Having well-managed and maintained email list is essential for creating successful marketing campaigns – but it can seem like an overwhelming task if you’re new to the world of digital marketing.
To help, in this guide, we’ll discuss the different ways to build functional and segmented lists, strategies for keeping a clean and engaged data set, utilizing automation tools effectively, using analytics to track your performance, plus smart compliance measures all marketers should bear in mind. So let’s dive right into the fundamentals of email list management.
Defining your target audience and goals is one of the most important steps in building an effective email list. Understanding who your customers are and what they need can help you create email campaigns that will yield high engagement rates.
It’s helpful to research potential subscribers’ demographics, interests, preferences, and behaviors so you can craft content tailored to their needs or desires that align with your ultimate goal.
Your goals might be to boost brand recognition, generate leads, increase traffic to a website or web page, increase sales conversions or consultations or sign-ups for an event—whatever the goal may be ensure clarity when formulating segmentation strategies so that you can optimize time and resource efficiency in appealing towards each type of customer at varying levels when needed.
Building an effective email list for any marketing campaign requires the creation of compelling opt-in forms and landing pages. Opt-in forms should be fast to fill out, simple to understand and spell out the benefits with a clear call to action.
Colors and branding elements can make these more alluring for prospects too. For maximum impact, thoroughly optimize each opt-in form throughout the main customer journey channels such as web search listings, organic traffic from website visitors, social media sharing links, etc.
Implementing lead generation strategies is essential when it comes to building an email list that performs well. Strategies like website engagement, ads, content creation and distribution, SEO optimization, guest blogging, and webinars can be incredibly effective in drawing potential customers’ attention to the offerings a business has.
When starting the journey of filling an email list with highly targeted contacts elaborate methods like referral programs or social media blitzes should also take a role alongside these basic tactics. Commission- or prize-driven incentives are great to drive leads from platforms like Twitter & Instagram upwards (as if it were pointing towards driving Leads towards your signup forms on landing pages).
For a wider reach, Facebook Ads work wonders as the cost is relatively low compared with impressions gained. Furthermore use specific words to capture attention with catchy headlines & descriptions when marketing on this platform, try and keep users curious to ensure that those they garnered aren’t a detriment to your resources.
When constructing an email list, it is essential to ensure compliance with data protection regulations. Especially when working across different countries and jurisdictions, each may have different regulations outlining how customer data must be handled with respect to privacy and security.
Disregarding any of these laws can lead to serious legal ramifications for your organization, making it critical that you’re familiar with the applicable jurisdictions’ laws and get any necessary permissions or consent before using the subscriber’s personal data in emails.
Building trust with your customers builds long-term loyalty so transparency about how their data will be used from opt-in all the way through campaigns is a necessity for your success as a marketer.
Segmentation plays a key role in email list management. By grouping people into different categories, marketers can craft tailored messages to more precisely fit the needs of each individual subscriber or segment. Segmentation requires marketing professionals to understand their target audience as best they can in order to create and adjust meaningful criteria for groupings within their subscribers.
Ultimately, this will reduce the generalization of messaging causing it to perform better across groups over time while likely creating better overall relationships between the consumer and business.
Through segmentation, marketers are able to garner action from and develop deeper engagement with key groups all while achieving desired click/ open rates from one-on-one sounding campaigns quickly driving return on investments upwards due in part to effective email list management caused by timely and contextual messages.
Identifying relevant segmentation criteria is an important component of effective email list management. The criteria you choose to use will depend upon your industry, target customer base, and campaign goal.
For example, some typical options include age/generation, geographic location, purchase history, and interests. You should also consider setting up filter settings based on user interactions such as the number of opens/closes or clicks that determine engagement levels.
One strategy successful email list managers use to ensure that subscribers receive targeted messages is segmentation. It entails organizing people in a specific target audience into various groups according to types of data such as demographics and interests.
Creating and managing subscriber profiles plays a big part in accomplishing this efficiently. To properly accomplish segmenting, each contributor must fit into an individual profile & organized per required criteria, custom email campaigns are created according to these criteria, then sent optimal results can be produced effectively.
Cleaning and maintaining an organized email list helps marketers maximize their chances of delivering their campaigns successfully. Regular address verification is one of the most basic hygiene practices to implement and will help make sure recipients can properly receive emails by deleting inactive addresses or automatically updating spelling, domain, or syntax errors.
Additionally, periodically profiling customers with a validation solutions engine can illicit a picture of each individual user by screening reviews they’ve provided about the services as well as how active they remain on campaigns throughout time. Doing this monthly ensures that data is up-to-date before being utilized for any targeted messaging purposes; thus speeding up detailed analysis later on when needed.
In order to maintain a clean and engaged email list, marketers need to have effective strategies in place for reducing unsubscribe rates and spam complaints. To reduce by unsubscribe rate by keeping content engaging by personalizing emails with subscriber data or offering discounts and promotions.
Gmail filters can also be tweaked so your legitimate marketing emails don’t get lost among unessential messages. To combat SPAM there needs consistent monitoring of data protection laws regarding opt-in list opt-outs sent complex passwords multiple factor authentication checks deleted confidential information in line with company protocol.
This coupled with re-engaging customers who are too easily slipping off the hook can help send fewer bad reviews garner better newsletter feedback as well as win back potential brand supporters gone affray.
Reengagement campaigns are used to reenergize your inactive subscribers in an effort to keep them from unsubscribing. An email is sent out offering a signup bonus or special incentive as a thank you for returned subscribers’ business and loyalty.
Alternatively, running A/B tests utilizing subject lines specifically designed to discern their interest and other mindful modifications should be done concurrently to ensure relevance when reaching out. To appear fresh and minimize burnout-addressing triggered emails on a time-based span is also advisable for those frequenters who have lost touch with one’s newsletter.
Handling bouncebacks helps to ensure that emails are delivered successfully to your prior, current, and potential customers. Bouncebacks should trigger the removal of the email address from your list or place it in suppressions so subsequent campaigns won’t attempt delivery again until you specifically add them back.
If possible, verify susceptibility rates ahead for new subscribers for hard and soft bounce purposes as well as make sure to set up at least one automated response when invalid addresses enter your lists helping you reach contacts with valid addresses more quickly.
Personalization and automation are key components in effective email list management. Utilizing rich customer data is essential for creating more targeted messaging that will resonate with customers or prospects.
Some data-driven personalization techniques include customization of the subject line based on individual preferences, recommendations of related products or services based on previous purchase history, tailored content segments considering gender topics, geolocation targeting with messages related to appropriate events, and showing current points & gift card balance info during engagement campaigns.
Automation tools and workflows empower marketers with the ability to automatically deliver personalized campaigns at scale. Automations can be used for everything from sending welcome emails and order confirmations, to automated triggered and drip campaigns.
Marketers must first define their primary objective when creating complex automation tools—then utilize a combination of email segments, user event flow triggers, and other data points that help ensure they are focusing on automating the right processes in view of the
Milestone goals set out. With the proper setup of effective automation systems and workflow triggers, companies can bring targeted conversations straight up to their customers without having to manually create them.
Personalization and Automation are techniques utilized by marketers to send timely, relevant content to address the particular needs of our audience. Triggered email campaigns allow us to identify user behavior and then trigger an appropriate message to these customers based on that criteria.
These highly personalized messages have proven to uplift in saving customers’ time offline as well as online from personal prevention campaigns to follow-up messages post-purchase histories or behaviors.
A/B testing is a key element of personalization and automation that enables marketers to optimize email content for maximum results. A typical A/B test involves creating two versions of an email, each slightly different than the other, and then sending out both variations to a sample group of users.
By tracking how the emails performed in metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, or conversions your monitoring services can identify which version yielded better results suggesting what elements of the original message are ineffective.
This allows you to refine your approach toward creating successful campaigns through optimization. Ultimately this process also gives you invaluable insights into customer behavior that implement positive changes in future marketing strategies traveling beyond just email management.
Key metrics for measuring email marketing success are open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe or opt-out requests.
Open rate denotes how many users opened your benchmark messaging content while click-through rate highlights how many people clicked on any area contained within the mailing material being removed from the primary server.
Conversion rate tracks customer behavior once engaged which leads them to become buyers remaining on a website longer thereby increasing their value as possible customers.
In order to understand exactly how effective your email lists are, you need to measure the performance of each campaign.
Open and click-through rates provide insights into how subscribers interacted with your emails while tracking conversions can reveal ROI on marketing activities. Annual open rate averages will also give direction for correlation analysis of various alterations over time; as to if improving or worsened after changes are made.
Combining this data leads to a deep understanding regarding what strategies entice people reactions, stay loyal and positively respond towards those particular aids in optimization when creating future campaigns.
Analyzing and tracking email performance is critical to evaluating the success of campaigns. Subscriber engagement and behavior should be closely monitored by measuring open rates, click-throughs, unsubscribe rates, spam complaints, and relayed messages.
This information provides insight into subject appeal, newsletter value ad how frequently an email list should be sent out. Knowing each segment’s core preferences will put your personalization efforts on steroids by targeting the right customers with more refined messaging at just the right time.
Advanced analytics can extend this approach even farther by understanding motivated buying behaviors based on regularly tracked cycles and patterns.
Analyzing and tracking email performance helps marketers make informed decisions that affect future campaigns.
Advanced analytics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversions can reveal insights into individual subscriber behavior that can be used to further customize content or create automated workflows for tailored offerings and messages.
Marketers should also take note of undeliverable emails in order to correct issues with hygiene/list cleaning distribution lists for improved deliverability rates. The analysis of campaign metrics can then lead to opportunities to optimize content, schedule adjustments, and improved user segmentation targets.
Email list management is an essential component of digital marketing success. By effectively building, segmenting, maintaining, and personalizing campaigns based on relevant data and insights, companies can dramatically increase their email engagement rates, resulting in higher click-throughs and conversions.
It’s also important to continually monitor performance tracking metrics such as open rate, unsubscribes, and bounce rates in order to reconfigure strategies as needed for continuous improvement. Read the content discussed here and apply these best practices to ensure successful email list management in your next marketing campaign!
Are you looking for a PPC agency to manage your paid media spend? Look no further than PPC.co!
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Pay-per-click (PPC) ads can generate a steady stream of guests for anyone in the hospitality industry, whether you run a hotel, motel, hostel, vacation rental, or an Airbnb. In terms of marketing strategies, PPC ads convert 50% better than SEO and it’s easier to measure than results from organic search.
But a successful ad campaign isn’t just a matter of getting ads in front of people who are looking to book right now. You can also use PPC ads to find people who are just starting to think about their getaway and those who are comparing options. An effective strategy will reach a variety of people to get bookings now, fill future pipelines, and get repeat guests.
If you’re in the hospitality industry, here’s how paid advertising can help you drive more revenue.
To run a successful PPC campaign you need to understand the guest journey. Different people are doing different things at different times. For example, some people are researching destinations and others are comparing lodging, all while another group of people are ready to book. If you serve all these people the same ads, you won’t get the best results.
1. Define your funnel stages
There are four main stages to a hospitality funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty. Reaching leads at each stage requires different messaging and targeting. That’s where audience segmentation comes in.
2. Segment your audience by intent
Since each lead needs to be given a different message, it’s crucial to segment them by intent first. For example, the dreamers are people who search for “things to do in X city,” “best beach getaway,” and “romantic weekend destinations.”
The comparers search for “hotel vs. motel in X city,” “4-star stays in X city,” and “Airbnb vs. boutique hotel.”
The bookers search for a specific brand + location + dates.
Each audience segment should be served different ad copy, different offers, and of course – different landing pages.
3. Measure results according to stage
Finally, you need to measure results in several ways, like impressions, click-throughs, content engagement, and email signups. This will give you the bigger picture regarding how your ads are working (or not). For example, to measure the conversion stage, look at bookings, CPA, and revenue per booking. For the loyalty stage, look for repeat stays or referral leads.
Once you know how you’ll segment your audience and track the results, you can allocate your budget smartly. Otherwise, you risk overspending on high-intent leads and ignoring the long-term value of leads in earlier stages of the journey.
If you only bid on keyword phrases like “hotel room booking tonight,” you’ll miss all the people researching and thinking about their vacation. These people can convert, too, even if it doesn’t happen in the moment. They’re worth pursuing. You can capture their email, get them to like your social media pages, and you can also use remarketing to serve them additional ads.
The following are the general types of keywords you want to focus on:
· Broad/discovery keywords. These keywords will reach people in the awareness stage. Phrases like, “Best beaches in [location],” “Top things to do in [location],” and “Travel inspiration [country].” When you use broad modifiers (like “top,” “best,” “where to stay”) you’ll attract people in the research stage.
· Middle-funnel comparative keywords. These are phrases like, “Boutique hotel vs. Airbnb in [location],” “Hotel deals vs. motel,” and “Hotel amenities comparison.” With phrases like these, people are narrowing down their choices. The right PPC campaign can help them pick your business.
· Branded and high-intent booking keywords. These keywords reach people further down the funnel. Phrases like, “[Your hotel name] rooms,” “Hotel in [location] near [landmark],” and “cheap hotel [location][dates].” These phrases typically provide the highest conversion rates but can be competitive, so they may cost more.
· Negative keywords. To prevent wasted ad spend on irrelevant clicks, you can add certain keywords to your negative keyword list. This ensures your ads won’t show up when people search for these terms. Common negative keywords used in the hospitality industry include, “Free stay” and “Jobs at [hotel].”
Since most hotels and motels stick with keywords that target people ready to book, you can expand your reach by running ads for people in other stages. Just make sure you have a system in place to nurture your leads so they don’t go cold.
What you say matters just as much as when you say it. Copy that works for someone researching won’t work for someone ready to book with you. Every part of your ad needs to match intent, including the imagery, tone, copy, and offers. Here’s how to reach each stage:
· Awareness stage ads. At this stage, people will respond to emotional and inspirational copy. Phrases like, “Discover tranquil stays in the mountains,” or “Unwind by the sea.” Use imagery to provoke desire. Beautiful views and relaxing room setups work like a charm.
· Consideration stage ads. These people need more information, so hit ‘em with your amenities (Wi-Fi, breakfast), comparisons, reviews, ratings, and testimonials. Show them visuals of your accommodations and the local area.
· Booking/conversion stage ads. Urgency works best here. Phrases that get people to click to book now, like “Limited rooms available,” and “Book now and save.”
· Loyalty stage ads. Guests who have stayed with you before, even just once, are more cost-effective to convert again compared to chasing down new customers. Create some ads for these people by highlighting perks, upgrades, and exclusive deals they can’t get through other places. For example, you can use lines like:
“Book direct for free late checkout,” “Exclusive returning guest discount,” or “VIP upgrade on your next stay.” It also helps to use personalized copy like, “Welcome back to [your hotel name].” along with imagery of your best amenities.
Loyalty ads drive repeat bookings and increase lifetime value by bringing people back.
· Remarketing and nurturing prospects who got away. In addition to targeting people in all funnel stages, you want to bring people back who clicked but never booked or signed up for your email list. Run retargeting ads to show them what they looked at and offer them incentives or discounts. This is a great time to leverage social proof.
By matching your ad content to meet potential leads where they are in their journey, your ads will be more relevant and you’ll get more conversions.
Having a great ad doesn’t necessarily mean it will drive conversions. If your landing page is confusing or the booking process is clunky, you’ll lose people. That’s why landing page optimization is often where people see the biggest gains.
As a foundation, create a specific landing page for each target audience. You need a dedicated landing page for ads that target each funnel stage. Landing pages should be simple and clear and should be free from all distractions (like links and menus) that invite a user to click away. You want one offer and one call to action.
Social proof is critical in the hospitality industry. Show guest reviews from Tripadvisor, Google, Trustpilot, etc. It also helps to show photos of real guests enjoying their stay (with their permission). Showcasing reviews will reduce anxiety and hesitation, especially for people comparing you with other options.
If your landing pages show pricing, make sure you’re up front about all fees. Be clear about what’s included, like tax, breakfast, and service fees. People hate hidden fees. If a guest’s experience doesn’t match the impression they get from the page where they booked, they’ll probably leave a bad review.
Talk to your website developer and have them trigger a follow-up email that goes out to people who start filling out a booking form but stop. The email should show them what they left behind and you can sweeten the deal by offering a small discount or other incentive.
Having a smooth flow after a person clicks on your ad can help you convert far more prospects. Everything you can do to reduce friction and increase trust compounds.
To get conversions, your bidding strategy and budget need to align with a variety of factors, including funnel stage and seasonality.
· Increase bids for high-intent keywords, use moderate bids for middle-funnel ads, and go lower for awareness and discovery.
· Watch for online travel agents (OTAs) and large hotel chains that bid on your property’s name or similar keywords. If they undercut you in rate or bid too aggressively, you could end up with arbitrarily inflated costs per click. Research data shows this can cost around 47% more per click.
· Adjust your bids and budget during travel seasons, events, and holidays. During off-peak seasons you may want to stick with pushing awareness.
· Allocate your budget proportionately across all funnel stages.
· Use Google’s automated bidding tool for the conversion stage, but use manual methods for the consideration and awareness stage.
The right bidding strategy will ensure you don’t overspend for low-intent clicks or underinvest in more profitable funnel stages.
PPC is more than search. When you use different channels and ad formats you’ll reach people in a variety of places.
· Search ads (Google, Bing). Search ads capture high-intent demand users. They’re great for the conversion and compare phases and can make use of extensions like call, location, and reviews.
· Display and discovery/native ads. Display ads are excellent for the awareness stage. They reach people browsing travel blogs and using apps. With these ads, visuals are everything.
· Social media ads. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are great for the awareness and consideration stages. They’re especially powerful for remarketing.
· Video ads. Short-form videos can stir emotion, show off ambiance, and be used to create a mini virtual tour. These ads are great for top and middle funnel prospects.
· Email ads. If you’re using email marketing, offer loyalty deals and off-peak discounts.
Paid search on social media converts better in hospitality than it does in other industries.
Location matters in hospitality. Geotargeting can significantly improve your conversions and reduce wasted ad spend. You can use radius bids and location extensions to target people looking for accommodations within a certain radius.
It pays to bid higher for people in feeder markets and origin cities during the holidays. You can also target departure cities for Arbnbs if that’s relevant to you.
In your ad copy, include local cues like “Only 30 mins from downtown,” and “15 minutes from airport. If you know your audience well, include the origin city (“Fly in from Seattle & Stay with us just outside Olympia”).
When offered by the ad platform, use local extensions to note your address, phone number, and any other elements offered. This will generate more bookings from mobile users.
Most people who click your ads or visit your website won’t book right away. Retargeting will help convert these “warm but not ready” leads into guests eventually.
When you target people who visited your site without converting, show them ads with refreshed offers like a free breakfast or an upgraded view. Visual reminders will help bring them back.
Show the specific rooms and properties to the prospect so the ad feels personalized. Use tools like Google dynamic remarketing and Facebook Product Ads.
For guests who did convert, show them additional special offers and upgrades. Keeping them in your funnel will make future conversions easier.
It’s crucial to know when to pull back, push forward, test more, or scale.
· Define clear ROI goals. Know your target Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), and guest Lifetime Value (LTV). If your ad spend yields bookings but loses money, it’s not working.
· Perform weekly and monthly audits. Refine keywords, ad creatives, and keep testing.
· Scale what works. Once you have a campaign producing consistent returns, increase the budget there while watching for diminishing returns.
· Adjust your offers and pricing. If conversion rates drop or your CPCs rise, start offering special packages like early-bird deals and loyalty perks.
The average travel and hospitality conversion rate for search is 3.55% so if you’re under that, there’s room for improvement. If you’re over that, scale carefully.
If you’re ready to transform your PPC campaign into a reliable machine that fills your rooms and builds a solid pipeline for the future, we can help. At PPC.co, we specialize in creating full funnel PPC strategies for hotels, motels, and Airbnbs that convert into bookings, repeat guests, and long-term loyalty. Contact us today and let’s craft a PPC strategy that drives bookings and turns first-time guests into lifelong customers.
If you’re running paid ads to promote your web hosting services, your landing pages are the core of your funnel. You can run a killer campaign with the perfect keywords and nail your targeting, but if your landing pages aren’t optimized to convert, you’re wasting money.
Your pay-per-click (PPC) ads need to capture attention immediately or you won’t get clicks. But web hosting is a highly competitive market and your landing pages need to be top-notch to turn those clicks into paying customers. To accomplish this, each page has to prove your value in seconds, overcome objections before they’re raised, and guide visitors toward signing up.
PPC strategies for generating web hosting leads apply whether you’re running your own company or building a business as a reseller. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the critical elements that make the difference between someone who buys and someone who clicks out of curiosity and bounces.
Generating leads from PPC ads starts with understanding user intent. For example, someone who clicks an ad for “best web hosting for small business” isn’t looking for the same thing as someone searching for “cheap web hosting.” They might both end up buying the same plan, but you have to sell your services differently to each group. Each lead needs to think, “this hosting plan is for me” when reading your ads and landing page. As such, you need to alter the language to speak directly to each group’s pain points, desires, and fears.
It’s worth pursuing multiple markets, but each requires a unique strategy. Success requires segmenting your traffic by creating separate landing pages for each group and then crafting ads and offers specifically tailored to those groups based on their intent. For example, you want to run separate ads with corresponding landing pages for each of the following keyword groups:
· “Reliable small business web hosting” – these leads are small business owners looking for a web host that has decent uptime and won’t go offline for a few hours every month.
Your ad and landing page copy should focus on reliability, uptime, and access to tools like email, page builders, security, and customer support.
· “WordPress hosting” – these leads aren’t tech savvy and want hosting that offers one-click WordPress installations. However, they aren’t necessarily looking for the quick installer that comes with cPanel. That’s far too complex for this group. They want a fully managed WordPress hosting account with a user interface that makes managing every WordPress installation a breeze.
To capture this group, your ad and landing page copy should focus on simple installation, easy migration, templates, automated backups, managed maintenance, and accessible support.
· “Cheap web hosting” – these leads are looking to save money and will likely sacrifice features for the right price.
Your ad and landing page copy should focus on your prices, discounts, and deals first, followed by elements like reliability and features.
· “Reliable web hosting” – these leads prioritize reliability over everything else.
Your ad and landing page copy should focus on your uptime guarantee, security, accessible support, and anything else that tells leads your servers aren’t going to crash or get hacked every week.
These are just a handful of examples of what search phrases can tell you about a user’s intent. To maximize leads, it’s crucial to segment your market based on intent to reach each group with customized marketing messages.
As with any market, before you type a single word, analyze your competition to know what you’re up against. Your competitors are bidding on the same keywords, targeting the same customers, and many are throwing down some serious cash. If your landing pages aren’t top-notch, you’re not going to make it.
Here’s how to research web hosting competitors:
· Dissect their traffic sources. Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to find out where they’re getting traffic. If you’re not using these platforms yet, it’s time to start.
· Copy their offers (but not specifically). Analyze their headlines, subheadings, CTAs, and packages/plans. Use this information as inspiration to build your landing pages and offers, but don’t copy anything word-for-word. Then, see what you can improve.
If your goal is to create better offers, keep in mind that hosting companies offer mid-tier plans that don’t make financial sense as part of a marketing strategy to get people to buy a more expensive plan. If you don’t use this strategy, it could result in fewer sales.
· Look for their hooks. What emotional buttons are they pushing? Security? Speed? Price? Support? Take their hooks and craft even better ones. For example, if their hook is “Hosting for $2.95/month,” take that up a notch to “Hosting that won’t crash - $2.95/month.”
· Read all their reviews. Take a deep dive into what people are saying about your competitors on sites like Reddit and Trustpilot. Negative customer reviews will tell you exactly where your competitors are failing, and those are the pain points you can solve (and advertise). For example, if a one of your competitors has an awful support ticket system, make it clear that you have superior-level support. For example, “No more ticket system nightmares – talk to a real human 24/7.”
Researching your competitors is the best way to avoid having to reinvent the wheel each time you need to build a landing page. It will give you the foundation needed to meet and exceed your competitors’ offers.
Your landing page headline is your first impression. If it doesn’t capture attention and resonate immediately, the rest of your content won’t matter. According to research from the Nielsen Norman Group, 79% of users only scan web page content and don’t read word-by-word. To capture attention, your content has to include scannable text, and that’s where your headlines shine.
When users scan web pages, they scroll while taking in headlines and subheadings in addition to bolded text and bulleted lists. But if your headings aren’t convincing, they won’t scan the rest of your content.
No matter what market you’re going for, craft your headlines to be value-and-benefit-driven. For example:
· “Lightning-fast hosting for growing businesses” is more effective than “Shared hosting plans.”
· “Get your website live in [time frame] – no tech skills needed” is more effective than “Build your website with us”
· “Affordable hosting that scales with your business” is more effective than “Business hosting plans.”
These are general guidelines – you’ll need to split test specific headlines to see what works best.
Landing pages generate more conversions when they load fast and aren’t cluttered with distractions and opportunities for people to click away from the page. Strip your landing pages down to simplicity. Remove sidebars, footers, links, and anything else that will allow users to escape from the conversion path. Most importantly, eliminate the main navigation menu to keep people on the page.
As previously discussed, most people scan content and don’t read it word-for-word, which means your landing pages need to give users something to focus on as they scroll and scan. This can be accomplished with meaningful headlines and subheadings, bolding important words, breaking up text into smaller paragraphs, using bulleted and numbered lists, and containing features and benefits inside visual comparison boxes.
One important feature of a successful landing page is that it provides limited options. If you give people too many choices they’ll struggle to make a selection. Whatever you’re offering, make it simple and limited. For example, say you have 20 different hosting plans spread out across shared hosting, dedicated servers, and VPS plans. Instead of listing all 20 plans on one page, list the three categories and link them to separate pages that detail all the relevant plans. When you create your PPC ads, run specific ads for each category of hosting rather than a generic ad for better results.
It’s not your amazing services that sell – it’s the packaging. In this case, it’s how you present your offer. Mediocre web hosting wrapped in a great offer will beat great web hosting wrapped in a boring offer every time.
Web hosting offers tend to do well with limited time offers that create a sense of urgency for the user to act now. Deals that end at midnight or offers only available to the first 50 signups can increase conversions. Just make sure you actually end those offers when claimed, and limit signups as advertised to avoid being fined by the FTC.
If you don’t know how to craft a compelling offer, look at what your competitors are offering and make sure your offer can compete. However, don’t just focus on price and disk space – that’s an old tactic that worked in the past, but today, people want more than generous resources. In fact, the average web hosting client won’t necessarily know or care about how much RAM or processing power your servers have.
Today’s web hosting clients want the following:
· A plan they can use without technical knowledge
· Managed WordPress hosting with automatic installation
· The ability to scale
· Ecommerce options
· High uptime
· Free SSL certificate
· A free domain name for at least the first year
· Site migration services
· AI-powered web building tools
· The option for custom design services
· Automated malware protection
· Automated backups
· A money-back guarantee
With so many unknown and scammy web hosts out there, social proof will go a long way in helping you generate leads. What others say about your business matters more than what you say about yourself. In fact, according to statistics published by Brightlocal, around 87% of people use Google to find reviews before making a purchase.
When people are researching your company, they’ll use customer reviews to determine whether or not you can be trusted. However, you can leverage social proof more powerfully by embedding testimonials right in your landing pages. Instead of bouncing to go look you up on Google right away, many users will read and/or watch your embedded reviews first.
If you’re not one of the top, well-known web hosting companies, you need social proof to gain momentum and trust in the market. Instead of posting images of 5-star reviews, highlight reviews from real people using a name and photo whenever possible. If you don’t have a system yet, you can start collecting video testimonials from sites like Storyprompt and embed them on your website.
Even though you’re selling web hosting services, users need to be told what to do for the next step. That’s where your CTA comes in. Your call-to-action (CTA) needs to be direct, bold, and specific to the targeted user. According to Hubspot data, aligned CTAs convert 202% better than basic ones.
Effective web hosting CTAs are action-oriented, like “Get started,” “Choose plan,” or “Claim your offer now.” For optimal conversions, create a custom action-oriented CTA for each segment you’re targeting.
Since people scroll through content scanning headlines and words here and there, it’s crucial to repeat your CTA throughout your text in a way that makes sense based on the content. For example, place a CTA at the end of each main section, like your pricing plan comparison charts, features overview, and testimonials section.
Mobile optimization doesn’t simply mean creating pages that can be viewed and interacted with on mobile. It requires a strategy for crafting pages that support how mobile users naturally read, scroll, and click. Effective mobile-friendly pages are plain, use limited or no images, don’t use sidebars, and have a sticky menu with a “buy” button so the user doesn’t need to scroll to the top of the page to make a purchase.
Friction makes users bounce fast. Eliminate any kind of on-page barrier that makes it hard or frustrating to get information or sign up for your services. For example, simplify your web forms and only ask for what you need at each stage. The first stage should ask for the basics, like name, email, and domain name. In the next step, ask for billing information. While users will eventually need to fill in all the information, it helps to break it down into stages. In fact, data published by Unbounce highlights a company that increased conversions by 120% just by reducing a form from 11 fields to four.
Another way to eliminate mental friction is to offer a free trial. In terms of web hosting, you can offer a heavy discount for the first month or a no questions asked 30-day money back guarantee.
Finally, include a FAQ section that addresses common questions and concerns transparently. If you can address objections and concerns that are at the top of people’s minds, they’ll be more likely to sign up.
If you’re ready to turn clicks into customers it’s time to hire a professional PPC company. At the end of the day, even the sharpest PPC strategy won’t deliver results if your landing pages don’t pull their weight. Web hosting is one of the most competitive industries around, and that means your pages can’t be average. They need to be fast, persuasive, and laser-focused on turning visitors into paying web hosting clients.
That’s where expert help makes the difference. At PPC.co, we specialize in building and managing high-converting PPC campaigns paired with landing pages crafted to maximize leads. Don’t let your ad budget leak away on clicks that never convert – contact us today and we’ll craft a tailored PPC strategy that maximizes every dollar.
