The best way to shape up your business's sales and marketing strategy is by fleshing out a marketing funnel. The hard and fast behind this methodology is to convert prospects into customers and eventually into brand evangelists. It is a journey that prospects take with certain steps and curated milestones along the way.
Fair enough. Now that you've got a round-about idea of what a funnel is let's take out the old proverbial magnifying glass and tweezers and uncover the anatomy of what your marketing funnel should look like.
A marketing funnel is a way of breaking down the customer journey all the way from the “awareness” stage (when they first learn about your business) to the “purchase” stage (when they’re ready to buy your product or service). Often funnels can also include post-purchase follow-ups which increase retention as well as cross- and up-sells.
ToFu covers the first third of the funnel, though it can sometimes overlap into the middle of the funnel slightly. So, ToFu marketing efforts are targeted at visitors, leads and MQLs.
Your goal with prospects at this stage is to help them understand the pain points they have and educate them further on what that problem is and how solving it can improve their lives.
By the end of this process, you’ll want prospects to fully understand their challenge and be working toward identifying solutions.
The big goal in the middle of the funnel is to convert "problem aware" and "solution aware" prospects into leads.
Here, we use free content to incentivize prospects to submit their contact information and opt in to receive future marketing.
We call this type of content a Lead Magnet.
Lead Magnets can be...
Educational Resources (Case Study, White Paper, etc.)
Useful Resources (Swipe File, Checklist, etc.)
Software Downloads
Discount/Coupon Clubs
Quizzes/Surveys
Webinars/Events
BoFu marketing is targeted at SQLs and opportunities and encompasses the fourth and fifth funnel stages.
By the time a prospect has reached this far down the funnel, they should be aware of the challenge they’re trying to overcome and what solutions exist. So, BoFu efforts revolve around demonstrating why they should pick your company.
The main goals of your strategy here is to prove your value and build trust.
Brand evangelists are created when you make the best product you can possibly make, serve your customers as best you can, and produce the best social and web content possible. Brand evangelism is simply the result of doing good business and of building long-lasting connections between customer and product
What does a brand evangelist do?