Rodnitzky touched on the habits of effective SEM in his presentation
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – In the final presentation in the sales and marketing track on Tuesday at HostingCon 2011, Michael Ferree and David Rodnitzky discussed search engine marketing and the importance of following up with leads to improve conversion in “PPC and Lead Gen for Hosting Businesses.”
Rodnitzky, of PPC Associates, started off the presentation by outlining the habits of highly effective SEM.
He says although best practices in SEM can improve your business, they cannot cure your business.
Rodnitzky says it is important to focus on keyword sculpting, as the long tail keywords have largely disappeared. He says this is largely because Google suggests shorter keywords, as well as its own back-end optimization.
The keyword “web hosting” is $55, according to Rodnitzky.
Web hosting is very competitive for advertisers, he says, as there are fewer keywords with more advertisers on them.
Rodnitzky claims that often 90 percent of your revenue comes from five percent of keywords.
He also touched on landing page best practices, though many of his points were discussed in Tim Ash’s presentation earlier in the afternoon.
Rodnitzky did add that there are four human emotions that sell anything: fear (he used the example of 99.9 percent uptime), exclusivity, vanity and greed.
Ferree, of Geary PMG, took the podium the second half of the session and focused his presentation on generating leads, and the lack of communication between sales and marketing.
He says that in a recent study, 57 percent of conversions come from lead quality, and 43 percent from the sales process.
“What happens in sales and marketing is everyone blames each other,” Ferree says.
He says marketing doesn’t knwo what it working, and sales doesn’t know what you’re marketing.
“Companies that can communicate are going to really benefit,” Ferree says.
According to a separate survey, Ferree says, 30 percent of leads never receive a response.
“That’s pretty scary,” he says. The audience seemed to agree.
“All that time, all that effort on the landing pages is likely going unrecognized,” he says.
Ferree claims that leads called in under one minute have a 391 percent chance of converting. He also says that people usually shop around to 2 or 3 different hosting companies.
Referencing the earlier keynote from Antonio Piraino, Ferree acknowledges the competition in the hosting industry is steep.
He says calling your leads as soon as they come in is a “huge competitive advantage.”
“You’ve got to nurture your leads,” he says.
Don’t give up, recirculate your leads and email drip campaigns, he says.
“Successful lead generation obviously includes the right leads,” Ferree says. “But it also includes the right process.”
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
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