When you don’t have a ton of marketing resources just yet, you sometimes have to be scrappy.

So how do you make the most of what you’ve got?

By finding “quick wins”—low-hanging fruit that can produce results quickly and with little effort.

Strategic marketing planning is essential to long-term success when it comes to building a program for predictable lead generation. But while you assemble an in-house or fractional marketing team, it helps to find time for the relatively minor changes that can have the biggest impact on your marketing right now.

Here are 10 quick win marketing optimizations you can implement today to drive traffic and leads:

1. Improve page speed

Over a decade ago, Google announced that site loading speed would be a ranking factor for websites, and it has continued to prioritize this ranking factor. If it takes more than a couple of seconds for your website to load when a user visits, Google will start to reduce the ranking of your website for certain key terms. Studies have found that slowing down a site’s load time by just one second could result in a 20% drop in traffic.

Ideally, your site should load in under 3 seconds. To improve your page speed, try compressing all of your images and optimizing your code. You can also use a caching plugin to store a static version of your pages so they load faster.

You can check for website speed at Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

2. Build high-conversion landing pages

Landing pages, where a user “lands” after clicking on your ad, are one of the most important elements of a successful paid search campaign. Your landing page should be relevant to the keywords you’re targeting, and it should be designed to convert visitors into leads or customers.

Tools like Unbounce or Hubspot make it easy to create an effective landing page without any coding knowledge. Start by including a strong headline and a clear call-to-action (CTA). Then, use images and testimonials to support your offer. Make sure your form is short and easy to fill out, and include only the fields that are absolutely necessary.

3. Test different ad copy

Your ad copy is what convinces people to click on your ad and learn more about your offer. A/B testing different versions of your ad copy can help you find the most effective message for paid campaigns. As a bonus, it can help you see what your target audience really responds to in order to help shape your brand voice, messaging, and positioning.

Use relevant keywords in your ads, clearly define your product or service, and make sure your headline grabs attention. When A/B testing two different ads, make sure to change only one thing (imagery, copy, CTA, etc.) so you can quickly see what people are really responding to.

4. Use real testimonials in your marketing

People are more likely to trust a product or service that has been recommended by someone they know. And while you can’t always get personal recommendations, you can use testimonials from real customers to show potential new customers that your product or service is worth their time and money.

Make sure to include social proof on your website and in your marketing materials. Customer testimonials can be in the form of written reviews highlighted on your home page and across your website, video testimonials, or even simple social media posts from happy customers.

Worried about preserving client anonymity? An anonymous testimonial is still better than none at all!

5. Develop pillar pages for high-traffic content areas

When you have a high-traffic area on your website—like a blog, product page, or landing page—it’s important to create pillar pages for that content. A pillar page is an all-encompassing page that covers everything about a topic. It might include an overview of the topic, information about different aspects of the topic, expert opinions, and resources and links to other related pages on your website.

If you find yourself writing about a topic frequently, consider building a pillar page and linking it within your navigation. By creating pillar pages for your high-traffic content areas, you can make sure that your visitors always have access to the most comprehensive information about those topics. And since Google loves well-indexed content, you can also expect to see improved search engine results for those pages.

6. Re-engage website visitors

It takes more effort to bring new visitors and leads to your site than it does to re-engage past visitors. So why not make the most of the traffic you already have?

There are a number of ways to re-engage your website visitors, including:

• Using exit pop-ups to catch attention and collect form fills before someone leaves your site
• Targeting recent visitors via email using marketing automation tools like Hubspot
• Running retargeting ads to people who have visited your website, but haven’t yet taken action, encouraging actions like requesting/scheduling a demo

7. Take full advantage of marketing automation tool features

Tools like Hubspot are great for email marketing, but its capabilities go way beyond that. If you’re not taking advantage of all the features your marketing automation tool has to offer, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities to engage and convert leads.

Some features you should make sure you’re using include:

• Personalization tokens – these allow you to insert personalized information like a lead’s name or company into your emails, making them feel more personalized and increasing the likelihood they’ll be opened
• Lead scoring – this assigns a score to each lead based on their interactions with your website and other communications, so you can prioritize follow-up
• Smart content – this allows you to create different versions of content that will be served up to leads based on criteria you set

8. Use simpler language

One quick win you can make with your marketing content is to use simpler language. Go through the top three pages on your website, make sure there are clear calls-to-action, and make it even easier to read with shorter sentences and words that are easier to understand.

The reason this is such an effective optimization is because it makes your content more accessible to a wider audience. It’s been shown that using simpler language can actually improve comprehension by up to 60%.

Many companies worry that others will perceive them as less sophisticated if they “dumb down” the language, but in reality it makes your company more human and relatable. And as we all know, people buy from those they like and trust. In today’s fast-moving corporate world, sophistication is not the goal when choosing a vendor.

9. Repurpose existing content

Chances are high that you have a ton of valuable information throughout your website that prospective customers could benefit from. However, people digest content in different ways, and it never hurts to offer your content in a new format to help it reach a wider audience. Try…

• Breaking up a gated guide into individual blog posts
• Transcribing a video into a blog post or podcast episode
• Creating an infographic from data in a blog post
• Recording videos on each of the main topics in your website navigation

10. Write more content

In general, writing more content boosts website visibility and helps find new leads early in the buyer’s journey. New blog posts give you more opportunities to rank in search engines and attract website visitors through social media shares. If you have the resources and access to trustworthy freelancers, consider increasing your blog output or producing more long-form content like guides and ebooks.

—

Ready to build a strategic marketing plan to build long-term growth on top of these quick wins? Our team can help you take a data-driven approach to your entire marketing mix, from market research and target audience development to content creation, SEO, lead nurturing, and everything in-between.

Contact Deb Andrews to get started.

____

To hear more from CEO Deb Andrews, register for our webinar , “The Five Step Journey to Profit Center Marketing,” on June 22, 2022, at 1 p.m. EDT. To learn more or register for this free webinar, visit The Five Step Journey to Profit Center Marketing | Marketri.