by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
Kelley “Klik Kween” Koehler, instructing from the ARE-TEC blog:
Users like to see words describing their goal on a site, it helps them have more confidence that the thing they’re looking for is indeed there to be found. It’s called a scent trail.
Which means that if I create a page on my site just for people looking at townhomes, then I need to very carefully optimize for those kinds of words, and then I need to restate those words plainly on the page.
Kelley taught us about scent trails at Unchained Orlando. She explained her “long-tail search engine marketing strategy” and how she makes it easy for online shoppers to find exactly what they want. Kelley told us to build a landing page with the exact same phrase as the web surfer searched.
I’m using my BloodhoundBlog.net weblog for these experiments. Greg Swann suggested that I use it to post mortgage rates. I built a page on the weblog, titled “Current Mortgage Rates Report”. “Current Mortgage Rates” is a keyword search phrase that a plethora of consumers search. If I start a PPC campaign, I’ll play in that keyword search phrase. “Current Mortgage Rates” is the scent trail I’m trying to build.
I want to build it with a long-copy sales letter, with no links other than a “Contact Me Now” link (call to action) throughout the landing page. I want to have that landing page present the proposition, air out (and hopefully answer) all of the potential objections, and ultimately weed out anybody who doesn’t have interest. My goal is to have clicks that are consumers who have “flopped” and want a mortgage right now.
BUT…as Kelley states, I have to “title” and theme the page with the keyword search phrase that EXACTLY matches what the consumer wants. I have to make it as simple as possible for them.
Who’s implementing what Kelley taught us? How are you doing it?
PS: I changed the title of this post from “Give them What They Want” To “What Is A Good Scent Trail ?” to reaffirm what Kelley says. When you click the links on this post, you get the answer to the question I posed in my title.
PPS: I also tried to be careful to have ONLY the phrase “scent trail” in bold on this page.
PPPS: Of course, I hope Kelley critiques this practice.
Ann Cummings says:
I like that ‘scent trail’ info – I need to work a little bit more on that for my posts.
I really prefer a Chanel #5 scent trail….wonder how I can do that in a blog?
January 1, 2009 — 3:09 pm
kelley koehler says:
from my notes of “Always Be Testing”, Eisenberg, regarding scent trail: Think at every point, what would my customer expect to see next? What promise have I made that I need to keep in the next click? Make your scent trail incredibly easy and obvious to follow. Never assume your visitor will take the time to figure out where they need to go next. Always keep in mind the contract you establish through your scent trail – avoid hype. It has the habit of creating expectations you might not actually be prepared to meet.
My favorite words there: expect, promise, obvious, contract. Every link is a promise, with a set of expectations from the user. You either deliver or you don’t.
January 1, 2009 — 6:08 pm
Barry Cunningham says:
your costs will also be better as you will have a better quality score..to lower it even further you may want to split test your ads with a number of keywords. We use almost 2,500 keywords on even our smallest campaigns and we’re killing it..over 100 ctr’s per day and because of the tight relevancy almost 65% convert to registrations and YES they are buying as well.
100% of our business is now being directed from our various campaigns through the blog and once you get into it you’ll probably stop writing future blog posts altogether. Seriously maybe one new post every 14 days. More business than one can handle…working like Tim Ferris told us it would be!
Well that is once your blog is already seeded for all of the keywords you need.
Makes life really ..really..easy..no more chasing the cat. It walks in, skins itself and presents itself humbly for milk!
FYI…your chosen keyword “Current Mortgage Rates” may be a bit too broad and will cost you a pretty penny if you try and go that route…you may want to niche your choice WAY more focused than that to make your campaign even remotely affordable. Also just using a single keyword in that realm might be tossing coins in the fountain.
Let me know if you’d like some info as to how to keep your costs WAY down and draw laser focused prospects to your doorstep.
One of the biggest mistakes people make in adwords is settling in on what they think is the keyword to go for and not realizing there are many..many..ways to achieve what it is that you are looking for without going broke!
January 1, 2009 — 6:30 pm
Brian Brady says:
@ Kelley- Did this post follow the format?
@Barry- I’ll draw upon that expertise; I sent you an e-mail for your critique
@ Ann- Happy New Year to you, too. Thanks for the call!
January 2, 2009 — 12:20 am
Teri Lussier says:
I’m paying attn here. I don’t doubt any of you your success, my broker has set up a PPC campaign and we are getting business from it.
OTOH, This is absolutely the most foreign concept to me, and here’s why- I NEVER click on a PPC ad- avoid them like the plague, perhaps that makes me an anomaly. But since it works, so I’m paying attn- trying to learn.
My questions, Brian- your bh.net blog is being designed for PPC specifically, or are you creating scent trails because it makes good sense (no pun).
>I want to build it with a long-copy sales letter, with no links other than a “Contact Me Now” link (call to action) throughout the landing page. I want to have that landing page present the proposition, air out (and hopefully answer) all of the potential objections, and ultimately weed out anybody who doesn’t have interest. My goal is to have clicks that are consumers who have “flopped” and want a mortgage right now.
Each landing page has a ‘contact me now’ as it’s only link? that makes sense to me.
A different landing page targeted to exactly each… search term/consumer…? this is where it gets foggy for me.
>My goal is to have clicks that are consumers who have “flopped” and want a mortgage right now.
Okay. Speaking slowly here… So you are creating a landing page for each type of consumer? Meeting, or anticipating their need (or needs?). Each need gets it’s own landing page or each consumer? IOW are you writing to a need or a person or the same or am I over thinking this?
ugh. Got a link you can show me? I understand each link above directed us to Kelley, but I want to see what you are doing.
Barry, you too. Got a specific keyword and landing page you’d care to let me take a peek at?
January 2, 2009 — 6:51 am
Barry Cunningham says:
Hi Terri…think of PPC sort of like writing a really mini blog.
Your PPC ad has to be relevant for what someone is searching for and then the page that the person will get forwarded to must be relevant to the ad.
So…….you want to make sure that you write an ad for KEYWORDS *a single keyword is for the most part not going to get you what you need.
Let’s say you wanted to direct people to some information on foreclosures in Dayton.
You could write an ad that says:
Foreclosure Deals In Dayton
Search Listings of Foreclosures
Buy At 30% Of Value
display URL: http://www.thebrickranch.com
forward url: http://www.thebrickranch.com/blog/foreclosure.html
I wrote that quick so the character maximums may not be right but you get the point.
Someone clicking on that ad would be expecting to se what? Well, foreclosures and discounted properties. Not blog stories, not information on Wuthering Heights..etc..they want directed targeted infor.
So you had better make sure that you direct people to a post/page that you have created that is relevant to the ad. Your CTR and Quality Score will be affected and that has a bearing on your price.
You can continually tweak and test until you have the right amount of traffic that you can handle.
For instance we have a foreclosure ad running but you won’t be able to see it..why? Because I have it directed so only those searching in South Florida, New York, Canada and England can see it.
It is specifically targeted to those we are marketing to.
You mentioned that you stay away from the paid ads…do you stay away from them for stuff you are actually looking to buy?
See I can do some research and determine SPECIFICALLY how many people per day are searching for whatever product we are pushing. Then mathematically I can determine if I tap that market, about how many people will be driven to the site.
Unlike most ads when you can’t determine if the ad is actually reaching people who are in the market to buy, I know that when we get a prospect, they have been actively looking for that which I am selling…be it real estate or anything else.
Some campaigns may be 5,000-10,000 keywords deep. It’s reall a lot of fun and it sure beats writing blog posts.
January 2, 2009 — 1:20 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Thanks Barry.
So your landing page is not full of other links? Just exactly what that specific buyer clicked through to see and calls to action, like Brian mentioned?
Can you tell me what your conversion, meaning closings, per CTR is?
>You mentioned that you stay away from the paid ads…do you stay away from them for stuff you are actually looking to buy?
Yes I do. I completely trained my brain to ignore the right side of the screen, and typically I ignore the first three links on google. And if the site I land on looks too “commercial” to me, I back out. I like the information, but I also want to know who is selling me this information. I know I’m a lead, and I don’t mind being a lead, but only if I can trust the salesperson. Like I said, I might be an anomaly, but I am having a difficult time wrapping my brain around WHY this works.
>Someone clicking on that ad would be expecting to se what? Well, foreclosures and discounted properties. Not blog stories, not information on Wuthering Heights..etc..
You are a funny guy. 😀
But, if someone is sharing something about themselves with me, then I’m much much more willing to share bits of myself with them.
You, on the other hand, are targeting a market that is, I’m assuming, much less emotional, it’s a business transaction only? Deliver the goods and have a nice day? AND don’t jump Barry! There’s room in the world for business models of all types, I’m only stating that to wonder out loud if there is a difference (or if I’m making excuses) in the way I might approach PPC.
January 2, 2009 — 4:51 pm
Barry Cunningham says:
Hi Teri…you wrote “I’m only stating that to wonder out loud if there is a difference (or if I’m making excuses) in the way I might approach PPC.”
I’m sure you can handle things as you’d like. My experience and that of the historical nature of ppc is to follow through with what was advertised. You have merely seconds to grab hold. Also, Google’s quality score, which in part determines your costs, is based upon relevancy.
No the landing page is a landing page…nothing but directly info for that which they have searched. FYI…on our foreclosure PPC campaign here is our landing page.
Conversions? That’s always what everyone asks…and what no one believes…you see conversion is an evolving figure. Why? Not being cagey at all. We have about 65 people per day who register. Some are searching for properties now. Some are looking for months from now. Currently we have over 600 people in our sales funnel. We close about 7-10 per month and we farm out about 5 referrals per month.
So that’s pretty good to me. PPC is more about ROI than everything else. We are spending about $2,500 per month and bringing in excess of $100k per month. How does that sound to you.
In our other product related marketing endeavors we experience a 2% closing rate on our products.
So I am a HUGE advocate for a properly executed PPC campaign.
One of the problems I see with PPC is that I believe for it to work, you have to buy into and believe the numbers. It’s not about what YOU believe or want. I did that in the beginning and it cost me some serious cash. Once I simply did what I was told and gave the audience what they needed it was amazing the results that we receieved.
So much so that we hardly ever blog anymore. We own all the keywords and keyphrases in our target area so to command control of the organic searches and now we own the PPC in our area as well.
So we simply automate everything.
January 2, 2009 — 9:35 pm
Teri L says:
Barry-
I completely understand what you said, and I appreciate you saying it.
>We have about 65 people per day who register. Some are searching for properties now. Some are looking for months from now. Currently we have over 600 people in our sales funnel. We close about 7-10 per month and we farm out about 5 referrals per month.
Working with my broker’s PPC campaign, I see that dynamic as well.
Did you write all the copy on that landing page yourself?
January 3, 2009 — 8:59 am
Barry Cunningham says:
Hi Teri..
you asked ..”Did you write all the copy on that landing page yourself?”
Every word!
January 3, 2009 — 3:43 pm
Susan says:
I’ve been following this post and its very interesting…I think I’m learning something here. I have to say that I too, like Teri typically ignore the sponsored ads when I am searching for something. I’m not sure why, I somehow think they’re cheating, with no real basis but more of a trained behavior over time. Obviously its working for people or they wouldn’t be paying the money for it.
Brian, I have what may seem like a stupid question, but is there a benefit in writing a landing page with no other links other than the ‘Contact Me Now’ link?
February 14, 2009 — 7:57 am
Brian Brady says:
“Brian, I have what may seem like a stupid question, but is there a benefit in writing a landing page with no other links other than the ‘Contact Me Now’ link?”
I think there is a benefit to that landing page if the goal is for them to contact you. Let me explain:
Contacting you is probably easier than your competition. I’d feature every way they can contact you (social media, email, phone, text) along with reasonable expectations of a reply.
EG: I often advise people that the most effective communication method with me is the telephone.
February 14, 2009 — 12:39 pm
Susan says:
I think there is a benefit to that landing page if the goal is for them to contact you. Let me explain:
Contacting you is probably easier than your competition. I’d feature every way they can contact you (social media, email, phone, text) along with reasonable expectations of a reply.
You are saying that its more beneficial because they are not side-tracked by other links and all the links there are ‘contact you’ links??
February 14, 2009 — 3:48 pm