I’ve spent most of my career focused on big brand and enterprise projects. At Cross Border Digital we are specifically focused on cross border, multi-language search and content marketing for international DTC consumer brands.
I love that stuff, but since I’ve been back in Auckland I’ve had a few conversations with local businesses who have a different kind of challenge, finding leads in the local market. While the fundamentals of SEO and GEO apply here, this is a different type of marketing challenge and it requires a different focus.
In the wake of these discussions with local businesses, one of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot is more performance based approaches to lead generation. As a bit of an experiment in this space I’ve set up a new site for Emergency Glass Repair to see if I can build some visibility in search. If the site can build some visibility, then the leads it attracts are sent to a call center who will dispatch a mobile glazier 24/7, 365 days a year.
And if the site works, then the commercial model can be purely performance based. This isn’t a new idea (it’s a common model in many big markets), but I really like the idea of selling the outcome not the website build and all the work that goes into getting that outcome. Asking local businesses to pay for that without a guaranteed result is the traditional approach, and that can work if the business wants total control of the asset, but this I think can also be attractive…the business gets to focus on what they do (serving their clients) and they just pay for the outcome they are looking for from an agency partner.