February 25, 2016

#AndyTalks 010 – Local Lead Gen

TRANSCRIPTION

Josh asked for some thoughts about how I track conversions for a local service business.

If you’re a local service business, typically you want people to ring you. You want to get on the phone to them because that’s how you’re going to sell to them best and also the people who are willing to speak to you on the phone are the ones most likely to convert.

Lead generation for local service businesses using AdWord paid search is actually very, very simple. I’ll see if I can explain it in under a minute.

Let’s say you live in Rathmines, which is an area within Dublin and you need a plumber. You might start your search on Google by typing in “plumbers” or “plumbers near me” or something like that. But you’re going to quickly realize that’s not specific enough. Most people or a lot of people will probably just go to straight to typing in “plumbers Dublin” or a variation of that. I call that a “geo modified” search term. The search that they’ve typed in has a geography, a location in the search term so it’s geo modified.

A geo modified search term indicates the searcher is looking for a local service to them. It’s often better qualified visitors to your website than somebody who hasn’t typed in a geo modified search term.

Take an example of somebody looking for window repairs on Google. They might be trying to do it themselves and looking for information to learn how to do it themselves or they could be looking for a local service business. When someone types in “window repairs Dublin” they’re no longer information-seeking to learn how to do it for themselves. So my advice to local service businesses is to always start with geo modified search terms.

So, our plumber in Dublin would want to be found by people looking for “plumbers Dublin” or “Dublin plumbers,” “plumbers in Dublin” things like that. The ad that somebody should see when they type in “plumbers Dublin” should be “Dublin Plumbers” or “Dublin Plumber” — put it in the headline. Even better, is if they typed in “Rathmines Plumber” because Rathmines is an area within Dublin and of course if they type in “Plumbers Rathmines” your ad should say “Rathmines Plumber.”

So if a local service business, like a plumber in Dublin, whatever areas they cover, they should be making sure they bid on each location, plus “plumber.” Then they should write the best ad they can, which is going to be one that contains the location in the headline, “Rathmines Plumber,” “Swords Plumber,” “Dunleary Plumber” all these locations.

So you’re in Rathmines. You type in “Rathmines plumber.” you look at the Google search results and you try and find an ad that says “Rathmines Plumber.” At a guess, there’s going to be none because everybody’s just going to say “Dublin Plumber,” so you’re going to be better if you can put Rathmines Plumber into your ad. . . . they click your ad because yours is the most enticing; you get a good CTR; Google loves you; you get rewarded with lower CPC; higher impression share.

Now the visitor hits the landing page. What do they see? Can they see what they are looking for? They search for a Rathmines plumber. The ad said Rathmines Plumber. Guess what the first thing they should see on the landing page is? How about a big headline saying “Looking for a Plumber in Rathmines?”

What do you think they’re going to say to that? — Yes! Godammit I’ve been on Google all morning trying to find a plumber in Rathmines, thank God. And I’m looking for a plumber because I want to download their e-book on how to choose a plumber — no, no sorry, I wanted to read an article about how to choose a plumber.

Actually no, I wanted to find out that you’ve been in business since 1975 and that you’ve got 3 vans and all the rest of it. Please what’s your email address because I want to send you an email because they’ve got an emergency in the house and I want to send you an email.

You know what they want to do, they want to ring. So, maybe you should put your phone number, big and bold, top right maybe just below the “Looking for a Plumber in Rathmines?” Bang, phone number. Maybe put three bullet points — we cover Rathmines; we’re great; 24/7 callout — all that kind of stuff.

Good idea to put a form as well, in case people can’t ring because they’re at work and they don’t want to get in trouble. I suggest putting “Request a Callback” as the title of that form, rather than “contact us.” If you want people to fill in the form, maybe just ask for their name, their phone number, their email address and give them space for a message but make it optional.

Don’t put “submit” as the call to action on the button below the form. I mean we’re not wrestling are we? How about take into account that people don’t really read and they might not have read the headline above the form. I’d say a good call to action on the request a call back form is “Request a Callback” maybe with a little chevron, a little arrow just to indicate something’s going to happen when they do it.

What about all those great testimonials and information you’ve got about the company and case studies and things like that, They’re good aren’t they? They are good. Add them below; add them below. People are going to be on mobile or computer, they can scroll or they can scroll. Give people a clue though that there might be content below the fold, so don’t have your fold so big that they can’t see there’s anything down below. For people who are going to scroll, maybe put a small call to actions inserted down the page so they don’t have scroll all the way back up.