Single page marketing techniques

how do you market singles?

[martekbiz]

Hi All,

I've been communicating back and forth with a client recently about Search Engine Marketing. Currently, we handle all their application development and while we've not worked on their website I've certainly piqued his interest with some statistics my clients are receiving.

On to the meat!

This client called me to discuss an idea for developing a single page that contains say 8-10 products for a targeted and specific category - say superduper widgets.

Now.. the keyword popularity is tremendous for the product types in this category - say blue widgets, green widgets and pink widgets - combinded total in Overture last month was around 50,000 searches ( I know I know.. not realistic.. but still...).

So after reading all my articles and information and thinks there would be good opportunity to develop a single optimized page (a landing page if you will) with focused sales and marketing copy about the widgets and how they benefit a company's marketing initiatives.

Here's my question. I can see the potential for him to generate leads.. does one suggest doing:

a PPC campaign;
a PFI with Inktomi, Fast, etc;
Waiting until Google kicks in; or
all of the above?

I tend to think Google and PFI will be the longer lasting leads and sales generators with the optimized copy/page but PPC could certainly kickstart the results tha tmuch quicker.

What do people thinks?

Thanks!

Aaron

[AnneG]

All of the above.

You should PFI. Good long-term results.

You should PPC. If after a month you see ROI isn't there, then you may want to look at other options. PPC is a great, fast way to start up a site for those leads.

You should optimize and balance it with what users want.
In the long run, optimization will pay off.

[buckworks]

Yep, all of the above.

Watch the PPC results carefully - as well as generating quick results they can be a fruitful source of optimization ideas.

[Julia]

From my previous experince I can tell you that it is possible to optimise your customer's site for decent rankings in pure search results, however if keywords are competitive you'll have to wait till doomsday.

PPC campaigns should be used only if they generate leads, sales or whatever you target. Just my two cents

[martekbiz]

Hi All,

thanks for the comment.

My client doesn't want opimization on his entire site.. just at this new landing page concept.

He is in a very competitive industry (branded promotiomal products) and doesn't feel he could benefit from SEO.

To further complicate things, he doesn't sell anything directly on his site. Instead, he would want to maximize exposure of his company and how the product type and array of products could benefit a companys marketing/sales/branding/customer loyality initiatives.

Overall, he would also want the visitors to inquire about the displayed products to obtain a quote or more information.

Any further thoughts?

Anything would be helpful.

Thanks so far.

Aaron

[AnneG]

martekbiz-

Will the "landing page" have the company information on it or just a link to the company's page?

[martekbiz]

Hasn't been decided.

It will likely appear as a regular page in the site which would then link to company information.

Could easily include company information... but that may look a little fishy.. as if it was an outright purchased spot - you know?

Why do you ask?

Aaron

[AnneG]

I'm just thinking in terms of conversion. It's one thing to get the customers to a page on your site...but whole other thing to get the sale (or phone call in your case.)

I guess I'm confused now. If it is part of your site and is a specific page about 8-10 products--why is that fishy?

For example, my company deals with widgets that has 4 major keywords-simply b/c people can call the general product different things. Then there are 1000s of actual product keyword combinations. We have created 1000s of those pages for those specific keywords (each is different and catered to that specific widget) and each contains our catalog opened up to that specific widget.

I guess I am assuming you have more than 8-10 products to offer--is that right?

[martekbiz]

There are over 15,000 this company could offer for the particular product type :P

However, we would simply keep it to the "best of the breed" items that would have the greatest effect for the company image of the visitor.

Right now I feel PFI would be the best option with a direct link on the regular pages to this page as well (making it feel as part of the overall site).

Hopefully in time, Google will pick up the page and begin indexing/ranking it.

PPC is still a consideration but with the cost for some of the keywords (upwards of $2.50 CTR) it would likely prove a very expensive option only for telephone/email/form inquiries.

Any more thoughts?

Thanks!

Aaron