Viral Marketing Products Campaign Goal: Increase Web Site Leads to 110 Per Year

American Finasco's web site leads had fallen off to a rate of 3-4 per month for 2010 through the first seven months. In 2008 and 2009, the company's web site produced 91(2008) and 110(2009) leads. After meeting with the owner and head of marketing, they determined that their highest priority online marketing goal was to increase the website leads to the rates 2008 and 2009.

Based on their statistics from 2007-2009, every 100 leads produced $130,000 of revenue. After reviewing their web site analytics over a 36 month period, our company identified that it would be possible to achieve this goal through website conversion optimization, social media presence, and a custom online community.

Our conversion team reviewed their main site, AmericanFinasco.com, and identified several areas in need of adjustment:

1) Their current process for collecting leads was sending them to the contact us page. This required visitors to complete an extra action before getting to a lead capture.
2) The lead form on the contact us page had 13 inputs. Each input over 5 decreases the conversion rate by 10-20%.
3) The lead form did not have a compelling call-to-action.

In month one, we reviewed the top performing ads from their competitors within their space. Then we molded a 4 input lead capture around a call-to-action of a "Free Business Debt Advisory Consultation." Our team used multivariate testing to identify the version that had the highest conversion ratio. After implementation, the conversion rate of the site had doubled.

In month two, we continued multivariate testing implementing two leveraging techniques:

1) Placing well known brands around call-to-action where American Finasco's service had been featured in articles.
2) Placing the BBB Award of Excellence seal around the call-to-action.

The combination of well known brands and BBB seal lead to a perceived brand recognition. Although most visitors did not recognize the American Finasco brand, they did recognize The New York Times and BBB. This in turn created a perceived trust that translated into an increased conversion ratio. After implementation, the conversion rate had increased 10 fold (1000%).

In month three, we focused on making additional adjustments to the call-to-action in order to help further qualify prospects.

1) Personal/Business Hybrid - The owner was used as the face of the company in the left hand image that is seen on all Facebook tabs. With smaller brands, people relate better to a face rather than an unknown logo. This also creates a greater response rate in status updates because Mitchell's face appears in the small icon next to each update.

2) Built-in Lead Form - We used a version of the same lead capture form from their main site. By having the lead capture directly on the Facebook page, it eliminates an extra step in the conversion process. The lead form tab opens as the default home tab for all visitors.

3) Click the Like Button Image - This technique can be seen with most Fortune 5000 Facebook pages. It increases the "like" conversion by 3-4 times.

4) SEO of Page on Google - The page was optimized for on-page and off-page factors for the term "debt negotiation business resources." Within 30 days, the page had the #1 listing on Google for this phrase.

We created a custom online community around the domain name Payabled.com to serve the following purpose:

1) Compelling Viral Content for Facebook & Twitter Updates - We built out the video section with over 1000 videos that were hand-picked by our content team. Each video was chosen based upon its viral engagement score using the statistics compiled by YouTube (Views, Comments, Likes).

2) Call-to-Action on Each Page - Every page on the community site has a strong call-to-action with emphasis on the American Finasco brand. This allows every page view generated to serve a specific purpose of branding American Finasco.

3) Invitation Campaign - The community has a build in email marketing system that allows us to run an invitation campaign to targeted emails from past leads and prospects. Each prospect is sent a custom email inviting them to join the network.

Comparing the prior three months to the first three months of our relationship:

1) Total net leads increased by over 1000%
2) The goal of achieving a rate of 110 leads per year was obtained within first 30 days.
3) At the end of the 90 day period the leads per year pace was at 372.
4) 1003 Facebook members had become a fan of the Facebook page we created for them.
5) 1056 Twitter members had become a follower of their Twitter feed.
6) Their social network was on pace for 18,000+ PVs/yr.

In three months, our engagement strategy had tripled their highest priority online marketing goal and laid a foundation for future residual growth. Each of these areas will serve a specific purpose as part of an ongoing interconnected marketing campaign.