Just inherited 15 crappy websites from the outgoing marketing person. I've been given the responsiblity to clean things up, make new websites if needed, but bottom line is to increase quote requests. Our company specializes in replacing windshields and has two divisions. One is local and does auto glass and the other is national and does motorhome glass. Most of the sites that I have inherited are things like "yoursuburbautoglassreplacement" with 10 different sites with a different suburb's name at the front of the website. So should I spend my time getting all 15+ sites up to date, or trash them all and focus on 1-2 websites with multiple landing pages? In our niche, people only need our service every 3 years or so and only look for our service when they absolutley need it. So when I do get a quote request we can close 30% of the requests fairly easily. We also get a fair amount of repeat customers, so want to find a way to keep in touch with old customers so that they remember us in 3-4 years the next time they need a windshield. For our national business, there are only 2-3 other companies competing in our space. So I just need to find a way to consistantly stay ahead of those few competitors. I started a couple of Facebook pages, got a Youtube video uploaded and have done a couple of press releases. So now would like to figure out where to go next.
I would start a heavy article marketing campaign. Write or outsource 25-30 articles about things like the dangers of a cracked windshield, how cracked windshields can hurt you, etc, etc. Submit them to all of the most popular directories. You might even want to consider paying an article submission service to submit your articles to hundreds of publishers. Have you thought of list buidling? do you send your traffic to a squeeze page or straight to a sales page or website? You should be capturing their email addresses first and then comtacting that way. This will allow you to continue to market them. I would also branch outinto related products. You could begin to offer things like sprays that protect the windshield from weather, even those sunshades that clip to the windshield are relevant. Have you thought about HubPages and Squidoo? 15 or 20 well optimized, helpful Hubs will bring you quite a bit of traffic. Another thing you can do is PPC. If there aren't many competitors in your niche you should be able to get a pretty low cost per click. Also, there are other companies like Bidvertiser and Adbrite where you can get clicks as low as $.05. Damn. I'd have a ball with this type of a campaign.
I will use wordpress for the domain. It is very easy to manage, you can manage all of it easily. It laso not to difficult to monetize it
Any thoughts on what to do with all of these websites? Should I come up with 2-3 really good websites and just have landing pages for all of the other minor websites that the previous guy set up?
Do NOT spread yourself too thin ( unless you have a large team / liberal resources ) If the sites are thematically related, consolidate the content under may be 2 to 3 sites. You would save a LOT of resources in promoting the sites that way.
Which sites get the best traffic..can you get any clicks from adsense? See which ones do well and focus on them instead..some sites may never get popular because its a bad niche or a crappy domain name..
I would definitely focus on the main/core site, and relegate the geo domains to landing pages or a very small site with consumer/safety info plus a link to get a quote which goes back to your main site. Your webhost should be able to hook you up with a unique IP to use for the main/core site so that your landers can link in and give the main site a boost (not that this is strictly a big deal if you're dealing in such a limited competition market.) For follow-up and retention, you should use your specialised industry knowledge to target when a customer is probably getting around to that. If it's three years, I'd set a policy to follow up with a special 42-48 months out (procrastination being human nature, if the average is 36 months then the "clockwork" type of people will likely have come in on their own by then; those who are prone to let things go until they reach disaster level will find the special a timely coincidence.) This doesn't have to be automated -- in fact, a personalised letter/e-mail might make more of an impression. You might also consider co-promotion with related auto service companies -- lube joints, locksmiths, tire stores, anywhere else that is selling auto services in your area, and utilising the web to market, is a potential partner. There's a chance for real synergy there. Auto insurance agents are good leads too -- especially independents, who need all the promotion they can get to compete with bigger offices. Presumably your previous marketing guy already canvassed the area insurance agents, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to follow back up with them since it's probably been some time. Frank
Here's a great opportunity to experiment mate Why not split them up into batches, try some different SEO techniques on each one? Do some pure and clean, do some with some paid links - etc - see which ones work out best. Good luck!
Personally i would either bin the old websites, or possibly alter them to sell on flippa.com if you need the money. Now with the new one or two i would set up a list system, when someone has bought a chip/crack repair from you then place them on a reminder list and email them every six months or so, this will help keep interest and possibly give you promotion opportunities etc. As for promoting articles and social bookmarking is a good bet. They are my main sources of advertising and haven't let me down for the past 4 years.