Patchwork for Your Leaky Demand Funnel

Driving business through marketing and sales in 2023 is challenging, confusing, and unfortunately, extremely complicated.

Thanks to modern innovation in marketing & sales strategies, and us stubborn marketers, the classic marketing funnel kept evolving.

And, we started branching out to make funnels for other major processes.?

Hence, the Demand Funnel.

Everything I just said above, applies to the Demand Generation Funnel as well; i.e. 3Cs and the evolution bit.

If you’ve ever worked with a Demand Funnel, you’ll have noticed mysteriously fleeting leads throughout their progression.?

Where do they go? Does your Demand Funnel have leaks? How to plug ‘em?

Before we go on to the meat of this topic, it’s important that you know the Whats & Hows of the Demand Generation Funnel.?

Here’s UnboundB2B’s guide to the Demand Generation Funnel: https://www.unboundb2b.com/blog/how-to-create-a-demand-funnel/?

We Know What’s Causing the Leaks & How You Can Plug Them

Okay here’s the thing;

The Demand Funnel is highly personalized for all businesses due to their uniqueness.

Despite that, there are a lot of strategies and processes throughout the funnel that could go wrong.?

Good for us, we can identify when and where the fleeting occurs.

Leaks in the Top of the Funnel?

As you already know, the top of the funnel is dedicated to spreading awareness and catching the attention of potential leads.?

At this point, your prospect is just exploring, and a purchase is not even in the conversation.

I found 3 possible issues that could be causing the leaks here:

1. Targeting the Wrong People
2. Poor & Confusing Message
3. Bad CTA Usage or Execution

Your content isn’t as per your ICP’s intent or queries. You’re getting a ton of visitors that just don’t take any action. There’s an unusually high amount of prospects unsubscribing to your content.?

Basically, your aim and firepower in targeting the right prospects, aren’t up to the mark.?

Now, there are plenty of ways you could solve these issues.?

And, you probably already know what I’m about to say right??

Make buyer personas, place a market segmentation strategy, shift your mindset to get in your prospect’s shoes, interdepartmental collaboration, identify the ICP, invest in copywriting and CRO, competitor analysis, Google Analytics, and as I said, MORE OVEREXPLAINED TERMS YOU ALREADY KNOW.?

But, I’ve got more detailed stuff to tell you!

• Invest in in-house market research or hire someone else to do it. The data you get about your target market is invaluable and drives your funnel optimization?
• Use intent data to know what your ideal customers find useful. You can use that information to shape your messaging for better accuracy and targeting. You’d be surprised to know that a staggering 99% of marketers have benefitted from using intent data. (Source)
• Social media comment sections and Reddit threads are goldmines for understanding your prospects. You can find out how they talk, what issues they face, and everything else that could be used to address them
• Follow the rule-out method. Identify segments that you need to avoid and make the funnel strategy accordingly
• Identify users who find value in your product. To do this, ask yourself, “who can benefit from my product?” and target that segment

Do these things correctly, and you’ll convert your prospect’s interest into consideration.

Leaks in the Middle of the Funnel?

The Middle is where all the consideration and comparisons happen.

Your prospects have narrowed down to a few options including your product. This is the make-or-break stage of your funnel.

Here are the issues in this stage:

1. Unqualified Leads Slipping Through
2. Poor Value Proposition or Unclear USPs
3. Improper Lead Nurturing
4. Complicated Signup Processes
5. Difficulties in Contacting Your Conversion Team
6. Marketing & Sales Misalignment

Let me put it straight; The main thing causing these leaks is communication.?

Internal, external… all kinds of communication!

• Unqualified leads pass through because they don’t understand what your product is all about. Or, they just did not care and hit the ‘sign me up’ button.
• Unclear USPs and value propositions fail to convey the best things about your product; Hinting your leads to look elsewhere.
• If you don’t lay down the step-by-step for your lead to follow, or fail to nurture them, they’ll leave.?
• Having an unnecessarily complicated signup process will deter prospects. They don’t have enough time or patience to figure things out!

My suggestions to fix these leaks?

• Use lead scoring to determine the value of your leads. This will help you identify unqualified leads
• Some leaks are filters; Resist the urge to convert unqualified leads. They will just divert your attention away from the leads that have a higher chance of converting
• Make sure you convey benefits clearly. And remember, benefits are always more attractive than features
• The MoFu stage really needs targeted content, that is highly time-specific and solves your lead’s direct problems. You don’t need to spam either; Because 83% of marketers believe it is better to create high-quality content less often than spamming poor content. (Source)
• Offer freebies like e-books, templates, or any other useful resources. They can help your lead solve their day-to-day problems. You can also keep them ungated to boost your trust-factor
• Keep the signup process minimalistic and only include information fields that you absolutely need
• Contacting your sales team should be easy, quick, and convenient; Reduced friction will make the process fast and avoid any 2nd thoughts
• Have a clear communication process between marketing and sales. Try to understand every little thing about the product and how to best sell it to the lead. Besides, marketing and sales alignment leads to a 38% increase in conversion rate (Source)

Does this mean your leaks are plugged? We’re good? Let’s go?

Nope, your business has a lot more converting to do than you think.

Leaks in the Bottom of the Funnel?

The bottom of the funnel is where your leads make the final decision.

They’ve gone through all the options and decided that your product is the best out of the bunch.?

When I was first learning about demand gen, I was surprised to know that the BoFu can still have leaks.?

I mean, the lead has already kinda decided that they want to buy, right?

Nonetheless, here’s a couple of issues I found:

1. Customer Objections like Risk, Price, Urgency, Need, etc.
2. Handover & Onboarding Issues

There aren’t many issues here. But, the BoFu leaks are detrimental if they remain unplugged.

The customer objections are just tiny bits of doubt remaining in your lead’s head.?

However, the other issue is more concerning.?

Handover and onboarding issues can leave a bad mark on your reputation and do more harm to the perceived value.?

Let’s see how these can be fixed without breaking much of a sweat:

• Offer time-bound discounts that will invoke urgency (don’t just keep the deadlines for the sake of it, make sure to follow them)
• Use risk-reversal methods like money-back guarantees and trial periods. They will also remove doubts about your product’s worth
• Always highlight strong and genuine testimonials for social proof and trust (don’t add fake reviews, you’re lead isn’t dumb)
• Personalize the activation path to suit your customer’s needs; The larger your product’s scope, the easier it becomes
• You can also incorporate self-support resources like how-to guides. And unsurprisingly, reports suggest that over 70% of customers expect any business website to have some form of self-support service (Source)
• Have SOPs in place for a seamless handover process

With all of these issues fixed throughout the funnel, your plumbing work is done!?

I still haven’t covered everything though. There is still a bit more milking to be done from your demand funnel.

Keeping the Funnel Neat & Clean With These 4 Leak Fixes

1. User Experience Fixes

User experience affects all stages of the funnel.?

During the initial stages, the prospect arrives at your landing page first. Make sure it is optimized to the tiniest details.?

Keep the visuals and copy relevant. Each element should serve a purpose and not just be decorative bells.?

This should be carried over to your content across all platforms, to help the consideration phase. Similarly, all CTAs and buttons should follow consistently good user experience.

Also, keep everything mobile-friendly. As 52% of prospects lose faith in a company that doesn’t have a mobile-friendly website. (Source)

2. Address the Conversion Killers

The term Conversion killers is self-explanatory; Things that kill conversion.?

I know 4 common conversion killers and the solutions to drop them.

1. None or Fake Testimonials - We all know some companies who either don’t include any social proof or fake it (worse). Don’t be them, simple.?
2. Hidden Costs - Was I the only one who ignored those unclear ‘terms & conditions apply’ messages, and went on to find extra costs? Make sure you keep all cost-related information as clear and accessible as possible.
3. Mandatory Account Creation / Credit Cards - People don’t like being forced to do things. So, keep account creation or credit card info at bay. That being said, it is also okay to keep these if your product needs it.
4. No Chatbots or Live Support - Customers love instant help with small issues. So, be there when they need you.

3. Improving CTAs

Calls to Action invite the lead and help their progression in the funnel. Some of the best practices with CTAs are:

• Clear and concise is better than fancy!
• Make them stand out and easily noticeable
• CTA Placement should be logical and thoughtful
• Don’t overuse CTAs
• Try to invoke emotion or urgency

Also, personalize your CTAs; They convert about 42% more leads than untargeted CTAs. (Source)

4. Follow-ups for After Conversion Inactivity

Customer retention is much easier and more cost-effective than customer acquisition.?

To be specific, The probability of converting existing customers is 60-70%. Whereas for new customers, it is anywhere between 5-20%. (Source)

So, once you convert a lead, make sure to keep the communication active by running newsletters, social media updates, etc.

Some users also go inactive after a few stretches. In that case, send an email or message about the inactivity along with a form or request for feedback.

This can help you solve problems or rectify mistakes in your product as well.

A Word About the Flexibility of Your Demand Funnel

I reached out to Unbound’s Marketing Director, Mr. Gaurav Roy to add any insights that could help with your demand funnel.?

Here’s what he had to say about it:

“The saga of identifying and fixing leaks in the demand funnel is never going to be a one-time thing.

Your strategies will keep evolving, as the umbrella of demand generation keeps growing bigger.?

Here at UnboundB2B, the best approach we’ve identified is to keep the demand funnel flexible.?

By that I mean, allowing free changes to the scope of your marketing activities, experimenting with new channels, bringing innovative ideas to the mix, and plenty more.?

A rigid demand funnel will put constraints on your product’s potential and hamper growth.?

Keeping it flexible also allows you to find creative solutions to fix the leaks.”

With that, we’ve covered every last thing about Fixing Leaks in the Demand Generation Funnel.

You can visit https://www.unboundb2b.com/blog/demand-generation/ to find more informative content related to Demand Generation and B2B Marketing.?

About The Orange Draft

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