When you look at the top of your marketing funnel, what do you see? Or even better, what would you like to see?
The next few posts discuss the different activities you're going to want to focus on for the top, mid and bottom of the marketing funnel. Here is a sneak peek:
But, before I get into all the activities you could be doing and overwhelm you with the vastness of the possibilities you need to do just a couple more things:
Take inventory of what you already have - For real. Not just in your head. As a best practice, I would actually write it down and add a column of where in the funnel you think it fits. If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably have efforts in place to promote the business and already have some of this stuff set up. Before going into a big project to re-launch your whole marketing plan just because you read a fantastic post on marketing that made you rethink your whole strategy, make sure you're not doing work you've already done in the past.
Take inventory of your goals - What are your marketing goals? Or, even before we get into the marketing goals; What are your business goals? Once you have the business goals in mind, you can derive the marketing goals from there, backing in to those revenue numbers. You can't chart a course if you don't know where you're heading
Now that you know what the marketing funnel and buyers journey look like we're ready to put together a plan that is specific to your business. When going through this process, I like to start from the bottom and work my way up. Why? There are different reasons but mostly, the top of the funnel activities are going to take the most time showing any results, and they're probably going to be the ones that cost the most.
While there are no overnight successes and marketing should really be seen as a marathon, not a sprint, there are some quick wins you can score right away. Keep in mind that when I say right away, what I really mean is; right after you do all the research we discussed in previous posts like outlining your client personas and research on your competitors.
“While there are no over night successes and marketing should really be seen as a marathon, not a sprint, there are some quick wins you can score right away.”
What does it mean to start at the bottom?
At the bottom of the funnel, prospects have made the decision to buy and they turn into customers. This is where sales team or online purchase pages takes care of the purchase transaction.
Build out campaigns that address this purchase intent. If you have a user that's prepared to make a purchase right now, there is really no need to make him sit through/or read information that he doesn't care about (either because he's done his research already and knows all this info or because he's been following your brand for a while and knows your story).
These are some campaigns you can set up for the prospects that are ready to purchase:
- Simple search campaign on Google Adwords - Try using keywords that target your brand name, your product name (if different) and high intent keywords such as 'buy [your product category here]'. People who are searching for keywords such as 'buy project management tool' are probably ready to make a purchase. Make it easy for them to find you and buy your product.
- Retargeting or Remarketing campaigns - These can vary in levels of sophistication. At the simplest level, you can set up a campaign that targets on Facebook (retargeting) or the Google Display Network (remarketing) anyone that's been to your website. The more sophisticated ones determine what actions indicate where the customer is in their buying process, and then match the customer with the right messaging and content that is appropriate for where they are in the funnel. A good example is the pricing page. If a customer is interested in the product enough to find out if the price is right they could be at a stage where they are ready to see a product walk-through demo. They could also already be past that stage and have gone through a demo at an earlier stage; it really depends on the journey they go through. The point is that you can tailor a message that suites and will follow them around the web based on where they are in the funnel.
- Strategic Offers - Sometimes leads just need one more thing to push them over the edge. Strategic offers are a great way to do just that. Based on the information you’ve collected from them throughout the funnel (what content they’ve seen and interacted with, their company information), marketers can offer compelling discounts or bonus access to convince leads to engage with the sales team.
- Email Drip Campaigns - Drip campaigns are a great way to deliver much of the content discussed earlier. Once a lead gets this far down the funnel, you know quite a bit about them. With that information, you can design really effective drip campaigns that feed them the information they need to convert and at a pace that won’t scare them away.
Keep in mind that just following these best practices isn’t enough. It’s important to be measuring the impact of your bottom-of-the-funnel efforts. With multi-touch attribution, you can view and assess the success of your bottom-of-the-funnel tactics (alongside your Top and Mid funnel campaigns). A full understanding of the marketing funnel is key to improving and getting better results.
The next post in this series hasn't been published yet but stay tuned and join us soon to read about mid funnel campaigns and how to execute them!
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