A ‘Marketing Funnel’? Is it a culinary item? Or a laboratory apparatus?
Well, no! A digital marketing funnel is not something that you would find in a store, neither it is a tangible thing. We are talking about the kind of funnel that your marketing strategy must absolutely possess, and you must get it right. Basically, marketing funnel stages comprise of a few crucial stages or process through which your potential customers turn into paying customers. It is just all about the process of converting your web traffic into regular and paying patrons.
An effective and productive marketing funnel is a great tool to increase your sales, lead conversion, boost your brand identity and spread your name. Even those who have not purchased your product or service right away, your brand will be remembered by them as well. What happened earlier in traditional outbound marketing model, is obsolete now. You cannot just sit back in your office waiting for your customers to come up to you. No!
You have to be pro-active and reach to all your existing customers and potential ones. An effective conversion funnel marketing strategy gets you engaged with people the very next moment they have heard or see your brand in any kind of online medium available. But the real challenge is, to plan the bottom of the funnel marketing that will be efficient, hassle-free and less time-consuming.
Today we are going to discuss this and share some knowledge on ‘marketing funnel.’
1. Involve Customers into Your Funnel
Involving your customers into your marketing funnel is a dicey thing, so your approach has to be highly calculative from day one. This way you can create an agreeable buyer journey for your customers. Ask them to share ideas that they want to be included in your funnel. You can do this by online feedback forms, and short surveys. If they have any idea to modify your buying cycle, they can share it through the form.
2. Build Awareness
Awareness is one of the most important factors to be considered. Because prospects are strangers to your brand and you must build awareness in them about your brand. The more you create brand awareness, the more people knows you. Focus on carving a niche for yourself in your prospects’ minds. Let them think you a thought leader in your industry. Demonstrate the value of your product or service through blog posts, an eBook or a podcast or webinar.
3. Focus on Your Customer’s Pain Points
If your product fails to answer your customer’s pain point, you are likely to lose a chunk of prospects. Because your customers won’t go the extra mile of asking you questions about your product if it fails to interest them or answer their needs. Thus your marketing funnel must be comprised of their personal insights and their requirements.
If you can answer those questions, you can help them right away to arrive at a purchase decision. Read blog posts and other online contents that are related to your business, and try to find out the pain points of your target audience.
4. Develop Loyalty towards existing Customers
Don’t forget your existing customers as soon as you get the new ones. You must instill loyalty into your marketing funnel to sustain the clientele and expand your business. Offer them with valuable contents and an excellent customer service, timely response, an impressive after-sales service. Give them education content relevant to their requirements. Unless you have a plan to develop loyalty to your customers, you might tend to lose many of them, squandering your time and effort that you had put in the initial stages of your funnel.
5. Choose the Source of your Traffic
Today your choices of choosing traffic are many. You can very well choose your traffic through paid ads in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google Adwords, YouTube, etc. You may sign up in local directories and business listings like Yelp, Yahoo, YelloPages, Zomato, Trip Advisor, and so on.
Blogs, webinars, podcasts, PR campaigns, interviews, also help.
Track Metrics for Each Stage
Your marketing funnel is no success if you are yet to track the metrics. By measuring the metrics, you can evaluate and control those parts of your funnel that need improvement, or total revamp. Metrics give you a proper idea as to how much your funnel is capable of and what more can you do to enhance it.
The different stages of metrics to be considered are –
The Awareness stage – Track the number of website visitors you are receiving, this will give you an idea as to how much your funnel is working to drive traffic. Other supporting metrics to be tracked are, the inbound links, referral visits, mentions in media, new leads, return visitors, etc. You may take help of Google Analytics, Alexa, or SimilarWeb.
Lead Generation – Measure the number of total leads you have received. Other supporting metrics to be tracked in this stage are, the cost per lead, lead quality, the source of the leads, etc. These could be tracked through HubSpot.
The stage of Sales – The primary performance indicator to be measured is the number of paying customers that you have, or you have converted them from leads to loyal customers. This is one of the most vital stages because this is where you get the actual result of the performance of your marketing funnel.
Loyalty stage – If you have repeat customers, then measure the revenue rate that you receive. The amount of revenue your repeat customers bring to your business is the proof of your effort to sustain loyalty in them. Track the other supporting metrics like customer retention rate, churn rate, and customer lifetime value.
Create a Compelling Email Follow-Up Message
You must strive hard to push down your leads through your marketing funnel by writing compelling follow-up emails. Through your nicely written follow-up emails, you can deepen the relationship with your prospects which will pay off in the long run. You must be clear in your objective, whether you want to request a meeting, or just show your gratitude, or just catch up on informal terms. This will save the time for both the parties.
But yes, while writing a follow-up email, don’t forget to remind them how you met, or remind them about your initial conversations with them. This will help the prospect to recall you immediately. And don’t be late to put forth your purpose to them, and make it short and precise.
However, the biggest thing that you can do while writing a follow up email is, build an enthralling subject line. Because only your subject line can seduce your prospects to open your email. Put numbers to give your prospects an idea as to how much value they can receive from your email/content.
Over to You now
Creating an efficient and productive Marketing Funnel is no rocket science if you have the proper command over the whole process of lead generation and lead conversion, and the process they undergo. And I believe now you are equipped with the basic checklist that you must have in your funnel.
So what’s the wait for? Start molding your own marketing funnel to attract, convert and retain your customers. Patience and consistence are your keys remember! And if you have anything more to add to this checklist, please let us know in the comments section below. Any help needed, feel free to touch base. 🙂
