Key Results
36%
Increase in 3 month rolling average of applications from organic search.
9%
Contact to customer rate from organic search. Highest of any channel.
49%
YOY increase in student applications from organic search.
78%
Increase in overall organic traffic to website.
4,369%
Increase in organic traffic to the blog.
About Lionel University
Lionel University is an online college devoted to providing the highest quality distance education programs for their students. Their mission is to stem the tide of poor health and physical decline and inspire each and every student to positively impact the quality of life of the individuals with whom they come in contact.
The Problem
Lack of diversity in lead generation efforts
The marketing team at Lionel was searching for new ways to generate qualified student leads. Their primary lead source was Google paid search, but they realized that if their paid media budget ever decreased, their leads would also decrease.
To diversify and bolster their lead generation efforts, CES partnered with Jessica Thiefels Consulting (JTC) to create and execute a comprehensive organic, SEO-based content strategy.
Jessica and her team are highly experienced, efficient, and have a concrete process designed to produce results. She gave us our foundation and direction when we had none, and have produced excellent work with zero drag on the internal staff. Best of all, the organic strategy she created will pay dividends for years to come.
Sarah Marin
COO, Lionel University
The Solution
Ongoing, SEO-based content creation
Foundation and Strategy
Before beginning work, the team at JTC met with Lionel to learn about their business, their goals, and their audience. Using this information the team created an organic strategy which focused on low competition, high search-volume keywords. JTC’s team then used the keywords, along with the audience research, to build a content calendar for the first three months. JTC recommended releasing a new blog post each week to maintain a constant flow of fresh content, which is critical for SEO.
Content Creation and Management
The JTC team then began writing the content. Each post was well researched, cited proper sources, and was optimized for SEO using header tags, image alt tags, a keyword-focused URL and proper meta description structure. Links to other relevant blog posts on Lionel’s site were also added to reduce bounce rate and promote further reading. Finally the JTC team found strategic places to insert links and images that pointed to Lionel’s program pages to promote lead generation and traffic to the site.
Monthly Reporting
In addition to creating content, the JTC team provided reporting each month to track keyword rank and organic traffic, as well as attribute new contacts and new students to organic efforts. From Lionel’s side, the entire process was seamless. The JTC team operated as part of Lionel’s team, which meant the client didn’t have to give any extra time or effort.