Why Every Small Business Needs A Marketing Funnel
Client attraction is an important part of running a successful small business. Creating a marketing funnel is a great way of narrowing down the wide range of potential customers, to those who are engaged and interested in your product and services.
The way in which a company deals with attracting and keeping hold of customers/clients is more than just a happy accident – there is a method to it. They’ll have a system in place that takes them from obscurity all the way to a sale.
The basics of this process are very simple: you have potential clients coming into one end of the pipe/funnel (your website), then they go through different stages before being ultimately converted to a customer. This creates more opportunities for conversions than if someone were just browsing around and happened upon something interesting!
You need to start by identifying who your perfect customer is, what they want most out of life/your product/service, where they are on their journey towards this goal (i.e., awareness-consideration-decision), how close they are getting to making their decision about you.
You are likely to have come across a sales or marketing funnel without even realizing it. Different types included freebies, Facebook groups, FB Ads, EBooks, webinars, blog posts, and newsletters, and so forth.
Understanding The Buyer’s Journey
In terms of the marketing funnel, different businesses will utilize slightly different methods to others based on size, structure, and complexity. You may have already heard of marketing funnels such as ‘trust’ or ‘awareness, consideration, action.’ It fundamentally boils down to these five key elements:
- The potential buyer has a problem, and you must first understand it.
- The potential buyer takes action or researches certain points in order to fix said problem.
- The potential buyer becomes aware of your services.
- The potential buyer checks out what you have to offer in further detail.
- The potential buyer gets in touch and looks to create a dialogue.
As a small business, creating a funnel will not only allow you to help a system of generating sales. But it will allow you to understand what activities help the most in terms of moving potential buyers through the journey. With this knowledge, you can refine, expand, and refocus on what you offer and how you offer it. Taking out the parts they are not as effective.
Let’s dive into these points more.
It Helps You To Understand The Buyer’s Problems Or Challenges
The first aspect is the buyer’s problem. Any potential buyer wants to get to the bottom of a problem or challenge, and you must first understand what they want. The first step any small business needs to take is research. In real terms, you are always researching and reviewing your audience on a constant basis. The best approach to this is speaking to them directly over a zoom call. While this is time-consuming for you, you get richer insight into what your potential customers think, feel and want. You could also survey groups of people. The key part is to listen. Really listen. Understand in their own words what the problem is.
The Potential Buyer Then Takes Action
When people have an issue that they’d like to solve, they do what they can to take action and fix it. How much desire do they have to fix the problem? I’m sure we all know people who “live” with a leaky tap for months before they finally get it fixed. The conscious thinking and action to find a solution mean this is your business opportunity to appear on their research radar. Often people will google to find a solution. They ask friends and colleagues. They even ask complete strangers in FB groups. So it’s up to you to understand how much of a problem they may have, and how you can align yourself with their solution. You’ll also need to know how much of a part you’ll play in fixing their problem – will you be a small cog or be the entire solution they can rely on?
They’ll Then Become Aware Of What You Offer
This is the main outward visual part of the marketing funnel. You’ll write blog posts that answer some questions that you touched on in the research you engaged in. Social media posts and links posted in forums will also help to help the pair of you up. Each of these breadcrumbs can start to show up in their research and demonstrate that your offer aligns with the problem they are hoping to solve.
They Check You Out In More Detail
The potential buyer will take a look at you and what you have to offer a lot more significantly and with a lot more effort. You’ll become more than just a slightly interesting avenue for them to maybe venture down one day. They’ll look at your socials and your website as they’re the most convenient and the easiest form of gathering info in this day and age. Your aim is to make sure your marketing efforts, all the breadcrumbs you have created, lead them towards your website.
The Potential Buyer Takes Significant Action And Gets In Touch
The potential buyer will reach out to see if you are the right solution for them. It’s up to you to make sure you’re the right answer for them. You’ll have to be there for them when they do eventually reach out. An obvious and accessible “Call To Action” should be available to them, and they’ll need to understand the steps they need to take.
Marketing Funnel Conclusion
The marketing funnel works like a charm once you get everything handled and you’ve configured it perfectly. It would take a couple of months and a fair bit of refining, but you’ll eventually stumble upon a system that works aThe marketing funnel works like a charm once you get everything handled and you’ve configured it perfectly. It would take a couple of months and a fair bit of refining, but you’ll eventually stumble upon a system that works and draws the right crowd/results. You should also be looking for ongoing feedback by asking and surveying those you have been in touch with. The idea is to nurture them into a client and keep the relationship well and truly alive. The longer you can keep people attracted, the better it is for business.
