TOP 3 BD TIPS: Lead-Gen Tips, Reduce Member Churn, Customize SEO

Greatest Hits – Top 3 Webinar Tips (00:00:00)

• To celebrate the 200th Webinar Wednesday, a selection of the most useful previous tips of the week are being highlighted, covering various topics that are relevant to both new and existing BD users, regardless of how long they have had a site (00:00:08).
• The process of narrowing down the list to just three tips was difficult due to the large number of tips that have stood out over the course of doing Webinar Wednesdays (00:00:20).
• The three selected tips are considered useful for all BD users, whether they have had a site for a short period of time, such as 1 month, or a longer period of time, such as 10 years (00:00:34).
• One of the tips is considered to be the most invaluable tip of the week that has ever been done, and it will be discussed later (00:00:46).

1) Optimize SEO: Where to Make Simple Edits (00:00:48)

• Optimizing SEO is crucial for improving search visibility and getting more organic traffic to a website, and a step-by-step guide is available to show where to make simple SEO edits, covering various areas such as the homepage, static web pages, and dynamic web pages (00:00:48).
• The default SEO settings for BD sites are generally good for most sites, especially when starting out, but there may be a need to tweak and optimize them later, and the admin area has various SEO options for full control (00:01:42).
• This tip is easy to follow, regardless of being tech-savvy or not, and is suitable for anyone looking to optimize their website’s SEO, with a 40-minute video available that can be watched at 1.5x speed (00:02:47).
• When working on a project, SEO is important but not the top priority, especially when starting out, as the first steps should be getting the site online, connecting the domain, refining the messaging, and ensuring a good conversion flow (00:03:29).
• Once the site is working as intended, SEO can be focused on, including creating unique content, ranking for longtail and short tail keywords, and edging for improvement as the site and community grow and develop (00:04:04).
• A table of contents is available for the video, allowing viewers to fast forward to specific timestamps and topics, making it easier to navigate and find relevant information (00:03:02).

2) Reduce Churn: Re-Engage Inactive Members (00:04:30)

• Reducing churn is a crucial strategy for every website and business, as some amount of churn is inevitable, but there are methods to re-engage inactive members, such as using email templates and exclusive offers, which can be implemented to bring them back to the website (00:04:30).
• Email templates can be copied and pasted, but it is recommended to tweak them to make them more specific to the website, target demographic, and members, and some ideas on exclusive offers that can be extended to inactive members were also shared (00:04:55).
• It is more cost-effective to try to re-engage inactive or lost members rather than trying to acquire new members, whether through advertising or other marketing methods, as inactive members were already interested at one point and just need to be kept interested (00:05:48).
• Re-engaging inactive members is especially important for paid members who may not be seeing the value they are getting, and tips on how to re-engage them, bring them back, and reestablish that value can help turn them into advocates or ambassadors of the site (00:06:52).
• The ultimate goal of re-engaging inactive members is to get word-of-mouth advertising from existing members to recruit new signups to the site, and implementing these strategies can help achieve this goal (00:07:17).

3) Sell More Leads: Best Practices + Examples (00:07:25)

• The third tip is focused on selling more leads, which is particularly valuable for lead generation sites, and it provides a list of best practices for these sites, including educating visitors and members through the website’s content and verbiage (00:07:25).
• Educating both general users and registered members is crucial, as seen in the example of a lawyer directory, where visitors need to know what to expect when submitting a lead or quote request, and members need to know that they are buying qualified leads (00:08:01).
• A case study of an old lead generation site, Interior Design Pros, was used to illustrate how to justify selling leads at a higher price, by explaining the value provided to both visitors and members, and this example provided actionable steps for boosting lead sales and generating more leads (00:08:45).
• The importance of selling leads is highlighted, as it is a major revenue stream for most business directory site owners, with examples including Angi, Yelp, and Yellow pages, where professionals pay for leads or to be listed on the site (00:10:13).
• Leads are not guaranteed to result in clients or jobs, so the cost of leads needs to be nominal, allowing professionals to take a chance on selling their services, and a refresher course on leads may be necessary for some site owners who are unsure about how to generate and sell leads (00:10:36).
• The majority of business directory users can benefit from selling leads as a viable revenue channel, unless they are a private organization using the directory as a private consumer community, and resources such as a video on generating and selling more leads can provide helpful guidance (00:11:17).