€0-301k in 12 Months: How I Helped a Business Get 171 High-ticket Leads with a ‘Lead Generation Offer’

An SEO lead generation strategy for business owners in Spain selling a high-ticket product or service (€1,000+) or charging high-ticket commissions…

In April 2023, I met a business that hadn’t had a single contact form submission from a new website (except spam).

Fast-forward 10 months…

And they got 171 contact form submissions, 35 sales, and €301,895 from the same website.

What changed?

It worked thanks to a conversation rate optimisation technique called a ‘Lead Generation Offer’.

And the best part?

We generated around 8-10 qualified leads a month from Google Search in a service area just 50km wide.

It means that to get leads:

• We didn’t need to post on social media
• We didn’t need to spend money on ads
• We only needed to maintain position #1 on Google for relevant searches

As a result…the business’ marketing ROI over 10 months was around 34:1.

Sound interesting?

Below, I’ll explain the 3 steps to create your own Lead Generation Offer – without needing a web designer or any fancy software.

DO NOT SPEND another €1 on marketing until you read this

I’ve been writing SEO content since 2012.

And after setting up my own SEO marketing agency in 2020 I got results I never imagined possible:

• 25,000 to 100,000 monthly visitors for a news website selling sponsored advertising packages
• 110,000 visitors in the first 3 months for a new airport transfer website
• 1,205 to 2,787 monthly visitors to a real estate website in Barcelona (ranking ABOVE Spain’s #1 real estate portal Idealista for valuable search terms)

But you know what?

I didn’t help generate any sales for the first two businesses.

And the real estate agency?

The 2,787 users a month brought only 18 leads – that’s a conversion rate of 0.6%.

NEWSFLASH: More traffic does NOT mean more leads

Why couldn’t I bring in more business for my clients?

I’ll tell you why.

Because I’d done what 99% of marketing agencies do.

Most marketing agencies help you get clicks to your website…but they don’t help you convert that traffic into highly qualified leads.

And it’s not just me.

I spoke to two businesses in Spain in 2023 who each spent €30,000 on marketing.

One was a real estate agent who’d sold two houses and just about broken even on his budget.

The other was a solar installer who’d lost money.

Introducing…the ‘Lead Generation Offer’ SEO lead generation strategy

I made it my SEO agency’s goal to do the opposite of what everyone else was doing.

My goal became converting the highest number of leads from highly relevant SEO traffic.

It was scary at first.

For the client in this case study, my SEO lead generation analysis revealed they were only 100-200 relevant searches each month in my client’s area.

And get this.

The average contact form submission rate on professional service websites is only 1.4% – so I was looking at a potential of 1-2 leads a month.

There was only one answer.

I had to find a way to convert website visitors into leads at a higher rate than normal.

And that’s what I did.

In the first month of working with the business in this case study we got 11 contact form submissions and €32,000 in revenue from a total of 85 website visitors.

That’s a 12% contact form conversion rate.

Crazy, right?

Why most websites fail to convert traffic into leads

Converting relevant traffic into leads is not easy.

Here’s why.

There are seven small businesses selling the same service to the same market as my client in this case study.

As of 24th April 2024 here’s the call-to-action (CTA) button each has on their website:

• Contact
• Contact Us
• Get in touch
• Book your appointment
• Request a Quotation
• Free Consultation
• Click here for a free quote

If you want to convert traffic into leads you need a more compelling offer than this.

Here’s the truth.

Very few people on Google will fill out a contact form on your website.

Remember.

The average form conversion rate on professional service websites is 1.4%.

That’s 1 in 100 people.

Meanwhile…I had a conversion rate of 12% during the first month working with the business in this case study.

How did I do it?

Through the nine-word offer under the button in the image below – the Lead Generation Offer as it’s called.

It might not seem like a lot.

But let me remind you:

• This didn’t need fancy web design
• This didn’t need professional photos or videos
• This didn’t need paid ads

Now.

These three elements above can help you get more out of your SEO lead generation strategy…

But if you have an amazing website and no Lead Generation Offer you’ll still be stuck with a contact from conversion rate at the average 1.4% (or less).

Meanwhile over 10 months my client’s homepage conversion rate remained at 6% – that’s 4x higher than the industry standard.

And it was all thanks to that lead generation offer.

How to increase your form completion rate with a Lead Generation Offer

Here’s how I discovered the Lead Generation Offer strategy.

In 1992 Joe Polish was about to shut down his carpet cleaning business.

His newspaper ads weren’t getting any leads.

But then he studied the legendary marketer Dan Kennedy and how he generated leads by giving away free samples – like free books, free resources or free advice.

Joe adapted this idea to his service business…

And in 6 months Joe’s income grew from $2,100 to $12,300 per month.

Today, Joe Polish has turned thousands of carpet cleaners and professional service providers into millionaires.

So what did he do differently?

Joe started offering a ‘Free Room of Carpet Cleaning’.

And suddenly he started getting more leads calling in, he visited more prospects, and he closed more deals.

Here’s what Joe says about the strategy:

Now.

Let’s revisit the seven CTAs my client’s competitors have on their website homepages:

• Contact
• Contact Us
• Get in touch
• Book your appointment
• Request a Quotation
• Free Consultation
• Click here for a free quote

Five of these CTAs don’t offer any kind of free sample…

But the ‘free consultation’ doesn’t explain what the prospect is going to get from it.

And the ‘free quote’?

Whoever charged to pass a quote to someone?

None of these CTAs offer anything interesting or attractive to a prospect who isn’t 100% sure they want to do business.

Now let’s revisit the Lead Generation Offer I added to my client’s homepage:

The personalised annual return & break even estimation is a very attractive free sample.

It converts because:

• The prospect understands they’re going to get a report they can check in their own time (i.e. they’re not going to be pressured into making a decision in a one-on-one sales conversation)
• The prospect gets to see if a solar installation justifies its own price
• The prospects gets a taste of what it’s like to work with the business before committing to spend any money

The ‘Lead Generation Offer’ SEO lead generation strategy is all about offering a valuable service for free to your website readers.

It might sound a little odd at first…

But it seriously works.

Below, I’ll walk you through the 3 steps to actually build a Lead Generation Offer into your website homepage.

3 steps to creating a Lead Generation Offer for your SEO lead generation strategy

Step 1: Put your Lead Generation Offer on the homepage

If you have a website then it’s likely you already have some kind of button asking readers to ‘Get in Touch’ or ‘Contact’ you.

Most of the time it’s the first thing a reader sees after landing on your homepage.

So Step 1 is simple.

Write your Lead Generation Offer into this button (or beneath it) and make sure it’s one of the first things a reader will see.

And remember.

This doesn’t need fancy web design, photos or videos.

Sometimes just adding a nine-word sentence can mean the difference between 0 leads and €209k in revenue.

This blogpost is a case in point!

Step 2: Update your contact page

Again, this doesn’t need to be fancy.

For the client in this case study I only had one sentence on the contact page:

There’s many more things you could add:

• More details on how the Lead Generation Offer works
• Any requirements to access the offer
• Social proof and testimonials about your service

The list goes on…

But you don’t need much for the Lead Generation Offer to pull in 4x more conversions than the industry average.

I’m showing you my screenshots because it really can be this simple.

Step 3: Update your contact form

This final step could be the fiddliest.

But first a quick story…

My client almost threw me out in the first month of working with me because I updated their contact form.

Picture the scene.

On this first day of sending live my client’s new Lead Generation Offer we get a lead that will close for €15,418.

It was the first lead they’d ever received from the website.

But the business owner requested an emergency meeting to tell me: “Why have you made the contact form so difficult?”

“Aren’t we going to lose leads?”

Ironic.

But I had made the contact form nothing like anything they’d ever seen.

Why do this?

First of all, I knew we’d get low-quality leads if we offered a personalised break even estimation to everyone.

And…I knew this free service required a time investment.

This is why the new contact form asked for information like:

• How much they were spending on electricity each month
• Information on what solar equipment the lead was interested in
• What kind of property they owned
• If they were the homeowner or renting
• The most recent electricity bill

If anyone wasn’t qualified then I set up conditional logic so the person couldn’t submit the form.

(If this sounds complex, let me tell you I did it using a free WordPress plugin!)

Step 3 is important to make sure you only offer the free service to leads who are most likely to buy.

So…how do you get people to actually see the Lead Generation Offer?

This is a blog about an SEO lead generation strategy and I haven’t said anything about SEO yet!

But you need to understand this.

If you generate traffic without a Lead Generation Offer you’ll be missing out on leads and sales.

Why?

Because as I mentioned the average form conversion rate on professional service websites is 1.4%.

Meanwhile the Frictionless Offer gave me a form conversion rate of almost 6% over a 12-month period.

I don’t want you to waste €1,000s of your marketing budget only to get traffic and no leads.

But still.

You need to be ranking in the top 1-3 positions on Google for valuable search terms if you’re to get potential clients landing on your homepage.

I’m in the process of creating a blogpost explaining how to do this.

In the meantime…

Want to know your 10 most valuable search terms and see the maximum # of leads you could generate in your area?

Then check out the free offer below.

Final Thoughts: Maximise your conversion rate with the Lead Generation Offer strategy

Nothing I’ve mentioned here is a new concept.

I just applied Joe Polish’s ‘Free Room of Carpet Cleaning’ idea to a modern-day website.

But here’s the thing.

None of the competitors in my client’s local area is using this kind of strategy.

I know at least one of them is spending €1,000 a month on SEO.

But unfortunately for them…

With a CTA reading only ‘Contact’ it means they’ll be stuck with a contact from submission rate at 1.4% – or less!

Meanwhile I helped my client generate 171 contact form submissions, 35 sales and €301,895 in added revenue thanks to a 6% conversion rate.

Bearing in mind my client and competitors are fighting over 100-200 relevant Google searches a month…

You can see why the ‘Lead Generation Offer’ SEO lead generation strategy is the only way to get a good marketing ROI.

In this post I’ve explained my previous failings with SEO lead generation and given you the result of countless hours of testing and over €10,000+ spent on marketing courses.

I hope it turns your marketing budget into a healthy profit.

Next steps…

If you’d like to understand the maximum number of leads you could generate via your website…

Then click below for a zero-obligation lead generation proposal.