How to Track and Accelerate Marketing Leads Through the Funnel

Before reaching out to sales, B2B buyers are more than 70% of the way through the funnel. This number fluctuates up or down a bit depending on what study you read, the industry the study is referring to, and when the article is written. But suffice it to say, this a really good ballpark number to work against.?

So, what are these folks doing before reaching out to a salesperson? They are researching your company. They’re reading your website and press releases, watching product videos, downloading case studies, and reading reviews. The amount of information available to your potential customer will vary greatly based on the size of your company, whether it’s private or public, your content strategy, and a variety of other factors.?

That being said, most companies have a website and have created at least some baseline level of content. Regardless of the amount of content that your company has available, the two most important questions you should be asking are . . .

How do I track leads through the funnel? ??

How do I accelerate their progression through the funnel? ??♂? ??

Tracking leads through the funnel requires a way to capture lead information and a tool to track that information once it’s captured. The most common way to capture lead information is to “gate” content (e.g., fill out a form and download the case study).?

Once that information is captured, it can be tracked with a marketing platform (typically a marketing automation platform) like HubSpot , Salesforce Marketing Cloud (formerly known as Pardot), Eloqua , Zoho Marketing Automation , or Constant Contact (fdormerly known as SharpSpring).

But here’s the catch: in order to track AND accelerate leads through the funnel, you need to understand a few things.?

1. Not all content is the same. Different types of content are more effective at different stages of the marketing funnel. For example, a Google Ad or a Blog post is not the same as a case study, product overview, or customer testimonial.?
2. You need to align content to the marketing funnel. Each type of content aligns specifically with a marketing funnel stage. Knowing what to present and when to present it is critical. The key is building momentum and encouraging the prospective buyer further down the funnel so they are closer to the 70% mark mentioned above.
3. Consistent engagement is key! It’s not enough to send someone a case study and then have a sales guy reach out two weeks later. The prospective client will likely have forgotten about the case study and have no idea what the sales guy is talking about. Not to mention, the prospect is likely not ready to buy at that point, anyway. Building nurture campaigns that consistently and progressively present content that aligns with the marketing and sales funnels is key!
4. When reaching out immediately makes sense. It might make sense to have a salesperson reach out if the engagement is further down the funnel – like viewing or requesting a product demo. If that’s the case, then time is of the essence! Studies show that successful follow-ups happen usually happen within an hour of the prospective client’s engagement. Teams that wait more than an hour see a dramatic drop in successful outcomes.?

One last point that’s worth mentioning is the information architecture on your website. It seems almost unbelievable, but I can’t tell you how many companies I see on a regular basis with a ton of valuable content that goes to waste (not to mention that it’s all incredibly disorganized).

Typically, when you go to a thought-out, well-organized website, it just makes sense. You know where to go to find what you need. There are no hidden menus, overwhelming videos that take forever to load, or content scattered randomly across the site.?

The way that your site is organized is critical. Don’t underestimate the importance of the order in which you present content on the site and the way in which you walk your prospective customers through the marketing funnel.?

So, what now?

1. If you don’t have content, start building it. You don’t have to invest tons of money in the process. You may already have something that can be used – reformatted or refactored.?
2. If you have content, make sure you have at least one piece of content that aligns with each stage of the marketing funnel. If you’d like to do a free content funnel assessment, please reach out and let me know, and we can schedule a time to walk you through the process. (Pro Tip – if you are targeting different industries, roles, or personas – you need to do this analysis for each for each audience).
3. Assess your website and make sure it’s organized in a sensible way that makes finding content easy and encourages progression through the funnel.?
4. Start implementing a marketing automation platform. Don’t worry—there are small steps that you can take before buying a license. Many of the platforms mentioned above have some form of free license. You can start with Hubspot’s free version—build a list, create a monthly newsletter, and link it to content on your website. That’s an easy and free way to get started.?

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You don’t have to hire a team of FTEs to make this work.?

You don’t need thousands of dollars to start tracking and accelerating folks through the funnel.?

If you’d like guidance, you can always reach out, and we can discuss ways to help you get started.?

The most important thing is to get started. Like Einstein said, “Nothing happens until something moves!”

The good news is that once you start, you get momentum. As momentum builds, you’ll also be able to grab data that will help you test and improve messaging, targeting, and positioning.

The original Article posted on https://steveshaffer.com/how-to-track-and-accelerate-marketing-leads-through-the-funnel/