Friday Funnel Focus by EPOCH Sales Management Solutions
Creating marketing campaigns that focus on increasing engaged contacts and inbound leads is essential for the growth of a small business. Engaged contacts are individuals who have shown interest in your business and are more likely to convert into customers. By segmenting these contacts and nurturing them through personalized communication, you can build trust and credibility with your audience. Inbound leads, on the other hand, are individuals who have actively sought out your business and are already interested in what you have to offer. By attracting these leads, you can save time and resources by segmenting individuals who are more likely to convert. Additionally, inbound leads are often higher quality leads, as they have already expressed a need and thus an interest in your products or services.
These campaigns typically have two outcomes:
Here are the best steps to plan such a strategy:
Review the Vision to include your 10 year target, 3 year picture and 1 year plan. Compare this with where you are today. Then define the strategies to close the "gap" between where you are and where you want to go.
Gather information about your industry, competitors, and market trends. This research will help you identify opportunities and challenges related to your current reality as you build out your goals and your marketing strategy.
We typically share a process called Six Factor SWOT analysis developed by Jeremey Donovan and Marylou Tyler in their book Predictable Prospecting to assist in Market Research for Sales and Marketing strategies.
Establish specific, measurable, actionable, risky, time-bound, exciting, and relevant (SMARTER) goals for your marketing efforts.
To decide which sales funnel to create first, ask the following questions:.
“My theory on growing a company is to decrease the size of the sails that are not billowing and increase the size of the sails that are.”
-Donald Miller
There are a few different goals that you can set which will give you further information to make your decisions
While ultimately, the typical goal for the small business owner is to grow revenue and profit, initial steps may be to grow engaged contacts, form submissions etc.
The first step in any successful marketing plan is to identify your ideal customer persona(s). Understand their demographics, preferences, pain points, and behaviors. Understand your ideal customer journey throughout the buyer's journey from Awareness to Interest to Evaluating to Taking Action to match content to the proper stage in the journey. This will help you in targeting your marketing efforts so you are reaching out to the right audience.
The goal of your messaging is to clearly articulate what sort of story you are inviting people into. We recommend that you use Donald Miller’s mystorybrand.com tool and Marketing Made Simple, Chapter 4, Create Your One-Liner, as a guide here. Reading his book, Building A StoryBrand will provide more context for you.
The website is a place where you sell your customer a product that solves their problem and makes their life better. It should address these questions:
A Wireframe (or mockup) of the landing page or website will guide the designer as they create your landing page or website. Here are the elements for the wireframe per Donald Miller in Marketing Made Simple, Chapter 5, A Wireframed Website That Works:
Ensure your website is user-friendly, mobile-responsive, and optimized for search engines (SEO). Make it easy for visitors to find valuable information and how to contact you. Optimize your website’s content to increase your organic traffic on search engines and make your site more easily found by your potential customers. This includes keyword research, on-page optimization, and link-building.
Offer lead magnets, such as free webinars, eBooks, or templates, in exchange for contact information. This will become ‘gated’ content that helps you build a marketable database, track downloads and measure engagement. Review BrandScript script and one-liner as an effort to stay consistent in your content.
“People want to stay in touch with you if you are interesting and can help them survive.”
-Donald Miller
Create a title that gets the attention of your target audience. (Not feeling creative? Use a service like ChatGPT to get you started!)
The External Problem and your empathy
The Internal Problem and your solution
List out a step by step plan
Define The Stakes
Lead Generators may show them what to do, but rarely show them how to do it. That is what they pay you money to do. Use landing pages and forms to capture leads.
Having a lead generator by itself will not bring in a wealth of leads. You will need to promote your lead generators and there are a number of ways this can be done.
Website
Include a pop-up on your website to encourage users to submit their information into your lead generator. You can also have multiple calls to action (CTAs) throughout the site to have visitors engage with your lead generator.
Content Marketing
Develop a content strategy that aligns with your target audience's interests and needs. This can include blog posts, videos, infographics, and social media updates.
Create high-quality, informative, and valuable content that addresses your audience's pain points. This can establish your business as an industry authority and attract inbound leads.
Leverage Social Media
Choose the social media platforms where your target audience is most active and engage with them regularly. Share informative and entertaining content, run contests, and participate in relevant conversations. Posts with images will also have higher engagement than those that are text only.
Paid Advertising
Use online advertising platforms like Google Ads and social media ads to reach a wider audience. Target your ads based on demographics, interests, and behavior to attract engaged leads. If you are unsure about how to best use ads, reach out to a professional to help you get the most out of your ad spend budget.
Email Marketing
Build an email list by offering incentives like newsletters, eBooks, or discounts on your products or services. Your email campaigns should be personalized and relevant to your audience to nurture leads and encourage engagement. Developing lead nurturing workflows or email drip campaigns to engage with your leads over time will also keep you top of mind. Provide valuable content and incentives in your campaigns to encourage conversations and let them know you have a product or service to sell.
Here is a sample email campaign, courtesy of Donald Miller and Marketing Made Simple, to follow-up on a lead gen response.
The benefits of nurturing email campaigns help you increase the amount of engaged prospects and achieve the end result goal.
Elements of Nurturing Emails
Types of Email Nurturing Campaigns
There are two types of nurturing email campaigns: Periodic Announcements and Periodic Tips.
Structure of nurturing emails
The structure of your nurturing emails should include the following:
This email structure will keep your messaging clear and build your credibility as a go-to resource in your field.
Summarize your Marketing Strategy in one document. Review for continuity, consistency and completeness. When something has changed, be sure to revise and update your strategy as needed. And most importantly, execute your strategy!
Use analytics tools to track the performance of your marketing efforts. Measure key performance indicators (KPIs) like website traffic, conversion rates, and email open rates. Determine the right tech stack to manage these elements successfully and align this work. The benefit of a holistic CRM that tracks the marketing to sales handoff can then measure a successful marketing strategy i.e. what marketing attributions contributed to a higher rate of closed deals.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Adjust your strategy based on your answers and the data in your analysis. Marketing is an ongoing process. Continue to refine your strategy based on results, feedback, and changing market conditions. Ensure that your marketing practices comply with relevant laws and regulations, such as GDPR, for handling customer data and CAN-SPAM for email marketing. Allocate your marketing budget strategically based on the channels that yield the best results. Be prepared to adjust your budget as needed. There may be trends throughout the year that will change your budget and you will be able to determine this by looking at your analytics.
Remember that effective marketing takes time, consistency, and adaptation. Be patient and open to adjusting your strategy as you gather more data and insights about what works best for your small business.
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