Laurie’s Story
Laurie began her digital marketing journey in the early 2000s, back when the industry was just in its infancy. She got her start with Ogilvy & Mather, one of the UK’s premier advertising agencies. After making a name for herself in the online marketing space, she was recruited by Google to help them roll out their digital training program.
It was at this point that Laurie realized that her long-term goal wasn’t to continue to climb the corporate ladder. What she really wanted to do was help small businesses by showing them what was possible through digital marketing and social media.
So, in her free time she began to build her own brand and consulting business. Laurie started by developing marketing strategies for her friends, but it wasn’t long before word of mouth spread and some bigger opportunities came her way.
Amazing to speak at @socialmediaweek London for the second year running 😊
Privileged to share some of my insights with 200+ attendees on the power of social media paid advertising in growing their brand, impact and business.#SMWLDN #smw #socialmediatraining #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/OsoemhSsft
— Laurie Wang (@iamlauriewang) November 2, 2019
This included being a keynote speaker for Social Media Week and partnering with The Guardian for a series of masterclasses. These opportunities gave her even more exposure and helped her continue to land new clients.
Up to this point, Laurie had kept her day job and was only working on her own business in the evenings and on weekends. But as her brand grew she realized she would have to choose one or the other if she didn’t want to burn herself out. With her business growing rapidly the choice was clear. She left the corporate world behind and began working for herself full-time.
A lot has changed since that time, but one thing remains the same: her business continues to thrive.
In addition to her consulting services and speaking engagements, Laurie now offers a digital marketing course designed specifically for start-ups. This strategy proved invaluable when the pandemic hit. She was able to quickly pivot and focus more on her digital offerings, allowing her to continue to grow her business.
“If anything, the pandemic proved to myself and many of my friends in similar businesses that having a strong online presence protected us from the worst-case scenario.”
To help her reach even more entrepreneurs she also launched a YouTube channel where she posts weekly digital marketing lessons for small businesses.
Challenges
When Laurie first launched her business she used WordPress to promote her lead magnets and products. While this worked well enough, she spent a lot of time working on her pages in order to get them to look the way she wanted them to.
Although she’s a talented digital marketer, at the time Laurie didn’t have a lot of experience with web design. So she wanted a solution that allowed her to build her landing pages quickly and easily, without the need for a lot of technical knowledge.
However, as a small business owner she was very conscious about cost. While she was willing to invest in her brand she had a budget she needed to stick to. So, whatever tools she used needed to be effective but also affordable.
Laurie also needed landing page templates that looked clean and professional. While WordPress offered plenty of themes, she could never find one that was exactly what she was looking for. Even worse, editing these templates proved very difficult, so she was often left with pages that she wasn’t completely happy with.
Finally, she needed a solution that would help her convert more visitors into leads. As she began developing her digital marketing courses, collecting and nurturing leads became even more important. While WordPress had some plugins that can help with this, finding and installing the right ones was a time-consuming process.
How Leadpages helped
User-friendly website and landing page builder
After following Amy Porterfield’s journey and hearing her recommend Leadpages, Laurie decided to give the platform a try. The first thing she noticed was how much time she saved.
Leadpages’ no-code Drag & Drop Builder made creating landing pages quick and easy. Once Laurie chose a template the intuitive interface allowed her to customize the look of her page, edit text and images, and add and remove different elements.
Not only was the process simpler than WordPress, but now she had more time to work on growing her business.
“If I had to go back to scratch and build everything that I wanted to build in WordPress it would probably take me three to four times longer than it would with Leadpages.”
Affordable pricing
Leadpages’ pricing model provided Laurie with two key advantages.
First, her subscription plan was very affordable, even for a new business. It gave her access to all the tools she needed to grow her business for one convenient price, making it an extremely cost-effective solution.
And second, it made her marketing costs very predictable. Unlike the fluctuating costs of hiring a developer, and the hidden costs of using WordPress, Leadpages’ subscription model meant Laurie knew exactly what she was going to pay for her website and landing pages each month.
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Professionally designed templates
When Laurie started using Leadpages she finally found templates with the look and feel she had been searching for. All the templates offered on the platform were clean and professional, making it easy to choose a theme that suited her brand.
Even better, customizing and making changes to the templates was very easy. Using the provided design as a base, Laurie was able to create unique-looking landing pages, even though she had limited experience with web design.
“I love the overall clean layout of everything on Leadpages. If I had to go out and find a template somewhere else that would work it wouldn’t look half as good.”
Leadpages made it easy to create high-converting pages that turned visitors into leads. Not only were all the templates created with conversions in mind, but adding alert bars, pop-ups, CTA buttons, and forms was simple and straightforward.
Plus, Laurie no longer had to search through endless plugins to get the functionality she needed. All these tools were included with her Leadpages subscription.
Results
Conversion rates over 60%
As soon as she switched to Leadpages Laurie noticed a big difference in her conversion rates. She now regularly sees conversion rates well over 60%, with one page turning 76% of visitors into email subscribers.
2,000 YouTube subscribers in 1 year
While her channel is still relatively new, Laurie’s quality content has allowed her to quickly grow her following. In the last year, she’s gained roughly 2,000 subscribers, and that number continues to grow. All her videos link back to her Leadpages landing pages, where she’s able to convert those views into leads and sales.
Over 3,600 leads from 1 lead magnet
Her most popular lead magnet, the Social Media Calendar, has generated over 3,600 leads since it was first published in 2020. All told, Laurie’s pages and pop-ups have resulted in over 12,000 leads for her business since she started with Leadpages in 2017.
How Laurie uses Leadpages
Pop-ups
Laurie uses exit-intent pop-ups to promote lead magnets and special offers. These pop-ups appear as visitors are about to leave the site. Not only does this help maximize her leads, but it also ensures that no one leaves empty-handed.
Landing Pages
Landing pages are key to Laurie’s success. She primarily uses these pages to offer a variety of free lead magnets, including calendars, courses, resource lists, and more. This has allowed her to grow an impressive email list, which she uses to promote her paid courses and services.
What’s next for Laurie?
Moving forward, Laurie wants to continue to grow her audience through her YouTube channel and expand her course offerings. Given her drive and passion for helping small businesses, we have no doubt that she’ll achieve both of these goals. She’s also planning on hiring a few team members to help her reach even more people.
We look forward to seeing where Laurie’s entrepreneurial journey takes her next!
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Easily create your website and landing pages with the only platform engineered by marketing nerds.
