Showing posts with label marketing funnel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing funnel. Show all posts

Wednesday, 1 November 2017

Managing Your Marketing Funnel

With the over whelming success of the Digital Marketing Age, you may think that the concept of a marketing funnel is now defunct. And, yes, what used to be a fairly direct route from drawing in leads to converting them into clients has now exploded into a multitude of micro processes.
However, the concept of a Marketing Funnel is still a good way to create a marketing plan that needs multiple levels of engagement to convert leads into clients. Today, in this era of social media and smart phones, we are definitely in a (sometimes) brave new world of marketing plans.  Even when we’re ready to run screaming from our computers after trying to make sense of all the rapid changes that have evolved.
If you use a marketing funnel plan, there are probably some adjustments that could be made to your process that will help you see even better results in lead generation and subsequently converting those leads into paying customers. Here are a few procedures to improve your marketing funnel and provide even more successful results quickly.
Carefully Research and Develop the Stages of Your Buying Process
Outlining the steps of the potential client’s process needs to be very specific. How you define a potential client gives you an idea of what key information can help you continue to perfect your marketing plans.
By converting your definitions to relate to buyer stages, your emphasis focuses on where the buyer is in the process. Using care when forming these definitions can be crucial so that the data you receive is actually what you want to know.
Utilize Coding When Tracking the Lead Process
The information your team gathers as customers progress through your marketing is crucial.  This habit is a valuable resource, allowing you to follow what stage the buyer is in, where the lead originated, and which campaign produced the lead. Using detailed and accurate coding techniques to accomplish the tracking will tell you at the end of a campaign exactly where leads did and didn’t grow.  Additionally, they will inform you what factors successfully lead a buyer through all the stages of the funnel to a positive outcome.
Create a Process to Separate Your Quality Customers from the Rest of the Herd
Although it would be a bad idea to refer to your customers as a herd of cattle, with the wide range that initial lead capturing plans cover, it’s important, as the stragglers weed themselves out, that you are able to start recognizing high-quality clients.
On the flip side of that idea, be aware of clients that may have a negative effect on your business.  These are the ones you will probably prefer not to do business with in the future.
When ranking your potential and actual clients, be sure to include definitions of what the mediocre and trouble clients may be like.  This way you can determine where they came from and decide if you should remove your efforts from those venues to prevent more issues from coming up later.
Run Additional Metrics Reports When You Make Any Changes
Usually, key metric reports can be done only once a month, however, when changes are made you’ll want to get an immediate idea about how effective the changes are. During this time, it’s best to increase the reports to once a week.
Monitoring the social media marketing landscape is vital to your success. If you’d like to have access to even more powerful marketing tips, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready Internet marketing prospects each month, click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

Thursday, 26 October 2017

Improve Your Email Marketing with a Marketing Funnel

What is a Marketing Funnel?

The idea of a funnel is used to illustrate the process a potential client goes through as they become familiar with your products or services.

Visually, clients enter the funnel at the widest part, the top, then proceed to descend, stage by stage, leaving at the level they lose interest.  What you end up with at the bottom are the final few who have purchased and love your product or service.  These are the clients that will keep coming back
Your goal is to raise the number of potential clients that enter the top and lower the number that loses interest at each stage.
To accomplish this, you will need to have a conversion tactic for each stage.
There are a few different Funnel maps out there that vary in their vocabulary but each basically means the same thing, for the sake of this article, we’ll go with the following terms:
      • Awareness
      • Interest
      • Conversion
      • Loyalty
      • Advocacy
Using Email Marketing to Get a Client All the Way to the Bottom
Now that you understand how a marketing funnel works, let’s discuss email marketing plans for each.
Awareness
The top of your marketing funnel is awareness.  This is when the potential client finds out you exist but doesn’t know anything about your product yet. At this level, you should start showing them the value of your product or service.  This can be done with free informative content, such as a free eBook on product related subjects.
Interest
At this level, potential clients are starting to show an interest in your company and products and want to know more.
You also know more about the client, which allows you to send them more targeted content that can relate how your product or services can help them.  This email could include specific items that you believe will be beneficial to them and even include an invitation to a free consultation or demonstration.
Conversion
Now your potential client is aware of the value of your product or service and it’s time for them to decide if they are ready to purchase.
Here, you start communicating to the client why your product and service is better than your competitors’ and perfect for them.
Loyalty
OK, you’ve made the sale, your potential client has graduated to the title of actual client.  Your work is not over, however, not even close.
Now you need to implement your plans to keep them.
Repeat and long term clients are a wonderful asset for any business. Help keep these valuable assets by continually engaging them with fun and useful content such as educational emails related to upcoming products or surveys asking them their opinions on potential changes coming. Make them feel like their opinion really matters to you.
Advocacy
Advocacy happens when your clients turn into your biggest fans.
They’ve probably purchased or used your services several times because they adore you. The best part?  They start telling everyone about you and how great your products or services are!
Word of mouth, still the best way to gain more potential clients that will stick.
Now, as you start to recognise these special clients, you can start sending them special requests like emails asking them to refer you to their friends. You could even create a version of your initial email sent to the Awareness level that they can forward to friends and family they think would most benefit from your products or services.
Now you have the information you need to plan your own email campaign and begin to channel your potential clients all the way to being actual clients.
By developing your email strategy with the marketing funnel in mind, you’ll convert more prospects into customers and more customers into fans, which means more money for your business. Yay!

If you'd like to learn more about marketing funnels, visit my website and arrange a 15 minute consultation with me here.