then.
Oli Gardner: However actually, I imply, there weren’t many inbound entrepreneurs at the moment. There was HubSpot, Content material Advertising and marketing Institute, MarketingProfs and issues like that. However Unbounce was one of many early pioneers of content material advertising, to be trustworthy. It was a lot simpler to be particular, I believe, then. Now there’s only a webinar each 15 seconds and too many ebooks.
Stephanie Saretsky: You gotta redefine the e-book then.
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Stephanie Saretsky: I’m Stephanie Saretsky, and that is Name to Motion, Unbounce’s podcast about doing advertising higher. It doesn’t matter how superior or pleasant your content material is; in case you’re not being deliberate about the way you ship your readers down the funnel, you’re not going to see outcomes. It’s essential to have a transparent plan that will get folks out of your superior content material to your leads listing as a result of folks received’t randomly discover their manner there. This implies we now have to get somewhat bit extra inventive about how we generate leads. So we spoke to a man that has just a few tips up his sleeve.
Michael Karp: Michael Karp, and I work at Copytactics.com.
Stephanie Saretsky: Unbounce’s Dan Levy spoke with Michael about producing site visitors and turning that site visitors into leads, which Michael wrote about in a submit for the Unbounce weblog, “A Step-by-Step Information to Producing Leads With Your Content material Advertising and marketing.”
Dan Levy: Your submit is admittedly refreshing to learn as a content material marketer as a result of a lot content material about content material dwells on that agonizing query of why companies ought to be creating content material and yours goes straight into the how. That stated, I’m gonna ask you to take a step again for a second and clarify why you assume content material’s main goal ought to be lead technology.
Michael Karp: I believe that lead technology is unquestionably a high precedence of content material advertising. However – I’ll clarify this in somewhat bit – I wouldn’t say that it’s content material advertising’s main goal.
Dan Levy: Okay.
Michael Karp: I believe that content material advertising’s main goal is to achieve publicity for your online business. I’m positive you’ve heard that there’s this notion that patrons don’t actually wanna be offered to anymore. They’re doing extra analysis earlier than making shopping for selections and all that. So I might say that your purpose with content material advertising is to be the enterprise that reveals up when these prospects are doing their analysis. So that you wanna get discovered. You wanna get present in Google. You wanna get present in all these distribution channels on-line. You wanna get discovered on social media. And that’s the first goal of content material advertising: to achieve publicity and to get discovered.
After which after that, you begin worrying about the way you’re gonna generate leads and optimize your web site. As a result of in case you don’t have that publicity and also you don’t have folks coming to you for this data, you received’t be capable to generate leads together with your content material.
Dan Levy: Proper. So your content material must be there in the fitting place on the proper time when your prospects are in search of that data.
Michael Karp: You don’t wanna make that mistake of considering that in case you simply produce content material, then they’ll come. I see plenty of companies who – their blogs are kinda simply crickets, you realize? There’s not likely a lot happening there. It’s as a result of they’ve this false data that simply running a blog goes to carry folks to you. However you really want to advertise your content material and actively put within the work to get that readership and to get folks coming to learn your weblog. And that’s when it turns into efficient content material advertising.
Dan Levy: I assume lead technology is a extremely helpful metric to find out whether or not or not your content material advertising is performing – whether or not it’s finally producing leads. However with the intention to generate leads, you continue to want to herald some site visitors, as you stated. Your site visitors, although, with the intention to be efficient, finally must be made up of potential clients. How do you be sure your site visitors is certified site visitors?
Michael Karp: Proper, yeah, that’s extraordinarily necessary. I all the time say that to get certified site visitors and to get the folks coming to your web site who’re potential clients, you want to create content material that solves the identical sorts of issues that your services and products remedy. So that you don’t wanna go too far together with your content material to the place folks don’t want your services and products anymore. Individuals learn content material and are drawn to content material as a result of it solves some kind of want and need that they’ve. And in case you match the wants and wishes that entice folks to your services and products together with your content material, you’ll naturally entice the individuals who want and need your services and products.
Dan Levy: Proper. And in your submit, you might have plenty of totally different techniques for locating and bringing in that certified site visitors, together with some actually cool Twitter hacks.
I wanna go straight to one thing else which I believe is a bit much less identified however I hear folks speak about it quite a bit, which is utilizing on-line boards or teams or query and reply websites to focus on area of interest communities. How do you take part in these boards, although, in a manner that doesn’t appear salesy or self-serving?
Michael Karp: Sure, it is a large concern, not a lot for solo bloggers like myself, however particularly for larger firms and businesses. It may actually harm their model picture to be too salesy or too self-serving. So what you wanna do, first off, ensure that what you’re selling shouldn’t be essentially your services and products however your content material. So ensure you’re selling content material, however be sure it’s the most dear content material you possibly can probably create on that topic.
So the problem arises when individuals are selling, like, a 500-word article. Say you go on Quora. You reply somebody’s query somewhat bit, give them some data, and you then present your content material as a pure place to get extra data. So when folks see that, they learn, okay, like, this particular person is aware of what they’re speaking about. Let me click on over right here and get some extra data.
In the event that they’re disenchanted after they get to your web site, then they view you and your online business as salesy and self-serving, like, you’re simply making an attempt to get your site visitors stats up otherwise you’re simply making an attempt to get folks to your web site; you’re not likely making an attempt to assist folks. But when they get to your web site and they’re blown away by the piece of content material you created, they utterly overlook that you just even promoted it. They begin to thanks for displaying it to them.
So it actually comes right down to the kind of content material you’re creating and the way worthwhile it’s, however then, yeah, additionally the way you’re selling it.
Dan Levy: So so long as you determine the fitting questions and supply solutions that truly remedy their downside, then –
Michael Karp: Yeah.
Dan Levy: – you don’t have that a lot to fret about. Are you able to share some suggestions for figuring out these questions that your product or resolution occurs to have the reply to?
Michael Karp: Yeah, yeah. So there’s this – it’s known as the 5 Whys methodology, and it’s for figuring out your clients’ ache factors. You find yourself asking “why” 5 instances. And also you fake such as you’re speaking to your splendid buyer. And also you begin off with a really particular downside. So my downside is I’m not producing any leads. Why? As a result of my web site isn’t able to generate leads. Why? And also you undergo all of that. And that’s the place you begin to dig actually deep into the problems that your potential clients are having. In order that’s one methodology you should use.
You may as well go to locations like these boards and Q&A websites and LinkedIn teams and actually simply learn by the entire discussions that these individuals are having and create a spreadsheet and jot down those that pop up over and again and again. And these are the questions that you just wanna reply. After which return into these teams and communities and current your content material as the reply to those questions.
Dan Levy: So after getting that site visitors, you’ve gotta convert these guests into bona fide leads. One in style approach is thru popup kinds, that are precisely what they sound like: home windows that pop up and ask folks for his or her e-mail tackle. We’ve talked about utilizing popups on the podcast earlier than. And the query that all the time pops up is, “Yeah, we all know these issues convert, however at what value?” So how do you take a look at whether or not the rise in leads that you just get from this stuff is value a possible lower in person expertise?
Michael Karp: That’s undoubtedly a significant concern. What you must do is take a look at your particular web site, and you must take a look at this for your self. So I might counsel operating a cut up take a look at or doing, like, 30 days with a popup, 30 days and not using a popup. And measure your change in person expertise alerts – so like your bounce fee, your time onsite, your pages visited – and measure the quantity of leads you generate and what number of of these leads transformed into clients. And take a look at how having a popup type versus not having a popup type affected the enterprise aims that you just’re going for.
So I can’t actually say – there are case research that say, “Oh, you want it to do that. You, like, you want to have a popup type.” However in actuality, it is dependent upon your online business; it is dependent upon your market. Should you take a look at, say, a advertising weblog like mine or any of the opposite advertising blogs which are learn by plenty of entrepreneurs, they’re used to seeing popup kinds. And odds are you’re gonna attain these enterprise aims higher with a popup type than with out one. However in case you take a look at extra shopper niches, they’re used to extra being spammed by popups and stuff like that. So in that case, odds are having a popup type will in all probability harm your lead technology. However you possibly can by no means say that definitively till you take a look at it your self.
Dan Levy: Have you ever skilled any blowback from having popups in your web site?
Michael Karp: No, I haven’t. And never on my shoppers’ web sites both. I’ve one consumer who’s in additional of a shopper area of interest. He’s within the industrial drone trade. And we’ve carried out somewhat take a look at, and undoubtedly having a popup is main us to the aims that we would like.
Dan Levy: It’s humorous; I believe plenty of us share these issues as entrepreneurs. However on the identical time, at any time when I ask folks whether or not they’ve obtained any unfavorable suggestions, nobody’s stated something. So possibly it’s time for us to cease worrying and love the popup.
Michael Karp: Yeah, it could possibly be. And I even noticed a case research from Dan Zarrella. He went on the very excessive finish of getting a popup present up each single time a customer goes to any one among his pages. So no, like, “If a customer comes as soon as, it doesn’t present up for ten days.” It confirmed up each single time. And he didn’t see any main decreases in person expertise in any respect.
Dan Levy: Oh, wow. Huh. I really feel like that is the slippery slope that we don’t wanna go too far down. However –
Michael Karp: Precisely.
Dan Levy: – it’s – yeah, that’s fascinating. One other approach for capturing site visitors that you just speak about is one thing you name content material upgrades. I have to admit I’d by no means heard of content material upgrades earlier than, a minimum of I hadn’t heard them known as that. So what are content material upgrades, and why are they an efficient solution to generate leads?
Michael Karp: So I found content material upgrades from a case research on Brian Dean’s weblog. And he bought a 300 – I consider it was 385 p.c improve in e-mail conversions from having simply two of those content material upgrades on his web site. I don’t keep in mind the size of the case research, but it surely was fairly convincing. And a content material improve is – so if you consider your lead magnets in your web site and your opt-in kinds, they’re usually site-wide common lead magnets. So you might have it, say, in a characteristic field on each web page of your web site or within the sidebar on each web page of your web site, or an opt-in type under the submit that’s fairly common.
With a content material improve, you create a useful resource that’s particular to 1 piece of content material that can assist folks get the outcomes that you just’re instructing, make it simpler for them, or make it sooner or one thing like that. So it’ll be like a guidelines that as an alternative of studying by each phrase of your submit once more, they’ll simply undergo the guidelines and do it sooner. Or like I did for my first Unbounce article. I created a listing of sources and hyperlinks to the sources and what every useful resource was used for throughout the steps that I introduced within the article. And so it’s very particular. I can’t use that content material improve on anything, so it’s particular to that piece of content material. And the explanation it’s so efficient is as a result of this lead magnet is hyper-targeted to the content material that particular person is studying proper now. The thought is that they have a stronger want for that lead magnet at that time limit than the opposite lead magnets in your web site. So it’s hyper-targeted.
After which the best way you ship it’s by a popup mild field. So, you’ll principally have a hyperlink or a field throughout the precise content material – so between paragraphs in your article – so that they’re pressured to scan over it. Once they scan over it, it says one thing like, “Click on right here to obtain a free guidelines of those steps.” They click on on that. A popup type comes up, and so they put their e-mail tackle. Then you definately’ve captured a lead. After which they get redirected to the free useful resource, after which they’ll return and proceed studying your content material.
So it’s hyper-targeted, it’s throughout the physique of the content material so they beautiful a lot can’t ignore it. They’ll, sure, scan over it and never learn it. However it’s more likely that they’ll really scan and browse this opt-in quite than one thing in your sidebar or your characteristic field or under your submit, the place they’ve seen these opt-ins earlier than and so they’re used to it, so that they’ll come to your web site and generally they’ll ignore it. But when they’re studying your content material, then it’s laborious to disregard this opt-in.
Dan Levy: And I imply, the important thing right here is that it’s really offering worth to readers as a result of it’s an extension of what they already got here for, proper? It’s not only a distraction.
Michael Karp: Precisely, yeah. It undoubtedly has to supply worth. In any other case, folks received’t decide in. It must be one thing that’s actually gonna assist them.
Dan Levy: In a manner, it’s like the proper compromise resolution to that age-old downside of whether or not or to not gate a bit of content material. It’s like, you retain it ungated to carry folks in and profit from that site visitors, however you embed lead gen alternatives all through the submit.
Michael Karp: Undoubtedly. That’s a extremely great way of placing it.
Dan Levy: Are you able to speak about the way you’ve created your personal content material upgrades utilizing devoted touchdown pages?
Michael Karp: Proper. I really must improve my content material upgrades on my weblog.
Dan Levy: You want a content material improve improve is what you’re saying?
Michael Karp: Precisely, yeah, a content material improve improve. My content material upgrades proper now are simply .pdf variations of the article. The profit is simply which you can learn it offline; you possibly can take it with you in your pill and all that. However it’s not nearly as good of a content material improve as I could possibly be making. However both manner, it doesn’t matter what sort of content material improve you might have, one of many ways in which I’ve delivered it’s by a touchdown web page. So in case you don’t use a service like – for WordPress, there’s a plugin known as SumoMe.
Dan Levy: Proper.
Michael Karp: And inside that, they’ve the leads app. And it’s a content material improve supply app, just about. Should you don’t wanna use that, what I’ve carried out is you possibly can actually simply hyperlink to a touchdown web page wherever you’ll put a content material improve anyway. So you could possibly simply put it in brackets and say, “Obtain this text as a .pdf.” They click on on it, they go to a brand new tab, after which it goes to your touchdown web page, which is optimized for conversion. After which they put of their contact data and get delivered the content material improve that manner.
Dan Levy: So touchdown pages are clearly our bread and butter right here at Unbounce. However I believe most individuals affiliate touchdown pages extra with AdWords and efficiency advertising than content material advertising. Are you able to discuss somewhat bit about what a devoted touchdown web page might do on your content material advertising, versus simply sending that site visitors to your weblog or your homepage?
Michael Karp: Proper. Undoubtedly. As an alternative of, like, a gross sales funnel, I might consider it when it comes to a content material advertising funnel. So say you create a bit of content material, and you then exit and drive site visitors to it. You market it, drive site visitors. Individuals come to your weblog or they arrive to the article, they see the hyperlink to your content material improve. They transfer from the article to the touchdown web page, after which they convert. And that’s form of the tip of your content material advertising funnel, and you then go into your gross sales funnel.
I believe the distinction between sending them to your homepage, or simply sending them to your weblog normally, is that you just’re gonna convert much more guests with the touchdown web page as part of your funnel, quite than possibly they’ll decide in to your sidebar or your popup or one thing like that. In the event that they go – in case you embrace a touchdown web page in your funnel, it doesn’t imply that every one of these different opt-ins all of the sudden go away. It simply means you might have one other extremely optimized place for web site guests to decide in. And the extra of those you might have, the upper your conversion charges are gonna be.
Dan Levy: So the final tactic you point out in your submit is a little more philosophical than those we’ve coated to date. You name it real content material advertising. What does real content material imply to you, and what does it should do with producing leads?
Michael Karp: Proper. So that is one thing that got here to me after I first began studying about content material advertising. It simply form of clicked. And it’s a philosophy that I’m pushing myself with my weblog and with my interactions with folks. Real content material advertising comes from having a real caring for the people who your online business serves, so your potential clients, your precise clients, your shoppers and all that. And it’s a mindset and a notion that permeates all of the content material you create and the way you market it into the world and the way you then work together with people who come to your weblog and all that stuff. It’s simply an concept that content material is not only a advertising asset. It’s a manner to enhance the lives of the people who your online business serves. It’s a manner to enhance lives; it’s a manner to supply worth, I might say.
Dan Levy: Proper. And the thought is that in case you’re doing that, in case you’re offering worth, in case you’re answering the fitting questions, then after all individuals are going to need to join extra. And that’s the place the lead gen facet is available in, I assume.
Michael Karp: Sure, precisely.
Dan Levy: Cool. So let’s say I’m able to create real content material that brings in focused site visitors and switch it into certified leads, kinda placing collectively every thing that we’ve talked about to date. The place’s an excellent place to start?
Michael Karp: Proper. I might say you wanna step again from the metrics and the stats and all that for a bit, and actually get right down to your mission as a enterprise and what you actually need to do – the kind of service you actually need to present on this planet and the way you wanna assist folks. So I might go as far as to really have a gathering. Sit down with folks and brainstorm and map this out.
Irrespective of how large your organization or enterprise is, be sure everybody understands this imaginative and prescient, understands this mission. It’s one thing that I do know Apple did very nicely and one thing that Steve Jobs was excellent at: ensuring that the mission is obvious lower and comprehensible, after which letting that permeate by every thing together with your content material. After which transfer on to the entire techniques and methods that drive site visitors and generate certified leads and finally develop your online business.
Dan Levy: That’s actually good recommendation, and I’d add, in all probability one thing that’s good to do once more each as soon as in awhile. We really simply did one thing actually comparable right here at Unbounce, although we’ve been creating content material for 5 and a half years now. As your crew grows and your product and your viewers evolves, you wanna hold checking in and ensuring that you just’re beginning with “why” and also you’re all clear on what objective your content material serves within the first place and why it issues.
Michael Karp: Precisely. You undoubtedly by no means need to lose sight of that “why” and that objective.
Dan Levy: Nice. Effectively, I believe that’s an excellent be aware to finish on. Thanks a lot for taking the time to speak, Michael. It was a pleasure.
Michael Karp: Sure, thanks very a lot for having me.
Stephanie Saretsky: That was Michael Karp, founding father of Copytactics. You will discover his weblog submit on this episode’s present notes at unbounce.com/podcast.
So we’re six months into the manufacturing of Name to Motion, and we’d actually love to listen to what you assume. So you probably have a sec, please drop us an e-mail at podcast@unbounce.com, and we’ll you should definitely get again to you.
That’s your name to motion. Thanks for listening.
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