1. Leverage Chaos to Capture Search Share
As companies cut their staff across the globe (JPMorgan Chase recently cut 1,000 employees and Coinbase cut 18% of their staff), usually the first to go are the marketing team and agencies. This is bad news for marketing professionals but it also creates an opportunity for smart brands to use this time to capture market share. This is especially the case with search engine marketing. If brands are cutting the staff that leads SEO, creates content and helps them get in front of searchers, then your brand should double down and capture the opportunity.
We recommend you focus your marketing efforts on using SEO, videos, and articles to get in front of the people who are still searching. Then, turn these people into customers or leads using the methods below. People will always search, but they may switch where they search. For example, the younger generation is searching on TikTok, but when they search here, you have to be the brand they find. If you are cutting staff you should find a partner consultancy that can help run your SEO, Content, and Integrated Search programs to make sure that you are capitalizing where others are pausing or slowing down. You won’t have to pay health care and other overhead from having internal employees working on this. You will also not miss the opportunity that chaos provides.
2. Build Your Own Walled Garden and Collect Leads
If you have not started to collect email addresses and other info from site visitors, you have to start now. Just having a pop-up, coupon offer, or blog sidebar email capture form is not enough. It’s a good start but you have to be methodical and obsessive about lead generation.
- B2B Brands: We know white paper leads don’t turn into sales right away. However, they are very important for nurturing, retargeting, and long-term conversions.
- B2C Brands: Lead capture is huge for your growth. You can use email, SMS, and even push notifications to increase sales. You can use it to increase average order values, purchase frequency, and more.
The point is that lead generation is important for all brands. It is especially important in categories like finance (crypto, loans, mortgage, banking, etc) where competition is fierce and the cost per click and to acquire a customer is high. It is also important in highly regulated markets like cannabis, CBD, alcohol, gambling, etc. where paid media buying is blocked or limited.
Building your own database of leads can be used in many ways:
- Nurturing: Use email/ lifecycle marketing and other 1-to-1 communication channels to convert leads into customers.
- Audience Expansion: Create lookalike audiences to target people like them who will more than likely convert to a lead or a sale.
- Retargeting: Retarget these people until they convert into a customer. For B2B, you would add these leads to an Account Based Marketing program as well.
- Marketplace Affiliate Conversions: Some people may not be ready for your products. However, you can still offer them related products and services and make affiliate revenue from them.
3. Partner with Publishers
Publishers will continue to publish content across the web, rank on search engines and social platforms, and turn the site traffic into leads by gating their content or having paywalls.
They have gotten consumers used to giving up more personal information in exchange for access to content.
Even though publishers like Coinbase have cut staff, know that they will never stop publishing content and building their walled garden.
You should partner with publishing sites that already rank well for your target terms. Have them add your products or services to their lists and content that already rank well.
Getting on that list will help them skip the line and get in front of prospects. You will have to pay for this, but if it is negotiated right, the CAC can be very low and drive lots of referral traffic, brand awareness, and conversions.
We call this a multi-domain strategy.
4. Leveraging a Calculator Strategy for Financial Brands
If you look at the most visited pages on top finance sites you will see that calculators are always in the mix. Here is a list of top pages for BankRate.com.
Calculators are important because they offer utility to people who visit your website.
In exchange for that utility, people are willing to give you their name, email, phone number, and other personal information.
Ranking for calculator terms is extremely difficult, but that should not stop you from building calculators that people are searching for and getting in front of your site visitors using all marketing channels.
Here is a list of calculators that people are searching for. You can use the keyword difficulty, search volume, and cost per click to prioritize your targets.
Once you identify the calculator you want to build we recommend you do the following:
Optimize for SEO: Make sure the page that the calculator is on is optimized for calculator. In the example below we built a “CBD Dosage Calculator” and wrote an article to target the word. This calculator now ranks well for that search term and drives consistent email sign ups.
Create Downloadable Excel Sheet Calculators: Many of the calculators online can also be turned into Excel or Google Sheet calculators. We recommend that you create an Excel version of your calculator and let people download it in exchange for the name and email address.
If you need help with any of these strategies, please reach out.