More Than Just a 'Newletter' or a Facebook Page
Not everyone buys during their first visit, some may be ready to buy while others are considering a future purchase 6 months down the road and are merely doing research to find the leaders and trusted sources to buy from.
A Marketing Funnel allows web visitors to develop a relationship with your brand through a consolidated marketing system utilizing social media, mailing list, Customer Relations Management system, SEO, Adwords, blog contents and your website. Like filtering and sifting for gold, the marketing funnel will sift through your web traffic and qualify the right leads for you while incubating potential leads that are still sitting on the fence all with minimal input (or even autopilot). While your company may be doing some of the above marketing efforts. These efforts are often done independently of one another and requires constant effort to maintain and missing out on the benefits of synergy. The funnel allows the different marketing efforts to function together as one unit with the end goal of cultivating relationships and converting prospects down the funnel into sales. Common Myths of Marketing Funnels:
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Long Term Benefits of Marketing Funnels
The marketing funnel if maintained well will:
- Establish your brand as a trusted authority in your field.
- Help you communicate your knowledge to your prospects and followers in a relevant manner.
- Convert your prospects into leads.
- Incubate prospects who are sitting on the fence.
- Allow the conversion process to occur with minimal input.
Case Study- District 21 Toastmasters
District 21 (BC chapter) Toastmasters is an education non profit that provides leadership development, effective communication and public speaking training. The organization has over 7000 members meeting in 300 clubs across the province of British Columbia. The organization is constantly seeking to add to their membership to make effective oral communication a national and international reality for all persons.
Historically, Toastmasters has relied on mass media advertising buying ads in multiple municipalities. Because of the cost of mass media, they could only afford to run ads in a few cities for a short period. The issue about this mass media approach is they are only interested in reaching certain demographic but are paying for impression from everyone. With the concern for rural regions not getting sufficient marketing support, the BC Chapter attempted to run an online campaign on Facebook leading traffic to their home page but had limited results. As the ads were targeted to 'everyone' they had a very low click through rate and of those who clicked on the ads often left within the first 10 seconds (bounced) because of the overwhelming information and links the page presented (not a landing page). Those who wanted to leave their contact behind and left without leaving anything behind (lost leads) because the home page did not provide a contact form in a highly visible setting.
How a Funnel Helped:
The set up of a marketing funnel consisted of three stages- Gather, Inform and Invite.
The creation of a Facebook fan page and running targeted Facebook ads across the whole province of British Columbia allows Toastmasters to gather a pool of interested people who are interested in personal growth and leadership development and are most likely to be interested in Toastmasters. The Facebook page has allowed people who are aware of the brand but not a member to keep in touch with the Toastmasters brand being informed of how Toastmasters can benefit them and complementary relevant information on leadership development. This pool of people over time starts to recognize Toastmasters as a leader and authority in Leadership development, effective communication and public speaking and become receptive to the postings and offers made by the brand.
At different times of the year, the Facebook fans are presented special offers and contests which invites them over to a specialized opt in page. The page unlike a home page is designed to be visitor friendly and allowed visitors to self qualify as 'ready to join a club'. Those who indicated themselves ready to join a club had their contacts passed on to a club coordinator at a local club while those who indicated they are not ready to join continues to receive value until they are ready to join a club.
Results:
In a three month period:
-474,000 exposures
-1,604 likes on Facebook
-828 visits to website
-100 leads (~6 leads a week)
The funnel has provided Toastmasters an automated system that brings in a constant steam of leads on a modest budget and was able to reach remote parts of the province and paying only for the appropriate demographic segment. Aside from the lead results, Toastmasters was able to establish itself as a leader in leadership development and effective communications.
Historically, Toastmasters has relied on mass media advertising buying ads in multiple municipalities. Because of the cost of mass media, they could only afford to run ads in a few cities for a short period. The issue about this mass media approach is they are only interested in reaching certain demographic but are paying for impression from everyone. With the concern for rural regions not getting sufficient marketing support, the BC Chapter attempted to run an online campaign on Facebook leading traffic to their home page but had limited results. As the ads were targeted to 'everyone' they had a very low click through rate and of those who clicked on the ads often left within the first 10 seconds (bounced) because of the overwhelming information and links the page presented (not a landing page). Those who wanted to leave their contact behind and left without leaving anything behind (lost leads) because the home page did not provide a contact form in a highly visible setting.
How a Funnel Helped:
The set up of a marketing funnel consisted of three stages- Gather, Inform and Invite.
The creation of a Facebook fan page and running targeted Facebook ads across the whole province of British Columbia allows Toastmasters to gather a pool of interested people who are interested in personal growth and leadership development and are most likely to be interested in Toastmasters. The Facebook page has allowed people who are aware of the brand but not a member to keep in touch with the Toastmasters brand being informed of how Toastmasters can benefit them and complementary relevant information on leadership development. This pool of people over time starts to recognize Toastmasters as a leader and authority in Leadership development, effective communication and public speaking and become receptive to the postings and offers made by the brand.
At different times of the year, the Facebook fans are presented special offers and contests which invites them over to a specialized opt in page. The page unlike a home page is designed to be visitor friendly and allowed visitors to self qualify as 'ready to join a club'. Those who indicated themselves ready to join a club had their contacts passed on to a club coordinator at a local club while those who indicated they are not ready to join continues to receive value until they are ready to join a club.
Results:
In a three month period:
-474,000 exposures
-1,604 likes on Facebook
-828 visits to website
-100 leads (~6 leads a week)
The funnel has provided Toastmasters an automated system that brings in a constant steam of leads on a modest budget and was able to reach remote parts of the province and paying only for the appropriate demographic segment. Aside from the lead results, Toastmasters was able to establish itself as a leader in leadership development and effective communications.