However you create site traffic, you'll need to create landing pages and have the ability to track the traffic and resulting conversions
By Adam Stein
Special to MPA
Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we'll be running expert advice online origination advice from Adam Stein, CEO of LoanTek.
Independent of how you create your site traffic there are two required processes to launch an online campaign; one must create website collateral (landing pages) and also the ability to track the traffic and resulting conversions (Google Analytics and Lead Management). Some tips on managing this process are detailed below:
Special to MPA
Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we'll be running expert advice online origination advice from Adam Stein, CEO of LoanTek.
Independent of how you create your site traffic there are two required processes to launch an online campaign; one must create website collateral (landing pages) and also the ability to track the traffic and resulting conversions (Google Analytics and Lead Management). Some tips on managing this process are detailed below:
Creative process
- For optimum conversion you will need to design very specific landing pages. These pages should be designed to convert traffic from a specific source. To make certain that the “final landing page” is not wasting your marketing dollars by performing poorly, you will want to create more than one page for comparison data. This process is called ‘A/B testing’. By creating a number of pages with unique content, imagery, and page design you can effect A/B testing.
A/B testing is then the practice of producing multiple landing pages and studying their respective performance. By looking at a given landing page’s conversion data, and comparing its performance against another, one is able to create an optimum landing page that leverages the strengths of each. Implementing A/B testing will allow you to create optimum web designs and content solutions convert to the highest number of leads per site visit.
Managing marketing: 'Feed or bleed'
- Once you have developed the optimum landing page use a ‘Feed or Bleed’ budgeting process on the sources of your site traffic. Simply put, use Google Analytics to assess where your marketing dollars are working (Google Analytics is free – I like free). Using the data from Google Analytics ask questions like: ‘How much traffic is being referred from ‘X’? ‘How many leads are resulting from the landing page per visit?’ When you get down to it these are the only things that matter: how many visitors did I get for my marketing dollar and how many converted to leads? The first question is a topline benchmark of your marketing dollar’s efficiency with the given traffic source. The second question is more related to the effectiveness of your creative page, content, and quality of the traffic being referred:
- Does my page meet the site visitor’s value proposition? And,
- With respect to the quality of the traffic being referred: are the site visitors coming from ‘X’ predominantly home buyers looking for financing – or are they ‘garbage clicks’ with high bounce rates?
The answers to these questions will dictate which traffic sources to ‘feed’ and which source to ‘bleed’. They will lead to the effective management of your marketing dollar and the cost efficient production of online consumers.
Adam Stein is the CEO of LoanTek.
