Lead Generation Greg Jarboe President and cofounder SEOPR

Lead Generation Greg Jarboe President and co-founder SEO-PR #pubcon

Lead generation requires us to blend a bit of art and science to succeed • Unlike ecommerce, our in-channel conversions may or may not lead to revenue for our companies or clients. – Our job is to test new strategies, then find the avenues where we can generate good quality leads at a low enough cost, and finally leverage our strategies to help close the deal. • In this session, attendees will learn how to: – Track and evaluate all channels to understand what is performing best. – Balance quality vs. quantity in lead generation to keep both your CPA low and your sales team happy. – Operate beyond the initial lead to impact metrics further down the funnel to where the real money is made. #pubcon

Launch of Rutgers Online Professional Master’s in Human Resource Management • In January 2019, SEO-PR helped Rutgers to launch an Online Professional Master’s in Human Resource Management program. • Our objective was to generate 30 applications by Aug. 1, 2019. – Students can complete the 12 course Master’s program in as few as 18 months and as long as 5 years. – Tuition is $3, 174 per 3 -credit course, or $38, 016 for 12 courses. #pubcon

Keyword research told us what people search for, but Google Surveys told us why • Google Surveys give you a quick, cost-effective way to get valuable insights into the minds of your target audience. – Ask up to 10 questions and select from a variety of question formats, like multiple-choice and star-rating. – Run your survey on Google’s network of publishers or mobile app, then filter participants based on demographics or set up a series of screening questions. #pubcon

Google Surveys expanded our target audiences and identified important factors • Survey found target audiences included personnel, staffing & recruiting, and talent acquisition as well as human resources. • Respondents with 4 or more years of HR experience said the follow factors were important when selecting a university: – “No GRE/GMAT required”, – “Top-ranked university”, – “Fully 100% online program”. #pubcon

These important factors emphasized in subhead of optimized multimedia release #pubcon

Google Campaign URL Builder used to add campaign parameters to URLs in release • We used Google’s free Campaign URL Builder tool to add campaign parameters to URLs in the release to track our Custom Campaign in Google Analytics. • We tracked the number of users, new users, sessions, bounce rate, pages/session, average session duration, conversion rate, conversions, and goal value generated by our release. #pubcon

Campaign included optimized landing page about Online Professional MHRM program #pubcon

Release shared with Emily Bader of ROI-NJ and David Hutter of NJBIZ under embargo #pubcon

Copy of release without multimedia posted in news section of SMLR’s site #pubcon

Google does good job of choosing version of duplicate content to show in SERPs • Doug Lederman, the editor of Inside Higher Ed, wrote a roundup story on Feb. 20, 2019, which included a high-quality, relevant link to the copy of the release posted in the news section of the Rutgers site. • Although the optimized multimedia release was distributed to 271 news sites, Google only shows the one without multimedia on the Rutgers site in its SERP, not the “duplicate content” on the 271 other sites. #pubcon

Campaign increased familiarity with and likelihood to recommend Rutgers • In late June, we used Google Surveys again to measure the impact of the campaign. – Percentage of respondents who said they were “familiar with” Rutgers University had increased from 13. 8% pre-launch to 18. 5% post-launch. – Percentage of respondents who said they were “very likely” to recommend Rutgers to a friend or colleague had increased from 16. 7% pre-launch to 19. 0% post-launch. #pubcon

Campaign drove 8, 337 new users to landing page and generated 694 leads • Campaign drove 8, 337 new users to the Rutgers Online Professional Master’s in Human Resource Management landing page. – 361 new users (4. 3%) came from New Jersey. – 3, 215 new users (38. 6%) came from the rest of the United States. – 4, 761 new users (57. 1%) came from the rest of the world (113 countries). • Landing page generated 694 leads (either clicked on the Apply Now button on the page or the Apply tab in navigation). – 200 leads (28. 8%) came from New Jersey. – 228 leads (32. 9%) came from the rest of the United States. – 266 leads (38. 3%) came from the rest of the world (45 countries). #pubcon

Launch campaign generated 38 applications worth $1. 4 million • We also evaluated the source/medium of the new users and leads in Google Analytics: – – Optimized multimedia release generated 1% of the new users, but 8% of the leads. Google organic search generated 3% of the new users, but 19% of the leads. Google Ads generated 11% of the new users, but 18% of the leads. Linked. In ads generated 81% of the new users, but 37% of the leads. • More importantly, the campaign generated 38 completed applications, worth up to $1, 444, 608 in tuition over the next 18 months to 5 years. – 33 for Fall 2019. – 4 for Spring 2020. – 1 for Fall 2020. #pubcon

Case study shortlisted for 2019 US Search Awards in two different categories • In the Best Integrated Campaign category, our case study demonstrates that PR, SEO, display advertising, and PPC advertising can increase brand awareness and generate leads at the same time. – So, the distinction between above- and below-the-line marketing is obsolete. • And in the Best Use of PR in a Search Campaign category, our case study demonstrates that an optimized multimedia release, duplicate content in the news section of SMLR’s website, and an optimized landing page generated 4% of the traffic, but 27% of the leads. – And measuring PR and SEO using the same set of metrics and KPIs used for Digital Advertising – including pay-per-click (PPC) advertising – is a game changer. – It means that we no longer need to treat PR and SEO as “faith-based initiatives”. #pubcon