6 ways to generate leads with google+
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This document discusses 6 ways to generate leads using Google+. It begins with an introduction explaining the importance of growing a company's social database. The main content then discusses lead generation through Google+ in 6 chapters: 1) increasing followers of a company's Google+ page, 2) generating leads through content updates, 3) generating leads through images and video, 4) generating leads through Google Circles, 5) boosting AdWords campaigns with +1s, and 6) adding a +1 button to a company's website. It concludes with a section on using events and hangouts on Google+ to generate leads.
6 ways to generate leads with google+
- 1. 1 6 ways to generate leads with google+ 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Featuring Insights from Google+ A publication of Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 2. 2 6 ways to generate leads with google+ IS THIS BOOK RIGHT FOR ME? Not quite sure if this ebook is right for you? See the below description to determine if your level matches the content you are about to read. INTRODUCTORY Introductory content is for marketers who are new to the subject. This content typically includes step-by-step instructions on how to get started with this aspect of inbound marketing and learn its fundamentals. Read our introductory ebook “How to Use Google+ for Business.” INTERMEDIATE This ebook! Intermediate content is for marketers who are familiar with the subject but have only basic experience in executing strategies and tactics on the topic. This content typically covers the fundamentals and moves on to reveal more complex functions and examples. After reading it, you will feel comfortable leading projects with this aspect of inbound marketing. ADVANCED Advanced content is for marketers who are, or want to be, experts on the subject. In it, we walk you through advanced features of this aspect of inbound marketing and help you develop complete mastery of the subject. After reading it, you will feel ready not only to execute strategies and tactics, but also to teach others how to Share This Ebook! be successful. www.Hubspot.com
- 3. 3 6 ways to generate leads with google+ HubSpot’s All-in-One Marketing Software U q Lead Generation blogging & social media HubSpot brings your whole marketing world together in one, powerful, integrated system. Get Found: Help prospects find you online Convert: Nurture your leads and drive conversions Analyze: Measure and improve your marketing. More: See marketplace for apps and integrations M s Email & Automation Search optimization Request A Demo Video Overview g Y Lead management Marketing analytics Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 4. 4 6 ways to generate leads with google+ 6 ways to generate leads with google+ by Magdalena Georgieva Maggie Georgieva is an inbound marketing manager at HubSpot, responsible for the company’s marketing content offers, such as ebooks and webinars (including the world’s largest webinar). Previously, Maggie was on HubSpot’s email marketing team, managed the company’s landing page creation and optimization, and jump started the production of HubSpot’s customer case studies. Follow me on twitter @mgieva Maggie is a regular blogger for the HubSpot blog and has contributed to other sites and publications, such as MarketingProfs, Brian Solis’ blog, BostInnovation.com and The St. Petersburg Times. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 5. 5 6 ways to generate leads with google+ COntents Lead Generation through google+ /8 Generating leads through content updates /15 Generating leads through images & video /22 Generating leads through google circles /30 how to boost your adwords campaign with +1’s /35 Add a +1 button to your website /42 Using events & hangouts on Google+ /46 Conclusion & additional resources /52 Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 6. 6 6 ways to generate leads with google+ “ The new age of marketing is all about growing your social ” database. The new age of marketing is all about growing your social database. You can no longer rely just on your email list to grow the number of contacts for your company. Now you have to think about reaching out to a new audience, one that is active on social media. In order to successfully get started with social media, you should let people know about your existing social profiles. That is why we at HubSpot often encourage marketers to incorporate social layers in their existing communication--emails, blog posts, landing pages, and even within content like presentations, ebooks and videos. Once you enable your existing contacts to follow you across different social networks, you create more opportunities for these contacts to share your content with their connections and spread the word about your company. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 7. 7 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Let Your Social Database Grow Your Business Growing your social database is only the first step to successful lead generation. You need to also consider the next step: attracting traffic from social channels to your landing pages and converting these visits into more engaged contacts, or what we call “leads.” This twofold process—of increasing your social following and driving it to your business website will trigger a new flow of — business insights. Social lead generation should be tied to marketing analytics that enable you to track the performance of your social channels and compare them to other marketing vehicles. This phase often presents marketers with a number of challenges, especially when it comes to new social networks like Google+. This ebooks seeks to address any challenges that you might be facing when it comes to lead generation on Google+. We will show you how the social network can help you attract more leads for your business and measure results. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 8. 8 6 ways to generate leads with google+ CHAPTER 1 Lead Generation through google+ Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 9. 9 6 ways to generate leads with google+ ? Pause. Do you fully understand the lead generation process? In order to be successful with lead generation on Google+ (or any other social network or marketing channel, for that matter), you need to fully understand the lead generation process. From our Introduction to Lead Generation ebook, you will see that online, a lead is traditionally defined as a person that completes a landing page. (A landing page is a web page with a form through which a person supplies contact and business information in exchange for free information, such as an ebook, webinar, product consultation, product demonstration, etc.) If a person is an inbound lead, it means that they have visited your website because that is where they submitted their contact information. Now they should have some idea about your business and what it offers. This saves your sales team a ton of time and allows them to establish credibility and trustworthiness earlier in the communication process. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 10. 10 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Google+ Lead Generation Explained So when it comes to Google+, the process that needs to take place is the following. Increase the following of your google+ page 1 You need to build a large following on Google+, so increase the number of +1s (people who like your page) and also increase the number of people who have gg your company in their Circles. g g 2 Drive google+ traffic to your website Once you have a solid following on Google+, start engaging this community and drive visits to your landing pages where people can identify as warm leads for your company. You can achieve this by sharing links to your landing pages in your Google+ status updates, videos, pictures, hangouts, etc. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com content & engagement H your website
- 11. 11 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Setting Goals traffic & Metrics Before you jump into lead generation on leads Google+, set goals for your marketing efforts and ensure that you can track progress. You need to have the right sales marketing analytics in place in order to measure the success of your marketing efforts on Google+ (or any other social network, for that matter). The HubSpot all-in-one marketing software reveals the number of visits, leads and customers each of your marketing channels drives. So you can look into the traffic that Google+ brings to your website and how that traffic moves down the sales funnel. If the incoming traffic is low, especially in comparison to your other communication vehicles, your work as a marketer is to drive more visits from Google+ to your landing pages. The solution to this issue might be to increase your social following on Google+ or to share better content with your community. If the incoming traffic is high, but the conversion rate to leads is low, then as a marketer, you can identify a different problem--how to get more of the people visiting your website to take action and fill out your forms. The solution to the latter problem might have to do with landing page optimization, for instance. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 12. 12 6 ways to generate leads with google+ As you delve deeper into lead generation on Google+, these metrics will help you come up with a structured plan. If you want to drive 50 leads from Google+ this month, for instance, look at your average visitor-to-lead conversion rates, especially for social channels. Let’s say this number is 2%. This means you will have to drive 2500 visits from Google+ to your website in order to generate 50 leads. If the number of traffic and leads is high, but you still have challenges converting leads into customers, you will need to focus on nurturing your existing contacts and educating them. The solution to this problem is to implement smarter marketing automation and segmentation. That way you can align the language and timing your communication to the specific behavior your social mead leads have taken. Once you ensure you are looking at the right metrics and have access to complete marketing analytics, think about the goals you want to set. Start from the bottom up and use the length of your sales cycle to determine how fast you can expect to acquire customers from your marketing efforts. The lead number that you want to reach will dictate the amount of traffic you need to generate from Google+. “ The lead number that you want to reach will dictate the amount of traffic ” you need to generate from Google+. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 13. 13 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Optimization of Google+ Page Before we cover the specific ways in which you can generate leads through Google+, it’s important that you optimize your entire profile for conversion. An optimized Google+ Page simply means a more complete page. 1 Feature compelling Cover & profile images 2 Add a concise and informative introduction 3 Ensure that your About section includes links 4 Add product photos and videos 1 4 2 3 Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 14. 14 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Getting Started with Lead Generation on Google+ Now that you have a clear understanding of what we mean by Google+ lead generation, how to track it, and what an optimized Google+ business page looks like, let’s talk about how you can get started with it. In the next couple of chapters we will review individual Google+ features and how they can help you attract new leads to your business website. In specific, we will explore how you can generate leads through: 1 Content Updates 2 Images & Video 3 Google Circles 4 adwords campaigns with social extensions 5 embedding the +1 button 6 google+ events & hangouts Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 15. 15 6 ways to generate leads with google+ CHAPTER 2 Generating leads through content updates Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 16. 16 6 ways to generate leads with google+ “ The most organic way of using Google+ to generate leads is through posting compelling ” content updates with links. The most organic way of using Google+ to generate leads is through posting compelling content updates that include links back to your website. In order for this to work, you need to have produced marketing content that will interest people and capture their attention. For example, this includes: blog posts videos webinars ebooks & whitepapers reports interviews When you share such a piece of content on your Google+ company page, you will not only generate a discussion around its topic, but will also invite your followers to visit your website and read/view the entire resource. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 17. 17 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Share Compelling Content Give your followers a reason to come to your page—share content that grabs their S attention and helps them become more successful at their jobs. A data-driven approach to finding such content is to look at your marketing analytics and identify the most popular pages on your website. For instance, at HubSpot we look at S Landing Page Analytics to figure out which S S marketing offers (ebooks, webinars, kits, presentations) are most popular. We sort these pages by views and can easily point to the type of content that our audience gravitates towards. If you haven’t created many marketing offers and don’t have access to such comprehensive landing page analytics, you can check out your blog analytics. That should give you a good idea of what topics are popular in your industry. Once you have identified the content pieces with the most views and buzz around them, share them on Google+. Through this data-driven approach you increase the probability of grabbing the attention of your Google+ followers. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 18. 18 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Timing & Frequency of Posting You shouldn’t post all updates you can think of at the same time. Instead, you need to space them out. Otherwise your followers might get overwhelmed with the sudden flow of content. If you intend to publish 3-4 posts per day, Google explains, make sure you stagger them throughout the day. This approach is very similar to a marketer’s behavior on other social channels, like Twitter and Facebook. While there are general industry suggestions for optimal time and frequency of posting, it’s important that you test these ideas with your audience. You might find that your community is a bit different in the way they access and engage with information. Look at your target persona and take into consideration their locations, lifestyle habits and activities. This context will drive you in the right direction for discovering when and how often you should be posting content. Google+ tip Create a posting schedule, and post at least once a day. The best times to post are from 10 am - 1 pm. Remember to +mention others who you may add to your post, so they feel the love and share your post with more people. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 19. 19 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Learn from Other Companies Many companies are making a good use of Google+, using best practices like mentioning specific people in their updates and using hashtags. Cadbury The UK chocolate manufacturer Cadbury, which is liked by and in the Circles of close to 2 million people, presents a great case study for using Google+ effectively. In specific, it gives us a good example of how to incorporate hashtags in Google+ updates. You can easily create a hashtag—just start your phrase with the # symbol and don’t use any spaces. While the post above is not designed to directly generate leads for the company, it will certainly help Cadbury increase its following on Google+. Just a few hours after going live, the update had more than 140 likes and 60 comments. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 20. 20 6 ways to generate leads with google+ SEOMOZ With its nearly 18,000 +1s and more than 15,000 followers, SEOmoz is another company that provides a great example of using Google+ updates the right way. SEOmoz is consistent with its use of Google+ mentions. In the example above, it has tagged the author of a blog post featured on SEOmoz. This adds a layer of personalization as Google+ followers can learn more about the authority and experts behind SEOmoz’s writing. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 21. 21 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Make Your Posts Personal It turns out that making your posts more personal is a best practice that Google strongly recommends. As we saw with SEOmoz, tagging other Google+ users in your updates is one way to achieve personalization. Let’s look at the other ways: Mention Other Google+ Users by Adding the + Sign Simply add a + sign in front of the name of the person who you want to tag and select the right user profile. By mentioning other Google+ users and pages in your posts, you will appear in the search results when people look for them on Google+. This gives your post greater reach. Add personal signatures We have found that personalized signatures work great in email marketing. So why don’t you try incorporating them in your Google+ updates! Signing your posts with your name gives your page more personality and allows for the user to identify with your content. Use your own voice Be consistent in the language you use across your different social networks as well as on your blog and other marketing assets. Make sure that your voice represents the identity of your company, and is also engaging and fun so that it sparks discussions. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 22. 22 6 ways to generate leads with google+ CHAPTER 3 Generating leads through images & video Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 23. 23 6 ways to generate leads with google+ “ Share exclusive photos and videos with your fans and followers. ” Visuals and videos on Google+ give you access to a lot of lead generation opportunities. Similar to the new Facebook Timeline, on Google+ you have the ability to add a cover photo and a profile photo. You can also create albums with visuals and leverage the Videos tab to add clips. Most featured images cover photo profile photo Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 24. 24 6 ways to generate leads with google+ The important thing to remember with visuals and video is that there are two pieces of real estate to which you can add your landing page link. Add landing page link the actual image/video Add landing page link to the description of the image/video By adding links to both of these locations, you increase the chances of Google+ users clicking on the link and visiting your landing page. In other words, you are driving more traffic to your website that you will then focus on converting into leads. To make this work, of course, you need to share compelling visual and video content. Google+ recommends sharing exclusive photos and videos with your fans and followers. Don’t forget that you can edit your photos directly in Google+ and can even share animated GIF photos—a great way to draw attention to your page. Now we will look at a few examples of companies that use the above mentioned lead generation tactics in their visual and video content. We will also cover a few companies that are doing a great job with their cover and profile photos, thus instantly capturing the attention of visitors. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 25. 25 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Adding Links to Image Descriptions In its public album Trend Update, 2012, H&M took advantage of the best practice to include links in the descriptions of its featured photos. The fashion brand not only showcases some of its trendy recommendations, but also tells people where they can learn more about these items and potentially purchase them. “See our latest trend collection at http://bit.ly/OsL5bT,” reads one call-to-action in H&M’s photo album. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 26. 26 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Adding Links to the Actual Images Don’t forget that your visuals themselves can feature links! If you think that the message you are trying to convey can benefit from a reference to a specific page, then go ahead and feature a URL. This is especially easy to do if you are using an image of your logo for branding purposes. Check out below how The New York Times managed to incorporate a link right beneath its logo. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 27. 27 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Adding Links to Your Videos In this example, General Electric is featuring a video on its Google+ page. The company is following best practices by including a hashtag in its update and even mentioning specific Google+ users in the comments section. If you play the video, you will see that it features a link to get further engaged with GE—this is their call-to- action. One recommendation we have for GE is to also include its desired link in the description of the video as they post it on Google+. That will increase the chances of people clicking through and learning more about the stories behind GE. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 28. 28 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Etsy is another company that has shown us a good use of video calls-to-action on Google+. In the example below, Etsy showcases its most recent product feature and also links to the page on its business website where users can access to the feature. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 29. 29 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Surprise Users with Unique Visuals You can also capture people’s attention surprising with some creative and unorthodox visuals. Verizon, for instance, features five individual animated GIFs on its Google+ Page that come together to convey one message. Since this is something new and unexpected in this virtual environment, it grabs the attention of the user and can direct to a specific action, which in this case would be to check out Verizon Wireless for faster movies, music and apps. Forever 21 is another company that used animated GIFs to make its cover picture stand out. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 30. 30 6 ways to generate leads with google+ CHAPTER 4 Generating leads through google circles Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 31. 31 6 ways to generate leads with google+ “ Google Circles enables companies to separate their audience and nurture ” U them in different ways. One of the most unique features that Google+ has orange circle to offer is its segmentation, found in a feature called Circles. Circles let you share different information with different groups. They enable companies to separate U their audience and nurture them in different ways. blue Your business most likely has two or more buyer circle personas that you can characterise with different behavior and demographic information. If you are a car dealer, for instance, you know that talking about cars with a mother of three children is quite different from talking about cars with a business professional who travels a lot. These communities have different needs and expect to receive information that is relevant to their goals, not yours. Relevancy is becoming even more central to today’s marketing strategy, and buyers have come to expect personalization in their communications. According to a study by MarketingSherpa, four out of ten subscribers reported that they’ve marked emails as spam simply because they were irrelevant. On the flip side, MarketingSherpa also reports that emails that have been tailored to specific audiences through segmentation get 50% more clicks than their counterparts. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 32. 32 6 ways to generate leads with google+ How to Build Your Circles If you haven’t created your Circles yet, you have two options. to get started: Assign different groups of people to a specific circle Ask your followers in which Circle they think they belong Option one gives you complete freedom over who is part of what Circle. For instance, you can create segments for customers, internal teams, and industry thought leaders, thus ensuring that you will send the right information with the right people. The messages you share with your internal teams will clearly be different from the message you want to share with your customers. While option number one immediately comes to mind, it’s worth considering directly asking your community which circles they want to belong to. It gives you an opportunity to understand them better and really cater to their needs. That was Cadbury’s strategy, asking its followers if they wanted to join its ‘Tasters’ Circle. Naturally, you can do a combination of both options! Don’t forget that you can add the same people to more than one Circle. Once you have Circles created, you can then decide to share a Google+ message with one or multiple Circles. Segmentation is critical for organizing your communication and keeping your community happy. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 33. 33 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Email Marketing & Circles You might have noticed that once you share an update with a specific Circle, the members of that Circle get email notifications about your post. What’s up with that? After you craft your Google+ update, left-click on the Circles you are about to share it with and select the check box “Notify about this post.” In this way, the members of this Circle will receive an email notification about your post. To prevent people from spamming their Circles, Google+ limits the number of members who can be notified about a post via email to 100. So if you want to use this feature, make sure your Circles don’t contain more than 100 members and send them only relevant and useful information. Otherwise, people can mute your post and never receive future ones again, or they can even block you. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 34. 34 6 ways to generate leads with google+ In fact, we at HubSpot were curious to try this feature out, so we notified our Circles about a webinar we were hosting with saleforce.com. You will notice that in the description of the event we have used a custom link that takes Google+ users to our webinar landing page. The goal of this post was to encourage people to share the event and generate new leads for HubSpot. This email notification, as you can see from the screenshot to the left, stands out from your average marketing email and is optimized for conversion. It highlights a few pictures of the people who were invited to the event and includes a direct call-to-action, “Are you going?” We got a pretty positive response rate as a result of this email notification. 164 people, close to 4% of all invited guests, said that they attended the event. What is more, this post drove more leads for HubSpot than any of the other individual Google+ updates we have been posting. So we encourage you to experiment with this feature and see how it performs for your business. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 35. 35 6 ways to generate leads with google+ CHAPTER 5 how to boost your adwords campaign with +1’s Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 36. 36 6 ways to generate leads with google+ “ Social proof exercises a tremendous power on purchase ” decisions. Social proof, among other important factors, can exercise a huge influence on one’s purchasing decisions. According to Google, 70% of Americans now say they look at product reviews before making a purchase. Furthermore, a CompUSA and iPerceptions study revealed that 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews. SO What Is Social Proof? ‘Social proof,’ also referred to as ‘informational social influence,’ is the concept that people will conform to the actions of others under the assumption that those actions are reflective of the correct behavior. It’s the mentality that, if other people are doing something, that’s validation that you should also be doing it. This third-party validation can be a very powerful motivator for your site visitors’ and prospects’ actions. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 37. 37 6 ways to generate leads with google+ The Importance of Social in Ads Social sharing is a form of social proof, which means that all the +1s you can accumulate have the power to sway people in a specific direction. One of the most recent internet-based applications of social proof is in social advertising, or ads that leverage the social context of the user viewing them. Promoted tweets and Facebook Engagement and Sponsored Stories ads are great examples of social advertising, which enable marketers to better target their advertising efforts and leverage ‘wisdom of your friends’ or ‘wisdom of the crowd.’ Research has shown that social Difference in Ad Recall for ads perform much better than Social vs. Non-Social Ads regular ads. A March 2012 by Nielson study found that social ads generate a 55% greater lift in ad recall than non-social ads. “It should come as no surprise that 55% greater ads that reference a consumer’s friends prove more memorable than traditional ads with no social content,” writes Nielson in their Non-social Social analysis. Source: Nielson Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 38. 38 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Social Proof in Google’s PPC Ads Did you know that you can also incorporate social proof in your Google pay-per-click (PPC) ads? When you search for a term in Google and relevant paid ads appear, you will notice that some of them have ‘social annotations’ of +1’s, indicating the Google+ users who follow and support the advertising company. By +1’ing an ad, you are in a way recommending that ad to your friends and connections. The benefits of something like this are clear—social proof carries on to the ad, inviting more people to engage with it. In March 2012, Google Vice President for Engineering Vic Gundotra confirmed this sentiment, announcing that social ads have experienced a 5% to 10% increase in click-through rates. The opportunity to integrate social extensions into AdWords campaign management has the power to increase the ad’s click-through rates (CTR) and engagement. It also has the potential to change people’s opinions on advertising. As Lisa Raehsler of ClickZ noted, “From a social perspective, incorporating social recommendations into PPC advertising has the potential to change the way people perceive advertising.” Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 39. 39 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Types of Social Extensions Google explains that all +1’s from your Google+ Page apply to your AdWords ads and vice versa. That being said, we need to draw an important distinction between the two types of social extensions. The Personal social extension gives you detailed annotations of the people within your Circles who have +1’d the object of your search. The Basic social extension, however, will give you less detailed annotations, indicating the total number of people across the web who have +1’d the object of your search. Personal So if I do a search of HubSpot as I am logged into Google+, I get the Personal social extension type. In other words, I see that some of my connections (who are in my Google+ Circles), have +1’d HubSpot. Basic If I log out of Google+, however, and do the same search, I will get the Basic social extension type. In this example, Google doesn’t know who I am (and who my personal connections are), and will show me the total number of people who have +1’d HubSpot. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 40. 40 6 ways to generate leads with google+ +1 +1’d Ads Improve Your Content’s Visibility You now know that using social extensions in your Google PPC ads can help increase their performance. Yet the benefits of this integration don’t stop here. The +1’s are also positively impacting the E organic results of the landing page to which the ad links. “A web user +1’ing your ad endorses your specific landing page, and EEE E vice versa,” read Google’s guidelines. In other words, the tie between the AdWords ad and the landing page enables Google to pass credit between the two and understand the value of these connected pieces. Here is a larger excerpt from Google: When your ad is +1’d, Google notes its final landing page URL. When the same URL appears in an organic search listing, the organic listing will include the same annotations as would an ad. In the context of lead generation, more visibility for your landing pages and offers will increase your chances for conversion, which is what we want! Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 41. 41 6 ways to generate leads with google+ How to Integrate +1’s with AdWords You can easily set up the social recommendations for your ads. Let’s review the key steps here. 1 Build a strong ad First, ensure that you have a compelling ad to promote. As Google explains, “We believe that the ads that are most likely to be +1’d are ads that deliver clear, relevant value to people.” 2 Select the right targeting One option is to do the broadest targeting and allow Google to show your ad on Google Display Network pages to friends and contacts of people who +1 your ad. You can also select specific placements or audience segments, which will allow Google to show your ads only on pages that match those restrictions. 3 Enable Social Extensions Now onto the actual setup process! After you login to your AdWords account, go to your Campaigns tab and click on the Ad extension tab and enable Social Extensions. Don’t forget that you need to measure the business results of this type of advertising. Ensure that you have the right marketing analytics in place to track how many leads and customers these efforts are bringing you. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 42. 42 6 ways to generate leads with google+ CHAPTER 6 Add a +1 button to your website Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 43. 43 6 ways to generate leads with google+ “ Websites with Google’s +1 button generate 3.5X more traffic from Google+ than websites that don’t ” have the button installed. To determine the value of Google’s +1 button, we at HubSpot looked at data from our customer base and compared referral traffic levels from plus.Google.com (Google+) for websites that have Google’s +1 button installed and for those that don’t. The result? Websites that use Google’s +1 button generated 3.5 times more traffic from Google+ than websites that don’t have the button installed. The lesson here is that you should incorporate Google’s +1 button across your website. The more traffic you are able to attract from Google+ and other channels, the more opportunities for conversions you create for your business. Shares without +1 Button Share This Ebook! Shares with +1 Button www.Hubspot.com
- 44. 44 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Where to Add the +1 Button & Why You can place the +1 button on any page of your website. We at HubSpot add the +1 button most frequently to our blog posts and landing pages. Its function is really twofold. First, by adding the button to our blog posts and landing pages, we expand the reach of our content. Users don’t have to even leave our real estate in order to share our content on Google+. What is more, the reader is encouraged to share a specific link with his or her Circles, which further contributes to the element of segmentation. Second, we accumulate social recommendations for our content which helps build ‘social proof.’ This social influence has the potential to increase the conversion rates of our landing pages because it shows the high number of people who have already been here and recommended the content. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 45. 45 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Adding the +1 Button to Your Site Adoption of the +1 button has been steadily growing. In fact, in 2011, WebProNews reported that the adoption of the +1 button across websites has been increasing at a higher rate than the adoption of Twitter’s Share button. You surely don’t want to be left behind, do you? Let’s explore the ways in which you can add the +1 button to your web pages and make your content more shareable. To add the +1 button to your website, you’ll need to place the +1 button widget code within the page code for each page where you’d like the button to appear. To get the code, follow the instructions at http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1button If you use marketing software like HubSpot, adding the +1 button is a more streamlined process. We follow inbound marketing best practices and will add it to all important places you need it: your blog posts and landing pages. Google+ tip Place one +1 button per page as a best practice. A good location for the +1 button is above the fold, near the title of the page, and close to other links for sharing or recommending content. ^ Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 46. 46 6 ways to generate leads with google+ CHAPTER 7 Using events & hangouts on Google+ Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 47. 47 6 ways to generate leads with google+ “ Sharing on Google+ is a catalyst for increasing your ” content’s reach. Sharing on Google+ is a catalyst for increasing your content’s reach. This means you can drive more traffic to the pages that are important to you and work on converting these new visits into leads and customers for your business. When you post an update, event, image or link on Google+, be clear about what you want your users to do with it. Give them direct instructions, such as “read our new blog post,” “download our guide,” or “join our event this summer.” This is true for creating effective calls-to-action across various channels. Getting followers to re-share your posts with their own Circles increases your reach and creates awareness for your Google+ page. So you might also want to experiment with encouraging users to simply reshare your content. This is similar to asking people to “please retweet” on Twitter. In this section of the ebook we suggest two specific ways in which you can increase the virality of your content on Google+: through Hangouts and Events. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 48. 48 6 ways to generate leads with google+ How Google+ Events Work In June 2012, Google launched Google+ Events, offering a richer, better way for users to connect before, during, and after events take place. Before you host an event, you can create an event page by choosing one of the beautiful available themes. The themes feature creative visuals, some of which are animated. After you enter all the necessary information for the event—its title, date and time, location and details—you can go ahead and share it with your Circles. Once the event is created, Google+ ensures that the details during and after the event are also taken care of. For instance, it enables attendees to share photos and event organizers can project a “live slideshow” of the photos added during the event. After the event, one can see everyone’s pictures and comments in one place on the event page, documented in chronological order. Lastly, people can also browse the content by popularity, photographer, or photo tag. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 49. 49 6 ways to generate leads with google+ The Benefits of Using Events Google+ Events seems to offer a much richer experience than other social networks’ events features, Facebook in particular. If you’re hosting a marketing event and your audience uses Google+, Google+ Events might be a good feature to try out. (We tested it for one of our marketing debates.) First, thanks to the integration of Google+ into search results, Google+ Events can bring you additional organic traffic. If you’re trying to increase your Google+ following, the fantastic new features Google+ Events offers during the event are just the push you need to drive attendees to use Google+ to share their experience at your event. Additionally, as you sign up for Google+ Events, the event will automatically get added to your Google Calendar. This is a brilliant use of the integration between Google’s different assets. This feature will remind people about their upcoming plans and undoubtedly increase attendance rate. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 50. 50 6 ways to generate leads with google+ As if that wasn’t enough, Google+ Events will also take care of the reminder emails for you. Anyone who has ever organized in-person or virtual events will appreciate the huge value of this feature. In the case of our marketing debate, as a potential attendee, I received the reminder email below one day before the event’s date: Notice that in the event description we have added a link that will take attendees to one of HubSpot’s landing pages that will seek to convert them into leads. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 51. 51 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Combining Hangouts and Events Google+ Events can play really nicely with Google+ Hangouts. In fact, as you are setting up your event on Google+, you can choose the option to host the event online only, through Hangouts. The perfect way to connect with your followers, Google explains, is to invite them to a Hangout. Through this video interaction they not only engage with your products, but can also meet the people behind the brand. Fiat Nederland, for instance, hosted a Hangout to introduce one of its car designs. The company used an iPad to make the tour more interactive and show the car. During the Hangout, Fiat made an effort to boost participation from attendees and asked them which color they would prefer for the new Fiat. A clever way to start a discussion! Another interesting idea is to invite celebrities to hang out with your audience. Recently, Verizon hosted a Hangout featuring American musician Donavon Frankenreiter. The Hangout was recorded and is now available on YouTube. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 52. 52 6 ways to generate leads with google+ Conclusion & additional resources Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 53. 53 6 ways to generate leads with google+ “ As you brainstorm ideas on the Google+ lead generation, consider how that fits into your overall ” inbound marketing strategy. Google+ provides creative opportunities to generate new leads for your business. From posting relevant status updates and compelling visuals and videos to using Google+ Events and Hangouts, the social network covers a pretty wide range of possibilities to capture the attention of new prospects and target that attention to your business. As you start brainstorming ideas on the Google+ lead generation path you will take, consider how that fits into your overall inbound marketing strategy. In order to be successful with attracting new leads through this channel, you will need to build powerful landing pages and have access to marketing analytics that track your performance by campaign and by source. The HubSpot inbound marketing software equips you with these tools, all in one place. Sign up for your 30-day free trial today and start creating effective compelling offers, optimizing your landing pages, sharing content on Google+ and measuring the impact of this social network. Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com
- 54. 54 6 ways to generate leads with google+ measure the business impact of google+ Get a free demo of the HubSpot inbound marketing software and find out how many visits and leads Google+ is bringing to your business website, and how you can improve these numbers! http://bit.ly/Get-A-Demo-of-HS Share This Ebook! www.Hubspot.com