* 22 YEARS *

conversion optimization

About The Retirement Planning Group:


Three locations in Overland Park, KS, St. Louis, MO, and Springfield, MO

Helps families, retiring couples, and working professionals

Combined experience of 147 years

Offers comprehensive wealth management and investment management

A fee-only fiduciary that combines financial planning and wealth management

An independent Registered Investment Advisor

Quick Facts:

58% increase in traffic within two months of launching the new website

60% increase in new traffic

2,816 page views in one month

40% increase in referral traffic from social media and email marketing clicks

520% increase in Facebook reach

15% increase in Facebook likes

How The Retirement Planning Group Went From Little Web Traffic To Traffic That Converts

It’s About SEO And Conversion Optimization

In late 2016, The Retirement Planning Group, a financial firm out of Kansas and Missouri, looked at their website statistics, finding them disappointing and dismal. They had little web traffic and virtually no lead generation. The website was down at the bottom of the search page, which meant little to no chance of catching a visitor.

If, by some luck, someone did stumble across their website, they wouldn’t last for long and certainly didn’t return. Some visitors came to the website, many left quickly with no return, and not many bothered requesting further contact.

What was the problem?

Their website wasn’t optimized for search engines, with virtually no visibility on any search page. Furthermore, if someone did come to the website, there was nothing to keep them there and ask for more information.

The Retirement Planning Group didn’t just need to beef up their SEO and SERP rankings. They needed a new website that would convert the anonymous visitor into a paying customer. They needed conversion optimization.

Conversion Optimization: It’s Not Just About The Pageviews

Many businesses realize the importance of web traffic in both gaining visibility for the company and increasing the possibility of new business. Without SEO, the visibility of a business’ website drops drastically. This visibility is extremely important to getting people to not only know about the business, but also visit the website and ultimately convert over to a paying customer.

What Is Conversion Optimization?

Conversion optimization is the process of getting website visitors to take action on the website. Moreover, it is the process of turning anonymous visitors into paying customers. Conversion is the main point and ultimate goal of a website.

Conversion optimization must have three essential components in order to be successful:

1. A beautifully designed website that attracts visitors.
2. Strong SEO to gain website traffic.
3. Strong calls-to-action (CTAs) that inspire the visitor to take action.

Getting from launching a website to converting visitors entails a comprehensive strategic plan. It must include not only website design, but also SEO and digital marketing.

SEO And Conversion Optimization

SEO is essential to being at the top of the SERP and increasing traffic. Without SEO, search visibility and overall web traffic drops. With little to no website visitors, there’s no chance for conversion. In the brick and mortar business setting, foot traffic doesn’t necessarily mean high sales. However, no foot traffic definitely means no sales. This is the same for websites – if no one is visiting the website, then there’s no one to convert to a paying customer.

In 2016, the top entry on Google’s SERP got 30% of clickthrough rates (CTRs), while the third position only got 12%. If the majority of people head to the first few links on the results page, it means a website that falls to the bottom of the results will get little to no visitors. Although a high CTR doesn’t necessarily mean a high conversion rate, it does mean visibility and the possibility of gaining new customers.

However, website traffic doesn’t make a bit of difference unless it converts into dollars. This is where conversion optimization of a website becomes a crucial step in achieving business goals.

No Site Traffic Or Conversion

Like most businesses today, The Retirement Planning Group had a website with the goal of gaining new clients. However, they saw little traffic on their website. Worse yet, that traffic was not converting.

Their problem was that they had no SEO and extremely low SERP rankings. Furthermore, they had a website that didn’t engage the visitor or inspire them to act. They wanted to generate leads through their website, but didn’t know how to put a strategy in place that would achieve their goals.

They realized quickly that if they wanted to generate leads through their website, they would need a website strategy that ended in conversion. They needed conversion optimization, and a complete redesign of their current site.

Conversion Optimization With The LeadGen Formula ™

After working closely with The Retirement Planning Group, we were able to create a conversion optimization strategy that helped them achieve their goal of lead generation. To do this, we applied our LeadGen Formula ™ – a unique strategy designed and customized specifically for the client with the goal of bringing them the ideal customer. The formula is a full-circle plan, accounting for every detail – from the technical back-end aspects of the website to how the visitor views the site. The goal is to get the visitor to take action on the website, ultimately becoming a customer. Because the LeadGen Formula ™ covers every aspect of digital marketing, we designed it with three foundations: design and technology, inbound marketing, and conversion optimization.

The Retirement Planning Group not only needed a website that would bring in more traffic, but they needed that traffic to convert to leads. This meant helping them redesign their website with a strong SEO strategy, engaging content, and inspiring calls-to-action.

With keeping The Retirement Planning Group’s goals in mind – to have a higher conversion rate – Midstream Marketing created a strategy for a complete redesign incorporating the three steps of the LeadGen Formula ™ .

1. Design
We designed a website that was visually appealing and customized for each unique audience, while making it mobile-friendly, fast, and code-error free. The focus was on bringing more traffic to the website and having a higher SERP ranking, thereby generating potential leads.

2. Attract
We brought more traffic to the website through implementing an inound marketing strategy, which included organic SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and PPC. The goal was to build trust with potential customers through authentic content and brand discovery.

3. Conversion Optimization
We built effective landing pages that are simple and act as the sales funnel. The website uses strong calls-to-action (CTAs) and quality content that is relevant and authentic to inspire website visitors to take action and become customers. We conducted and continue to conduct A/B testing to ensure the overall LeadGen strategy is successful.

These three steps were necessary for the success of the LeadGen Formula ™ in helping The Retirement Planning Group convert and continue to convert anonymous visitors into clients they deserve.

Conversion Optimization Gives Early Returns

For The Retirement Planning Group, their overall objective of generating leads through the website was a longshot without visibility on the SERP. Frustrations were mounting from low website returns and the inability to reach conversion goals. They needed not only an SEO strategy to improve their findability on search pages, but they needed a better website that would yield high conversion rates. They needed conversion optimization.

With little knowledge on how to do this, they reached out to Midstream Marketing who was able to create an aggressive and comprehensive conversion optimization strategy. This strategy included not only SEO and social media, but also a complete website redesign.

Even early on after launching the new website, The Retirement Planning Group saw the results pouring in due to the strategy. They were seeing early returns on the conversion optimization, and SEO and social media strategies.

Midstream Marketing completely redid our website from the ground up and optimized it. They improved our status with SERP. They even developed a Facebook “like” campaign as well as a targeted marketing campaign. They also rolled out a TRPG blog to improve the visitor experience and SEO.

Given our inexperience and lack of knowledge with all things SEO, this has been a big learning curve for us. Despite the quick pace, Midstream Marketing communicated everything to us very well. Expectations have been exceeded from the very beginning.

Our core objective was to develop and maintain a digital lead generation strategy to bring new leads to our firm. Midstream Marketing has helped us do just that.

Ryan Costello

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