Guy hired me to do a PPC landing page for his law firm.
He’d read a book from Entrepreneur Press that I had contributed a landing page template to. Liked what he saw and wanted to hire me to do one for him.
While I don’t do much hands on work for clients anymore (I’m spending more time consulting and working on my own projects), I told him I’d build the page for him.
When I’m building a landing page like this (it was for a Google AdWords campaign), at least 75% of my time is spent on the copy.
Headline. Subheadline. Call-to-action. Offer. Bullet points.
The stuff that actually spurs people to action.
So I worked on the copy and laid it out using the template in the book he liked so much.
Now this template is not gonna win any design awards. But it’s a proven winner. The product of hundreds of tests from a wide variety of AdWords accounts. With the right copy and keyword combination I’ve seen it convert as high as 40%. Its average conversion rate is 10% – 25%.
Anyhoo, I sent this guy a draft and he wasn’t happy with the look of the template. Wasn’t pretty enough for his tastes. And he was rip-roarin’ mad about it too. Let me know all about it in a ranty email.
I’m not surprised.
I’ve dealt with plenty of people like this over the years. They just want what they want. Data, experience, proven strategies be damned. I know what I want and if you don’t give it to me, I’m going to hire someone who does (who then gets fired when the campaign fails)!
At the same time, I understand the conundrum many biz owners are in. They’ve hired the marketing firm that promises the sun and the stars and then burns ‘em bad.
So they’re like a guy who’s ex ripped his heart and stamped it into the ground. It’s hard to trust anyone after going through something like that.
I’ve been thinking about this dynamic for years…
How to help the biz owners who’ve been burned and don’t trust any marketers. Yet keep them from being their own worst enemy by letting their own, let’s just call them suboptimal, ideas about marketing sabotage their biz.
And it’s exactly why I came up with the concept of The Marketing Advocate and why we’ve created this site. To help you get helpful information on PPC, SEO, email marketing and other Internet marketing tactics and strategies from people who aren’t out to sell you on their services. They’re just genuinely passionate about helping you make the best marketing decisions possible for your business.
