Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is kind of fun. I'm enjoying these little bite-sized podcasts where I can give you guys kind of advice on how to scale up and gear up and build the sort of foundations of your business. I guess in this one, what we're going to run through is quality lead gen and landing pages just for those individuals of out there, I guess that maybe think broad brush strokes is better than being super niche and super focused. Maybe thinks that maybe a landing page isn't needed. What is a landing page? You're all at different points within your business journey. It was only a few years ago that we actually started to properly use landing pages ourselves because we thought, well actually we'll just go out there and we'll tell everybody what we do and someone will buy something. The reality is as soon as we changed that, we made so much more money.

(00:41):
So I want to run you through that. I want to take you through that journey and I want you guys hopefully to implement that in your business. Hey, it's Oliver Bruce and welcome to the Unlock. Previously known as Success is in the Mind. I'm a UK entrepreneur, angel investor, a neuro divergent founder, and I recently exited my first business, which I scaled from my university halls into a multimillion dollar agency with no backing, no funding, just grit, mistakes and determination. I want to pass on some of the lessons that I've learned, the barriers that I had to overcome and the challenges that I'm still coming up against today. This podcast doesn't grow by itself, it grows with you. If you could possibly share this with friends, family, colleagues, anybody you're in business with, somebody that you think might find this useful, I would be greatly appreciative.

(01:24):
Anyway, let's get into it. Alrighty, cool. So for this analogy, I'm going to illustrate it with a nutty protein bar. I'll tell you for why in a minute. That is the product that we're going to use to illustrate this flow, this way of working. But first the problem is, and I'm sure you guys have experienced this problem, I've experienced this problem. Lots of founders have experienced this problem that running paid media, yes, generates eyeballs and yes, you might get good click through, but you're not getting the conversion that you absolutely need on your website, be it a service sector website or be it a product website because you're not targeting the right people with the right copy, the right content and the right flow, you are bunging people to your website and it's got far too much on there, right? You might have services, offers, blogs, different navigations, different products, different social channels, all aggregated onto one website.

(02:13):
You've made the journey super confusing and because it's super confusing, people are looking at it and going, I literally dunno why I'm here, and then they're bouncing back off and the same can be said for every single business out there. If your website is confusing, you are probably losing conversions. Now organically, that's okay. People organically will find your website and go to your website and because you've got lots of different things on there, it's probably ranking. It's probably ranking from a GEO perspective and individuals because they're more actively searching, are looking for something specific. So therefore might navigate your website in a slightly different way. This is really targeted towards individuals that are being served, content pushed through to your website and then you're expecting them to do something, be that to inquire so that you can generate a lead from it or to simply buy product, right?

(03:02):
So as I said, nutty protein bar, that is what we're going to essentially use here. So if somebody clicks on an advert for a nutty protein bar, okay, the idea is that they're going to buy that nutty protein bar, but if your website is selling 20 different nutty protein bars with different flavours, different packaging, different sizes, just generally different skews, the decision is so much harder for that person. They're confused. They're there to buy the protein bar that they saw, but yet there's a tonne of other different flavours and they don't quite know what's to go for. So the reality is they probably won't buy anything at all, or if they do, they'll take longer to consider it and they won't necessarily enjoy the journey as much. So the second that someone has too much time to think, the conversion rate typically drops. They'll either bounce or they just won't buy and they'll just leave it in the basket.

(03:47):
They'll get a boze confusion, does not sell confused. People do not buy it is as simple as that. If you can really distil this down into ease, the journey from seeing my ad through to seeing the website as simple as possible, and when that individual gets to the website, the journey at that point is as simple as possible. You've got a far greater chance of conversing. Your job is not necessarily to impress people with everything that you do. You don't need to impress them. The fact that you've got 30 or 40 different flavours of nutty protein bars, you don't need to impress these people that you've got 10 or 15 different services or 12 different offices or 16 different social channels. Nobody cares. People are there because they want to buy something from you because they've engaged with something that you have told them you can do.

(04:39):
They want to buy that specific thing. Don't do the upsell there and then do the upsell in time. Do the upsell either at the very end just before they check out or do the upsell if you're a service sector business during the sales process. So let's break this down practically and step one is a clear ICP, not broad personas, not vague demographics, but like legitimate clarity, proper clarity. One, add one audience, one problem, one promise. It's as simple as that. One ad, one audience, one problem, one promise. If you are targeting e-commerce founders doing over a million in revenue a year, then speak specifically to them. Make sure the copy in the ad speaks to them. Make sure the landing page speaks to them. If you're targeting a first time buyer looking for vegan products, they've never heard of your brand, it's the first time they've come across it, speak specifically to them.

(05:35):
What are the health benefits? Why should they buy from you? Why are you guys different? What does your landing page look like? It needs to speak specifically to them. Don't dilute the message to try and catch everybody. Don't create ads that talk to people that have already purchased from you. Don't create ads that confuse things. If you are a first time buyer of your products, I want to know a different level of information about you to if I have already purchased. So understand how and where your ads are being served and what audience type you are serving them to. Then it comes down to essentially where they land. So what is the flow from them? Seeing the advert through to actually landing on a specific webpage, landing page, if you will, right? So this isn't your homepage. Don't bung 'em through to your homepage. You go, look, this is everything we do.

(06:26):
As I said to you earlier, ad traffic is not browsing traffic. It's not as if they've gone through Google or they've gone through chat g bt or they've gone through Claude and they've gone, I'm looking for X, Y, and Z, and they're spending the time searching through your website. It's a different type of traffic. Ad traffic are people who are time poor. They've seen something, they want to click on the ad and buy it now. Ad traffic is intent traffic, right? They're ready to go. They're here, they're ready to buy. They click because you are solving a specific problem. You give them something that they want, make them buy it because they're ready to buy it. So a landing page must reaffirm that promise immediately, right? It needs to be essentially the same language as the ad, the same pain point and the same outcome.

(07:09):
Mirror the ad on the landing page, just put a little bit more detail into it and allow them to buy. They want to give you their money. No distractions, no competing offers, and no 12 different CTAs. Just make the flow. Super simple. Hey guys, sorry for interrupting the podcast, but I thought you might find this useful. If like me, you found that one of the biggest headaches when running a business is managing money across different tools, currencies, and expenses. Then I think I've got the solution for you. Incar is built to fix this headache. Incar is a new financial platform designed specifically for high growth, modern businesses. It gives you multicurrency accounts, connected banking and smart spend management all in one place. The really cool part is the rewards with in card. You earn up to 2% cash back on things that you are probably already spending money on, like advertising, SaaS, tools, and travel.

(08:03):
Every time you spend, you generate points and you redeem them instantly for cash directly in the platform. So if you are building or scaling an online business and you want a smarter way to manage your finances, check out in card using the link in the description. Thanks so much for taking the time to listen to this. Let's get back to the episode. Think of it like this. You are just reassuring them you are in the right place. There is no friction. Now just spend the money, okay? E-commerce should be effortless. In fact, lead gen can be effortless as well. If your e-commerce, apple pay, Google Pay, shop, pay, OneClick, checkout, whatever it might be, there are so many ways to make that transaction as quick as possible. Remove as many unnecessary fields as possible. Don't ask for information that you don't absolutely need. I loved what Elon Musk once said where he said, if you're not adding processes back in, you are not removing enough of them, and the same principle can be applied here.

(09:02):
If you're not having to potentially add in more criteria, you haven't removed enough, remove as much as you can. Make it as streamline as possible. If you then realise, I need that phone number or I need that email address, add it back in. Make it as streamlined as possible. Every extra field is a micro moment of abandonment. So every time someone has to do something, the chances are they won't and you will lose them. If it's lead gen, it's the same principle, right? Short forms, auto population where possible clear next steps. There are ways to optimise for e-comm. There are ways to optimise for lead gen. Simple. Tell them what happens when they submit. Book your strategy call. Get a free audit. Download a playbook, lose weight in 20 days, whatever it might be. Get a valuation on your house. Whatever the CTA should be on the landing page is exactly the same CTA that you have on your adverts.

(10:00):
Make that flow. Make that funnel as uniformed and as efficient as possible. Clarity reduces hesitation. How many times have you been confused and not done something? It can be distilled down into. I don't fully understand what that email says, so I'm actually not going to reply as quickly to that email because it's going to take me longer to actually work it through. It's the same principle when buying a product. If you are confused, you won't buy B2B, B2C. It works for both. If you need to qualify individuals in more detail, then you can qualify these people before they get to your landing page so that you can still keep your landing page super simple. That is the beauty of hyper-targeted, hyper-personalized ads. So for instance, your adverts might specifically say that you just work with a specific level of client. You just value specific levels of houses.

(10:54):
You just work in a specific area, whatever that might be. That is automatically qualifying people before they get to your landing page. So if those people click those ads and it says, we only work with e-com founders spending $10,000 a month, they click that ad, they go to a landing page, they are already aware of your prices, they have pre-qualified. If you get an inquiry, you can probably rest assure that they are happy spending that level of budget. Similarly, an estate agent who only wants to have individuals inquire who have houses over the value of a million dollars. Again, put that into the advert. If somebody acquires off the back of that advert, you can rest assured that they've probably got a house worth over a million dollars. So you are spending less time after they've inquired, qualifying them, but you are also making the landing page super simple because you're not having to qualify them on the landing page because they've already pre-qualified themselves, and you can put preset answers in there.

(11:51):
What is your monthly ad spend? If you did want to qualify them further? What is your value of property? If you did want to qualify them further? For instance, what are you looking to achieve over the next six months if you did want to qualify them further, but you don't have to because you can qualify them in the ad platform. You can qualify them when you serve them, whatever the ad that you are producing might be. This does two things, right? It filters out tyre kickers and it prepares your sales team with context before the call even starts. So in an ideal setup, every lead that reaches your calendar is already closed as an SQL. So a sales qualified lead before you even speak to them, that the guy that's inquired about wanting his house valued has a house worth over a million dollars and you are the people to help him.

(12:43):
Why? Because he's self qualified himself. He's now in your diary because he's inputted his information and it was a super simple flow, and now all you've got to do is book that appointment and close it. We've done a lot of the heavy lifting through things prior to it even getting to you. Super simple. It doesn't need a cost of fortune depending on your CMS. So content management system and plugins, you can literally build this out for tens of pounds a month, right? So it really depends on what platforms you've got. There's loads out there from pon, through to HubSpot, through to Klaviyo, depending on what platform, depending on what industry you're in. If you're a consumer focused business that works far better all the way through to framer from a website perspective, to spin up landing pages, yes, you can obviously use the classic WordPress, et cetera.

(13:29):
There are tonnes of platforms out there. Just do a little bit of research and make sure you choose a platform that works for you. But in summary, you don't need to have more traffic to make more money. You just need better traffic that is qualified and therefore it will convert because you are the right business or the right product or the right organisation for that customer. You need less friction. You need to simplify the journey. You need to speak to one person at a time, and you need to sell one clear outcome. Remove the noise, and I promise you, you will be surprised how quickly qualified leads multiply when the path to conversion is super obvious. Give them what they want, allow them to spend their money. They want to give you their money and close the deal. Honestly, it'll change your business. Appreciate you listening to the podcast.

(14:17):
Hopefully you found it useful. For those that want to read up or learn more, head over to my LinkedIn page, Oliver Bruce online, where you'll find a weekly newsletter called the brucey Bonus where we double click into more detail and give you more tips and tricks around how to scale your business. If you want to share this with friends, family, colleagues, business owners, people that are in your circle then might find it useful. I would be super appreciative if I said at the beginning of the podcast, this does not grow on its own. This grows with you and we do it for you. So thank you so much for listening and catch you next time. I mentioned earlier, but I do think something that you guys might find super useful if you're running a business and managing multiple transactions across multiple platforms is Incar. It's a new financial platform for modern online businesses, giving you guys multicurrency accounts, connected banking and smart spend management all in one place. You can open up an account in minutes, attach cards for expenses, and earn up to 2% cash back on everyday spend like ads, SaaS, and travel. Check out in cards using the link in the description.