💵 How to Drive Growth By Knowing What to Say When

Welcome!

Last week, we discussed increasing brand awareness for your business by creating a content flywheel.

As consumers become aware of your business, they enter the top of your marketing funnel.

Today I want to show you how to increase sales — by understanding where customers are in the customer journey.

We’re going to craft your content to say the right thing at the right time.

When a potential customer enters the funnel, it’s hard to know what to say, when to say it, how to keep them engaged, how frequently to communicate, and how to convert them to a paid customer.

Most entrepreneurs execute this process haphazardly at best, yet it is the most critical part of operating a business, second to delivering on your promise.

So how do you ensure your marketing generates closed sales?

Understand the stages of a Marketing Funnel.

What is a Marketing Funnel?

A marketing funnel isn’t a new spin on a delicious cake, it’s a visual representation of the customer journey.

The funnel illustrates the process from quantity of leads to quality of leads, from attention to closed sales.

Breaking your marketing funnel into stages allows you to:

• Understand how your audience thinks at each stage and tailor your messaging appropriately

• Identify gaps and opportunities throughout the customer journey

• Optimize your marketing strategy and quantify results

The importance of each stage of a Marketing Funnel

There are a variety of marketing funnel models, with different stages to meet the needs of each business type.

The most common funnel model is AIDA. Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action.

For today’s discussion, we’ll use the Marketing Funnel below, which includes the stages: Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, and Loyalty.

We can simplify any marketing funnel, into three stages.

1. Top of Funnel (ToFu)

2. Middle of Funnel (MoFu)

3. Bottom of Funnel (BoFu)

Top of Funnel is when a consumer becomes aware of your business and the problem they have that your business can solve.

Once a consumer intends to find a solution to their problem, they begin to consider their options and move to the Middle of the Funnel.

When the consumer chooses your business to solve their problem, they convert to a customer in the Bottom of the Funnel.

Now that they’ve become a customer, your marketing shifts to retention, creating a loyal customer who will buy again and again and recommend your business to others.

Here’s an example of our funnel in action:

1. ToFu (Awareness): A renter reads an article your real estate business wrote on LinkedIn about buying a home in today’s market. They began to consider the idea of purchasing their first home. Post after post they consume your content and become empowered by your valuable insights.

2. MoFu (Consideration): The renter signs up to attend your First-Time Homebuyer webinar to learn more. They visit your website and use the mortgage calculator to get a sense of what they can afford.

3. BoFu (Conversion): After the webinar, they schedule a buyer consultation to learn about the home buying process and hire you as their agent.

4. Retention (Loyalty): The renter becomes a homeowner and your bi-weekly email newsletter keeps them informed on the local market and provides timely insights into being a homeowner. Your quarterly client appreciation events provide a VIP experience and create a customer for life.

Tailor your content to each stage

Too often, businesses fall into the trap of sending all of their customers and future customers the same, boring and bland content.

The predictability of the buyer’s journey in your industry creates invaluable opportunities to tailor your messaging to match the consumer’s needs within each stage.

Marketing to the top of the funnel

The top of the funnel is your opportunity to make a strong first impression, introduce consumers to your business, and present your value proposition (i.e. your solution to their problem).

Focus on attracting as many quality leads into your funnel as possible. Do this by being everywhere your ideal customer spends their time and attention, and speaking to them directly.

How to define your ideal customer

1. Research: Analyze your existing customers. Who has already purchased your services? If you are tracking your website visits and conversions with Google Analytics, you may be able to determine the demographics of your audience.

2. Compare segments: Review various segments of your audience to determine who is most likely to engage with your content and convert to customers.

3. Create buyer persona: Your research will help you create a persona or avatar of your ideal customer. This will allow you to effectively tailor your marketing to help attract the customers you want to work with.

   Pro Tip: Creating a persona doesn’t mean your business can’t or won’t serve everyone it can in your market, yet, when it comes to marketing, it’s better to speak directly to one persona with each offer you make. If you try to speak to everyone at once, you’ll reach no one.

Make your brand the answer

Consumers at the top of the funnel haven’t realized they have a problem yet.

Create content that answers the most frequently asked questions in your industry or niche to increase brand awareness.

When consumers discover your content, those who have the problem you solve will feel a sense of connection, as if you were speaking directly to them.

Remember: Consumers aren’t ready to buy at the top of the funnel.

Many businesses make the critical mistake of attempting a sales pitch too early.

A relationship hasn’t been established yet.

There is little to no trust built, and people don’t like being sold to.

Instead, make your brand the go-to source of industry information and valuable insights.

Marketing to the middle of the funnel

Now that the consumer has had that, “Hey! That’s me! I have that problem too!” moment, begin educating them.

In this stage, your potential customer wants to know two things:

1. Which product or service is the right one to solve their problem

2. Which brand/company provides the best version of that solution as well as the best experience and fastest support

Your content should differentiate your brand from your competitors and guide the buyer toward a decision.

Create “How-to” Guides and product overviews to generate leads.

Share case studies, success stories, and customer reviews to nurture leads.

The middle of the funnel is also a great opportunity to proactively overcome any objections to working with your brand.

Done right, you’ll make your business the clear choice for solving their problem, leaving no reason to look elsewhere.

Marketing to the bottom of the funnel

At this stage, your prospects have done their homework and are ready to buy.

Hopefully, you’ve done your job and they reach out to your business directly.

Otherwise, having the right, search-friendly content should keep your business in front of them when they make a transactional search on Google (e.g. “Best Minneapolis Realtor”). Google PPC (pay-per-click) Ads can help too.

Build a conversion rate-optimized landing page to close the deal.

This includes high-quality images, clear feature highlights, positive customer reviews or social proof, a prominent CTA (call-to-action) button, live chat, and clear pricing information.

Your pricing should be clear and transparent (what’s in it for me at this price?) and provide a few options.

If they don’t buy from you today, don’t give up.

Sure, they may have purchased from a competitor, but they may not have, and still have questions or have delayed their purchase last minute for an outside reason.

Retarget them to remain top-of-mind and continue building trust.

Takeaway

Defining your ideal customer and creating content that reflects where they are in each stage of the marketing funnel will help you optimize conversions and increase your lifetime customer value (LCV).

To be successful, you must have a clear value proposition and tie each piece of content back to it.

Remember — your funnel is the journey people take to enter your world and become a customer. Each stage is an opportunity to make a lasting impression.

Find unique ways to surprise and delight your audience and you will not only convert more eyeballs to paying customers, you will also create loyal customers for life.

ONWARD TOGETHER.

In The Weeds 🌾

Additional resources for you to dive deeper.

• The Marketing Funnel: What It Is & How It Works

• What is a sales funnel?

• What is a marketing funnel? How they work, stages, and examples

• How to Write Content for Each Stage of Your Sales Funnel

• Content and the Marketing Funnel

• The Definitive Guide on How to Create a Sales Funnel

• Marketing Funnel Stages: How To Get More Sales at Each One

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