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The JCN Marketing Manual

Part I – Strategy & Planning

Campaign Planning: An Overview

For all the budget and time it takes to advertise – and the potential results it can produce for a business – it’s surprising how little time businesses actually spend planning their marketing campaigns.

Planning can make or break a campaign, and make the difference between blowing money into the wind and harnessing your funds to make a real impact on your bottom line.

Here’s a checklist for you to run through when preparing your campaign’s strategy:

  • What opportunity are you trying to capitalize on?
  • What is the best communication channel to use?
  • What is your ultimate objective for this campaign?
  • What combination of ads will best compliment this campaign?
  • What messaging will best engage your audience?
  • What is your total budget?
  • What will constitute success for this campaign?

Many people rely on their ad publisher to plan their campaigns for them. 

While it helps to have someone who is familiar with specific ad products to consult with, it’s far more effective to approach a publisher or ad platform with a general marketing plan in advance. No one knows your business needs as well as you do, and the more prepared you are, the better others will be able to serve you.

Below is an overview of the key factors to keep in mind what considering a marketing campaign, and some actionable steps right out of the box to help you get started. In this chapter, you’ll get a broad overview and introduction to the mindset of a marketer. 

Plan

The first step is to just devote the time to planning. It doesn’t have to take long. Even five minutes spent in planning can make a very tangible difference.

Don’t just do this in your head. Write it down. Many of these steps are actually the same for every campaign you’ll run, so consider making a template with all the moving parts that you simply duplicate for upcoming campaigns. We use Asana for our project management, and do just that whenever a new project comes up.

Define your goals

Arguably the most important point of planning your campaign is deciding what you want it to achieve. Do you want to build awareness? Get actual sales? Donations? Grow your email list? There’s a lot of different things you can ask of the people who get exposed to your marketing efforts. What will it actually be?

For most businesses, just getting awareness is not a good use of your funds. You’re not Coca Cola. You’re best served using your funds to try to convert people into actual customers. If what you sell is expensive or complicated, capture their info and foster a relationship with them via phone or email.

But always ask yourself, what is the next concrete step I want my visitors to take? The more measurable you can make these goals, the better. Google Analytics can be extremely helpful here.

Prepare your funnel

Based on your goals, what is the best way to enable your potential customers to easily take the next step? Very often this is via a landing page, a simple page that gives them more information and allows them to submit their info or contact you directly.

We sometimes get clients who ask us to link an ad to a PDF file. This is not an effective way to collect leads or generate interest. It’s hard to read on mobile devices, and it 

necessitates a more complicated next step for users, which means some of them will give up before they’re successful.

Don’t give your leads a reason to give up. Using a platform like Unbounce or the Jewish Content Network’s landing page tool, make sure you offer a compelling reason for them to take their next step and make it easy for them to do so.

We’ll talk more at length about the technicalities of your funnel later on, but for now, realize that the way in which you plan on reaching your leads and collecting their information, informs every other aspect of your campaign.

Select your touchpoints

Depending on what you’re selling, and what actions you want users to take, will influence what marketing channels you use.

It often takes multiple interactions with  your brand before people take action, so you want to “touch” them with your marketing as often as you can. That’s why recurring advertising is more effective than a one-off campaign, even if the latter has a higher budget.

Similarly, it can be beneficial to be on as many platforms as possible, to maximize your exposure. You want a user to see you wherever they go. Some common ways to reach people include:

  • Social media – people spend hours on it every day, so whether you’re posting to your own account or sponsoring a post on a different popular account, marketing yourself on social media can be very effective. Make an extra effort to be entertaining, engaging, or otherwise emotion-provoking. This type of content is the most likely to elicit responses from users. The Jewish Content Network allows for paid posts on many popular Jewish social media accounts.
  • Email marketing – one of the most effective ways to advertise. As always, we recommend Mailchimp. They even have a great landing page creation tool if your goal is to grow your email list.
  • Press releases – writing articles that combine helpful or newsworthy information with information that promotes your business, is a classic way to get more publicity. The more actually helpful your article is, and the more relationships you have with journalists, the more likely your article is to be published in the paper. We have several options to advertise your articles on large Jewish websites.
  • Print – particularly popular in the Jewish world, print will never go out of style because of Shabbat and Holidays. But the downside of print is it’s harder for users to take instant action, and therefore harder for you to measure the results of your campaign. Print advertising is often more expensive as well, because of the fixed costs associated with running your ads.
  • Display ads – these are ads that appear online: on websites, apps, and even social media accounts. These ads can further be broken down by their style – are they Banners with just graphics? Are they just text, like Google Ad Words? Do they combine a picture with text in the form of Native Ads?

Each ad layout has its advantages and weaknesses, and online advertising as a whole can be said to be more affordable, more measurable, and often more effective. This, despite the fact that you are often competing with a more distracted audience and stiff competition from the ad right next to yours.

Align your messaging

At this point, you’re ready to define what the ads will say. Your goal is to be as consistent as possible across all platforms, making slight modifications if required by specific platforms. All the features of your offer may not fit on a social media post but do just fine in an article. 

A copywriter can help you articulate the right message while a graphic artist can visually express it in the right way for each medium. We devote an entire chapter to copywriting in part II.

When you’re ready, you also want to fire on all cylinders at once – send out the emails, post to social media, and enable your digital ads all the same time, for maximum impact.

As you can see, running a successful campaign entails more than just buying some ad space and throwing something together. But the additional time spent can pay itself back royally, with measurable, increased results.

Planning Beats Budget Every Time

People tell me all the time, “I can’t start marketing because I don’t have a large budget.”

This is absolutely not true.

So much of a campaign actually comes down to planning and execution, it’s wrong to believe that budget will necessarily indicate the outcome or success of a campaign.

I cannot tell you how many times a large budget campaign comes to me at the last minute asking me to help save their campaign. It’s unrealistic to expect to just throw money at a campaign and expect success to arrive automatically, riding in on the coattails of your cash.

There is so much that goes into a good campaign. It needs well written materials. It needs good design. It needs foresight – nothing good ever gets done two hours after your deadline.

Most importantly, it needs a thorough understanding of your funnel: who is your audience and where they can be found online? Different potential customers will be found in different places, and must be spoken to in different ways.

Sometimes there’s no point in “being everywhere”, a request I get a lot from overly zealous advertisers. Instead, you’ll get much better results if you focus on the once place that will bring you the best results – which requires that you have clarity about your clients and strategy.

If done right, a well planned and executed campaign with a medium budget can often outperform a large budget campaign that was just thrown together.

I encourage you to spend the time planning your campaign, this can have a far greater impact than the total amount of money you have to spend.

Lead Generation

A wise man once told me: “Tell me a problem that can’t be solved with more lead generation.”

I racked my brains to find an exception to the rule, but couldn’t find one.

Don’t have enough clients? More leads means more customers.

Got too much work to do and not enough hours in the day? More leads means more sales means more people you can hire to do the work for you.

Don’t own a Lamborghini? More leads equals more money… you get the point.

Leads are like fuel to your business. Everything else depends on it. It’s nice that your car, Lamborghini or Fiesta, has surround sound and leather seats. But without fuel, you’re going nowhere. Fast.

Businesses often struggle with prioritizing their tasks – there’s so much to do and so little time! Should you fix your website? Go through your books? Write a marketing plan?

My advice? Whether you’re a non-profit, an entrepreneur, a brick and mortar business; it doesn’t matter. Generate more leads.

Many advertisers are tempted to run “branding campaigns” on the Jewish Content Network. This may work if you have a larger budget and a sustained marketing team. To everyone else I advise, “invite people to take immediate action.” It may still take multiple exposure to your ad, over a sustained period of time for any tangible results to be seen, but don’t let the impression you’re making on your ad viewer go to waste. Convert them into a lead.

To make a sale, you could just could call as many people or business as possible until someone bites. And if you do that, you’ll be ahead of all the people who are sitting there waiting for business to come to them. But there are ways of being more effective.

It’s important to understand who your target audience is, and the best way to reach them. How do you generate trust? Are there areas, online or in person, where they congregate? What if there was an “in”, or a connector you could build a relationship with that would create a steady stream of leads to your business?

And don’t forget the 80/20 rule. Always analyze what has worked for you in the past as far as generating leads, and redouble your efforts in that specific domain. Do more of what works – not all attempts are created equal.

Ultimately, lead generation is about understanding your client, proactively pursuing them, and meeting them where they are at. At the Jewish Content Network, we built an experience that allows you to instantly take action, test hypotheses, and call your visitors towards meaningful action.

Your Sales Process

Anyone can throw money into ads. Lots of people can use the Jewish Content Network to generate clicks. The question is, what happens next?

We’ve spoken about this in the past, but the importance of planning all the steps of your campaign cannot be understated.

When someone clicks on an ad, what happens next? Where does fit into your broader strategy?

Here are some ideas for that  next phase that comes immediately after the click. Each of these will be different, depending on your industry and the specific type of client you are targeting.

An insurance agency might have a different lead acquisition strategy or sales pipeline than a real estate brokerage or a newspaper selling ads.

Website – the most common place you’ll probably be driving people to is your website. But is the homepage of your site the best place to send visitors? The more focused you can be towards the specific person you are driving to your website, and the more direct your call to action is on that page, the more effective your campaign will be.

And with that in mind, your homepage might very well not have enough of that type of customization to be effective. A customized landing page of your site that simplifies the content, has a strong call to action, and is geared specifically to the niche you’re targeting, will be much more effective.

Google forms – The power of google forms should not be overlooked. Whether you are driving people to a dedicated form link, or embedding it on your site, a Google Form simply does what a lot of advertisers forget to do – collect a user’s info.

Send someone to your homepage, and you  hope they’ll decide to give you a call. Send them to a Form, and you can deliberately ask them for information you need – not just contact info, but additional info that can help you close a sale as well.

eCommerce – do you have an online store? Are your ads geared towards getting people to make a purchase right away? Make sure all the parts are there for maximum effectiveness. Don’t just send them to your homepage, send them to a specific product or a niche product collection. 

Make sure you have google analytics properly integrated, with UTM tags built in to your links. We’ll talk more about this in Part II. And don’t forget a retargeting pixel to help you more effectively reach people who showed interest but weren’t ready to buy just yet.

Email – many more complex or expensive sales are not made instantly, you need to nurture your leads. One of the best ways to do this is via email marketing. You collect an email and slowly nurture the lead over time, by sending them quality content. This could be monthly newsletter updates that deliver real value, or a drip campaign that sends a predefined series of emails to educate clients.

To implement this effectively, you’ll need to embed an email collection form on your site, or use Mailchimp’s landing page generator to quickly create a separate one.

Phones – even if you’re trying to get people to call you, there’s ways of being more effective. Start by making sure someone actually answers the phone. I can’t say how many businesses I’ve contacted – after seeing a paid ad – that never bothered to answer my call or call me back even after I left a message. Don’t be those businesses. You can also get dedicated lines  for the ads you’re running, to gauge whether a phone call (and subsequent profit) came through a paid ad.

These are just some of the specific examples of things you might need to think about and implement to create an effective funnel.

This entire conversation would not be complete without mentioning a good Customer Relationship Management platform, a CRM. Pipedrive is particularly effective for monitoring the stages of your funnel (we use it ourselves) – how many leads have signed up for emails? How many of them have you already called? Insightly is another good one for small businesses, and of course Salesforce is considered the industry standard but is often unnecessarily complex.

Planning: Your 3 Biggest Factors

We talk endlessly about strategy.

Because it’s so common for people to run campaigns without having one.

And without a strategy, you don’t know what ad products best suit your needs, you don’t know what your ads should say, and you don’t know how to measure success.

When we work with clients to formulate their strategy, we have a three step process we apply to each campaign. It forms a core part of our proposals, and essentially serves as a simple business plan to help guide the campaign towards success.

We highly recommend you run with this idea in your own business, and ask the all-important questions it takes to formulate a great vision – and a great campaign.

Our three steps that we recommend for each campaign are:

1. Goal

This is the most important part. Why are you advertising? Do you want general brand awareness? Are you trying to get people to buy right now? Maybe you’re working on a middle approach, educating viewers until they are ready to buy.

Your definition of success, and the tactics you choose, can vary greatly depending on the goal you have in mind.

2. Execution

With your goal in mind, what do you need to execute successfully? How is your web presence? Will you be sending people to your website or a dedicated landing page? Do you need to create any special offers to entice people to take action?

If your campaign will be lasting several weeks, how will you make sure it doesn’t get stale? Will you be changing the messaging over the course of its duration?

3. Budget

With all that in place, you can now come up with a realistic budget – and proper allocation. If you’re running a campaign across multiple channels for a month, chances are $500 won’t cut it.  If you’re trying to get people to click through to your online store, an Instagram post that can’t be clicked on might not be the best choice.

We are always available to help guide you through the correct budget size and allocation – but the more clarity you have regarding your goal and execution, the better all these parts will fit together. On many occasions, we have changed our default suggestions and best practice recommendations for clients who came to use with a strong conviction about the type of campaign they needed.

Your Buyer’s Journey

We’ve been talking a lot about content lately here on the JCN. But it’s worth diving more deeply into what kind of content we’re talking about here.

The truth is, there is a variety of content that should be created, to reach each stage of your sales funnel. Every business has a sales funnel, a series of different mental states that potential clients need to go through before they are ready to buy.

But not every business takes the time to get into their client’s head and figure out what they are thinking. Those who do are at an advantage, because they can take the time to create the right content that best fits each of their client’s mental stages, streamlining their efforts and maximizing their results.

Below is an overview of the main stages a client will go through before making a purchase. This is called a marketing funnel. It’s worth noting that at times, clients might skip certain steps – if they’re highly motivated, they might knock on your shop door with cash in hand. But more often than not, you need to nurture people before they’re ready to buy.

Step #1: Recognizing The Need

The first step of any business transaction is for clients to recognize a need. All businesses in existence are there to solve problems for their buyers, whether that’s “I’m feeling hungry” or “I hope I look beautiful”.

People part with their money to solve problems. And so, the first step of any business transaction is for clients to recognize they have a need that you can solve.

Sometimes needs are obvious. Your toilet is backed up, you need a mortgage. But sometimes a client doesn’t even realize they have a problem you can help them with. It’s up to you to decide whether it’s even worth your while to introduce people to problems they didn’t know they have – this can take a lot of effort and resources.

But if you have a product that’s very specialized or brand new, this might be a necessary need. Think about Apple introducing iPads when no one knew they needed one – because it had never existed before.

To introduce people to a need, you might create content – posts, articles, videos – educating them about the risks or challenges that they currently have that they don’t even realize they did. Statistics and hard numbers are very helpful at this stage to “shock” people into a reality they weren’t aware of.

For example: “Did you know that 93% online buyers will search for you online before making a purchase? If you don’t have a strong online presence, you are probably losing business to competitors who do.”

Step #2: Information Gathering

So now that the client is aware of the issue, it’s time to educate them, broadly, about the solution. They need to know more about what the solution looks like.

Again, if this is an industry they are familiar with, your work here is already done. But the more specialized your service, the more you’ll need to make sure that they understand what it is you provide.

Additionally, this is also the stage where you can tell them about your company. You inform them about who you are, and what types of solutions you offer.

Content at this stage would focus on educating clients more about what the specific solutions entail and what your services look like. You’ll be explaining both in what way your solution solves their preestablished need, and what the process of solving it looks like on a practical level.

“Web design is a process of combining images and photos online in a way that presents your business to visitors from a variety of devices. We’re a web design company with 10 years of experience and have helped our clients grow their businesses over 300% by expanding a strong online presence.”

 Step #3: Comparison

Now that the client recognizes the need, and understands the solution and how you can provide it, there is still the comparison stage. Unless you’re the only person in the industry doing what you do, chances are there are competitors out there, and clients will usually try to shop around for the best quality and price to fit their needs.

This is the stage in which you work hard to demonstrate your own value, via demos, trials, and case studies proving your great track record. You’re working to establish yourself as the obvious choice among many competitors, based on the value you deliver. 

We’ve even seen articles that create a side by side comparison between themselves and their competitors, all in the name of helping clients make the best choice during this decision-making phase.

For example: “Here’s how we’re different: we researched our industry and found that our prices are 20% cheaper, and we offer 3 different avenues of support throughout the entire process. 

We also guarantee to deliver within 30 days, and offer an iron clad money back guarantee if we miss the deadline or you’re not completely satisfied.”

Step #4: Purchase

You’ve made it! 

The client recognizes their need, is informed about the solution and has decided to choose you! Now the goal is to not mess up and help their transition be a smooth one. Some written or video testimonials can be helpful at this stage to preempt any last minute cold feet, but most importantly you want to make sure the client feels like you’re with them every step of the way.

Articles about how the process works, alleviate any concerns they may have about pulling the trigger, information and what to expect after the purchase is made, are key here to make their purchase phase a delightful one.

For example: “Our project manager will be in touch with you within an hour to collect the information we need to get started. Don’t worry, all we need is a few images and some text and we’ll do the rest. You can expect to get a first draft of your website within two weeks of your order.”

Step #5: Follow Up

Many businesses forget this step. They take the money, deliver the product, and run. But the client doesn’t want to feel that way, and a returning client is much cheaper to maintain than it is to acquire a new client.

So keep in touch. Make sure the client continues to get great advice, updates, and information that they’ll appreciate, knowing that you’re there with them for the long haul and are committed to their long term satisfaction and success.

So there you have it. A guideline for what kind of content to create at every stage of your funnel.

Especially in the early steps, when you’re trying to educate others about the need and how you can solve it, the Jewish Content Network’s robust advertising options can be a great way to bring your content to potential clients, using the method that’s right for them. Whether it’s social media, articles, or graphics, whether you’re educating clients about needs, benefits, or helping them figure out why to choose you, talk to us today about maximizing your reach to the Jewish world.

Part II – Putting it Into Practice

Copywriting

The first time I heard the word copywriting, I didn’t even know what it meant. I thought it had something to do with not stealing other people’s music. Turns out that’s spelled copyrighting, and it’s a different thing.

Copywriting is the art of using words to convince people to buy from you.

Any time you’re not physically in front of someone, or on the phone with them, you’ve got to use written words to convince them to part with their hard-earned money. Every digital ad campaign includes words that persuade people to sell on your ads, in your articles, on your landing pages.

So getting the copy right (not copyright!) in your ads can make all difference in your campaign.

At the Jewish Content Network, we recognize the importance of good copy, and have begun offering writing services to our clients, as part of our commitment to helping people run the best advertising campaigns possible.

Here are some things to keep in mind whenever you’re writing marketing and sales text:

Grammar

This should go without saying, but making sure your sentences are worded correctly, structured properly, and have no typos, is a crucial first step to making sure readers even understand what you’re talking about. Well-written copy implies professionalism, and increases your reader’s trust in what you offer.

Simplicity

There is a time for writing fancy 12th grade prose to impress your high school teacher. This is not that time. To write great sales copy, try as much as you can to write like you talk. Hear the voice in your head and put it on the page. A conversational, as opposed to an academic or technical tone, is much closer to how you’d actually talk to people in real life.

Start with the problem

Why do people buy anything, ever? Because they are solving a problem. Some problems are obvious, like hunger or a flat tire. Some problems are less obvious – fancy clothes? To solve, or preempt the problem called social alienation.

Your first job when writing copy, is to explain to potential clients that they even have a problem. Again, if they are looking for a house to live in you, you don’t need to stress the problem as much as you do if you are marketing a new music app.

So put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Empathize with their world view. What are their concerns, challenges, desires? What keeps them up at night? The more you can channel them, the better you’ll be able to articulate their problem.

Explain how you’re the solution

Now that you’ve stoked the fires of their problem, it’s time to swoop in and save the day. Explain, simply and concisely, how you solve their problems.

A common piece of marketing advice is to discuss benefits, not features. No one wants to know how many lines of code your website has, or even how many buttons your robot vacuum cleaner comes with. They want to know that it gets the job done – fast.

It’s often surprising, considering it’s what you do all day, how hard it is to articulate the benefits of what you do. But articulate it you must, and in the process you’ll find that this clarity overflows to other aspects of your business as well.

Call to action

The prospect gets it now. They have a problem. They need your amazing solution. They need it now.

It’s time for the call to action.

I’ve been to so many sites where I’m like “how do I buy? Take my money!” but I can’t quite figure out how. Don’t be that site. Make it stupidly clear to everyone what the next step is, whether it’s picking up the phone or emailing you. Give them multiple options if you can. But invite them to do it now.

The best calls to action are very simple, and it’s usually just a matter of remembering to include them.

  • “Get a quote today”
  • “Click here now”
  • “Contact us here to find out more”

Are all acceptable variations that come to mind.

So there you have it. Keep these points in mind and your copy will already be significantly improved.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is fast becoming the only form of marketing.

The process of publishing quality content as a means of growing your business, was usually relegated to when you had some time to spare (and when does that ever happen, when you have your own business?). Businesses focused more on design, aesthetics, paid advertising.

Nowadays though, there’s such an overload of content, we are finding that the only way to stand out is by giving people sound advice and good tips, when they need it. Ironically, you can now become a guru without having a website – just by being there for people and giving them what they need, information-wise, when they need it.

It’s the companies that are focusing on strategic content marketing, not haphazardly posting occasionally, that will succeed. Whether it’s through articles, short videos, posting to social networks like Instagram, strategy is becoming more and more essential to a business’ success.

The upside of all this responsibility is that if you first make a point of letting people enjoy your content and learn from you, when they do reach out to you they’ll be better, more qualified leads. Content marketing allows you to build trust with people before they even know you, to present yourself as an expert on a public platform.

Publishing quality content allows you to transition from a vendor – a mechanism designed to extract money from client’s pockets, to a partner – someone who they trust to deliver value to them. As a vendor, someone can always come along and charge less for what you’re doing. It’s the relationships you build that will build a long lasting business founded on relationships and trust.

Even yeshivas and organizations are understanding this trend. We’re seeing more and more events being promoted with five-part promos leading up to the event. They recognize the need to present themselves as 2019 ready, harnessing content and technology to its full potential.

This article series is just such an example from the Jewish Content Network

We’re committed to our clients success. We know that the more they understand about marketing and the latest technology trends, the better their campaigns will be. Our client’s success is our success, and we work to proactively and regularly bring this content to our readers.

Which brings me to distribution. Again, it used to be that companies just created content and haphazardly threw it onto the interwebs. This won’t do in today’s day and age. Distributing your content needs to be a core part of your strategy – understanding where your content consumers are, and how to reach them regularly.

At the Jewish Content Network, we’ve built a robust system of getting content in front of readers. Whether it’s articles, ads, or social media posts, we can deliver the views. But we find that it’s the clients who invest first in content, in readership, and don’t jump straight to the “buy now” call to action, are the ones who are most successful in the long run.

Because nowadays, marketing is no longer about views and buzz, it’s about education and relationships.

Email Marketing

Email marketing sometimes gets less attention than other forms of marketing. Whereas banners are literally flashy, and Instagram has the publicly measurable followers and likes, email marketing is the more modest of the bunch.

And yet it is still one of the most effective forms of marketing.

It gets delivered straight to people’s inbox, where everything else is just being blasted on third party platforms.

It can be personalized with specific info about a particular recipient.

And it gives you analytics on the individual level, allowing you to zero in on your best clients. This last point is huge.

A strategy we recommend following an email blast, is to review the open rates and follow up with the people who interacted with the emails the most. When reviewing the individuals who read your emails, you’ll often find a few people who have opened the email multiple times. Could there be a better indication of interest than that?

So follow up. Send a separate email blast just to those people. If you have their number, consider giving them a phone call. You’re essentially remarketing to your email blast, and it’s a great way to hone in on where things are working best.

At the Jewish Content Network, we offer a variety of email lists you can target to bolster your own email marketing efforts. Click here to browse our publishers and get in touch today to build an email marketing package that’s right for you.

Landing Pages

Websites are overrated.

The problem with websites is they are created once, and then you leave it up for years to come. Worse, they try to do too much at once – to speak to all your different potential audiences, and get them to do lots of different things: learn more about you, contact you, read your blog, buy your product.

As a result of trying to do everything, websites come closer to not doing anything. In the world of digital marketing, it has long been known that if you want people to take action, you should simplify their decision making process.

Build a page with a singular audience in mind, with a singular action you want them to take. Put everything you’ve got into persuading them to take this action. Only then will you know that you’ve done what it takes to reach them. Only then will your advertising budget really be focusing on getting tangible conversions.

That’s the definition of a landing page. It’s the page a visitor “lands on” after they click on a link in an ad or email. You now have their full attention, and landing pages are best constructed with one clear message on one page. No navigation options, nowhere to get lost, just multiple requests for the user to take their next action towards your desired goal.

It’s a numbers game

In a study conducted by the inbound marketing platform Hubspot, they found that there’s a critical point at which companies start to see a massive increase in their conversion rates. When a company creates more than 16 landing pages, they see a disproportionately positive result, as measured by email signups, requests for info, or products purchased; whatever the case might be.

Why so many landing pages? Because to truly address each specific case, you need a lot of pages. Finding yourself with 16 different landing pages you’ve created is a sure sign that you’ve made a different page for different audiences, for different times of year, for different ad campaigns and promotions you’re running.

Doesn’t it make sense that a landing page designed specifically for your Purim ad campaign would perform better than one that you’d use year round? That one design specifically for a female sub-demographic would do better than one for the general audience?

A well-designed landing page will also give you the benefit of being better able to measure the results of your campaigns. Because every action a user takes will take them to a confirmation page, you’ll know just how well each page is doing and can continue optimizing your pages for better and better conversions.

Delegate the heavy lifting

Creating multiple landing pages can take a lot of work. Fortunately, there are online tools that can streamline the process, with pre-built templates that just need to be customized for your needs.

These templates are mobile responsive and designed based on historical data of what design elements lead to the most conversions. This means you can quickly get up and running with multiple landing pages that are focused on your specific industry and are optimized for results; all while reporting exactly how well your campaigns are doing.

Always Be Testing

The internet is an unpredictable place. It is powered by people, who are unpredictable beings.

And the one fast rule about internet marketing is that there is no fast rule about internet marketing.

There are best practices, certainly. There is generally good advice.

But just when you think you’ve found the magic rule for how websites should be designed, a website like Lingscars comes along and becomes one of the most successful car leasing businesses in the UK.

You think you have your banner ads covered with your slick modern graphics. Then along comes your neighbor with a garish, epilepsy-inducing manifestation that looks like it just crawled out of Microsoft paint, and gets twice as many clicks as you do.

What is a marketer to do?

Experiment.

The web may be a fickle, transient place, but one of the big upsides is how easy it is to play around. Make mistakes. No one will remember in 20 seconds.

So question everything.

Assume you’re just one tweak away from fame and fortune. Or at least, marginal improvement.

Develop hypotheses and make assumptions. Then test them:

  • “I wonder if I add another pricing tier, if anyone will buy it?”
  • “Blue is the warmest color for banner ads”
  • “I bet writing ‘Buy Now’ will be more effective than ‘Order Today’”
  • “10pm is probably a good time to send this email”
  • “I think this product would appeal to 40 year old males”

And so on, and so forth.

Until you find your sweet spot. Or rather, while you continuously try to define a sweet spot in an ever-changing sea of internet trends and human preferences. Along the way you’ll learn a lot about what your audience likes, and build your own set of best-practices.

Which you’ll of course question constantly anyway, right? The Jewish Content Network makes it easy to experiment with headlines, pictures, and scheduling of your media to find answers to many of your marketing questions.

And so, your homework for this week is to come up with a question. And then experiment until you get an answer. And then experiment next week all over again.