About the Brand
Our client is a leading European solar energy company, aiming big for the North American market. Their market expansion continues their mission of making clean and sustainable energy accessible to US homeowners in two states (locally), offering from A to Z solar services.
From the initial consultation through the final installation to the ongoing maintenance, they handle it all.
How Did the Project Start?
The Challenge:
Our client was facing a significant challenge in scaling their lead generation efforts within a limited timeframe. They needed a solution to rapidly acquire more high-quality leads to meet their ambitious growth targets by the end of the year.
The Solution:
In response to this challenge, our team launched a large-scale project with the goal of quickly developing a robust lead funnel. The first 30 days were pivotal, as we changed their homepage into a powerful lead magnet, laying the groundwork for long-term success.
Recognizing the breadth of experience necessary, we formed a strategic relationship with a partner agency well-known for its paid advertising prowess. This partnership allowed us to focus our efforts on the lead funnel’s strategic design and implementation, ensuring an integrated approach to meeting our client’s broad market entry goals.
Key Steps of the Project
The project was divided into several key steps:
1. Define Ideal Customer Profile
To attract the right audience, we started with creating detailed buyer personas. We analyzed the market research data provided by the client to identify key demographics, most pressing end-customer pain points, and common purchase drivers.
This followed our initial ICP research and definition process, competitor research, audience assessment across public channels (social media, PR placement, communities, interviews), and a list of pain points and desires.
Analyzing past customer data allowed us to tailor our marketing copy so it resonates with our client’s ideal buyer persona.
We developed a questionnaire with specific needs we could leverage in the process and worked closely with our client on distributing the survey to a segment of existing customers. This data point was integral to refining the SWOT analysis of the organization and expanding into the 3-month plan to follow in landing page optimizations, ongoing content copy, and PR opportunities to capture brand authority in the market.
2. Design Landing Page(s)
Upon establishing a comprehensive understanding of our client’s target buyer persona and identifying their primary concern, which revolves around mitigating escalating electricity expenses and reducing reliance on conventional utility service providers, we proceeded with determining the optimal structure for our landing page.
Recognizing the pivotal role that landing page quality plays in the efficacy of our lead generation efforts, we strategically leveraged an external landing page builder that seamlessly integrates with WordPress.
Time to market is critical to launching a campaign and gathering initial results as early as possible. Successful landing page variants are further developed and integrated within the WordPress build, including the complete lead journeys, marketing automation flows, and remaining portions of the complete business platform at hand.
The initial landing pages put to the test follow completely different formats based on demographics and competitor research, testing out heavily visual vs. text variants, squeeze pages vs. one-pagers, and different CTA flows to encounter what resonates with the audience. Once two successful formats were identified, we followed up with pain point amplification, emotional vs. logical nuances, CTA value proposition offers, and a handful of additional tests to increase conversion rates further in time.
One notable experiment involved the comparison of two distinct approaches: one centered around the implementation of a lead-capturing form, and the other focused on encouraging potential customers to request a free estimate of potential cost savings by transitioning to solar energy as a viable alternative to traditional utility companies.
3. Assess Acquisition Channels
In alignment with the messaging and design framework of the landing pages, our collaborative PPC agency composed complementary ad copies and captivating creatives to spot the specific pain point that garners the highest degree of ad engagement.
By simultaneously initiating distinct paid traffic campaigns, we expediently discerned the predominant pain point responsible for driving the most substantial influx of traffic to the landing pages—saving on rising electricity bills.
We ran Meta and Google ads in parallel to coordinate a broader funnel (larger quantity) via Facebook and a highly targeted conversion flow via Google. Facebook’s lower cost provided fewer leads in the first 3 weeks but enough data (traffic) to keep refining the value proposition and messaging and identify the right captions and creatives for campaigns. Google, on the other hand, supplemented us with transactional and commercial keywords we could plug into the copy for improved relevance.
Our team ran a series of additional ads on Instagram and X to separate landing pages focused entirely on testing bid caps and creative copy. This enabled us to generate enough traffic per variant to inform an educated decision pressed by time constraints. Our learnings were provided to the media buying agency for their next series of campaigns.
This strategic approach secured invaluable data insights, enabling us to undertake A/B testing to evaluate the efficacy of diverse sales messaging techniques.
4. A/B Test Copywriting Frameworks
By using an external landing page builder, we managed to facilitate a quick and straightforward tracking configuration, allowing us to launch an A/B test and start measuring results from day one.
In our pursuit of enhancing messaging, a series of A/B tests were meticulously executed, involving various copywriting frameworks, headline modifications, and the exploration of diverse ad creatives. The successful variants (structure and value proposition) were still tested against frameworks such as AIDA, FAB, and PAS to align with the story narrative that works best.
These deliberative measures enabled us to pinpoint the most persuasive messaging that elicited a resonant response from our designated target audience.
5. Build a High-Converting Home Page
We conducted a comprehensive revamp of the client’s website homepage with a primary focus on enhancing its lead-generation capabilities. While lead funnels were important, high-ticket purchases underwent a longer research journey, with clients performing a simple background check including the original website, social media activity, reviews, and occasionally PR stories or interviews.
We provided a simplified action plan for developing these pillars both short-term (an injection of content pieces + social) and long-term (PR campaigns, interviews, sponsorships) to increase trust and authority and maximize traffic efficiency.
The redesigned layout prominently showcased compelling call-to-action buttons, persuasive copy, and a streamlined form, providing visitors with a seamless means to connect with our client’s solar expert representatives.
Success Indicators
A full-service solar solution for converting website visits into qualified leads.
Our marketing solution has been critical in ensuring a steady flow of leads not just immediately after deployment—through the beginning of targeted sponsored traffic—but also in the long term by improving their organic search engine presence.
Our client’s website’s presence in search results is directly related to their ability to convert visitors into engaged leads.
Here’s a breakdown of the indicators that demonstrate our project’s success:
Lead Generation Metrics:
- Initial Lead Surge: Prior to our intervention, the concept of demand-generated leads did not exist. However, during the first 30 days of the launch, we successfully delivered 15 qualified leads, 5 of which resulted in planned and confirmed appointments. This provided a considerable boost to our client’s lead generation efforts.
- Lowered CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Three rounds of thorough A/B testing allowed us to fine-tune our techniques, resulting in a 50% drop in the initially intended CPA while maintaining lead quality.
- Continued Conversion Growth: Following the launch, the conversion rate continued to rise, aided by a growing audience, a more attractive value proposition, and increasingly cost-effective ad campaigns.
Conversion Rate Improvements:
- Reducing bounce rate: By crafting a beautiful homepage following the AIDVVA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Validation, Verification, and Action) copywriting framework, we managed to actively guide visitors deeper into the website.
- High-quality leads: Increasing the average time spent on the website ensures a higher quality of warm-up leads.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS):
We calculated the ROAS by comparing the costs incurred for advertising (including Google Ads and Facebook Ads) with the revenue generated from the leads captured in the 30-day period.
The ROAS reached an impressive 300%, indicating that the project not only generated leads but also exceeded the client’s expectations.
Wrapping Up
In just 30 days, we transformed our client’s lead generation efforts by redesigning their homepage and turning it into an active sales channel. Results over the next 60 days were dramatically better as well, with a successful lead generation machine in place and active development of brand collateral across different channels, followed by a series of experiments in conversion optimization and pixels easier to nurture after the first captured leads.
This project showcased the power of data-fueled buyer personas and A/B testing copywriting frameworks for optimal, high-converting homepage design.
The success indicators demonstrated significant improvements in lead generation, conversion rates, and the highly favorable ROAS, ensuring our client is on the way to achieving its ambitious growth targets in the competitive solar industry.
This was another great primer for our strategic efforts to support progressive businesses looking to amplify their digital exposure and increase their demand generation channels.
Millions of brands have relied on word of mouth and organic growth for years. With the pandemic striking in 2020, macroeconomic uncertainty, and inflation getting out of control, consumers and businesses have shifted their buying behaviors. An active lead capture process is now a requirement, and with the rising costs of PPC, an effective engine with ongoing experimentation in mind is one of the most robust ways to keep afloat and consistently drive results.
This case study underscores the importance of a well-executed lead funnel for accelerating lead generation and achieving sustainable growth within a tight timeline.