Transfer Talk brings you all the latest buzz on rumors, comings, goings and, of course, done deals.
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Lionel Messi scored a pair of vintage goals to lead Inter Miami CF in a stunning comeback win over FC Dallas in the Leagues Cup on Sunday in Frisco, Texas.
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Are you happy with the number of leads your marketing campaigns are generating? Or, do you wish they were a bit more effective?
If you’re serious about growing your business—whether it’s a B2B company, an e-commerce store, or a startup—increasing the number of leads should be a top priority. Setting up online campaigns is a good start, but it’s not enough. You need to optimize those marketing campaigns to squeeze every last lead from your funnel.
Are you ready to get to work? Here are seven strategies to generate leads like never before.
Two of marketers’ top priorities are generating leads and converting those leads to customers. Only increasing customer satisfaction comes close to the importance of getting new leads.
It’s no surprise that lead generation is a top priority. Without a continuous flow of new leads, sales dry up. Without sales, there’s no revenue. And without revenue, your business folds.
What’s more, most people who land on your site won’t purchase right away. You need to constantly collect leads so you can nurture them and convert them into buyers in the future.
Not just any leads will do, however. Referrals, conferences, and cold calling are all great lead generation strategies, but they aren’t enough. You also need to learn how to generate more leads from your online campaigns.
Why are advertising leads better? Using targeting you can gather better leads faster and even automate parts of the process. How do you make sure your ads are driving quality leads?
If you aren’t sure how to create a lead generation campaign, I have previous articles to walk you through the process. What I’m going to do is show you how to generate leads online by improving your existing ad campaigns.
Your landing page (or squeeze page) is one of the most important elements of your online lead generation campaign. The goal is to leave the visitor with no choice but to hand over information in exchange for something valuable.
Landing pages convert better than most other ads or offers. The average conversion rate is 2.35 percent, but some have conversion rates in excess of 10 percent. If your landing page’s conversion rate isn’t pushing double digits, you should look to optimize one or more elements ASAP.
I recommend looking at your page’s copy, including its headline, first. Make sure your copy is short, sharp, and engaging. Users need to understand exactly what your product is and how it helps them within a few seconds of landing on your site. Make sure you focus on the benefits of your product to the user, not its features.
Spend more time tweaking and testing your headline than anything else. This will be the first thing a user reads and one of the biggest deciding factors in whether they continue browsing the rest of the page.
You can speed up a user’s understanding of your product by including a video on your landing page. A good chunk of your audience would rather watch a video than read your copy, which is why 76 percent of sales teams say video is key to securing more deals.
Finally, remove all distractions from your page. The layout should be as simple as possible and there’s no need for a navigation bar or links to any other pages on your site. This leaves the user with two options: close their browser window or sign up.
ConvertKit’s Creator Pass is a fantastic example of how to create a great landing page. There’s no headline navigation, the headline copy offers a clear benefit, and there’s an enticing call to action right in front of you.
Arguably the most important part of your landing page isn’t the copy, image, or CTA. It’s the piece of content, tool, or resource you offer in return for each lead’s email address.
For most brands, gated content takes the form of a PDF download, something like an ebook or a whitepaper. But it doesn’t have to be. Case studies, surveys, webinars and video series are all excellent types of gated content.
Whatever form your gated content takes, it must deliver tremendous value. Otherwise leads will leave your funnel as quickly as they entered. How do you deliver value? By solving a problem your leads have. What are their pain points? Where do they get stuck? What expertise can you leverage to make their lives a little bit easier?
Delivering value also means presenting gated content in the best way possible. Make it visually appealing, with images, videos, and other forms of multimedia content. The nicer it is for your leads to consume, the more they’ll engage with it.
Here’s an example of a non-ebook lead magnet from Leadpages:
They know their leads often struggle to create high converting pages, so they created a training course to solve that issue.
Collecting leads is just the first step of the process; you also need to nurture them. Only two percent of sales are made at first contact, yet most salespeople give up after the first attempt. If you automate the follow-up process, you don’t have to worry about a thing.
I recommend using email to nurture when possible. It is a great way to drip feed messages to your leads, it also generates massive ROI. According to research by the Direct Marketing Association, the ROI of email marketing is £42 for every £1 spent.
If you don’t have an email automation platform yet, check out my review of the best solutions. Then integrate your landing page’s form so every email is automatically added to your mailing list.
Next, create an automated series of emails that is sent out at regular intervals. Your goal is to take leads through each stage of the buying process—and that means providing them with the right educational content at the right time. Start by educating them about your wider industry and their general problems. A couple of emails later, you can start to focus on your product and service and how you can help.
The more emails you send, the more you can make your product the hero of the email, and the more direct you can be with the lead.
Your salespeople aren’t the only ones who can nurture leads. Chatbots can automate almost every part of the lead generation process. They’re incredibly effective at it, too. Over half of businesses that use AI-powered chatbots generate better quality leads.
Start by replacing forms on your landing page with a chat bot. Forms can be long-winded and rarely offer a great user experience. Chatbots make it easier for prospects to fill out their details. In some cases, users may not even be aware they’re filling out a lead form.
You can also use chatbots to respond to leads at lightning speed. Response time matters in lead generation. A study by Harvard Business Review shows businesses that respond to leads in under five minutes are 100 times more likely to convert them. With chatbots, you can automate the response process and send a message as soon as a lead fills out a form.
Finally, use chatbots to nurture and qualify leads. Chatbots can ask the same qualifying question as your salespeople to separate the wheat from the chaff. The best can be sent directly to sales, while everyone else is added to a nurturing sequence.
Drift’s chatbot is an excellent example of this. It asks a qualifying question as soon as someone lands on the site, putting them straight through to a sales rep if they’re ready.
How many platforms are you using to advertise your landing page and gated content? You probably aren’t using enough.
Today’s customer journey is long. Most don’t convert to customers the first time they land on your site. The majority probably won’t sign up on your landing page, either. A recent Google study found it takes between 20 and 500 touchpoints to become a customer.
The solution is a multi-touch campaign, where your message is delivered in multiple formats across multiple channels.
Advertising on a range of channels maximizes the chances that potential customers will see and click your ad. It’s a numbers game at the end of the day. The more shots you take, the more chances you have to score.
If you want an easy way to increase conversion rates at every stage of your online lead generation campaign, try personalization. In a survey of B2B sales and marketing professionals, over three-quarters (77 percent) said personalization made for better customer relationships, and over half (55 percent) said personalization led to higher sales conversions.
How can you add personalization into your funnels to generate leads?
Start by personalizing your ads. While Apple may have made creating hyper-personalized ads a lot harder, Google still makes it relatively easy to personalize paid search ads with dynamic ads.
Next, personalize your landing page, particularly the call to action. Research shows personalized CTAs achieve 202 percent better conversions. Marketing tools like HubSpot and Unbounce can help you create dynamic CTAs that change depending on who views them. But you could also go old school and create several different versions of your page for each ad group and personalize the copy accordingly.
Finally, build personalization into your email automation tool. Every major email marketing tool makes it easy to automatically insert the recipient’s name into the subject line and body copy, so there’s absolutely no excuse not to personalize your nurturing emails.
There’s no point wasting resources nurturing leads who will never buy your product. That’s why you need to target your lead generation ads carefully.
I’ve written extensively about how to find your target audience and identify target markets for paid campaigns, so I’m not going to cover old ground here.
I will say it’s important not to be too hasty when judging the performance of your landing page ads. When pruning and optimizing ad campaigns, don’t just judge performance based on how many people they send to your landing page that sign up. That’s a good measure, but it’s not as important as how many people actually convert into customers.
Think about it. One ad campaign could have a ridiculously high signup conversion rate of 20 percent. But if only a tiny fraction of those people make a purchase, it’s not a particularly effective ad. An ad campaign with a much lower signup conversion rate could be far more effective at generating high-quality leads.
Of course, this means you’re going to have to wait longer to collect relevant data. But the end result should be a much more targeted and effective ad campaign.
The best way to target ads effectively? Target keywords with higher buyer intent. These are search terms that indicate the user is closer to conversion.
Start by having an objective and defining your target audience. Create a valuable piece of gated content and drive traffic to it using paid ads. Collect emails and then use email to nurture those leads.
A gated whitepaper is an example of a lead generation marketing campaign. Webinars can also be used as a lead generation marketing campaign to acquire leads and nurture them using video
There are several strategies to optimize lead generation campaigns. Improve your landing page copy, put your emails on autopilot, use chatbots to speed up response time, and personalize messaging.
Social media platforms are one of the most cost-effective places to advertise your lead generation campaign. But the important thing is to advertise wherever your target audience hangs out online.
Improving your online marketing campaigns and optimizing how you generate leads are the keys to growing your business. But you don’t have to use all of the strategies I’ve listed all at once.
Optimizing your campaigns should be an ongoing endeavor, so pick one or two of these strategies to implement at a time. Pretty soon you’ll send your ROI skyrocketing.
Now you know how to generate leads online, which strategy will you start with first?
Are you happy with the number of leads your marketing campaigns are generating? Or, do you wish they were a bit more effective?
If you’re serious about growing your business—whether it’s a B2B company, an e-commerce store, or a startup—increasing the number of leads should be a top priority. Setting up online campaigns is a good start, but it’s not enough. You need to optimize those marketing campaigns to squeeze every last lead from your funnel.
Are you ready to get to work? Here are seven strategies to generate leads like never before.
Two of marketers’ top priorities are generating leads and converting those leads to customers. Only increasing customer satisfaction comes close to the importance of getting new leads.
It’s no surprise that lead generation is a top priority. Without a continuous flow of new leads, sales dry up. Without sales, there’s no revenue. And without revenue, your business folds.
What’s more, most people who land on your site won’t purchase right away. You need to constantly collect leads so you can nurture them and convert them into buyers in the future.
Not just any leads will do, however. Referrals, conferences, and cold calling are all great lead generation strategies, but they aren’t enough. You also need to learn how to generate more leads from your online campaigns.
Why are advertising leads better? Using targeting you can gather better leads faster and even automate parts of the process. How do you make sure your ads are driving quality leads?
If you aren’t sure how to create a lead generation campaign, I have previous articles to walk you through the process. What I’m going to do is show you how to generate leads online by improving your existing ad campaigns.
Your landing page (or squeeze page) is one of the most important elements of your online lead generation campaign. The goal is to leave the visitor with no choice but to hand over information in exchange for something valuable.
Landing pages convert better than most other ads or offers. The average conversion rate is 2.35 percent, but some have conversion rates in excess of 10 percent. If your landing page’s conversion rate isn’t pushing double digits, you should look to optimize one or more elements ASAP.
I recommend looking at your page’s copy, including its headline, first. Make sure your copy is short, sharp, and engaging. Users need to understand exactly what your product is and how it helps them within a few seconds of landing on your site. Make sure you focus on the benefits of your product to the user, not its features.
Spend more time tweaking and testing your headline than anything else. This will be the first thing a user reads and one of the biggest deciding factors in whether they continue browsing the rest of the page.
You can speed up a user’s understanding of your product by including a video on your landing page. A good chunk of your audience would rather watch a video than read your copy, which is why 76 percent of sales teams say video is key to securing more deals.
Finally, remove all distractions from your page. The layout should be as simple as possible and there’s no need for a navigation bar or links to any other pages on your site. This leaves the user with two options: close their browser window or sign up.
ConvertKit’s Creator Pass is a fantastic example of how to create a great landing page. There’s no headline navigation, the headline copy offers a clear benefit, and there’s an enticing call to action right in front of you.
Arguably the most important part of your landing page isn’t the copy, image, or CTA. It’s the piece of content, tool, or resource you offer in return for each lead’s email address.
For most brands, gated content takes the form of a PDF download, something like an ebook or a whitepaper. But it doesn’t have to be. Case studies, surveys, webinars, and video series are all excellent types of gated content.
Whatever form your gated content takes, it must deliver tremendous value. Otherwise leads will leave your funnel as quickly as they entered. How do you deliver value? By solving a problem your leads have. What are their pain points? Where do they get stuck? What expertise can you leverage to make their lives a little bit easier?
Delivering value also means presenting gated content in the best way possible. Make it visually appealing, with images, videos, and other forms of multimedia content. The nicer it is for your leads to consume, the more they’ll engage with it.
Here’s an example of a non-ebook lead magnet from Leadpages:
They know their leads often struggle to create high converting pages, so they created a training course to solve that issue.
Collecting leads is just the first step of the process; you also need to nurture them. Only two percent of sales are made at first contact, yet most salespeople give up after the first attempt. If you automate the follow-up process, you don’t have to worry about a thing.
I recommend using email to nurture when possible. It is a great way to drip feed messages to your leads, it also generates massive ROI. According to research by the Direct Marketing Association, the ROI of email marketing is £42 for every £1 spent.
If you don’t have an email automation platform yet, check out my review of the best solutions. Then integrate your landing page’s form so every email is automatically added to your mailing list.
Next, create an automated series of emails that is sent out at regular intervals. Your goal is to take leads through each stage of the buying process—and that means providing them with the right educational content at the right time. Start by educating them about your wider industry and their general problems. A couple of emails later, you can start to focus on your product and service and how you can help.
The more emails you send, the more you can make your product the hero of the email, and the more direct you can be with the lead.
Your salespeople aren’t the only ones who can nurture leads. Chatbots can automate almost every part of the lead generation process. They’re incredibly effective at it, too. Over half of businesses that use AI-powered chatbots generate better quality leads.
Start by replacing forms on your landing page with a chatbot. Forms can be long-winded and rarely offer a great user experience. Chatbots make it easier for prospects to fill out their details. In some cases, users may not even be aware they’re filling out a lead form.
You can also use chatbots to respond to leads at lightning speed. Response time matters in lead generation. A study by Harvard Business Review shows businesses that respond to leads in under five minutes are 100 times more likely to convert them. With chatbots, you can automate the response process and send a message as soon as a lead fills out a form.
Finally, use chatbots to nurture and qualify leads. Chatbots can ask the same qualifying question as your salespeople to separate the wheat from the chaff. The best can be sent directly to sales, while everyone else is added to a nurturing sequence.
Drift’s chatbot is an excellent example of this. It asks a qualifying question as soon as someone lands on the site, putting them straight through to a sales rep if they’re ready.
How many platforms are you using to advertise your landing page and gated content? You probably aren’t using enough.
Today’s customer journey is long. Most don’t convert to customers the first time they land on your site. The majority probably won’t sign up on your landing page, either. A recent Google study found it takes between 20 and 500 touchpoints to become a customer.
The solution is a multi-touch campaign, where your message is delivered in multiple formats across multiple channels.
Advertising on a range of channels maximizes the chances that potential customers will see and click your ad. It’s a numbers game at the end of the day. The more shots you take, the more chances you have to score.
If you want an easy way to increase conversion rates at every stage of your online lead generation campaign, try personalization. In a survey of B2B sales and marketing professionals, over three-quarters (77 percent) said personalization made for better customer relationships, and over half (55 percent) said personalization led to higher sales conversions.
How can you add personalization into your funnels to generate leads?
Start by personalizing your ads. While Apple may have made creating hyper-personalized ads a lot harder, Google still makes it relatively easy to personalize paid search ads with dynamic ads.
Next, personalize your landing page, particularly the call to action. Research shows personalized CTAs achieve 202 percent better conversions. Marketing tools like HubSpot and Unbounce can help you create dynamic CTAs that change depending on who views them. But you could also go old school and create several different versions of your page for each ad group and personalize the copy accordingly.
Finally, build personalization into your email automation tool. Every major email marketing tool makes it easy to automatically insert the recipient’s name into the subject line and body copy, so there’s absolutely no excuse not to personalize your nurturing emails.
There’s no point wasting resources nurturing leads who will never buy your product. That’s why you need to target your lead generation ads carefully.
I’ve written extensively about how to find your target audience and identify target markets for paid campaigns, so I’m not going to cover old ground here.
I will say it’s important not to be too hasty when judging the performance of your landing page ads. When pruning and optimizing ad campaigns, don’t just judge performance based on how many people they send to your landing page that sign up. That’s a good measure, but it’s not as important as how many people actually convert into customers.
Think about it. One ad campaign could have a ridiculously high signup conversion rate of 20 percent. But if only a tiny fraction of those people make a purchase, it’s not a particularly effective ad. An ad campaign with a much lower signup conversion rate could be far more effective at generating high-quality leads.
Of course, this means you’re going to have to wait longer to collect relevant data. But the end result should be a much more targeted and effective ad campaign.
The best way to target ads effectively? Target keywords with higher buyer intent. These are search terms that indicate the user is closer to conversion.
Start by having an objective and defining your target audience. Create a valuable piece of gated content and drive traffic to it using paid ads. Collect emails and then use email to nurture those leads.
A gated whitepaper is an example of a lead generation marketing campaign. Webinars can also be used as a lead generation marketing campaign to acquire leads and nurture them using video
There are several strategies to optimize lead generation campaigns. Improve your landing page copy, put your emails on autopilot, use chatbots to speed up response time, and personalize messaging.
Social media platforms are one of the most cost-effective places to advertise your lead generation campaign. But the important thing is to advertise wherever your target audience hangs out online.
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Social media platforms are one of the most cost-effective places to advertise your lead generation campaign. But the important thing is to advertise wherever your target audience hangs out online.
Improving your online marketing campaigns and optimizing how you generate leads are the keys to growing your business. But you don’t have to use all of the strategies I’ve listed all at once.
Optimizing your campaigns should be an ongoing endeavor, so pick one or two of these strategies to implement at a time. Pretty soon you’ll send your ROI skyrocketing.
Now you know how to generate leads online, which strategy will you start with first?
Do you know what your marketing funnel looks like? If not, you’re likely losing out on leads and sales. According to data from Salesforce, 68 percent of companies have not even identified their marketing funnel. Those that do stand to see results, though. For example, according to Semrush, 72 percent of marketers who create “how-to” … Continue reading Marketing Funnel Stages: How To Get More Leads and Sales at Each One
Do you know what your marketing funnel looks like?
If not, you’re likely losing out on leads and sales. According to data from Salesforce, 68 percent of companies have not even identified their marketing funnel. Those that do stand to see results, though. For example, according to Semrush, 72 percent of marketers who create “how-to” guides as a top-of-funnel strategy see success.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss the different stages of the marketing funnel and what you need to do to increase leads and sales at each one. Plus, we’ll cover marketing funnel tips to help you convert more leads.
Many brands have their own versions of marketing funnel stages. For example, HubSpot’s Flywheel model has gained popularity in recent years.
For the purpose of this post, here are the main stages of the marketing funnel:
Awareness is the first stage of the marketing funnel, and it’s an important one. According to a Content Marketing Institute survey, 88 percent of marketers feel content marketing is most effective for brand awareness.
Brand awareness is when potential customers become aware of your brand or product. For example, they may see one of your ads on social media or come across your website in the search results.
At the awareness stage, you want to focus on getting your brand in front of as many people as possible. You can do this through activities like content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and paid advertising.
The second stage of the marketing funnel is interest or consideration. In this marketing funnel stage, potential customers are aware of your brand and are starting to learn more about it. They may have read one of your blog posts, watched a video about your product, or visited your website.
At this stage, you want to continue providing potential customers with valuable content to help them learn more about your product or service. You can do this through blog posts, videos, infographics, case studies, ebooks, and webinars.
The third stage of the marketing funnel is intent or action. In this marketing funnel stage, potential customers are interested in your product or service and considering making a purchase. They might add your product to their cart or request more information in the form of a demo.
The fourth and final stage of the marketing funnel is loyalty or advocacy. Per the Content Marketing Institute Survey, 78 percent of marketers think one of the most effective uses of content marketing is brand loyalty.
At this stage, customers have made a purchase and are now using your product or service. At this stage, it’s important to continue providing your customers with valuable content and support. This will ensure they remain loyal advocates for your business.
The top of the marketing funnel is where you generate awareness and interest in your product or service. These are often called TOFU strategies (top-of-funnel).
According to Semrush, 95 percent of marketers focus on TOFU strategies, making this stage of your marketing funnel the most popular.
The goal at this stage is to reach as many potential customers as possible and get them interested in what you have to offer.
Top-of-funnel KPIs include:
Some of the best content types for this stage are blog posts, social media content, videos, and paid digital ads.
When creating content for the top of the marketing funnel stages, focus on generating awareness and interest. This means your content should be educational and informative. You can also use humor and storytelling to capture attention.
Remember, the goal at this stage is not to sell your product or service, but rather to get people interested in what you have to offer. By creating interesting and informative content, you’ll generate more leads and sales at each stage of your marketing funnel.
Your brand story is the foundation of your marketing funnel. It is the narrative you want people to associate with your products, services, and marketing.
Studies show brand stories drive ROI. Data from Headstream found 55 percent of people are more likely to buy from a brand if they like its story. On top of that, 44 percent will share that story with others in the future.
Sharing your brand story can take a variety of formats You can write blog posts or create social media content that tells how you were founded. You can also make videos or podcasts that show off your brand’s personality.
When sharing your story, make sure it’s authentic, relatable, and interesting. Share stories that highlight your company culture, values, and mission.
For example, Patagonia is a brand known for its commitment to environmental causes. Their story is one of adventure, exploration, and conservation.
This brand story has helped them attract a customer base that is passionate about the outdoors and cares about sustainability.
People buy from them not just because their products are good, but because they believe in who Patagonia is as a brand.
A study by Edelman Earned Brand found values-based communication is as effective as product-based communication in driving purchase intent.
This means when you advocate for causes your customers care about, you’re more likely to earn their business.
For example, Toms is a company built on the idea of giving back. They invest 1/3 of their profits into grassroots organizations focused on driving sustainable change.
Toms has become a billion-dollar company by marketing to people who want to make the world a better place.
You can do the same thing by finding causes your target market cares about and supporting them through marketing initiatives.
It could be anything from environmentalism to social justice.
The important step is to align your marketing efforts with causes your target market feels passionate about and show you care, too.
This makes it more likely they’ll do business with you and improves the likelihood that they’ll become brand advocates and promote your business to their friends and family.
Do you know what causes your target market cares about?
Paid ads are an essential part of your digital marketing funnel. Not only do they help you to reach a wider audience, but they can also target specific demographics, interests, and even locations.
In fact, research from eMarketer found paid advertising is a failsafe way to increase your brand awareness.
There are a variety of paid ad options for your top of funnel marketing strategy, including:
When choosing which platforms to advertise on, consider where your target audience spends their time online. This research will ensure you’re not wasting your marketing budget on ads that no one engages with.
For example, if you’re targeting young adults, then focus your paid ad strategy on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. However, if you’re targeting an older demographic, Facebook and LinkedIn would be better options.
Once you’ve determined which platforms to use, design your ads with brand awareness in mind.
This might mean creating an ad that tells a story or using emotionally-driven language. The goal is to get potential customers interested in your product or service so they move further down your marketing funnel stages.
Studies show 60 percent of customers say blog posts are valuable in the early marketing funnel stages.
Blogs are an effective way to generate leads because they allow you to show off your industry expertise and attract readers who might not be familiar with your brand.
To make your blog posts more effective, include relevant keywords throughout the content.
This will improve your search engine ranking so people will find your blog when they’re looking for information on the topics you write about.
In addition, include calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your blog post.
A CTA is a prompt that encourages readers to take a specific action, such as visiting your website, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a white paper or e-book.
By including CTAs, you can guide readers to the next stage in their buyer journey, moving them down your marketing funnel stages.
To improve your blog ranking further, check out these tips on how to rank a blog.
The middle stage of your marketing funnel is all about nurturing leads and getting them closer to a purchase decision. It’s also about filtering out leads that aren’t a good fit. This stage is also referred to as MOFU (middle-of-funnel).
At this point, your KPIs focus on cost efficiencies. You don’t want to throw content at someone who isn’t interested, so your placements need to be more personalized.
Middle funnel KPIs include:
You’ll also want to think about ways to keep customers coming back for more.
Some strategies to use during this stage include:
Here are four strategies you can use to get more leads and sales in the middle stage of your marketing funnel.
Frequently asked questions are crucial for content marketing in the middle stage of your marketing funnel.
Not only do FAQ pages address user concerns and hesitations, but they can also be a great way to target specific keywords in search.
To find questions your target customers are asking, you can use keyword research tools like Ubersuggest.
You can also look for questions being asked on social media and forums related to your industry. Searching popular industry hashtags will help you find those questions. Google’s “people also ask” questions are another source of inspiration.
Once you’ve compiled a list of questions, start brainstorming related questions your target customers are likely to ask at this stage.
From there, you can create blog posts, infographics, or even videos that answer these questions. You can also create a stand-alone FAQ page on your website.
Not only will FAQs attract leads further down the marketing funnel, they can also help you attract organic traffic from search engines.
According to HubSpot, 13 percent of marketers say case studies are one of the main forms of content that are used in their marketing strategy.
This makes case studies the fifth most popular type of content, only behind visual content, blogs, and ebooks.
If you’re not already using case studies on your website, now is the time to start.
Case studies nurture customers in the middle of your digital marketing funnel by providing real-world examples of how your product or service helps businesses achieve their goals.
This establishes trust and credibility, which are essential if you want to convert leads into customers.
You can also use case studies in paid ad campaigns to further increase conversion rates.
Check out the video below to learn more about crafting effective case studies.
How can you find interested leads if they haven’t contacted you first?
Remarketing (or retargeting) is a marketing technique that shows your ads to people who have already engaged with your brand in some way. Maybe they’ve visited your website or followed you on social media.
To leverage this strategy, you’ll need to install a pixel from an ad platform on your website that allows you to track visitors as they move around the internet. Here’s how to get started with Facebook retargeting and Google Ads retargeting.
Once you have the pixel installed, you can create targeted ads that will follow your leads as they surf the web.
For example, you could create an ad promoting your product to people who visited your website but didn’t make a purchase.
Or, you could offer a discount to people who visited your website in the past week.
Installing a pixel on your website is an extremely effective way to keep your brand top-of-mind in the middle of your funnel. It can also increase the chances leads will come back to your website and convert into customers.
As you can see, remarketing can be used at any stage of the marketing funnel.
Research shows 40 percent of customers follow brands based on recommendations from friends or family. As well, 91 percent read online reviews before making a purchase.
That is the power of social proof. One of the best ways to show social proof is through customer stories.
These can take the form of testimonials on your website, or reviews on product pages.
You can also create more in-depth case studies showing how your product or service helped a customer achieve their goals.
For example, ClearVoice has a dedicated Customer Stories page on its website, which features in-depth interviews with customers about how they use the platform to drive results.
This strategy not only builds social proof but also increases your credibility and authority.
Not to mention, when prospects see you’re a credible and trustworthy company, they’ll be more likely to do business with you.
Bottom-of-funnel strategies (or, BOFU) are all about conversion.
At this stage, your goal is to get prospects to take the desired action, whether that’s signing up for a free trial, subscribing to your email list, or making a purchase.
KPIs at the bottom of the marketing funnel include:
Here are four strategies you can use to drive conversions at the bottom of your marketing funnel.
Once your customers reach the bottom of your marketing funnel, they should have a very clear idea of what value you deliver.
They are likely interested in trying your product but may be hesitant to commit to a purchase without seeing it in action first.
One way to ease their concerns and increase the likelihood of conversion is to create a demo of your product in use.
This could be a video or an interactive tool that simulates the experience of using your product.
For example, if you’re selling a clothing item, let your customer see what it looks like on their body. Gucci did this using Snapchat’s AR filters to show customers what their shoes would look like on their feet.
You can also try creating an interactive tool that allows users to see what a product would look like in their own home.
IKEA Place lets users place virtual furniture in their own homes to see how it would look.
By giving customers a realistic preview of what your product looks like and how it works, you can increase the likelihood that they’ll make a purchase.
In the bottom stages of your marketing funnel, you should be focused on providing as much value to your audience as possible.
One way to do this is by publishing blog posts that are highly targeted to their needs and interests.
For example, if you sell software that helps marketing teams track their customer data, you could write a blog post about the importance of data tracking in marketing.
This would be a great resource for marketing teams considering your software, and it would help you generate leads and sales from this stage of the funnel.
You could even take it a step further and speak to direct ways your product has answered a customer pain point.
By providing value to your audience and addressing their specific needs, you can increase the likelihood they’ll make a purchase from you.
Not to mention, data shows marketers who make blogging a priority are 13 times more likely to see positive ROI.
Coupons and discounts are often offered in the middle of your marketing funnel as a way to increase conversions.
Data shows 6 out of 10 free trials convert to paid subscriptions. For B2B businesses, this close rate is even higher, around 66 percent, or 2 in 3 trials converting. B2C tends to sit around 57 percent.
However, what happens if your customer hasn’t had enough time with your product to convert?
Should you cancel the discount and force them off, even if staying longer might result in a purchase?
Of course not.
There’s nothing wrong with extending a coupon or discount if you think the customer may just need a little more time.
It’s better to keep them in your marketing funnel (and eventually convert them) than lose them entirely.
Extending coupons and discounts can be a great way to increase conversions, but only if it’s done at the right time. If you extend too early, you risk losing potential profits.
If you extend too late, the customer may have already made their decision and moved on.
Finding that perfect balance is key to maximizing your marketing funnel’s effectiveness.
Once your customer reaches the bottom stages of your marketing funnel, they’re going to be looking for pricing information.
This is where things can get a little tricky. Pricing can make or break a conversion. If a customer feels your price is too high, they may move on to a competitor.
On the other hand, if your pricing is too low, they may question the quality of your product.
The best way to combat this issue is to be as transparent as possible with your pricing.
Make sure all prices are listed clearly on your website or marketing materials. If you offer discounts or free trial options, be sure to list those as well.
You should also give customers the option to customize their order, so they can get exactly what they need.
Designing your pricing page from high to low has also been shown to increase conversions, according to data from the CXL Institute.
Here’s an example of this from WPForms.
The last thing you want is for a customer to reach the bottom of your marketing funnel only to be confused or turned off by your pricing.
Being upfront and honest about your prices helps prevent potential issues and increases conversions.
Learn how to create a pricing page that converts in this blog.
Once customers have converted, your work isn’t done. At this stage, your focus should be on making sure customers are happy so they come back for more—and recommend you to their friends.
Here’s four strategies that help build long-term growth.
One of the best ways to improve your marketing funnel stages is to learn how and where your customers get stuck.
Including surveys in your strategy, either on your website, through email marketing, or after a conversion, can give you valuable insights into customer behavior.
For example, a post-purchase survey can measure customer satisfaction and let you know what works in your marketing funnel.
A drop-off survey, say when a customer cancels their subscription or asks for a refund, can help you learn what went wrong so you can improve the customer experience.
You can also use a post-visit survey to see how a customer’s in-store experience went, like in this example from Nordstrom Rack.
You can also use surveys to segment your audience and create marketing personas.
This way, you can target your marketing more effectively and see better results from your campaigns.
Find online survey creator options here.
If you want to know more about how to improve the customer experience on your site, consider implementing session recordings.
Session recordings show you how customers interact with your website, so you can identify any areas of confusion or frustration.
To get started, all you need is a recording tool like HotJar or Mouseflow.
Once you have recordings of your website traffic, you can begin to analyze them to improve your marketing funnel.
For example, if you want to know how your checkout page is performing, you can create a segment of all users who visited the page and then watch their behavior.
Maybe they get frustrated when they see your shipping prices. Or, maybe they have a hard time finding the coupon code input field.
Identify these issues, then make changes to improve your marketing funnel and increase conversions.
At this stage of your marketing funnel, your customers are likely already using your product or service.
A great way to encourage them to continue doing so is to incentivize them with a referral program.
For example, you can offer them a discount on their next purchase for every new customer they refer to your business.
You could also offer a loyalty program that rewards them for continued business.
This is a win-win situation for both you and your customers because they get rewarded for spreading the word about your business, and you get more leads and sales.
This type of program not only keeps your customers coming back, but it also helps you acquire new customers through word-of-mouth marketing.
Check out this referral example from Canadian phone company Koodo, which offers an upfront payment, plus yearly savings for both referral and referee.
Once your customers convert, you may think your work is done.
That’s not the case.
You need to ensure they are happy with their purchase, and this is where customer service comes in.
If you offer excellent customer service, your customers are more likely to do business with you again—and recommend you to others.
On the other hand, if you have poor customer service, you’ll likely lose customers and damage your reputation.
In fact, 68 percent of customers are willing to pay more for products or services that offer good customer service.
Eighty-six percent of customers say good customer service interactions turn them into long-term brand champions.
That’s why it’s so important to make customer service a priority, especially if you want to increase leads and sales from your marketing funnel.
Here are a few ways to improve your customer service:
Following these tips will ensure your marketing funnel is running smoothly and your customers turn into long-term brand advocates.
A sales funnel takes a customer from marketing efforts to a conversion. A marketing funnel is the process of converting a potential lead to a paying customer.
Content like blogs, explainer videos, ebooks, and webinars can be used at any stage of the marketing funnel.
It can take anywhere from six months or longer to create a comprehensive content marketing funnel strategy. Each stage should be built out separately and then combined to encompass the full funnel.
There are generally four stages in a marketing funnel: Awareness/Intention, Interest/Consideration, Intent/Action, Loyalty/Advocacy.
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Now that you understand all of the digital marketing funnel stages, it’s time to start crafting your strategy.
The first step is to understand who your customers are, what they want, and how you can deliver the experience they want.
From there, start creating content that will guide them through each stage of the marketing funnel.
Remember to tailor your marketing message and strategies to each stage of the marketing funnel for maximum impact.
The sooner you start, the sooner you can generate more leads and drive sales.
What tactics have you found useful in your marketing funnel stages?
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According to Buffer, almost 75% of marketers believe that their social media marketing efforts have been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business. Hubspot spoke about this back in 2013. They found that they …
The post How To Generate Leads From Social Media appeared first on Paper.li blog.
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The post How To Generate Leads From Social Media appeared first on Paper.li blog.