Copy This 11,000+ Lead Marketing Strategy

This case study breaks down a powerful digital marketing strategy that helped a mortgage company generate over 11,000 leads in just 12 months, starting from scratch. It covers a full-funnel approach, from initial audience research and positioning to website development and traffic generation through both paid and organic channels. The principles discussed are applicable across various industries.

Understanding the Foundation: Branding and Positioning

Before diving into website design or marketing tactics, it’s essential to understand your place in the market. This involves identifying key competitors and defining your unique selling proposition – why should customers choose you?

Key Takeaways

• Audience Research is Non-Negotiable: Start with understanding your customers. This involves direct conversations to create detailed customer personas.
• Map the Buyer Journey: Once personas are defined, outline the steps customers take to make a purchase.
• Positioning Drives Messaging: Identify customer pain points to craft key messages that resonate across ads, content, and your website.
• Tone and Branding: These elements should align with your audience and messaging.

We use a process called the Branding and Positioning Accelerator. This involves:

1. Competitor Analysis: Understanding what makes competitors successful.
2. Customer Calls: Directly interviewing customers to understand their needs and motivations.
3. Persona Development: Grouping customers into distinct personas with names and images for better visualization.
4. Buyer Journey Mapping: Charting the path customers take from awareness to purchase.
5. Message Crafting: Developing key messages for each stage of the buyer journey.

This foundational work, while time-consuming, saves significant time and budget later on by ensuring marketing efforts are targeted and effective. For instance, a rebrand was implemented for one client, while for another, subtle branding tweaks were sufficient.

Building a High-Converting Website

With a solid understanding of the audience and positioning, the next step is to build a website that reflects this strategy. For DSLD Mortgage, this meant creating a fresh, modern site that also communicated trust and reliability, especially important for a major financial decision like a mortgage.

Key elements included:

• Trust Signals: Placing trust indicators prominently on the site.
• Visuals: Using images of people to create a connection.
• Resonant Copy: Writing content that speaks directly to the target audience’s needs.
• Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Implementing clear calls-to-action (CTAs) on every page.
• Tailored Pages: Creating specific pages for different audience segments, like VA loans for veterans, with optimized copy and CTAs.
• SEO Integration: Building the website structure based on keyword research and incorporating content assets like mortgage calculators.

This process is time-intensive, often taking 12-16 weeks or more. However, integrating SEO, CRO, and content strategy from the outset is far more efficient and cost-effective than retrofitting later. This meticulous approach resulted in the website winning “Standout B2C Website of the Year” at the UK Digital Excellence Awards.

Website Performance Metrics

• Sitewide Conversion Rate: Over 3%
• Lead Quality Management: An eight-step qualification process was added to forms to filter leads, allowing the sales team to prioritize high-quality prospects and nurture lower-quality ones through automated email sequences.

Driving Traffic: SEO, PPC, and Email Marketing

Once the website was optimized, the focus shifted to driving targeted traffic.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The SEO campaign generated approximately $200,000 worth of PPC-equivalent traffic monthly, primarily from non-branded keywords. This means attracting new customers who may not have previously known about DSLD Mortgage.

• Content Strategy: Leveraging content pages, including mortgage calculators and information on different mortgage types, to attract organic traffic.
• Link Building: Consistently building the website’s authority through digital PR, securing mentions on high-authority sites like Fox, Bankrate.com, and CBS.
• Authority Building: Aiming to establish the business as a top authority in its field, recognized by search engines and AI tools.

Paid Search (PPC)

By segmenting the audience and tailoring ads, landing pages, and email campaigns, the cost per lead was reduced from $100 to $30.

• Audience Segmentation: Creating distinct campaigns for different customer segments.
• Ad and Landing Page Optimization: Designing ads and landing pages that specifically resonate with each segment.
• Improved Click-Through Rates: Increasing ad CTR from 1.4% to 7% by using relevant messaging.
• Higher Landing Page Conversion Rates: Achieving an average of 13.79% conversion rate on tailored landing pages.

Email Marketing

Customized email marketing campaigns for each segment were crucial for nurturing leads.

• Personalized Sequences: Replicating ad and landing page messages in email follow-ups.
• Nurturing Leads: Providing relevant content and calculators to move prospects along the buyer journey.
• Automated Nurturing: Setting up bespoke sequences for different segments to nurture them over time, including those initially flagged as low-quality leads.
• High ROI: These automated campaigns, built once, run continuously and generated over 800 leads in the first year alone.

Keys to Success

Several factors contributed to the campaign’s remarkable success:

• Client Ambition and Trust: The client was ambitious and willing to invest, trusting the agency’s ROI-focused approach.
• Aligned Goals: Both the client and the agency shared the goal of generating leads and increasing revenue, ensuring a collaborative partnership.
• Problem-Solving: The client provided the time and space to find solutions for challenges, such as managing low-quality leads, rather than abandoning the strategy.
• Partnership Approach: This was a true partnership, where ideas were shared and aligned with ROI objectives.

This systematic, research-driven approach can be replicated in any industry to build a predictable and scalable lead generation system. For those interested in a similar strategy, requesting a marketing plan from an agency like Exposure Ninja is a good starting point.

For more insights on digital marketing strategies, check out these resources:

• What is SEO?
• Understanding Customer Personas
• The Importance of Email Marketing
• Conversion Rate Optimization Explained
• Digital PR Strategies

And explore more from Hog the Web:

• How to Build a High-Converting Landing Page
• The Ultimate Guide to SEO for Small Businesses
• Understanding Your Target Audience