#Sales Conversion Funnel | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lohith1509-blog · 12 years ago

Text

Want a higher conversion rate on your sales leads ? Prioritize your brand's MOFU engagement strategy.

Many organizations today, spend a lot of money on marketing to ensure they get great leads which would later be qualified and closed by as sales by the sales team. Marketers are planning their budgets today to do a gamut of activities which would include a mix of SEO, SEM, newsletters, webinars, social media ,campaigns etc etc to get those qualified leads for their organizations to ensure effectiveness of marketing. Right? What we all fail to understand is to see what activities are to be done at which stage of the sales funnel which would ensure that we generate the right type of content to address our audience perfectly.

While we create a content strategy, we need an understanding of the marketing funnel and so it stays on top of our priority list – fundamentals first. If you’re not familiar with the marketing funnel (sometimes called as the sales funnel) there’s a high probability that you’re losing many of your potential buyers. Before we take a look at where most marketers lose the maximum of their qualified leads, let’s understand the anatomy of a marketing funnel and the marketing activities we can do for each of these phases.

Anatomy of the Marketing Funnel

Where the marketing funnel breaks down

Many content marketers provide top-of-the-funnel and bottom-of-the-funnel content without realizing that’s what they’re doing. It’s easy to create a content calendar that will appeal to the masses and then give a few discounts and demonstrations to grab interested audience right away and when a lead converts to a sale, business bloggers feel they’ve done their job. But are we doing the right thing?

Only 3 percent of first-time visitors to websites are ready to make a purchase. As connected Americans increasingly turn to Google and social media channels for product research, your company has an opportunity to increase value and sales by creating TOFU, MOFU and BOFU content and giving away free information to potential customers, a concept known to marketers as content marketing.

What if you could do so much more with your content marketing?

What if someone told you the middle of the funnel is the most neglected area of content marketing and the most important area? To understand why the middle of the funnel affects your potential sales, we should understand the sales cycle for various buyer types. For small and medium businesses, the buying cycle is usually 6 months to a year before deciding to buy. Your middle-of-the-funnel content (which is mainly towards lead nurturing and engagement driven) is what will keep them coming back for more information as they make the decision. What happens if you neglect the middle? Those leads go to your competitors and them BAM you have to start hunting for leads again.

Prioritize and strengthen the Middle of Your Marketing Funnel

One reason this section of the marketing funnel is so neglected is simply because bloggers and a few marketers aren't sure what makes for good content. Speaking on general topics is easy enough, and offering free demonstrations or discounts just seems like a smart way to pull in potential buyers. It’s the leads that are still deciding that you’ll lose without good content.

You need to think about what you might say to your prospects if you were to meet them during this stage in the sales cycle. If they’re looking for more information, will a discount make up their mind? Probably not. You should take this time to give as much information about your product or service as possible.

This might include how-to videos, detailed white papers on how the product has served to help others, or fun facts about your company. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a simple list of some of the most useful middle-of-the-funnel content ideas.

Videos

eBooks

Case studies

White papers

Reviews

Testimonials

Frequently asked questions

Buyer’s guide and comparison guides

Success kits

Newsletters

Now that you understand what’s missing, it’s time to create that content to fill the gaps. The problem is, you've been neglecting that section of the marketing funnel for so long, and you may be a bit rusty with the content creation. Before you panic, start small. Testimonials are a great way to start pumping up your middle of the funnel because others write that for you. Include some reviews you may have found elsewhere to add to those testimonials.

Next, move to frequently asked questions. People want to know your product before they buy. Save them the time of contacting your company by providing a page of questions and answers. Even if no one has thought to ask, create the questions yourself. Include any information you want potential buyers to know. You might even do a series of FAQs involving various topics. This will give you even more content to add to your website.

Case studies, white papers, and eBooks do take more time to create, but after answering everything you can in the FAQ section, you’ll know the products and services well enough to put together informative documents.

Measure if it’s working for you - analytics

All this content won’t matter if you don’t track your results. For each stop within the marketing funnel, you should have a checkpoint that tells you if that piece of content inspired a lead to move further down the funnel. When someone downloads your white paper or eBook, use that contact information to keep track of his or her buying process. When you find a piece of content that works, don’t be afraid to use it again and again. Make changes to update the information, but then put that eBook or how-to video right back out there for new prospects to see.

You may not even realize right now that the middle of your marketing funnel is suffering. Once you put these tips to use, you’ll begin to see a marked change in your sales numbers. Still not convinced? You won’t know until you try.

Published in :

http://marketingexecutives.biz/want-higher-conversion-rate-your-sales-leads-prioritize-your-brand%E2%80%99s-mofu-engagement-strategy

0 notes