Sales and Business Development Coaching Case Studies

Keyword niche developed for "TMJ Pain"

2010-09-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

Situation

An online educational mp3 seller wanted to expand its offerings into several "long-tail" keyword niches. In order to make its new niche products profitable, it would be important to not only sell the products on the company's main website, but also to create highly focused websites targeted to the new niches. In addition, a top google ranking would be necessary for each new website.

Objective

The first goal was to launch one product "Eliminate TMJ Pain Now," and to do so both quickly and cheaply so the potential for new niche products could be ascertained. As the company already had the product created as well as some initial sales copy, it would only be necessary to register an appropriate URL, create the website and engage in search engine optimization.

Action

Keyword research and consultations with the company's owner yielded two simple keyword phrases that would match the exact intent of a searcher looking for the website. Luckily, both keyword phrases were available as URLs. The shortest URL was chosen and a website was created. Given the desire to keep costs low, a simple Wordpress blog was used as the core for the site.

A static landing page was created as well as several blog posts related to the product and its keyword niche. On-page SEO was done. This included optimizing the title tags, image tags and text in order to send a clear message to the search engines regarding the landing page's main keyword. As this project was primarily a test, incoming SEO links were not purchased, though the company was able to create links to the new website from several of its own web properties.

Result

Within the first week the website achieved a #4 listing for its most important keyword phrase and it sold 3 of its new products. This was in addition to 3 sales for the product made on the company's primary eCommerce store.

And So…

Though the sales for the new product were small, they were more than enough to justify the investment in SEO and landing page creation. The company plans on creating more niche mp3 products and selling them via the same strategy. Next steps are to increase the current website's google ranking by increasing the number of incoming links as well as to increase the website conversion rate via landing page optimization.

Ryan Nagy is a key coach in the Executive Coaching Network (EBCN) and a Search Engine Optimisation Specialist

Local Search Engine Traffic: Ryan Nagy

2010-05-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

Situation

An established New Jersey Gutter Cleaning company wanted to expand traffic to its website for critical local search terms. The website had been up for several years and was in the top 30 for several google search terms.

However, the company wanted to get first page rankings and increase its traffic in an effort to win more business through local search terms that represented motivated local buyers.

Objective

The company needed to increase its google ranking for key terms that indicate a customer searching for its services within defined geographic areas.

As the company has local contractors in nearly 8 counties within its state, it could potentially be reached by 100's of local search terms. For example, a customer might search by state, city, county or a combination of all three. Secondarily, the website needed to convert at higher rate. That is, the website needed to become a more reliable generator of business through phone call or email contact.

Action

Keyword research and consultations with the company's owner yielded three major specialties that would be useful to target: Gutter Cleaning, Gutter Repair, and Gutter Installation. However, being a local firm, the cost and effort needed to rank highly on a national basis would not be worth the investment. To help target geographic search, we installed Google Analytics and were able to use the data it generated to find what cities were most likely to use this site. This gave us a list of geographic targets that we could aim to reach. For example, some visiters came from New Providence, New Jersey so we began to do SEO to reach even more internet users in that city.

New website pages were created to emphasize targeted cities and search engine optimization was done throughout the website. This included changing the title tags, image tags and text in order to send a clear message to the search engines regarding each page's keyword relevance. To amplify the effect, human-edited internet directories were found and the website URL was submitted to them. Articles and blog posts where also written about the site.

Result

In less than 30 days the website garnered a #1 listing for one of its most important keyword phrases: New Jersey gutter repair and achieved #11 for New Jersey gutter cleaning. Local search and city traffic has increased over 300%. For example, the website receives over 30 weekly visits from the city of New Providence compared to less than 10 weekly prior. In addition, it has begun to get traffic for over 100 highly targeted new phrases such as "gutter cleaning millington nj."

And So…

Though this project has only just begun it has already created a steady stream of new visitors who are searching specifically for what the company has to offer. The next steps are to increase the website's lead generation rate by increasing the number of contact points via email, phone and landing page optimization.

Ryan Nagy is a key coach in the Executive and Coaching Business Network (EBCN). Ryan is a specialist in search engine optimization

Increasing Search Engine Traffic: Ryan Nagy

2010-03-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

Situation

An established New York Private Investigator agency firm wanted to expand traffic to its website. Though the agency website had been up for several years and was in the top 20 for several google search terms, it wanted to expand it's traffic in an effort to win more business through the web.

Objective

The agency needed to increase its google ranking for key terms that indicate a customer searching for its services. And as the agency is a full service investigator firm with many specialization's it needed to get high-rankings for a variety of keywords. The objective was to expand website content to reflect the agencies specialties and to engage in a link building campaign to help increase search engine rankings.

Action

Consultations with the company's owner and lead investigator yielded three specialties that would be useful to target: Background Investigations, Computer Forensics and Surveillance.

New website pages were created to emphasize each specialty. In addition, a blog was added to the company website so that additional content about those specialties could be created and posted.

To amplify the effect of the new content, an article writing campaign was established to garner backlinks to the website. In addition, key private detective directories were found and the website URL was submitted to them.

Result

After 30 days the website broke into the top 10 for its most important keyword phrase compared to 100+ previuosly. In addition, it began to rank in the top 15 for the newly targeted phrases. Somewhat unexpectedly, several of the articles written about the agency went viral. Meaning that several articles written about it, were picked up an republished by nearly a dozen other websites.

And So…

The initial phase of the project has engendered a steady stream of new and targeted website visitors who are searching specifically for what the agency has to offer. The campaign is continuing until the website ranks on the first page for all of its targeted keywords. Specifically, this means the publication of weekly blog posts about the keywords, new articles and a continued link submissions. A future phase of the project may include taking steps to increase the website's lead generation rate.

Ryan Nagy is a key coach in the Executive and Coaching Business Network (EBCN).

Ryan's website: SEO Business Development

SEO Business Development - Ryan Nagy

2010-02-25T14:46:00.000-08:00

Situation

Start up of a U.S.-based lawsuit cash advance firm needed to target specific customers for its services. A newly-launched website did not appear to be producing any leads. Typically, customers for legal funding companies have personal and professional cash flow problems, but the company did not know how to find these types of customers online.

Objective

The company needed to establish a way of tracking visitors to its website and to identify key search terms that would indicate a buyer ready for the firms services. Once this was done strategies could be developed for reaching those buyers via the internet.

Action

Google analytics was installed on the website in order to track visits to the site and to establish a baseline performance level. Searches of multiple online databases and search engines yielded a cluster of terms that were likely to indicate a customer searching for the company's services. Armed with this information, website copy on the lead generation page was edited in order to emphasize those key terms. In addition, a link-building campaign was established in order to help the site achieve a higher ranking on Google for the targeted terms. A Google Pay-Per-click program was also initiated so that the company could get immediate traffic to its website.

Result

After 45 days, the website went to being in the top 15 for key terms. This after not being in the top 1000 for any terms. Traffic from the search engines increased 99% each month for the first 90 days. The PPC campaign brought additional traffic to the website and was able to do so at a lower-cost-per click than the industry average. Leads via the phone and email have begun pouring.

And So…

The initial phase of the project has brought a steady stream of new leads. The link building campaign will continue until the website reaches the first page of Google. Next a testing phase will begin where specific elements of the website will be adjusted to help increase the percentage of website visitors who fill out the lead generation form and call the firm.

Ryan Nagy is a key coach in the Executive and Coaching Business Network (EBCN).

Ryan's website: SEO Business Development

Training Company Growth - Peter Barnett

2010-02-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

Situation

The owner of a training company wanted to concentrate on training rather than business development, and grow the companies revenue and profitability so that at a later date he could sell the company as part of his move towards retirement. The company delivered technical training to a niche market, tunover had been constant at around £400K per year.

Recently the owner had recruited a professional trainer to deliver training, so that the owner could spend more time on business development. However in practice the owner found that he was not really cut out for business development - he enjoyed training more. In addition he now had another salary to pay which meant they had to bring in more new business.

Action

The Coach agreed with the owner a 'step by step' approach, because the coach wanted to ensure the owner fully understood his proposition and have some basic 'sales processes' in place before focussing on new lead generation.

This involved:

1) A brief market analysis including: The key customers, where did they come from, some of their charachteristics, how did they benefit from the training, the key competitors and how their offers compared

2) A review of the customer process including how they found out about the company, to joining instructions, feedback and keeping in touch after the event

3) A review of key markeing messages and ensuring they were consistently communicated at all customer 'touch points.'

Following the review the owner agreed clearer more specific marketing messages to use where appropriate, and to use the outsourced service of a 'soft touch but effective sales administration resource' to handle customer enquiries, joining instructions, interview customers for feedback after the courses, and longer term contact with customers - including 'soft' sales calling previous customers.

Results

The clearer, more targeted sales messages together with contacting of previous customers generated an extra 10 weeks training over 6 months generating the annual equivalent of £54K additional revenue. The owner felt much more satisfaction now he was back training, and felt able to consider further company development.

And So

The increased revenue meant that the owner was prepared to investigate in further new business development opportunities. As he was now planning to spend 50% of his time delivering training he also realised he needed to systemise and outsource further administration.

He was now confident of the future and was in the process of planning the next step of company development with the coach.

Peter Barnett is a leading member of the Executive and Business Coaching Network (EBCN)

Peter's website: Business Development

Start Up Coaching: David Regler

2010-02-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

Situation

CEO of startup new media company with offices in US & India. Needed to secure C-level meetings with strategic marquee accounts in the US. He had identified the companies but did not know how to reach the senior executives.

Objective

The CEO needed to refine his proposition, identify key individuals, influencers, gatekeepers, and develop an outreach strategy to engage and secure a meeting.

Action

Coaching session online to develop his proposition, agree strategies which identifed the key people and coached tactics for engagement. Individuals were identified through LinkedIn, using both the CEO’s and my network. For each individual we agreed the appropriate tactics to engage, ie: through referral, direct , etc. In each instance we rehearsed and refine the pitch.

For example, when approaching the CEO of one of the target organisations, we referenced his recent keynote speech and illustrated how our proposition was a solution for the strategic issues of the executive’s company.

Result

Using the engagement strategies we developed, the CEO made contact and facilitated three meetings within his target companies, one of which secured a deal for the start-up valued in excess of $140,000 within 12 months, which exceeded his first year business plan.

And So…

With the initial deal in place with a marquee account within the industry, the CEO was able to secure additional seed funding from investors and global exposure through PR surrounding the deal.

David Regler is a key coach in the Executive and Coaching Business Network (EBCN).
David's website: New Business Development