Nurturing Your Way Down the Sales Funnel
If you are a small business, and you already have a website, you are on the right track towards success. As we have heard, time and time again, the internet has completely changed almost every aspect of a consumer making a purchase. It has become imperative that a business has a website to showcase its offering.
So you have a website built, and you even placed a free estimate/contact us form. GREAT, so now you get to sit back and watch the leads flock in, right? Not quite. That message you are providing is only attracting approximately 5% of the users that visit your site. That may have been the old way of marketing, but with all of the advancements in online marketing, those tactics will no longer work!
Every Potential Customer That Visits Your Website Holds Great Importance
And since 95% of the visitors are not ready to make a purchase at the time they visit you – a lead nurtured sales funnel is key to your success.
To effectively nurture the lead, you must be prepared to assist them no matter where they stand in the buying cycle. Basically, you optimize your website so it will attract the visitor at any part of the buying cycle they may be in. This may sound difficult, but understanding and implementing the sales funnel will make everything easier.
Lead nurturing emails get 4-10 times the response rate compared to standalone email blasts. -Source: SilverPop/DemandGen Report
A quick overview of the sales funnel:
- Top-Attract targeted searchers- Get found and capture
- Middle-Convert visitors to leads- Educate and nurture
- Bottom-Convert leads to sales- Offers & sales
Knowing this sale funnel and how each stage applies to your specific industry, is beyond important for small businesses. Each visitor needs ‘tailored’ attention. They came to your site for a reason, and your job is to make sure your site provides a solution to the reason they arrived.
Lead Nurturing And The Sales Funnel Go Hand In Hand
Setting up lead nurturing for each level of the sales funnel is what will make the visitor feel as though you are accommodating their needs.
Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. -Source: Forrester Research
The strategy for lead nurturing will change depending on your industry, the sales funnel level, the target market, and the buyer persona you are targeting. All of these taken into consideration, here are some general points for nurturing at each level of the sales funnel:
- Top of Funnel- This is where you are going to show the visitor that you have an abundance of helpful information they may be in search of. By casting a wide net at the top you will grab the user’s attention, and show them you can educate them on their questions and needs. This stage is full of informative content to address any questions or problems you believe your visitors may withhold.
- Middle of Funnel- This stage is where you begin to present the products/services that you offer, as solutions to what the visitor is wanting. This stage is also where the lead nurturing will begin. The visitor will input their contact information in exchange for the content which they believe holds value. Users in this level of the funnel will be sent ‘tailored’ emails that will continue to be educational but also present your company as an answer. This stage will also include proving yourself to the user by providing testimonies and case studies of past successes.
- Bottom of Funnel- This level is where the lead will be presented with a compelling offer that is directly correlated with the path in which they were nurtured down the funnel. Knowing how the lead was nurtured, and offering them a related deal, will help increase the lead to sales conversion rate. This idea makes the whole experience more personal for the lead.
Personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10%.- Source: Aberdeen Group
As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of factors that play into the sales funnel that are situation-specific. Each layer of the sales funnel is critical to conversions, which in turn generates more revenue. This is why, knowing your sales funnel inside and out, will help your small business thrive.
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