What is a marketing funnel?
There are certain stages a prospect goes through before becoming a customer. This system is a marketing funnel. Picture a funnel where your incoming leads enter the sales process. As the prospect continues down the funnel the route get narrower, each part identifying a better prospect.
The funnel consists of four basic steps. Your prospect:
- Visits your website seeking information.
- Shows some interest by completing a step (providing an email, downloading a lead magnet).
- Contacts your business for more information (the sales process).
- Becomes a customer by purchasing your product or service.
Many business owners stop once the email address is obtained. They think the marketing process is just a matter of sending emails and the prospect will eventually make a purchase. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The funnel makes the visitor aware of your product or service, express interest in your offer, and make a purchase. Tracking the level the prospect becomes a customer allows you to pinpoint your best marketing techniques.
Who should use a marketing funnel system?
Most businesses make an estimate, or have no idea, of the success of their marketing efforts. But all businesses should have a system in place. Marketing funnels are not for the big businesses only. You can take advantage of the system whether you’re:
- An e-business
- A retailer
- Wholesaler
- Construction company
- Home service business (lawn service, plumber, remodeler).
- A professional business (accountant, lawyer, copywriter).
Whatever your business, the benefit of tracking your marketing efforts and making wise decisions leads to an increase in sales and profits.
Your marketing funnel elements
Lead capture or landing page – The first page a prospect lands on when arriving at your site. This usually is the result of a search. On this page, you obtain the reader’s email address. These prompts should be scattered on other pages also.
You include your ad-tracking software in these pages.
Lead magnet – The lead magnet is a means of enticing the prospect to supply their email address. By offering the reader something of value (eBooks, special reports, or an invitation to sign up for a newsletter) for free, the reader becomes inclined to supply the information.
Contact with the prospect – Once the email address is obtained you continue contact with the prospect through offer or information. These include a call to action. This contact keeps the reader interested and allows you to determine whether the person is a real prospect.
Tracking – Mentioned above, tracking is the most important element of the marketing funnel. This allows you to test the lead magnets, your email campaigns, or your website offers. The software will tell you where the prospect is at each stage of the funnel.
Using your marketing funnel
Lead and customer values
Setting up your funnel and tracking allows you to make the lead and customer values. These are simple formulas if you have the necessary information. By learning these values you are able to determine which marketing efforts, lead magnets, etc. produce the most value.
Your system tells you how many leads and customers resulted in a sale. Simply divide the dollar amount of sales by the number of leads pertaining to that sale and you get a lead value ($20,000 in sales divided by 5,000 leads equals a lead value of $4). In this case each lead is equal to $4.00 in revenue.
Customer value is a little different. Not all leads become customers. Let’s assume one-fifth of your leads become customers. Your customer value is the dollar amount of sales divided by the number of leads times 20%. Using the amount above, $20,000 in sales divided by (5,000 times 20%) equals $20.
Cash-flow Optimization
You have the information to make the decisions that will result in better marketing and more sales. Decide if the best marketing pieces are your news letter, your landing page, or your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Then decide whether to keep, eliminate, or change your marketing depending on the return received.
Let us help you with your marketing funnel system.
You can set up your marketing funnel in your website platform (we use WordPress) or as a stand-alone system.
Contact us and we’ll show you the system we are using for our marketing success. The system is ready to go and easy to install. We’ve helped others begin a successful marketing funnel and we can do the same for you.