Liam Dempsey of LBDesign gave a presentation about how they helped a small law firm client improve their website and digital marketing. Through an SEO audit, they identified opportunities to improve the site like better meta descriptions and use of categories. They created customized calls-to-action for blog posts and landing pages to capture leads. In the first 9 months, the client saw a 300% return on investment from new business generated by the forms. The client continues to receive 1-2 new leads per month, and LBDesign gained a case study and happy client.

1. Deliver Big Results
@liamdempsey
Small Changes to a WordPress Theme to

2. Hi! I’m Liam
● Marketing and design consultancy with
LBDesign
● LBDesign works with businesses and
non-profits to bring strategy and structure
to marketing efforts
● Mostly, we create websites and help
clients market themselves through those
sites

3. Tell me about yourselves!
● Who works in marketing?
● Who builds websites?
● Focuses specifically on SEO?
● Does a number of these and related
services?

4. What’s the context of this talk?
● As a small business owner, looking to
provide more value to smaller clients
● As a small business owner, looking for
ways to sell further to existing clients
● Looking for realistic projects that deliver
money in our pockets while delivering
bigger returns in those of our clients

5. THIS IS A CASE STUDY
With lessons that can be applied to lots of projects

6. The client
● Very small law firm in the midwest in a
town of 100,000
● Provide primary estate planning services

7. Our work with the client
● Working together since 2010
● Built a child-theme
● Rebuilt the same design with ACF and
responsiveness in 2015
● Edit monthly blog posts for style and
SEO
● Basic WordPress maintenance and
updates

8. The state of the client site
● A conversative, but clean design
● A brochure website – little interactivity
● Not focused on visitor engagement

9. The state of the client’s digital marketing
● Organic SEO for estate planning related
words and phrases
● Relying on monthly blog posts to
improve SERP placement
● Client-managed Google AdWords on an
as-needed basis

10. LOOKING FOR MORE VALUE
For both the client and for my business … or what we did that
worked well for both our client and for us.

11. Getting into that “value” effort
● Early 2018 chatted with client about
SEO audit
● Used that audit to suggest further work
● Rolled out the site updates
● Watched the results flow in

12. Conducted an SEO audit
● Used an audit format and template report
from Rebecca Gill
● Used SEMrush and ScreamingFrog
● Produced a basic report that highlighted
suggested edits
● Only charged for 4 hours – spent 6.5
hours

13. Reviewed Google Analytics
● Looked at traffic for the entire previous
year (2017)
● Picked out key data and trends – did not
study everything

14. Top findings from research
● Identified simple ways to improve the SEO
of the site like better meta-descriptions,
use of categories and category pages
● Identified top performing blog post
pulled in ~2400 visits of a total of ~11,000
across the entire site

15. Pitched updates to client
● Create customized calls-to-action for
blog posts
● Create call-to-action specific landing
pages
● Detailed Google Analytics tracking on
call-to-action activity like button clicks,
form submissions, and thank you page
hits

16. Client approvals
● 34 hours of work for us
● Rejected pop-up functionality

17. WHAT DID WE DO
Let’s get into the specifics

18. That call to action (a)
● Custom theme with Advanced Custom
Fields plugin
● Using ACF, created two pre-set calls to
action
● First CTA: focused on the topic from that
most visited post
● Second CTA: general CTA about the
clients area of law

19. That call to action (b)
● Third CTA: totally customizable on a
post-by-post basis

20. CTA on the front end

21. CTA on the WP dashboard

22. CTA on the WP dashboard

23. Landing page on the front end
● Same template as from previous 2015
update
● Customized messaging for each of the two
default CTA
● Same Gravity Form
● Could add additional custom landing
pages for customized CTA

24. Post form submission
● Details fed into the WordPress database
● Client sent the submitted details
● Form submitter sent an auto-responding
thank you email, with the submitted fields
attached
● We were sent an anonymized version of
the form – basically a notification about
which CTA/form have been completed

25. HOW DID IT ALL WORK OUT?
Let’s chat about the wins for the client and the wins for us.

26. The client’s wins
● In 9 months after launch of upgrades, the
client picked up 300% of the project cost
in new business via the new calls-to-action
● The forms converted: 50% of submissions
of the first form became clients; 75% of
submissions of the second form became
clients
● Forms continue to bring 1-2 leads per
month

27. Our wins
● 34 hours of billable work to an existing
client
● A very happy client
● A continued relationship where we edit
blogs every month
● Great case study for other sales efforts

28. QUESTIONS
What can I answer for you?
@liamdempsey | @LBDesign