I'm looking for the best way to build traffic and generate leads for a local service based website dealing with the home loan industry. Has anyone out there dealt with marketing a local website and if so, what are some of the best ways to build traffic and get solid leads coming in? I am open to any suggestions you can share. Thanks!
First get started a website and invest in optimization for search engines that's the good way to generate leads for your home loan business.Adwords is another way to get traffic.
Thanks for the reply iwillguide! The struggle for me has been finding the best keywords to go after for my local market. When I look for keywords with my geographic location I find nothing. For example, mortgage has a large number of searches a day, but when I search for my city + mortgage I find nothing. How do I go about finding the best keywords for my local area. I know people have got to be searching for home loans in my area, but how do I know what they are searching for if the keyword tools don't show me. I'm ranking at the top for my city + mortgage, but the traffic is still very low. So I feel like I am missing a piece of the puzzle here. Any thoughts? Maybe I am thinking to narrow here and I need to get outside the box, but I don't know what that is and that is why I am here asking. Thanks for your input.
Local marketing ideas motivate us to earn more money.It is important to know various marketing ideas.
@simmijakson - I agree with you, now I just need to know what some of those marketing ideas are. Thanks!
Make sure the site is listed in google maps - put as much info as possible on the listing and get a few friends to review it use the names of surrounding suburbs /towns on the site eg sevicing mytown,nexttown etc
@DannyTurner - Thank you for the reply. I have added our listing to Google maps and we are coming up in the top 5 for that. Great idea to draw in the names of our surrounding towns. I hadn't done that yet, but definitely will. Thanks for the help.
If it's local I'm not sure I would do a lot of SEO and stuff. Do more offline marketing. I'm not sure how big "local" is in your case, but spread flyers, put up local ads (newspaper, busstops, restaurants etc), perhaps buy an local (if possible) or regional email list and do email marketing. I think if there's barely any searches for "keywords + your city" then skip the hardcore SEO.
A forum lilke this should be closed since everyone is trying to ask questions and gain,and when they actually answer questions,they rarely hit the nail on the head ,or is same to say they don't talk sense.
Since you are targeting local people. Have a small pamphlet of your services with your link on it and distribute it to everyone. This will be more useful than SEO for local people Regards
Thanks for the replies! I will definitely look into more ways to promote offline to drive traffic online. We have been doing that a fair amount, but I will definitely be looking into how to take advantage of it even more. Thanks!
For local marketing, offline marketing & ads in classified sites are good options. You can also post ads in newspapers & distribute flyers in malls and ask people to visit your website. Be creative in your promotions and you are sure to get lots of leads. Regards, Anup
Here is a tip. Try to rank a domain for "City Name Dentistry Practice" Use everything you know about seo to get it ranked in the first position. Now you have an avenue to sell advertisement too. Instead of telling local services you will generate leads,Sell them ad space. If you have a site ranked #1 its an easy sale. Offer 3 advertising slots for $500 to $1000 per month.
I've done a few online marketing campaigns for mortgage brokers, and they all had the same problem you are having. There just weren't a lot of people searching for "mortgage city". So we created individual pages for each surrounding city in the area the broker did business in. We also designed a page around each service he provided (home equity loans, fixed rate mortgages, variable rate mortgages, refinancing, construction mortgages, etc). Those pages drew in a lot of extra traffic. As far as offline marketing strategies go, for mortgage brokers I recommend networking, partnering with real estate agents, writing a financial column for your local paper, hosting a seminar at the local library, using the front of your office as a lead generator using a window wrap or creative sign, and maybe a bit of traditional advertising (billboards, direct mailers, etc - but track these carefully because many are tough to break even on in your industry). I run a marketing ideas website that has over 450 marketing ideas on it - http://www.marketing-training-center.com. You might find some more ideas there. Cheers
I agree with you! Can't ever go wrong with networking, partnering with the community. Nice site.. I must check this out
I second to this, offline marketing, networking, partnership to real estate agencies, column on newspapers, are the best suggestions!
I deal with local websites on a daily basis. The best investment for me has been Google Adwords. There is no other advertising method that gives you the flexibility in budget, serving, monitoring and such in depth analytics than Adwords. Of course you have to pay per click, but you can start off with a small budget of 1-2$ per day and take it from there. Another way I have found to generate leads is through sponsoring events at clubs, schools or volunteer organisations. Again, costs money, but if you run a promo through the organisation that directs people to your website you can generate lots of leads. As for SEO, don't just focus on 1 keyword...Get you site ranked for all your surrounding cities and every other synonym and related key phrase of that keyword. And do some serious keyword research. Find out what people are searching for and maximise your SEO and Adwords to meet this search demand.
Well there is something better now in days we can put your ad on the first page in the payper click section of over 200+ search engine with out you having to pay per click . you pay only a monthly fee and you are guaranteed real visitors/Leads. www.AgadeMarketing.com < Visit us today
for offline marketing of your site 1) get the demographics of your target area 2) point out the net surfer big groups falls under your target customers 3) search about what are other common things between these groups---->( if they are uni college students they might attracted by popular sports,game in your area) ----> you can approach local play grounds for advertising..............................