Diary Of A Leaky Flowing Funnel

1. Diary of a Leaky Flowing Funnel The Fluid Approach to Fixing Your Funnel with Marketing Automation

2. Dear Diary, I can’t believe it. Sales are up, prospects are converting at a higher rate and we’ve even seen new sales come in from people who have been in our funnel for six months! Ever since we mapped out a non-linear funnel and put our marketing automation in place, we’re seeing higher quality leads come in and our sales team is thrilled to be focusing more on building relationships than educating prospects about our simplest features. It wasn’t easy, but we’re already seeing the ROI—it was definitely worth it! As we discussed in part one, marketers who still think of the funnel as a means of moving leads from A to B are missing out. In our multi-channel world, it’s time to step back and see the bigger picture—that picture being a non-linear, expansive world of rela- tionship-building opportunities. ear way. Social media, review sites, peer recommen- dations and even media coverage all affect people’s perception of your company, products and services. If your funnel is a straight line, you’re ignoring customer behavior—at the peril of your bottom line. [Consider this: According to the 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report, social media has a 100 percent higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing.] The fact is, your leads and prospects encounter and even engage with your brand in a completely non-lin- 2

3. Think about it. Someone who arrives at your website or even a landing page from a promoted post on Facebook has a completely different mindset than someone who got there by searching for a generic product term and clicking on a link. The Facebook lead found something specific in your product messaging in that post that appealed to them. The keyword searcher is really in the initial stage of finding information. Would you send them the same email follow-up when they ask for more info? Should your sales team spend time calling both prospects? Of course not. 18x Jupiter Research reports that relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. Eighteen times—that’s a significant figure. Now think of how much revenue you’re missing out on if you’re pushing everyone through the same funnel with the same follow-up messages. 3

4. #1 As unsophisticated as it may sound, sometimes it helps to start with a few simple, old-school tools: a marker, some sticky notes and a wall. Sure, you can find online tools to help you do this, but this method makes it easier to move things around as you go along. #2 Start by mapping out your most basic funnel path, from inbound leads through to sale. Yes, we know what we said earlier about the straight line funnel, but you still have to start somewhere; the problem comes when you end here. Next, consider the sources of your inbound leads and group them accordingly—for example, traditional advertising, organic search, white paper registration, webinar sign up, et cetera. If you’ve developed buyer personas or segments (and if you’re a smart marketer who follows LeadMD advice, you have), integrate this information together so you have a fuller picture of each grouping. #3 From here, you want to create a customized funnel for each segment. Think about where the leads are coming from, how much exposure they’ve had to your brand or products, their buying behavior and length of purchase cycle. Break out your buyer persona descriptions and incorporate them here. Then use your sticky notes to start creating your follow-up plan, considering every intersectional point along the way. Once you’re happy with your sticky- note map, you can create a nicer digital version of it. To ensure you have a well- rounded approach, invite a few others to participate in this process. Someone from sales and another person from marketing, perhaps even some account or support reps, can give you an insider perspective on the dynamics happening throughout a customer’s lifecycle. Sometimes it helps to start with a few simple, old-school tools. 4

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