As we all know, the role of marketing is not only to bridge the gap between what companies have to sell and what customers want to buy; but most importantly to reduce the friction during the decision-making process. Whether your business is a startup or one that is well established, its continued success or failure lies in its ability to sell. Without sales, there can be no innovation, no growth, no profit, no jobs and therefore no future.
For any business to thrive and have an inspired future, it requires that its bottom line be as healthy as possible. One of the many ways that businesses fuel their bottom line is to increase their sales numbers. However, in a world that is facing a health crisis, stiff competition, dwindling margins and changing customer behaviours, how can businesses improve their marketing efforts and maximise ROI?
A good place to start would be to look closely at the marketing funnel that your teams work with on a daily basis. In previous articles we covered diverse marketing, advertising and communication related topics including:
Related Reading: Identifying & Solving Customer Painpoints, Building high performance buyer journeys, Critical Thinking for a Successful Business Pivot, Conducting Successful Market Research, Creating Compelling Value Propositions, Understanding Customer Behavioural Psychology, How to conduct Customer Profiling, Leveraging Story Telling, Building Trust, Enhancing Brand Loyalty, Paid Media Marketing, Adopting a Multi Channel Marketing Approach, Maximising Social Media Marketing, Marketing Tactics Playbook
All of these play critical roles in the marketing and sales funnel, which in turn directly impacts marketing effectiveness. All too often marketers believe that their growth problem(s) lie in the traffic that their website/ platform has, or even that the problem lies in the product/ service that they offer. The real problem could lie in their marketing funnel. But how does one narrow down the hypothesis? How can your business leverage the marketing funnel to maximise results?
Scenario 1
Problem: Your marketing gets you traffic but visitors don't subscribe.
Reason: It’s a simple fact that it’s difficult to build a relationship with a first-time visitor.
Solution: Regardless of how valuable your content is, the key to success in this scenario is to offer an irresistible value proposition – a hook with a compelling incentive to get visitors into the next stage of the customer value journey.
Scenario 2
Problem: Your marketing gets you subscribers but they don't translate into paying customers.
Reason: It’s a simple fact that it takes an average of 6 - 7 interactions for a business to turn a visitor into a customer. Stop trying to close the deal quicker than the visitor is willing to accept. Your prospect might not have enough information or not be confident enough in your ability to solve his pain point to agree to part with his money.
Solution: Make the effort and invest the time in educating the prospects. Build rapport and trust by giving them the confidence that your product/ service can and will deliver to the promise.
Scenario 3
Problem: Your marketing gets you paying customers but they don't come back again or refer your product.
Reason: Most marketers only spend time, effort and money on the initial customer acquisition. They forget to invest in keeping the relationship alive.
Solution: It only takes a fraction of time, effort and money to keep the relationship alive, in comparison to new customer acquisition. Staying in touch, continuing to create value and asking for feedback to improve your solution helps build trust and advocacy. The most successful marketing funnel thrives on loyal repeat customers, not short-term/ one-time buys.
Marketers tend to customise their respective marketing funnels in a simple 3 stages. We recommend that the most effective marketing funnel should have 5 stages, as it allows marketers to not only detail the Middle of the Funnel but includes the critical aspect of Advocacy.
Conclusion: The success of any business does not lie with technology or advertising budgets; it lies in the strength of its relationship with its customers and its continued commitment to keeping customers at the heart of its business. The marketing funnel has never been and will never be limited to one-time purchases. As long as businesses keep their promises and develop solutions that solve real customer needs, and as long as marketers continue to focus and improve their customer value journeys, customers will remain loyal and turn advocates. Because they see the value and feel the importance your business places in building better relationships with them.
Related Reading: Creating immersive interactive content with Augmented Reality, How to leverage human emotions to attract attention and sell better, How to maximize PR opportunities for brand growth, Unlock the artful craft of creative copywriting for explosive growth
Trigger Worldwide is a Brand Marketing Agency, built specifically for businesses to create Sustainable Growth. Our proprietary tools and process methodologies harness Technology, Creativity & Innovation, leverage Economic Drivers and Consumer Beliefs to help businesses overcome marketing inefficiencies and achieve their Growth Agendas.
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