Are your sales and marketing teams aligned? Or are they working in silos, with only a vague understanding of what the other team is doing?
If your sales and marketing teams aren’t working well together, you’re not alone.
According to LinkedIn, 93 percent of sales and marketing professionals say their company has issues with alignment, such as antagonism between teams, excluding others from planning, and challenges communicating.
Sales and marketing misalignment can result in lower sales, lost leads, and annoyed customers. Are you ready to improve the relationship between sales and marketing?
Why is Sales and Marketing Alignment So Important?
When the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, you lose revenue, deliver a poor customer experience, and miss opportunities.
A lack of sales and marketing coordination costs businesses an estimated$1 trillion a year in the US alone.
For example, say marketing creates a campaign to drive what they think are qualified leads to a new landing page.
Unfortunately, sales redefined how they qualify leads a few weeks ago–but no one told marketing.
Now, that landing page is flooded with leads that sales will never follow up on. Marketing says “Look at all that traffic! Why isn’t anyone following up on all those leads?”
While sales sees low-quality traffic that will waste their time, so they focus on leads from a paid campaign instead.
Everyone’s frustrated, and no one wins–least of all your customers.
So how do you get everyone on the same page? By using strategies that bring sales and marketing together, increase communication, and play to everyone’s strengths.
What strategies should you use? That’s what we’ll cover in our next webinar, created in partnership with Pipedrive.
Who Should Attend Our Sales + Marketing Alignment Webinar
If you have a marketing and sales team of two or more people, you’ll want to attend this webinar.
Here’s why: setting up sales and marketing alignment from the beginning is the best way to prevent misalignment.
If you have a larger team and struggle to get everyone on the same page, this webinar will be crucial. We’ll cover a range of strategies, from automation to removing silos, to help both teams share data and strategies.
Remember, everyone is on the same team–and we’re all looking to drive growth. Making it easy (thank you, automation!) to share data and insights will improve everyone’s metrics–especially your bottom line.
What Types of Businesses Is This Webinar For?
Any business with a sales and marketing team (even if it’s only one person each!) will benefit from this webinar.
That includes organizations in industries like:
B2B businesses looking to improve their sales and marketing metrics
SaaS companies looking to increase sign-ups
E-commerce businesses looking to scale.
Brick and mortar companies struggling to grow online and in-person sales.
What You’ll Learn in Our May 24th Webinar
In our upcoming webinar, you’ll learn seven strategies to help your sales and marketing teams work together to drive leads, traffic, and revenue.
Neil will share strategies like using automation and integrations to eliminate data silos, aligning communciation cadences, and integrating call data so both teams can leverage it to improve customer experience.
For each strategy, we’ll share data points on why it matters, results in the form of case studies, and provide step-by-step instructions on how to implement our strategies for your business.
The webinar will wrap up with a Q+A session where you can ask questions and get advice on implementing these strategies in your own organization.
Want to join us? Sign up today and join us on May 24th. We look forward to seeing you.
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
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.
What Are the Marketing Funnel Stages?
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:
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.
2. Interest/Consideration
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.
3. Intent/Action
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.
4. Loyalty/Advocacy
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.
4 Top of Marketing Funnel Strategies
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).
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:
traffic sources
organic sessions
ad impressions
ad frequency
pages per session
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.
1. Share Your Brand Story on Social Media
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.
2. Become an Advocate for Causes Your Brand and Customers Care About
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.
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:
ads on podcasts
YouTube ads
ads on social media
Google ads
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.
4. Build SEO-Rich Blogs
Studies show 60 percent of customers say blog posts are valuable in the early marketing funnel stages.
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.
4 Middle of the Marketing Funnel Strategies
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:
direct message replies
app installs
downloads
lead volume
You’ll also want to think about ways to keep customers coming back for more.
Some strategies to use during this stage include:
Creating lead magnets, such as ebooks or white papers that require an email address for download.
Offering free trials or demos of your product.
Developing email marketing campaigns to keep leads engaged.
Here are four strategies you can use to get more leads and sales in the middle stage of your marketing funnel.
1. Create FAQ Content
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.
2. Include Case Studies on Your Website
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.
3. Leverage Retargeting
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.
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.
4 Bottom of the Marketing Funnel Strategies
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:
conversions
sales
store visits
customer lifetime value
Here are four strategies you can use to drive conversions at the bottom of your marketing funnel.
1. Create a Demo of Someone Using Your Product
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.
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.
3. Offer Coupons or Discounts
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
4. Make Customer Service a Priority
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.
What’s the difference between a sales funnel and a marketing funnel?
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.
What content types work for all marketing funnel stages?
Content like blogs, explainer videos, ebooks, and webinars can be used at any stage of the marketing funnel.
How long does it take to create a content marketing funnel strategy for each stage?
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.
How many stages are there in a marketing funnel?
There are generally four stages in a marketing funnel: Awareness/Intention, Interest/Consideration, Intent/Action, Loyalty/Advocacy.
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Conclusion: Marketing Funnel Stages
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.
That said, there’s no use in creating content if it won’t help you achieve your marketing goals. Instead, you need to know how to recognize great content.
To help ensure your brand doesn’t fade into the background, let me walk you through eight great content marketing examples you can learn from.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is content created and shared for a specific commercial purpose, such as gaining website traffic, increasing brand awareness, or influencing people to buy your products.
88 percent of content marketers say content marketing is effective for branding.
88 percent of marketers say content marketing is effective at building brand trust.
80 percent said content marketing works to educate audiences.
72 percent said content marketing is effective for lead generation.
The survey respondents said other effective uses of content marketing are driving audiences to events, building loyalty with existing customers, supporting the launch of a new product, and building subscriber lists.
“Content” has a wide definition, including podcasts, eBooks, infographics, and blog articles. Essentially, if it’s a form of media designed to acquire and influence an audience.
How do you know what makes “great” content? One of the best ways to learn content marketing is by looking at real content marketing strategy examples.
While these content marketing examples are all unique, they have something in common: a clear purpose.
Bear that in mind as you read through these examples and you’ll better appreciate how to create successful content.
Without further ado, here’s a look at some amazing content marketing strategy examples.
1. MoonPie: Brand Voice
Content marketing is all about standing out from the crowd. One way to do this is by developing a memorable brand voice.
Why does voice matter?
According to Sprout Social’s research, 33 percent of customers say a distinct personality helps a company stand out on social media, and 46 percent appreciate brands who engage their audiences, so developing your voice is worth a shot.
MoonPie’s Twitter feed is a great example of a content marketing strategy. Not only does every Tweet have a clear purpose, but the brand uses a consistently fun tone to encourage engagement:
Here’s another example. Rather than just posting a product link, the social media manager appeals to followers with a quirky tone:
What’s the lesson here? Refine your brand voice. Here’s how.
Revisit your company’s mission. Your voice should align with your company’s values, so make sure you’re clear on what your business stands for.
Research your target demographic. What is your audience looking for? What do they care about? Use your answers to refine your voice.
Take a look at your most successful content. Figure out what works and replicate this. For example, if your most successful content focuses on, say, your company’s eco-friendliness, create more content emphasizing this value.
2. Gymshark: Video Ad Campaign
Another way to stand out from your competitors is by making video content: 81 percent of marketers believe videos help them increase sales. Let’s break down a great content marketing example from Gymshark.
Gymshark wanted to promote a key message: fitness unites everyone. To do so, they ran the “United We Sweat” campaign, promoting inclusivity, diversity, and overcoming obstacles. They also designed promotional images to accompany the campaign:
The content works because it showcases the brand’s core message: uniting people through fitness. The slogan “United We Sweat” is simple and memorable, too, which helps.
How do you learn from this example? First, think about what makes your brand special. Revisit your mission statement and target market if you need a refresher.
Then, consider your campaign goals. Gymshark wanted to move away from its association with super-fit athletes and instead show why it’s a universal fitness brand. Placing “united” and “sweat” together makes sense.
Finally, keep it simple. When it comes to slogans and taglines, less is usually more.
Viral content instantly boosts your visibility, spreads your brand message, and generates more traffic, so it’s a worthwhile goal.
Let me use content marketing examples from Nadaré Co, a jewelry company, as an example of a successful content marketing strategy in action.
Nadaré Co’s founder began posting TikTok marketing content to promote the brand’s unique waterproof jewelry. She now has over 91,000 followers, over 1.3 million TikTok “likes,” and videos watched by thousands of people daily!
The secret to achieving this example of a content marketing strategy?
Post useful, highly targeted videos designed to entertain viewers, answer questions, and solve problems. For example, here’s a video on how to find your ring size, so customers know exactly which ring size will fit them before they order:
There’s also a video advertising the jewelry’s waterproof features and worldwide shipping:
Here’s what we can take away from this content marketing strategy example.
Keep your videos short and engaging.
Highlight what makes your brand special in every video.
Use relevant hashtags to improve your content’s visibility and reach.
4. Ridester: Long-form Content
To educate your audience, you need long-form posts in your content marketing strategy.
Researchshows that in-depth posts typically outrank shorter, less comprehensive blogs, and the average first-page search result on Google has over 1,400 words.
In other words, long-form content is worth your time and Ridester has some great content marketing examples.
After losing a significant amount of traffic, Ridester prioritized writing long-form content to answer the questions readers care about.
In one blog post, for example, Ridester sets out actionable steps for making more money as an Uber Eats driver. There’s no fluff; it’s comprehensive but concise:
After revamping its long-form content, Ridester saw a 487 percent organic traffic increase and improved its search rankings for 16 search phrases. Cool, right? Here’s how you can emulate this success.
First, use search tools like Quora and Reddit to discover what matters to your audience and what questions they’re asking.
Next, try out Ubersuggest to find the right keywords to target in your content.
Do some competitor research. Where are the content gaps? What questions have they failed to answer? Use the answers to these questions to complete your research.
5. Cricut: Influencer Marketing
Depending on your audience, influencer marketing is a highly effective strategy. Cricut, a DIY crafts supplier, illustrates why.
Cricut teamed up with “New Girl” actress Zooey Deschanel to promote its products. Deschanel, a real-life crafts enthusiast, brings authenticity and fun to Cricut’s content:
As we saw with Nadaré Co, videos are a great way to bring your product to life and build audience trust in your brand. Now, here are some tips for using influencers effectively in any content marketing strategy.
Define what you need help with and determine how an influencer can help you achieve it.
Make sure your influencer aligns with your brand. For example, Deschanel works great for Cricut because she’s a real-life crafts enthusiast.
To maximize engagement, choose campaign-specific hashtags for the influencer to use to promote your products.
You can find influencers through social media keyword searches and influencer marketplaces.
6. Storiarts: User-generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is proof your products work. You’re not paying a marketing team to write ads or promote an item. Instead, you’re letting your products speak for themselves through satisfied customers. That’s why consumers are 2.4 times more likely to say UGC is more authentic than branded content.
Storiarts does this well. Storiarts turned to Instagram with two goals in mind:
Driving sales of its literary-themed products.
Highlighting the brand’s commitment to ending illiteracy.
Users can post pictures of themselves enjoying Storiarts products on a dedicated hashtag, #committolit:
How did this campaign work out for Storiarts?
They’ve grown from an obscure Etsy store, into a recognizable brand with over 82,000 followers and counting.
Want to best take advantage of UGC? Here’s how.
Create a dedicated hashtag on social media. Keep it short and memorable.
Engage with customers who post on the hashtag to encourage participation.
Choose a campaign that promotes your brand’s mission to boost your company’s profile.
Got a goal like ending illiteracy? Tell the world about it!
7. Fire & Ice: Product Videos
Want to showcase what’s so great about your products? Successful content marketing examples often come down to high-quality product videos.
When you create videos as a content marketing strategy, you aren’t alone. In fact, 69 percent ofmarketers increased their video budget for 2022 per the results of a recent Content Marketing Institute survey.
Videos show your products in action and, ideally, they should answer questions your target audience might have about your services.
In just a few minutes, the video sets out what customers can expect from their service and how much it costs. Most importantly, it includes a clear CTA (how customers can book an appointment.)
Here are some actionable takeaways from this example of a content marketing strategy:
Do some market research to learn what your customers want.
Consider repurposing existing content into video form.
Break your videos into sections so viewers can jump to the most relevant part for their query.
Always end with a clear CTA and include your contact details somewhere obvious.
8. Vienna Beef: Web Content
For our last content marketing strategy example, we’re talking about first impressions.
Why? Because first impressions matter.
In fact, 94 percent of consumers decide whether to browse a website based on its look and feel. In other words, when prospects land on your website, you want to set the right impression.
Vienna Beef, a Chicago-style hot dog manufacturer, knows this. After partnering with a digital marketing agency for a website redesign, they:
tripled their website traffic
reduced shopping cart abandonments
increased sales
Here’s the homepage. It’s optimized for sales without being pushy. It’s also vibrant and engaging, with clear links to product pages:
Scroll down and you’ll find links to hot dog stands and local stockists:
It’s easy to overlook website design when you think of content marketing, but actually, web copy and design are among your most important content.
My suggestion? Set clear goals. Vienna Beef knew exactly what they wanted from their redesign which is how they achieved it so successfully.
Then, hire a website designer. Effective website design is an art, and if you’re serious about content marketing and conversion, it’s worth the investment.
Finally, run some A/B testing to check which design elements work best. You might find my A/B testing guide helpful.
Content marketing involves creating useful and engaging content across all mediums to organically grow your business, boost your visibility, and increase sales.
How can you recognize a good example of content marketing?
Whether it’s an informative blog post or an eye-catching graphic, all good content serves a purpose. It tells a story and reinforces a company’s brand identity. Great content marketing allows a brand to connect with its audience, so look for authenticity, professionalism, and strong messaging with a clear CTA or desired result.
How can you recognize an example of poor content marketing?
Again, it’s fairly easy to spot. Simply look for muddled messaging, unnatural or “keyword stuffed” writing, and content that lacks any clear CTA or purpose. Poorly-timed marketing campaigns which are insensitive to current news always fall short, too.
How can I best learn from examples of content marketing strategies I come across?
Be intuitive. Explore what you think works (or doesn’t work) and why. If you’re impressed by a content marketing example, consider how you can apply the principles such as engaging visual elements and strong brand messaging to your marketing efforts.
Content marketing involves creating useful and engaging content across all mediums to organically grow your business, boost your visibility, and increase sales.
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Conclusion: Content Marketing Examples
If you’re serious about growing your business and getting some brand exposure, then you need a content marketing strategy.
Research successful examples, take what works, and identify how you can implement those techniques in your content.
Don’t forget to track your key metrics, too, so you can see what’s working…and fix what’s not.
Struggling to produce the right content for your goals? Check out my consulting services and discover how I can steer you in the right direction.
Have you found any other great content marketing examples? What did you learn from them?
Email marketing is one of the earliest and most basic forms of digital marketing available in the modern world. It involves sending regular email messages to individuals on your mailing list regarding company updates, new …
However, many business owners don’t take advantage of email marketing best practices, which decreases their chances of success.
In this blog post, we will discuss 25 of the best practices of email marketing that too many people ignore.
These include:
5 general email marketing best practices
5 email marketing campaign best practices
5 B2B email marketing best practices
5 email design best practices
5 subject line best practices
Why You Need to Consider Email Marketing Best Practices
Email marketing is a powerful tool that can help you reach your target audience, build relationships, and grow your business.
With over 4 billion daily email users, and more than 306 billion emails sent and received each day, it’s no wonder email is one of the most popular ways to communicate.
However, despite its popularity, email marketing is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
To be successful as a business, you need to know the best practices of email marketing.
Failing to follow email marketing best practices can lead to large but unengaged email lists, or budgets wasted on campaigns that go nowhere.
But if you do it right? There’s no limit to what email can do for your business.
By following the best practices of email marketing, you’ll be able to connect with your customers and grow your business by turning subscribers into sales.
Plus, your customers will be excited to hear from you. A great way to build brand loyalty!
5 Email Marketing Best Practices
Although email marketing is different between industries, some tactics ring true for any email marketing strategy.
Whether you want to focus on email design best practices or subject line best practices, remember that your goal is to create content that is valuable and relevant to your audience. This way, they are more likely to engage with you and become customers or subscribers.
Understanding your audience, your brand, and your overall goals can help you get started.
Create email content that is relevant to each group.
The goal is to create email campaigns that are personal and relevant to each recipient. To do this, you need to understand what your audience wants and needs.
Take some time to think about the problems they are trying to solve and the information they need to make a purchase decision.
Then, create email content that provides them with the information they need at each stage of their buyer’s journey.
For example, if you have a segment of email subscribers who are interested in your product, but have not yet made a purchase, you would want to send them email content that is designed to move them further down the sales funnel.
This could include email content such as product demos, free trials, or coupon codes.
On the other hand, if you have a segment of email subscribers who have already made a purchase (or have an active subscription), send them email content that is designed to upsell or cross-sell them on other products.
This could include product reviews, case studies, or testimonials.
By segmenting your email list and tailoring your email content to the specific needs of each segment, you can increase email relevancy. This can lead to improved email open rates and click-through rates.
Email list segmentation is just one of many email marketing best practices that too many people ignore. If you want to improve your ROI, start by implementing some of these forgotten strategies into your next campaign.
When you personalize your email content, you make a connection with your contacts on a human level—which can lead to improved click-through rates, higher open rates, and more conversions.
One way to do this is by using personalization tokens, which are placeholders for information like a contact’s first name or company name.
For example, let’s say you want to email a newsletter to your list of subscribers.
You could start the email with “Dear Subscriber,” but that doesn’t tell the recipient much about why they should care about your email.
Instead, try using a personalization token like “Dear [First Name].” This way, each subscriber will see their own first name in the email greeting, which makes the message feel more personalized.
You can also use personalization tokens to customize the email content itself. For example, you could include a sentence like “If you’re looking for [Topic], you’ll love what we have in store for you this week.”
While personalization is important, email marketing best practices state that you should never sacrifice relevancy for personalization. In other words, don’t add a recipient’s first name to your subject line if it doesn’t improve the email’s overall relevancy.
3. Optimize Your Preview Text
The best way to ensure your customer opens your email is to optimize the subject and preview text. These are the first two things a recipient will see in their inbox, so they need to be engaging.
Unfortunately, research from MailerLite has found that 94 percent of campaigns sent from their platform do not use custom preview text.
This means that you have an opportunity to stand out from the crowd and show readers that your email is the one worth opening.
What is preview text? Preview text is the small amount of text that appears beneath your email’s subject line in the inbox. This is also referred to as the “pre-header.”
If you don’t optimize it, most email clients will pull the first few lines of your email’s body copy as preview text. This can often result in low-quality or irrelevant preview text that doesn’t accurately reflect the email’s content.
For example, if the first line of your email says “Email not displaying correctly?” you’re going to have a hard time convincing someone to open it.
You should also test your preview text on mobile and desktop email clients to make sure it’s appearing correctly and as intended.
Here are a few other email marketing best practices to keep in mind for your email subject lines and preview text:
Make your subject line and preview text work together.
Use your preview text to entice your user to open the email.
Keep it short and to the point, with no fluff.
Include a call to action.
Provide value.
Think about what’s most important to your reader.
Test, test, test!
4. Offer Something Valuable
Your email marketing should always be focused on what your recipient is interested in, not what you want them to do.
Make sure the content of your email provides value that’s relevant to your audience’s interests, and more importantly, that doesn’t come across as a sales pitch.
You could send exclusive discounts or offers, or access to content or information that’s normally gated.
Remember, examples of valuable information will change depending on your industry.
Not every brand sells a product—some may be offering educational information or updates on new projects.
Just because you aren’t making a sale, doesn’t mean your audience isn’t interested.
Consider their pain points and what content will help to alleviate those, then create email content that’s laser-focused on providing that value.
5. Make Unsubscribing Easy
It’s important to remember that while your main goal in email marketing might be to grow your email list, people will unsubscribe at some point.
There may be many reasons for unsubscribing, such as your customer moved or bought a similar product somewhere else.
Whatever the case may be, if your content is no longer valuable to them, don’t take it personally, and definitely don’t try to force them to stay on your list.
Instead, make unsubscribing easy and painless. Your customers should be able to unsubscribe with one or two clicks, and the unsubscribe link should be visible in the email footer.
The text for your unsubscribe link can simply say “Unsubscribe.”
Some email service providers will even allow you to include an image of the unsubscribe button in your email.
If you’re using a hyperlink, make sure the link is big enough so people using mobile devices will be able to click on it easily.
Finally, avoid using dark patterns or tricky copy on the unsubscribe page.
Don’t try to trick people into staying on your list. Just let them go gracefully.
5 Email Campaign Best Practices
Email campaigns can be a great way to stay in touch with your customers and build deeper relationships with them.
However, if you’re not careful, your email campaigns can come across as spammy, sales-y, or just plain annoying.
Here are five email campaign best practices that you should be aware of.
What are you emailing about? New products? Sales? Tips and advice?
Your email campaign goals will dictate the type of content you send, as well as how often you send it.
If you email too frequently, your subscribers will get annoyed and may even unsubscribe.
On the other hand, if you don’t email enough, you risk becoming invisible.
The key is to find a happy medium that works for both you and your subscribers.
For example, e-commerce businesses may benefit from emailing subscribers weekly, or even daily. This is because they often have sales, promotions, and new products to announce.
In contrast, a B2B business may see their audience tune out when they touch base too often.
Many B2B businesses who follow email marketing best practices find they get more engagement and click-throughs email subscribers when sending emails monthly or quarterly.
The key is to experiment and see what works best for you and your business.
If you’re just starting out, try sending out a monthly newsletter and see how your audience reacts.
If engagement is high, or you’re finding you don’t have enough space to promote everything you need to, you can up your frequency.
Lack of strategy is one of the main email marketing problems many businesses face.
One of the easiest ways to stay organized and strategic is to plan your email content in advance using a content calendar.
This will help you determine the best time to send emails, what type of content to include, and more.
Your email marketing content calendar should include:
the dates you plan to send your email campaigns
a list of email marketing topics
any other content that needs to be included in your emails (such as images, videos, etc.)
Here’s an example from Moosend of a very simple email marketing campaign content calendar. You can also find free downloadable templates through their platform.
Remember, your email marketing strategy is unique to you and your industry. Always be sure to keep your audience in mind when planning and sending your email campaigns.
3. Create Separate Emails for Each Goal
Now that you know when you’re going to send your email campaigns, it’s time to start thinking about the content.
Creating separate emails for each goal will help you create more targeted campaigns and ensure that your email recipients are getting the most relevant information.
For example, if your goal is to drive more traffic to your website, then your email should include links to a recent blog, whitepaper, or contact form.
On the other hand, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, then your email should focus on creating a strong impression with potential customers.
This can include using a powerful email subject line, eye-catching visuals, and/or personalizing the email content for each recipient.
As you can see, there are very important email campaign best practices that too many people ignore. By keeping these tips in mind, you can create more effective email campaigns that will help you achieve your business goals.
4. A/B Test Timing
When you A/B test your emails, you can see as much as a 28 percent higher return.
One of the most important email campaign best practices is to A/B test different email timing options. This includes testing different days of the week and times of day to see when your recipients are most likely to engage with your email.
It’s also important to keep in mind that your email list may have different preferences depending on their location. For example, if you have a large number of subscribers in India, you’ll want to pay attention to the time difference and send your emails at a time that’s convenient for them.
You can also experiment with segmenting your audiences by location to ensure you’re sending the most relevant content to each group.
To get started with A/B testing, you’ll need to create two versions of your email campaign with different subject lines, content, or email timing options.
Then, you can use an email marketing tool like Mailchimp to send both versions to a small group of subscribers and track which one performs better.
Once you know which email performs better, you can use that timing to inform your next campaigns.
By testing different email options and strategies, you can fine-tune your email marketing campaigns to better meet the needs of your subscribers. This ensures that your messages are timely, relevant, and engaging, which is essential for maintaining a strong email list.
5. Track and Optimize
In a recent survey, 90 percent of marketers said they track email engagement, meaning it’s the most tracked metric by marketing professionals. It beats website traffic, website engagement, social media analytics, and conversions.
Engagement isn’t the only email marketing metric you should track though. Like any good marketing campaign, email marketing requires ongoing tracking and optimization of multiple elements to be successful.
The good news is email marketing platforms make it easy to track a variety of different metrics.
For example, Mailchimp’s analytics dashboard shows you things like how many people opened your email, what links they clicked on, whether they forwarded the email to a friend, and more.
You can also find information on who unsubscribed from your email list, which can be helpful for troubleshooting.
All of this data is valuable for understanding what works and what doesn’t in your email marketing campaigns.
That’s why it’s important to periodically review your email analytics and make adjustments to improve results going forward.
For example, if you’re noticing a low open rate, you may want to experiment with different subject lines or send times.
On the other hand, if your click-through rate is high but your unsubscribe rate is also high, that could be a sign that your email content is too sales-y or promotional.
That said, the content and frequency of B2B emails look a lot different than B2C.
Let’s take a look at the five B2B email marketing best practices.
1. Deliver Relevant Content
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a B2B brand is to email your list without considering what type of content will be most relevant to them.
While blasting out discount offers and sale promotions might work for B2C brands, B2B audiences are more interested in content that’s going to help them do their jobs better.
This could include things like blog posts, infographics, eBooks, or even just helpful tips and tricks.
Your B2B email should always have a purpose, and that purpose should be clear from the subject line through to the CTA.
Here’s an example from HelpScout. Their first email introduces you to their login page, points you in the direction of help documents, and offers a free demo (just in case you’re interested).
Their purpose? To get you introduced to the platform and sign up for more features.
Before hitting send, ask yourself: does this email deliver valuable, relevant content that my audience will appreciate?
If the answer is no, don’t send it.
If you’re unsure what kind of content your audience wants to see, try conducting a market research survey or sending out an email with a question in the subject line (like “What type of content would you like to see more of?”).
Delivering relevant content is one of the most important B2B email marketing best practices—if your email isn’t relevant, it’s not going to be successful.
2. Build Drip Campaigns
According to SaleCycle, 50.7 percent of customers report being influenced to buy a product due to a marketing email.
For B2B businesses, adhering to email marketing best practices is an essential part of the sales process.
Drip campaigns are a great way to nurture leads and move prospects through your sales funnel.
A drip campaign is a series of email messages that are sent out over a period of time.
They usually include information about your product or service, as well as helpful tips and resources.
For example, the first email in a drip campaign is typically an introduction to your company.
The second email might provide more information about your product, and the third email might offer a free trial or e-book link.
Drip campaigns are usually done through email automation. This involves setting up email templates and creating a schedule for when each email should be sent.
If you’re using a mail provider like Mailchimp, Klavyio, or Active Campaign, you can set up automated email drip campaigns within the platform.
When crafting an email drip campaign, start here:
Segment your audience into lists of active customers, prospects, and past customers.
Create a welcome email for new subscribers.
Set up email automation rules to send additional emails based on subscriber engagement.
For each email in the drip campaign, create custom content for audience segments.
Make sure each email has a clear CTA.
Monitor email analytics to see which drip campaigns are most successful.
3. Segment Audiences by Interest Level
We know customers like personalized experiences. In a survey taken by over 8,000 consumers, 91 percent of them said they are more likely to make purchases from brands who remember their past interactions and offer customized deals and content.
We already know B2B customers aren’t interested in a one-size-fits-all email campaign. The next best B2B email marketing best practice is to segment your audience based on interest.
This means breaking down your email list into different groups so you can send targeted, specific emails. The best way to do this is by tagging customers according to their level of past engagement.
For example, if a customer hasn’t shown interest in your past emails, maybe they have a low open rate or don’t click through your links, you can tag them as uninterested. Then you can send them a different email than someone who frequently interacts with your content.
By segmenting your email list, you’re increasing the chances that customers will engage with your emails.
Don’t know where to find audience engagement analytics?
Most email marketing automation platforms will have some sort of tagging system in place. For example, Mailchimp’s groups and segments feature allows you to tag customers based on interests, purchase history, and other data points.
You can also see stats on how often your subscribers open your emails and if they click links, CTAs, or images.
You can also try using a tool like Pardot’s Engagement Studio. This tool allows you to send automated emails based on subscriber behavior.
This is because email deliverability is constantly changing and email service providers (ESPs) are always updating their algorithms, which can impact whether or not your emails make it to a subscriber’s inbox.
One way to improve your email deliverability is to make sure you’re only collecting email addresses from people who have “opted in” to receive email communications from you and haven’t marked you as spam.
This will ensure that your email list is full of people who want to receive your emails, which can improve your chances of making it to their inbox.
ESPs known for their email deliverability include Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and AWeber.
Finally, pay attention to the time of day that you’re sending your emails.
The best time to send B2B emails is during the workweek, while the worst time to send B2B emails is on Sunday. According to MarketingSherpa, Sunday is the least effective day to send B2B emails.
Here’s an example of a clear call to action from Google Workspace.
5 Email Marketing Design Best Practices
With so many active users in the email landscape, competition is fierce.
It’s more important than ever to make sure your email design is on point so you can stand out in subscribers’ inboxes.
To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of five of our best practices for email marketing design.
1. Pay Attention to Your Layout
Email is a visual medium, so it’s important to deliver something visually engaging to your audience.
This means avoiding an unorganized email design or over-stuffing your email with content.
Instead, use negative space and strategic placement of your written and visual content to create a layout that is easy on the eyes and easy to navigate.
Your email should be easy to scan and have a clear hierarchy so subscribers can quickly find the information they’re looking for.
Short paragraphs, headlines, and bulleted lists can help you clearly display your information.
Most reputable email marketing platforms offer custom email templates that you can use to get started with a well-designed layout.
Here’s an example from immersive experience company Meow Wolf‘s welcome email.
One of the biggest design faux-pas is using too many different fonts in an email.
Not only does it make your email look cluttered, but the font you used in your design platform may not transfer to your customer’s inbox. This can result in your email looking completely different than what you intended.
Using a responsive design is one of our email marketing design best practices for a reason.
A responsive design is one that automatically changes format to match the screen on which it’s being viewed, whether it’s on a desktop computer, a laptop, or a smartphone.
Recipients will be able to read your emails effortlessly from anywhere and in any manner.
When choosing an email marketing client, opt for one that allows you to create responsive email templates.
If you’re not sure whether your email design is mobile-friendly, send yourself a test email and view it on your phone. If it’s difficult to read or if the images don’t appear, then you need to make some changes.
Here’s an example from Campaign Monitor. The email on the right is not mobile-optimized. The text is too small to read. On the other hand, the image on the left is clear and keeps users scrolling down the page.
This is the kind of mobile optimization you’re looking for.
Keep in mind that responsive design isn’t just about making your email look good on mobile devices.
It’s also about making sure the email functions properly and is easy to use.
For example, if you have a call-to-action button in your email, make sure it’s large enough to be tapped on a small screen.
If you want people to click through to your website, make sure the link is easy to find and tap.
You can also use responsive design to improve the way your email looks on different screen sizes.
For example, you might want to change the font size or spacing for different devices.
4. Create a Custom Email Signature
Creating a custom email signature is another email marketing design best practice that can help you stand out and build trust with your audience.
An email signature is more than just a name at the end of an email, it’s an opportunity to include information about yourself, your job, contact information, and links to your social media profiles.
A custom email signature can also help promote your brand or product.
Here are some things to include in your email signature:
brand name
contact information
social profile links and website
special offers or promotions
interesting or inspiring quote
customer service contact information
disclaimers or legal requirements
unsubscribe link
Here’s an example from journey mapping software Smaply, which takes a customer-first approach to an email footer.
There are a few different ways you can use video in your email marketing, from showcasing how a product works to sharing customer stories.
Including video in email marketing can be as simple as adding a screenshot of the video with a play button and a link to the full video on your website or YouTube channel.
Or, you can add a snippet of a recent webinar or podcast episode.
You can also use video to create a more personal email, such as sharing your company’s story or sending holiday greetings.
Wherever you choose to use it, don’t ignore video content, and make sure you integrate it into your design in a way that makes sense for your brand.
5 Email Marketing Subject Line Best Practices
Subject lines are often the make-or-break element of email marketing.
A great subject line can mean the difference between an email that gets opened and one that goes straight to the trash.
On the other hand, a bad subject line will ensure that your email doesn’t stand a chance of being seen, no matter how good the rest of your content is.
If you want to craft stellar subject lines and improve your open rates, follow these email marketing subject line best practices.
1. Personalize Your Subject Line
Let’s face it, no one wants to feel like they’re just another number on a list.
We’ve all gotten those generic emails that address us as “Dear Valued Customer” or “Hello, Friend.”
Subject lines like these tell us right away that the email is not personal, and it’s not something we’re interested in.
Or, if you’re in a B2B market, address them by their company name or role.
You can also add details such as:
Special events: If you know it’s your customer’s birthday or anniversary, make sure to email them on that day!
Location: If you know they’re going on a trip, send an email with helpful tips for their destination.
Interests: If you have information about what they like, share content related to those interests.
Purchase history: If your customer just made a purchase, offer them complementary products.
Urgency: If you know they’re interested in a product but haven’t bought it yet, send them an email with a time-sensitive discount.
You can even combine some of these tactics for an email that’s impossible to resist!
Remember, the goal is to make your email feel like it was written just for the recipient. When you do that, you’ll see better results.
Here’s an example from the social media planning platform Planoly, which uses instant personalization in its welcome email.
2. Keep It Short and to the Point
Most email clients have a limit on how many characters they’ll display in an email subject line.
Here’s another email marketing subject line best practice: if your subject line is too long, it will get cut off and your recipients won’t be able to see the full message.
This can be a problem if your email subject lines are usually on the longer side. What can you do about it?
First, try to keep your email subject lines to 50 characters or less. That way, even if they’re cut off, your recipients will still be able to get your point across.
If you’re having trouble shortening your subject lines, consider which words are less important and where you can trim a needless item.
For example, “Your order is on the way” looks better than “Update: Order #4176422331” when sending an order confirmation.
A study by Marketo found that 4-7 words (around 41-50 characters) is the sweet spot for email open rates.
If your email winds up in a spam folder, it’s unlikely anyone will ever see it.
To avoid this, take a look at your email subject line and see if any words could be triggering spam filters. If so, try to find a different way to say the same thing.
For example, “Get your free e-book now!” could be changed to “Download your free e-book now!”
Or, “10 percent off all shoes” can change to “Looking for a new set of sneakers?”
Here is a list of spam trigger words put together by Campaign Monitor.
Just a small change like this can make a big difference in whether or not your email makes it to the inbox.
There are a few other things you can do to avoid spam filters, as well.
Don’t use all capital letters in your subject line. This looks like you’re shouting and can come across as spammy.
Avoid using exclamation points. Again, this can make your email look like spam.
Be careful with symbols. Some symbols, like $ and %, can trigger spam filters.
Use a clean email list. This means that you’re only emailing people who have signed up to receive emails from you.
Segment your lists when sending to large audiences. This will help ensure that your email is relevant to the people who are receiving it.
Test your email before you send it. This way you can identify any potential problems with your email before it goes out to a larger audience.
By following these email marketing best practices, you can avoid the spam folder and make sure your email reaches its intended recipient.
4. Ask a Question
Research from Yesware suggests that using a question in your email subject line can increase open rates by 10 percent or more.
Why wouldn’t they?
Questions tap into our natural curiosity and make us want to know the answer. They’re also a great way to personalize your email and make it seem like you’re speaking directly to the reader.
For example, imagine you run an online store that sells hiking gear.
A subject line like, “Are you prepared for your next hike?” will speak directly to your target customer’s interests.
Asking a question is also a great way to segment your email list.
For example, you could send an email to first-time buyers with the subject line, “Welcome! Do you need help finding the perfect hiking gear?”
Then follow up with another email for repeat customers that says, “Thanks for being a loyal customer. Do you need any new gear for your next hike?”
By segmenting your email list and asking relevant questions, you’ll be able to create email content that is both personal and helpful to your recipients.
That means half of your industry is just sending things out there willy-nilly, with no idea whether or not they’re actually working.
Don’t be that half!
If you want to get the most out of your email marketing campaigns, you need to be A/B testing your subject lines.
Otherwise, how will you know what works best for your audience? Long or short subject lines? Including numbers or not including numbers? Questions or statements?
By testing different variations and then analyzing the results, you can figure out what email subject line language will get your emails opened, and then you can use that knowledge to improve your future email marketing campaigns.
You can A/B test email marketing subject line best practices in the following ways:
audience or segment
email type
email content, copy, and design
Once you have your results, don’t forget to continue A/B testing regularly.
As your audience’s preferences change over time, so too should your email subject lines.
Email Marketing Best Practices Frequently Asked Questions
How often should you send emails according to email marketing best practices?
Most companies see the best results when sending emails twice a month. Consider sending emails two to three times a week if you’ve got excellent content, regular discounts, and recurring deals.
How many touchpoints to conversion should there be according to email marketing best practices?
Five to six touchpoints is generally a good place to start. However, some campaigns may only require three touchpoints, while others might need eight or more.
If I follow email marketing best practices, will my conversions increase?
While we aren’t fortune tellers, the content in this blog is based on industry standards that have been proven to work time and time again. By following these email marketing best practices, you’re increasing the chances of email success.
Do the best practices for email marketing change frequently?
Just like you, your audience is always changing and evolving. As a result, email marketing best practices also change and evolve. However, the basics remain the same. These include segmenting your list, personalizing your email content, and providing value to your subscribers.
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Most companies see the best results when sending emails twice a month. Consider sending emails two to three times a week if you’ve got excellent content, regular discounts, and recurring deals.
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Five to six touchpoints is generally a good place to start. However, some campaigns may only require three touchpoints, while others might need eight or more.
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Just like you, your audience is always changing and evolving. As a result, email marketing best practices also change and evolve. However, the basics remain the same. These include segmenting your list, personalizing your email content, and providing value to your subscribers.
Here’s what you need to know about building a funnel that helps increase your sales.
What Is a B2B Marketing Funnel?
A B2B marketing funnel is a blueprint that shows businesses how their customers interact with their brand from the first encounter. It details the journey the people take to become a customer and sets out marketing actions that should take place at each point in the funnel.
It is very similar to a sales funnel and the lines have become quite blurred. However, it’s easiest to picture them side by side:
Your marketing funnel creates touchpoints and gives the prospect reasons to purchase.
Your sales funnel details the tangible actions you take to convince people to make a purchase.
Both B2B marketing funnels and B2B sales funnels are distinct from their B2C counterparts.
The reason is businesses make purchasing decisions in very different ways to individuals. Businesses tend to spend more money, take more time, and have more stakeholders (particularly if it’s a high-value purchase), which means the journey is longer and more complex.
In fact, 77 percent of B2B buyers say their last purchase was very complex. The B2B buying cycle is also longer, with 74.6 percent of B2B sales taking at least four months to close and nearly half taking 7 months or more.
This makes it increasingly important that B2B companies are investing in both their marketing and sales funnels to ensure they’re fully optimized.
Why Does My B2B Business Need a Marketing Funnel?
There are lots of different reasons you need a B2B marketing funnel. I’ve selected five of the most important benefits, but these are just the tip of the iceberg:
The B2B customer journey is more complicated, so it needs more oversight.
It allows you to coordinate the efforts of different team members.
You can maximize the efficiency of marketing tools to automate large parts of the process.
It helps you spot inefficiencies and optimize your marketing process.
These are incredibly important benefits, but perhaps the most crucial benefit of a B2B marketing funnel is it provides a plan. You’re not taking ad-hoc actions; you’re taking strategic steps to move the prospect towards purchase.
Prospects have to work through each prior stage to reach the consideration stage. They need specific information at specific points in the journey to do this.
When you do this well, it delivers real results. Simply by reducing friction in their funnel, GoCardless, a financial software company, increased conversions by 139 percent.
Sometimes all it takes is small tweaks, but the key is understanding your funnel.
B2B Marketing Funnel Stages
Someone interacting with your brand for the first time has different needs than someone who’s a regular site visitor. They’ll have different questions, and expect different things from you. How do you make sure you deliver the right content or experience at the right time?
By understanding your B2B marketing funnel, you’ll have a much better idea of what your audience wants at different stages in their journey.
Not easy to do in crowded spaces like social media platforms.
This is why having a clear marketing funnel is so helpful, and it will build awareness for your brand, setting the platform to grow relationships.
2. Middle of Funnel = Interest + Consideration
According to the SEJ survey, 86 percent of marketers create middle of funnel content.
At the top of the marketing funnel, you’ve grabbed people’s attention, the middle of the funnel details what you do with it.
B2B sales are rarely made on the first touchpoint. On average, it takes eight touchpoints to make a sale, which shows you’ve got to do plenty of marketing.
You have to build the relationship and create trust before businesses sign on the dotted line.
The middle of the funnel is where you build interest and position yourself as a trustworthy partner that can help solve pain points. To do this, you’ve got to demonstrate that you:
understand what those problems are
care about the prospects’ problems
have the answers to solve those pain points
This is where marketers rely on targeted, educational content to guide the prospect toward the answers to their problems.
You’ll give away lots of information for free here, but don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal: persuade prospects that the quickest/ easiest/ most effective way to solve the problem is with what you’re selling.
76 percent of marketers create bottom of funnel content, per the SEJ survey.
At the bottom of the marketing funnel, the goal is clear: get the conversion.
You’ve put a lot of work in to get people here, and now is the time to capitalize. To do this, you want to be direct, with strong calls to action that lead to purchase pages.
You’ll still use content to guide your prospects through the journey, but it’s shifted slightly now. Here’s a bottom of the funnel content example:
This case study provides specific actions and links directly to a page where prospects can reach out.
At this point, you’ve helped the prospect to understand their pain point and convinced them that they need help solving it. Now, you need to ensure you’re the company they turn to for help, not one of your competitors.
To do this, marketers rely on:
case studies
comparison guides
webinars
demos
free trials
optimized landing pages
social proof
The top and middle of the funnel are designed to get people to the bottom of the funnel, but it’s here that you drive it home and complete the sale.
4. Post-Funnel
A B2B marketing funnel doesn’t finish once you’ve made the sale.
This is where you continue to engage with the customer, ensuring they’re getting the most out of their product, and solving any issues they might have. It’s also a time where you will look to upsell and cross-sell by:
showing how your products work better together
highlighting features of upgraded packages
communicating new improvements you’re making to your products and services
The goal is to keep the conversation going, so when the customer decides they need something more, you’re the first business that comes to mind.
What Is a B2B Sales Funnel?
A B2B sales funnel is a visual representation of how leads are captured and moved through the funnel.
The B2B marketing funnel is primarily concerned with creating the right touchpoints to guide the prospect through the customer journey.
The B2B sales funnel is more concerned with the actions that nudge the prospect closer to becoming a customer. For instance, rather than writing educational content, you have a sales rep guide the prospect through a demo of your software.
You should have a marketing funnel and sales funnel that work in unison to give the prospect everything they need for maximum efficiency.
Why Does My B2B Business Need a Sales Funnel?
Your business needs a sales funnel for the same reasons it needs a marketing funnel. Namely, the B2B customer journey is complicated.
Even the most straightforward decisions can become complicated when selling to a business. The typical B2B buying journey includes six to ten decision-makers, each with specific interests. You’ve got to bring them all together to make a positive decision about your product.
Your B2B marketing funnel helps guide the stakeholders through the process in the background, but your B2B sales funnel outlines the overt actions you take to convert prospects.
Again, this is broken down into different stages so your team knows what actions to take at each point.
B2B Sales Funnel Stages
Every business is unique, which means prospects will take a slightly different buyer journey. For that reason, you’ll find plenty of different B2B sales funnel examples.
In general, they’re based on the same principles, such as AIDA, Forrester’s Model, and the Conversion Funnel. This section will keep it simple and break the B2B sales funnel down into six stages.
1. Awareness
You’ll immediately notice the similarities with the B2B marketing funnel here. As I said, sales funnels and marketing funnels are intrinsically linked.
We talked a lot about content in the marketing funnel, specifically what type of content is needed at each point of the customer journey. The sales funnel is much more focused on the methods you use to create brand awareness and drive demand.
This is where you’ll test different marketing methods and keep a close eye on results to see what offers the best performance.
Strategies might include comparing click-through rates on social media ads with Google Ads, or working on cold emails for lead generation.
The key is to keep an eye on key performance indicators, such as:
site traffic
growth of social media profiles
sign-ups to your email newsletter
click through rates on paid ads
downloads of gated assets
The B2B sales funnel might be more complicated than B2C, but they all start with awareness.
2. Interest
It takes time to build interest in your products—first, you need to build a relationship.
At this point, you aren’t calling them five times a day to push a sale. You need to let them establish an interest in your product or services so that they take the first action.
Keep track of the content your prospects engage with and offer them upgraded content to cement their interest.
For instance, if someone signs up for a live demo of your software, this is a strong indication of interest. This allows you to move to the next stage in your process and actively pursue the sale.
This helps you see exactly how motivated your prospect is so you can reach out at just the right time.
3. Consideration
The consideration stage of the B2B sales funnel is where it can get a bit more “salesy.” Your prospects have recognized their pain point and identified your products as a potential solution, but they’re still weighing up certain things:
How big is the problem they need to solve?
How quickly does the problem need addressing?
Can they address the problem internally?
What alternative products can address the problem?
What budget can they allocate to solving the problem?
At this point, you should have a good amount of information on the prospect, and guess what?
This information will help you to help the prospect solve their problem; with your product!
In the consideration stage, your prospects are looking at reviews and evaluating your product, but often the fastest way to do this is simply by speaking to someone.
4. Intent
The intent stage of the sales funnel is all about refining leads. People know who your brand is, they know they need a solution, and they’ve considered all their options. However, they still need that final push.
That’s because adding an item to a cart or even filling out card details is a sign of intent. It’s the next stage of exploration, and as your abandon cart statistics probably show, many prospects don’t get past this stage.
Understanding the difference between intent and what’s needed to complete a purchase is an important part of the sales funnel because it allows you (or your sales team) to step in at the right time.
An abandoned cart, unused software trial, or demo sign up is a good sign because it means you’ve got a hot lead. It’s an opportunity to get them on the phone (or initiate your abandoned cart email series) and provide the push they need to convert.
Here’s where you drive the sale home: the evaluation and decision stage of the B2B sales funnel.
Your prospect signaled their intent, but they’re not quite ready to make a decision yet. How do you take them to the next level?
At this point, stakeholders complete their final research and come together to make a decision. The challenge is there can be so many people involved in the process.
You might have someone from marketing, someone from sales, someone from customer support, and someone from corporate, and they’re all considering slightly different details. You’ve already put in a lot of hard work to progress all these people through the sales funnel, now it’s conversion time.
In the evaluation and decision stage, your sales team should contact the prospect regularly to answer questions, highlight benefits, and work out a deal.
6. Purchase
Just because someone has decided they want to buy your product or service doesn’t mean it will happen. There’s still a lot that can happen before people enter their card details and you deliver the product or service.
Take site speed, for example. The average transaction conversion rate for a page that takes under two seconds to load is 6.32 percent. Once you drop below two seconds, that number decreases to below 3 percent and continues to fall as load time increases.
When people make a big investment, they expect it to be convenient, which means you need to improve the purchase process in any way possible.
The first hurdle they’ll face is your payment process, and if it’s not smooth, people won’t convert. Make sure it’s intuitive, easy to use, and pre-fill details when possible. User testing can help you spot issues in the process.
You’ll also want to keep a close eye on people who drop out of the funnel. They’re often well-qualified and may respond to retargeting ads or social selling.
How to Create a Cohesive B2B Marketing and Sales Funnel for Your Business
Your B2B marketing and sales funnel is unique to your specific business and your specific place in the market. Even your closest competitors don’t have the exact same model, team, or resources.
Since you can’t just copy a pre-made blueprint, how do you create a cohesive funnel?
1. Set Your Goals and Objectives
Before you look at any business process, you’ve got to understand your goals and objectives.
The important thing to remember is you don’t have to have just one funnel. Your goals may differ depending on the audience you’re appealing to, so the customer journey will change as well.
Understanding your target audience is everything in digital marketing. If you get this wrong, then it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at it, you won’t see maximum results.
It’s worth going the extra mile to understand your target audience because funnels focus on the customer journey. If you don’t understand their wants, needs, and pain points, then you can’t take the right actions at the right time.
Build out detailed customer profiles so you have a clear picture of what your ideal customers look like.
3. Organize Your Team
As you can see, comprehensive B2B marketing and sales funnels have a lot of different elements. To maximize effectiveness, you’ll draw on a range of talents and knowledge.
The important thing is to ensure that marketing and sales are working together. When those two teams become siloed and communication breaks down, your funnel becomes much more inefficient.
If you haven’t worked with a B2B sales funnel in the past, this can be a big change. Get buy-in from your team, and showcase how your new funnel will make life (and ROI!) better for everyone.
4. Choose the Right Channels
If you want to reach your target audience, you need to be in places where they hang out. This can change a lot depending on demographics.
If you’re trying to reach an audience aged 50+, then Instagram might not be your best option. Your job is to find out where your audience hangs out and tailor your content to fit these platforms.
5. Create Your Assets
There’s one thing that should be consistent throughout the B2B marketing and sales funnel: high-quality content.
Whether you’re creating a beginner’s guide at the top of the funnel or a detailed comparison at the bottom of the funnel, you’ve got to have the right assets. As you’re planning your B2B marketing funnel, you need to think about what assets you need to create at each step in the journey.
Your B2B marketing and sales funnel shouldn’t look the same two years from now. That’s because you should be constantly monitoring results and optimizing accordingly.
It’s not about setting up a funnel and sitting back and relaxing.
You’ve created a great framework, and now you start to work on the fine details that will take it to the next level. Make sure you’ve got a process to help you track results to keep improving.
B2B Marketing and Sales Funnel Frequently Asked Questions
What are the differences between a B2B sales funnel and B2B marketing funnel?
A B2B marketing funnel is about creating touchpoints and giving prospects a reason to buy. A B2B sales funnel is more action-oriented, highlighting the actions you need to take at each stage in the customer journey to convert a prospect into a customer.
Do I need to create both a sales and a marketing funnel for my B2B business?
Yes. To completely understand the customer journey and the actions you need to take at each point, it’s best to have both a sale and marketing funnel for B2B businesses.
How much does it cost to create a B2B marketing funnel?
You can create a B2B marketing funnel using your own resources, but if you pay someone to do it for you, expect it to cost between $5,000 and $10,000. As this serves as a blueprint for marketing and sales, it’s worth the investment.
How much does it cost to create a B2B sales funnel?
It’s possible to create a B2B sales funnel yourself. It takes time to build out the perfect funnel, but if you have the right skills, it can be very cost-effective.
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Conclusion: B2B Marketing and Sales Funnels
Ultimately, business is about making sales. B2B marketing and sales funnels are a complete guide to how your business builds a customer base and makes sales.
Your B2B marketing and sales funnels show you how to do this by providing your team with a clear picture of what action they need to take in any given situation. Once you map out the process, it becomes much easier to track results and improve your performance.
The B2B customer journey is complicated, but it’s much easier to navigate with a good B2B marketing and sales funnel.
How are you incorporating B2B marketing and sales funnels into your business plan?
Here’s what you need to know about building a funnel that helps increase your sales.
What Is a B2B Marketing Funnel?
A B2B marketing funnel is a blueprint that shows businesses how their customers interact with their brand from the first encounter. It details the journey the people take to become a customer and sets out marketing actions that should take place at each point in the funnel.
It is very similar to a sales funnel and the lines have become quite blurred. However, it’s easiest to picture them side by side:
Your marketing funnel creates touchpoints and gives the prospect reasons to purchase.
Your sales funnel details the tangible actions you take to convince people to make a purchase.
Both B2B marketing funnels and B2B sales funnels are distinct from their B2C counterparts.
The reason is businesses make purchasing decisions in very different ways to individuals. Businesses tend to spend more money, take more time, and have more stakeholders (particularly if it’s a high-value purchase), which means the journey is longer and more complex.
In fact, 77 percent of B2B buyers say their last purchase was very complex. The B2B buying cycle is also longer, with 74.6 percent of B2B sales taking at least four months to close and nearly half taking 7 months or more.
This makes it increasingly important that B2B companies are investing in both their marketing and sales funnels to ensure they’re fully optimized.
Why Does My B2B Business Need a Marketing Funnel?
There are lots of different reasons you need a B2B marketing funnel. I’ve selected five of the most important benefits, but these are just the tip of the iceberg:
The B2B customer journey is more complicated, so it needs more oversight.
It allows you to coordinate the efforts of different team members.
You can maximize the efficiency of marketing tools to automate large parts of the process.
It helps you spot inefficiencies and optimize your marketing process.
These are incredibly important benefits, but perhaps the most crucial benefit of a B2B marketing funnel is it provides a plan. You’re not taking ad-hoc actions; you’re taking strategic steps to move the prospect towards purchase.
Prospects have to work through each prior stage to reach the consideration stage. They need specific information at specific points in the journey to do this.
When you do this well, it delivers real results. Simply by reducing friction in their funnel, GoCardless, a financial software company, increased conversions by 139 percent.
Sometimes all it takes is small tweaks, but the key is understanding your funnel.
B2B Marketing Funnel Stages
Someone interacting with your brand for the first time has different needs than someone who’s a regular site visitor. They’ll have different questions, and expect different things from you. How do you make sure you deliver the right content or experience at the right time?
By understanding your B2B marketing funnel, you’ll have a much better idea of what your audience wants at different stages in their journey.
Not easy to do in crowded spaces like social media platforms.
This is why having a clear marketing funnel is so helpful, and it will build awareness for your brand, setting the platform to grow relationships.
2. Middle of Funnel = Interest + Consideration
According to the SEJ survey, 86 percent of marketers create middle of funnel content.
At the top of the marketing funnel, you’ve grabbed people’s attention, the middle of the funnel details what you do with it.
B2B sales are rarely made on the first touchpoint. On average, it takes eight touchpoints to make a sale, which shows you’ve got to do plenty of marketing.
You have to build the relationship and create trust before businesses sign on the dotted line.
The middle of the funnel is where you build interest and position yourself as a trustworthy partner that can help solve pain points. To do this, you’ve got to demonstrate that you:
understand what those problems are
care about the prospects’ problems
have the answers to solve those pain points
This is where marketers rely on targeted, educational content to guide the prospect toward the answers to their problems.
You’ll give away lots of information for free here, but don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal: persuade prospects that the quickest/ easiest/ most effective way to solve the problem is with what you’re selling.
76 percent of marketers create bottom of funnel content, per the SEJ survey.
At the bottom of the marketing funnel, the goal is clear: get the conversion.
You’ve put a lot of work in to get people here, and now is the time to capitalize. To do this, you want to be direct, with strong calls to action that lead to purchase pages.
You’ll still use content to guide your prospects through the journey, but it’s shifted slightly now. Here’s a bottom of the funnel content example:
This case study provides specific actions and links directly to a page where prospects can reach out.
At this point, you’ve helped the prospect to understand their pain point and convinced them that they need help solving it. Now, you need to ensure you’re the company they turn to for help, not one of your competitors.
To do this, marketers rely on:
case studies
comparison guides
webinars
demos
free trials
optimized landing pages
social proof
The top and middle of the funnel are designed to get people to the bottom of the funnel, but it’s here that you drive it home and complete the sale.
4. Post-Funnel
A B2B marketing funnel doesn’t finish once you’ve made the sale.
This is where you continue to engage with the customer, ensuring they’re getting the most out of their product, and solving any issues they might have. It’s also a time where you will look to upsell and cross-sell by:
showing how your products work better together
highlighting features of upgraded packages
communicating new improvements you’re making to your products and services
The goal is to keep the conversation going, so when the customer decides they need something more, you’re the first business that comes to mind.
What Is a B2B Sales Funnel?
A B2B sales funnel is a visual representation of how leads are captured and moved through the funnel.
The B2B marketing funnel is primarily concerned with creating the right touchpoints to guide the prospect through the customer journey.
The B2B sales funnel is more concerned with the actions that nudge the prospect closer to becoming a customer. For instance, rather than writing educational content, you have a sales rep guide the prospect through a demo of your software.
You should have a marketing funnel and sales funnel that work in unison to give the prospect everything they need for maximum efficiency.
Why Does My B2B Business Need a Sales Funnel?
Your business needs a sales funnel for the same reasons it needs a marketing funnel. Namely, the B2B customer journey is complicated.
Even the most straightforward decisions can become complicated when selling to a business. The typical B2B buying journey includes six to ten decision-makers, each with specific interests. You’ve got to bring them all together to make a positive decision about your product.
Your B2B marketing funnel helps guide the stakeholders through the process in the background, but your B2B sales funnel outlines the overt actions you take to convert prospects.
Again, this is broken down into different stages so your team knows what actions to take at each point.
B2B Sales Funnel Stages
Every business is unique, which means prospects will take a slightly different buyer journey. For that reason, you’ll find plenty of different B2B sales funnel examples.
In general, they’re based on the same principles, such as AIDA, Forrester’s Model, and the Conversion Funnel. This section will keep it simple and break the B2B sales funnel down into six stages.
1. Awareness
You’ll immediately notice the similarities with the B2B marketing funnel here. As I said, sales funnels and marketing funnels are intrinsically linked.
We talked a lot about content in the marketing funnel, specifically what type of content is needed at each point of the customer journey. The sales funnel is much more focused on the methods you use to create brand awareness and drive demand.
This is where you’ll test different marketing methods and keep a close eye on results to see what offers the best performance.
Strategies might include comparing click-through rates on social media ads with Google Ads, or working on cold emails for lead generation.
The key is to keep an eye on key performance indicators, such as:
site traffic
growth of social media profiles
sign-ups to your email newsletter
click through rates on paid ads
downloads of gated assets
The B2B sales funnel might be more complicated than B2C, but they all start with awareness.
2. Interest
It takes time to build interest in your products—first, you need to build a relationship.
At this point, you aren’t calling them five times a day to push a sale. You need to let them establish an interest in your product or services so that they take the first action.
Keep track of the content your prospects engage with and offer them upgraded content to cement their interest.
For instance, if someone signs up for a live demo of your software, this is a strong indication of interest. This allows you to move to the next stage in your process and actively pursue the sale.
This helps you see exactly how motivated your prospect is so you can reach out at just the right time.
3. Consideration
The consideration stage of the B2B sales funnel is where it can get a bit more “salesy.” Your prospects have recognized their pain point and identified your products as a potential solution, but they’re still weighing up certain things:
How big is the problem they need to solve?
How quickly does the problem need addressing?
Can they address the problem internally?
What alternative products can address the problem?
What budget can they allocate to solving the problem?
At this point, you should have a good amount of information on the prospect, and guess what?
This information will help you to help the prospect solve their problem; with your product!
In the consideration stage, your prospects are looking at reviews and evaluating your product, but often the fastest way to do this is simply by speaking to someone.
4. Intent
The intent stage of the sales funnel is all about refining leads. People know who your brand is, they know they need a solution, and they’ve considered all their options. However, they still need that final push.
That’s because adding an item to a cart or even filling out card details is a sign of intent. It’s the next stage of exploration, and as your abandon cart statistics probably show, many prospects don’t get past this stage.
Understanding the difference between intent and what’s needed to complete a purchase is an important part of the sales funnel because it allows you (or your sales team) to step in at the right time.
An abandoned cart, unused software trial, or demo sign up is a good sign because it means you’ve got a hot lead. It’s an opportunity to get them on the phone (or initiate your abandoned cart email series) and provide the push they need to convert.
Here’s where you drive the sale home: the evaluation and decision stage of the B2B sales funnel.
Your prospect signaled their intent, but they’re not quite ready to make a decision yet. How do you take them to the next level?
At this point, stakeholders complete their final research and come together to make a decision. The challenge is there can be so many people involved in the process.
You might have someone from marketing, someone from sales, someone from customer support, and someone from corporate, and they’re all considering slightly different details. You’ve already put in a lot of hard work to progress all these people through the sales funnel, now it’s conversion time.
In the evaluation and decision stage, your sales team should contact the prospect regularly to answer questions, highlight benefits, and work out a deal.
6. Purchase
Just because someone has decided they want to buy your product or service doesn’t mean it will happen. There’s still a lot that can happen before people enter their card details and you deliver the product or service.
Take site speed, for example. The average transaction conversion rate for a page that takes under two seconds to load is 6.32 percent. Once you drop below two seconds, that number decreases to below 3 percent and continues to fall as load time increases.
When people make a big investment, they expect it to be convenient, which means you need to improve the purchase process in any way possible.
The first hurdle they’ll face is your payment process, and if it’s not smooth, people won’t convert. Make sure it’s intuitive, easy to use, and pre-fill details when possible. User testing can help you spot issues in the process.
You’ll also want to keep a close eye on people who drop out of the funnel. They’re often well-qualified and may respond to retargeting ads or social selling.
How to Create a Cohesive B2B Marketing and Sales Funnel for Your Business
Your B2B marketing and sales funnel is unique to your specific business and your specific place in the market. Even your closest competitors don’t have the exact same model, team, or resources.
Since you can’t just copy a pre-made blueprint, how do you create a cohesive funnel?
1. Set Your Goals and Objectives
Before you look at any business process, you’ve got to understand your goals and objectives.
The important thing to remember is you don’t have to have just one funnel. Your goals may differ depending on the audience you’re appealing to, so the customer journey will change as well.
Understanding your target audience is everything in digital marketing. If you get this wrong, then it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at it, you won’t see maximum results.
It’s worth going the extra mile to understand your target audience because funnels focus on the customer journey. If you don’t understand their wants, needs, and pain points, then you can’t take the right actions at the right time.
Build out detailed customer profiles so you have a clear picture of what your ideal customers look like.
3. Organize Your Team
As you can see, comprehensive B2B marketing and sales funnels have a lot of different elements. To maximize effectiveness, you’ll draw on a range of talents and knowledge.
The important thing is to ensure that marketing and sales are working together. When those two teams become siloed and communication breaks down, your funnel becomes much more inefficient.
If you haven’t worked with a B2B sales funnel in the past, this can be a big change. Get buy-in from your team, and showcase how your new funnel will make life (and ROI!) better for everyone.
4. Choose the Right Channels
If you want to reach your target audience, you need to be in places where they hang out. This can change a lot depending on demographics.
If you’re trying to reach an audience aged 50+, then Instagram might not be your best option. Your job is to find out where your audience hangs out and tailor your content to fit these platforms.
5. Create Your Assets
There’s one thing that should be consistent throughout the B2B marketing and sales funnel: high-quality content.
Whether you’re creating a beginner’s guide at the top of the funnel or a detailed comparison at the bottom of the funnel, you’ve got to have the right assets. As you’re planning your B2B marketing funnel, you need to think about what assets you need to create at each step in the journey.
Your B2B marketing and sales funnel shouldn’t look the same two years from now. That’s because you should be constantly monitoring results and optimizing accordingly.
It’s not about setting up a funnel and sitting back and relaxing.
You’ve created a great framework, and now you start to work on the fine details that will take it to the next level. Make sure you’ve got a process to help you track results to keep improving.
B2B Marketing and Sales Funnel Frequently Asked Questions
What are the differences between a B2B sales funnel and B2B marketing funnel?
A B2B marketing funnel is about creating touchpoints and giving prospects a reason to buy. A B2B sales funnel is more action-oriented, highlighting the actions you need to take at each stage in the customer journey to convert a prospect into a customer.
Do I need to create both a sales and a marketing funnel for my B2B business?
Yes. To completely understand the customer journey and the actions you need to take at each point, it’s best to have both a sale and marketing funnel for B2B businesses.
How much does it cost to create a B2B marketing funnel?
You can create a B2B marketing funnel using your own resources, but if you pay someone to do it for you, expect it to cost between $5,000 and $10,000. As this serves as a blueprint for marketing and sales, it’s worth the investment.
How much does it cost to create a B2B sales funnel?
It’s possible to create a B2B sales funnel yourself. It takes time to build out the perfect funnel, but if you have the right skills, it can be very cost-effective.
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Conclusion: B2B Marketing and Sales Funnels
Ultimately, business is about making sales. B2B marketing and sales funnels are a complete guide to how your business builds a customer base and makes sales.
Your B2B marketing and sales funnels show you how to do this by providing your team with a clear picture of what action they need to take in any given situation. Once you map out the process, it becomes much easier to track results and improve your performance.
The B2B customer journey is complicated, but it’s much easier to navigate with a good B2B marketing and sales funnel.
How are you incorporating B2B marketing and sales funnels into your business plan?
Keeping up with what you should be measuring or targeting can be exhausting, difficult, and time-consuming.
But marketing automation tools make your job a little more painless, so you and your team can focus your time and attention on other efforts that drive revenue.
Luckily for you, I’ve compiled a list of the best marketing automation tools with countless features and automated workflows that will make marketing less of a headache.
Here are 20+ tools (in no particular order) that you should try out if you’re looking for new, easy ways to streamline marketing functions.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is the act of using software and technology to create and implement applications to automate repetitive tasks, such as (yes) email marketing, ad campaigns, tracking, and much more.
For example, brands could create an automatic lead generation funnel that gathers an email address, sends a recorded demo, then invites the prospect to schedule a live demo.
Marketing automation is not a nice-to-have strategy you can ignore — the industry is expected to be worth more than 25 billion dollars by 2023.
If you want to compete, you need to be using marketing automation.
The good news? Using marketing automation can save you time, money, and improve your marketing efficiency. Here are a few ways to add it to your strategy.
1. Let Constant Contact Deliver Powerful Emails Simply and Easily
Constant Contact is an extremely useful email marketing automation tool that has powerful automation capabilities to take your marketing beyond just the basics.
Its autoresponder is wonderfully adaptable. You can build welcome sequences, drip campaigns, and any other sort of automated email campaign with fine-tuned customization.
That applies to everything: timing, volume, subject matter, targeting, triggering, and even the content in your emails.
Plus, Constant Contact allows you to quickly embed custom forms on your landing pages. So, you not only get names and email addresses, but any other information you want to ask for.
Thus, you can send one welcome sequence to new senior VP-level subscribers, another one for sales folks, another one for regular Joes, and on and on. And that’s just on the basis of job title. You could thin slice on anything from where they live to their favorite kind of beer.
Make it as granular and intricate as you’d like. Set long-tail, automated campaigns for each track and let Constant Contact do the hard work for you over weeks or months. All you have to do is look at the reports and keep a finger on the pulse.
You’ll need Constant Contact’s Plus plan to really reap the benefits of the platform’s email automation. That starts at $45/month for up to 500 contacts in your list, scaling upward at increments of $25-$30 for each additional 2,500 contacts you need to accommodate.
2. Gain Opportunities on Abandoned Carts and After Purchase with Sendinblue
Marketing automation is a massive tool for ecommerce. With Sendinblue, you can close the gaps that allow sales opportunities to slip through your grasp.
And it’s a piece of cake to set up. Sendinblue comes with powerful automation capabilities out of the box. You can build your own automation workflows, but the platform comes with eight helpful, prebuilt options for ecommerce.
The two I love best are triggered by either a completed purchase on your web store or an abandoned cart.
In either case, Sendinblue sets up the first and last actions in a three-step automation: the trigger event (either completed checkout or a visitor leaves with items in their cart) and the action (send them a message).
You’ll determine the delay between the trigger event and when you want the email to be sent out and build out the message in those follow-up emails. The latter can entail offering a promo code to complete their purchase or for their next one, personalized reminders about the product they’re interested in, or a satisfaction survey, to name a few examples.
In minutes, you can have automations set up to generate sales from situations you may not have been able to capitalize on before.
Sendinblue offers automations on every plan, including their free forever package, but the tiers below Premium will limit you to targeting up to 2,000 contacts.
3. Automatically Engage and Grow Your Following on Instagram with MobileMonkey
MobileMonkey is a powerful Instagram automation tool that lets you automate everything from replying to comments, stories, and even direct messaging.
This is a huge advantage for busy marketers looking to get back more time in their day through automation.
And don’t forget the power of automation to grow your audience, your brand affinity, and your conversions from hot engagement channels like Instagram.
MobileMonkey Instagram marketing tools let you automate:
Replies to DMs
DM replies to Story Mentions
DM replies to post comments
And if you really want to juice the Instagram marketing funnel, set up drip campaigns to send timed follow-up messages to anyone who starts a messaging convo with you.
The Instagram follow-ups feature, which is included in InstaChamp as well as the multi-channel MobileMonkey messaging automation suite (along with messaging tools for Facebook Messenger, SMS, and web chat) is a convenient way to send offers and promotions to anyone who DMs your Instagram.
Best of all, these Instagram DM automations are 100% Instagram-approved because MobileMonkey is one of the only official partners for Facebook and Instagram marketing automation.
4. Generate Leads, Close Seals, and Manage Your Pipeline on Auto-Pilot With HubSpot
HubSpot is an inbound marketing tool with the goal of turning outbound leads into inbound ones.
Their Starter package is $45 a month for all the free tools plus simple automation, conversation routing, task queues, and email support.
Their Professional Plan starts at $450 per month, which provides everything in the Starter package, plus marketing automation, goal-based nurturing, and custom workflows.
You also get Salesforce integration, smart content, attribution reporting, user roles, A/B testing for CTAs, and A/B testing for emails.
Enterprise pricing is $1,200 and includes revenue reporting, custom-event reporting, custom-event automation triggers, predictive-lead scoring, contacts and company reporting, and event-based segmentation are included.
5. Use Customer.io to Automate Timely Emails
Customer.io lets you send targeted messages to your customers that you can craft based on how they interact with your business.
The best part about this tool is that it integrates with your mobile app or website so you can see data in real-time and triggers actions by adding in predefined rules.
Other features include A/B testing, conversion tracking, customer profiles, and in-context conversations.
Pricing starts at $150 per month for unlimited emails, SMS, tracking, and technical support. Their Premium plan costs $995 a month and includes all the basic features plus dedicated customer service rep, onboarding, HIPPPA compliance, and premium tech support.
6. Supercharge Your Marketing Analytics Automatically With Pardot
Pardot, a Salesforce company, is a marketing automation suite perfect for boosting your revenue.
Amp up your engagement with CRM integration, email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI reporting.
This tool is perfect for helping sales teams shorten sales cycles.
Their Growth plan pricing is $1,250 per month, and features include email marketing, in-depth prospect tracking, lead nurturing, and lead scoring and grading.
You also get ROI reporting, forms and landing pages, and standard CRM integration.
Their Plus plan is $2,500 per month and includes all standard features plus advanced email analytics, email-rendering preview, and spam analysis.
Email and landing page A/B testing, advanced dynamic content, and Google AdWords integration are all included.
You also get API access, multiple scoring categories, an integrated marketing calendar, and social profiles.
Advanced pricing is $4,000 per month and includes pro features as well as customer-user roles, custom-object integration, and API access for up to 100,000 calls per day.
It also includes a dedicated IP address and phone support.
7. Use AdRoll to Automate Ad Campaigns
AdRoll is helpful for retargeting customers through re-engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and the web.
With cross-device and cross-platform retargeting capabilities as well as flexible segmentation, you can provide customized experiences that dramatically improve marketing efficiency.
Key features include retargeting across devices and platforms, dynamic LiquidAds, flexible segmentation, transparent analytics, and expert optimization and conversion reporting.
AdRoll offers a free plan with limited features, or you can get their Growth plan for $19 a month.
9. Automatically Nurture Leads With Marketo
This marketing software lets you drive revenue with lead management, mobile marketing, and more.
Marketo, an Adobe company, is a cloud-based tool for companies large and small that not only helps build customer relationships but helps you sustain them.
There are no set-up fees, and the tool comes with a free trial, so you don’t have to commit until you’re sure it’s right for you.
Their first product was “Lead Management” in 2006, but the company has grown tremendously since then and now offers a larger variety of features.
9. Automate Inbound Call Analytics with Dialog Tech (Invoca)
Dialog Tech (now called Invoca) is great for voice-based marketing automation so you can boost ROI with call automation and analytics.
You can optimize voice interactions with Dialog Tech’s tools by measuring your success and adjusting accordingly.
Features include keyword call-tracking, phone surveys, caller-profile data, reverse lookup, conversation analytics, in-call scoring, geolocation routing, voice broadcasts, SMS, and more.
Keyword call tracking is a game-changer for voice interactions.
Otherwise, you really have no way of tracking that kind of data over the phone yourself unless you’re manually recording calls and playing them back later.
Even then, you’d have to manually track how those customers reacted after hearing certain keywords.
Unfortunately, they don’t publish their pricing. So you’ll have to get in touch with them to get a quote.
10. Deliver Personalized Campaigns Across Multiple Channels With Oracle Eloqua
Oracle’s B2B cross-channel marketing solution Oracle Eloqua lets marketers plan automated campaigns while simultaneously personalizing them.
You can maximize AdWords ROI and use multichannel tracking to get a full picture of both sales and marketing metrics.
Big features include keyword-level metrics for AdWords as well as metrics for campaigns and ad content, UTM parameters, detailed lead history, custom reports, and integrations.
Bizable was purchased by Adobe, and now exists as a product under Marketo. You’ll need to reach out for a quote and more information.
12. Let Act-On Seamlessly Nurture Inbound and Outbound Leads
Act-On’s cloud-based platform lets you connect inbound and outbound leads to manage your nurturing programs. There are tons of other helpful features too, like landing page design.
With this tool, you can take your revenue to the next level.
The company was founded in 2008 and first sold software through Cisco exclusively.
The professional package starts out at $900 per month for 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, and 50 users in sales. You’ll get 30,000 API calls-per-day.
Enterprise pricing is $2,000 per month for 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, and 100 sales users. You’ll also get 30,000 API calls-per-day with this feature.
13. Automate the Customer Journey With LeadSquared
LeadSquared, founded in 2012, helps small and medium companies align their marketing and sales efforts.
Capture leads from inbound email, online campaigns, phone calls, your website, chat, and more with this tool.
LeadSquared offers a free trial, and pricing for automation plans starts out at $400 for the basic package (10,000 contacts).
The cost is $1200 for the standard one (20,000 contacts) and $2500 for the enterprise package (200,000 contacts).
14. Get CRM, Sales, and Marketing Tools Automated Together with Keap
If you’re a small business owner or blogger, this tool is perfect for you.
Keap makes it simple to create a new sales or marketing strategy and execute it so that you can capture and close sales more quickly.
Save time by automating repetitive tasks like follow-ups, billing, contact management, and payments.
Pricing starts at $79 for Lite plan, $159 for their Pro plan, and $199 for their Max plan. Each package covers 500 contacts, with additional costs for additional contacts or users.
15. Grow, Engage, and Acquire Customers with Genoo‘s WPMktgEngine
WPMktgEngine is a WordPress plugin designed to help small businesses implement marketing automation.
Capture lead forms, profile customers, and create new landing pages to drive results fast.
Key features include a centralized lead database with unlimited leads, landing page design, CMS, lead activity tracking, SEO analysis, and more.
Their Conversion Pro package starts at $166 per month for up to 15,000 leads. The Engage Pro package starts at $83/month for 5,00 leads, and their Inbound Pro packages starts at $44 per month for up to 2,500 leads
16. Attract, Capture, and Streamline Leads With Sugar Market
Salesfusion (now called Sugar Market) is another tool that helps B2B companies link sales and marketing more closely together.
Sugar Market helps businesses build revenue funnels by creating custom digital conversations that marketing and sales representatives can use to convert customers.
The tools help your team say the right thing to the right leads at the right time and includes all the CRM features you could ever need.
Pricing depends on the number of contacts you want but begins at $1,000 per month for 10,000 contacts.
17. Segment and Automate Customer Experiences Using iContact
iContact provides marketing-automation software, email marketing services, and more so that your team can drive successful results every time.
Integrate landing pages, email marketing, social media management, and analytics together to outsmart your competition and reach more contacts.
Plus, you’ll have access to strategic advisors who can help you “optimize your sending strategy and inbox delivery for maximum conversions.”
This is the tool for you if you’re looking to grow your business and become notable in your industry.
Pricing depends on your number of contacts, but you can easily select your list size.
iContact is a minimum of $15 per month for 1500 contacts for the basic Email Marketing package, and $30 per month for 500 contacts for the Pro package.
The Pro package includes features not available with the basic Email Marketing package, such as:
Email, automation, and landing page reporting
Unlimited landing page creation
Custom API
Smart sending
Automation followups
Welcome, birthday, and event eries
Segmentation
Behavioral targeting
Social monitoring
18. Get BuzzBuilder Pro to Automate Cold Email Campaigns
BuzzBuilder Pro is useful for entrepreneurs, sales teams, and marketers. Find prospects, generate leads, and nurture them more easily.
Key features include advanced email marketing automation, a website form builder, tracking and analytics, lead nurturing, scoring and ranking, social media marketing, and hot-lead alerts.
Their goal is to help you save time while allowing you to better uncover and nurture leads so that your revenue will grow quickly.
Features include an email builder, form builder, landing-page builder, campaign builder, and A/B-test builder. Nurture leads, automate workflows, and more.
Pricing ranges start at $800 per month for 2,500 contacts and go up from there.
20. Streamline and Simplify Marketing Automation With GreenRope
GreenRope is “the ultimate dashboard for your business.”
This tool is useful for completing marketing automation and CRM all in one place.
Manage operations, sales, and marketing all from one dashboard that will help you visualize your performance and make key business decisions.
Features include interaction tracking, event and project management, calendar booking, SMS marketing, surveys, video tracking, and predictive analysis.
You can also trigger automation, lead scoring, analysis, prediction, and engagement.
Pricing starts at $99 per month for 500 contacts and goes up to $799 per month for up to 50,00 contacts.
21. Deliver Automated Email Campaigns Using MailChimp
This tool is perfect for contacting prospects or customers who are vital to your success. If you need an effective email tool, this is one you should definitely check out.
Features include email marketing automation, personalized emails, automated welcome emails, behavioral targeting, engagement monitoring, and more.
With this tool, you can trigger emails based on actions like sign-up date and website activity.
The cost is free for up to 2,000 contacts, and upwards of $425 or more per month depending on your total number of subscribers.
22. Automate Marketing Processes with Gliffy
Create organizational charts, high-quality flowcharts, UML diagrams, network diagrams, technical drawings, wireframes, and more with Gliffy.
It works in your web browser to help you visualize workflows and boost marketing productivity.
Key features include workflow organization, an intuitive interface, collaboration with anyone with access to a web browser, and more.
The best part? They have a free trial!
23. Use Inbound Marketing Automation with Jumplead
Jumplead turns website visitors into leads and then nurtures them until they become paying customers.
Jumplead is a go-to source for everything from lead tracking to CRM, analytics, and automation.
Features include lead tracking, CRM, behavior-triggered actions, email marketing, landing pages, and analytics.
The cost is free for 200 visitors and goes up from there. The pro package is $199 per month for 20,000 visitors.
Bonus: Add fresh data to your marketing campaign with DataForSEO
DataForSEO provides “comprehensive SEO data via API at a predictable price.”.
While they mostly work with SEO providers, you can use their data to juice up your marketing efforts.
Here’s a list of API’s DataForSEO provides:
Rank tracking API
SERP API
Keywords data API
Competitor API
OnPage API
Keyword finder API
Marketing Automation FAQ
What is marketing automation?
A strategy that uses software that creates “rules,” which allows brands to create an efficient, often hands-off marketing process.
What are the benefits of marketing automation?
Automation allows you to get more done in less time, improve effectiveness, and provides access to far more data. For small or streamlined teams, it is ideal.
Are there any free marketing automation tools?
Some tools offer a free trial or free plan, including MailChimp, HubSpot, and Zoho.
What can I do with marketing automation?
A ton! You can automate email campaigns, reporting, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and much more.
In today’s world, setting up a company is not as easy as putting some money into an idea. It involves a ton of processes and back-breaking work. It is also no longer a matter of … The post Leveraging Content marketing for Brand Success appeared first on Paper.li blog. The post Leveraging Content marketing for … Continue reading Leveraging Content Marketing for Brand Success
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