What is Your
Marketing Funnel?
Before learning how to improve your marketing funnel, you
need to know exactly what your marketing funnel is. No matter what kind of
business you are in, the fundamentals of your funnel will be the same.
A marketing funnel simply refers to the path that customers
take with your business in order to ultimately become a customer. In the most
basic form there is a beginning, a middle and an end. From top to bottom, the standard
funnel levels are:
Awareness
When the desired customer becomes aware of your brand.
Consideration
This target client now knows about your products or services and is considering between you and other competitors.
Conversion
Final step, when the desired customer has now decided to purchase your products or services. This will lead to creating loyalty and, ideally, brand advocates.
How to Improve Your
Marketing Funnel
Now that you know the basics of your funnel, let’s get into
how to improve your marketing funnel at every stage.
Awareness
The biggest mistake that businesses make is spending a lot
of money making too many people aware of their products. Imagine spending $50
on a Google advertisement that reaches 100,000 people of all ages, and
interests, versus spending $50 to reach 10,000 people who are all looking for
and interested in your products. Which one do you think will get you more customers?
Thus, targeting your content to your own niche is
fundamental in order to connect your business with the right people.
Consideration
In order to be considered above your competitors, your products
or services need to have some sort of superior quality. What can you offer that
your rival cannot? Do you beat them on quality, on price, on customer service?
Find out what it is and make this stand out to your
customers. Invest in getting testimonials on your website from past clients, or
reviews of your product that can show others how great your products and
services really are.
Conversion
Once someone decides that your business is the one, there
still comes difficulties with getting them to purchase. The biggest reason
consumers drop off after deciding to convert is because of the difficulties
that come with purchasing.
In a product-based company these include difficulties with
your online shop. Customers are unable to add things to their shopping cart, or
the shopping cart freezes and drops products.
For companies that sell services, this is often due to the
number of hoops you are making customers jump through. First the customer has to
call, and then they have to set up a meeting, and then possibly even a second
meeting to see if they are the right fit. Try to streamline this process into
something smooth for your customer.
One last thing to help your conversion rate is to offer your
customer an incentive. A simple code offering them 10% off at checkout today,
can go a long way.
Final Thoughts
Consider what your current marketing funnel looks like.
Once you address all of these questions, there is no doubt
that your company’s conversion rates will begin to sky rocket!