Stop fishing and start catching the customers you want. The online platform has given marketers and business owners tremendous opportunities to drive qualified prospects to our doors.
Instead of baiting a hook, throwing it and seeing what it catches (like we did with traditional marketing), we can now entice our target market to seek us out.
With a clear understanding of your marketing funnel, you can leverage online channels to have customers knocking on your virtual door.
Here is how you can use simple online techniques at each stage of a marketing funnel to drive qualified prospects to your business.
Attention: Get the attention of your target market.
- Optimise your website with good SEO and web copy that directly connects with your target market.
- Include articles, comments, tweets and conversations that demonstrate your expertise, with a link back to your site or primary social media platform.
Familiarity: Once a prospect has heard of you, how do you build familiarity and trust?
- A quality, regular e-zine gives more insight into who you are.
- Likewise, a good Twitter stream and Facebook business page establish your presence.
Information: Provide information to your now warming prospects about how you can solve their problems.
- Add regular links to your service page or special offers in your social media posts.
Credibility: Demonstrate your credibility and trustworthiness to your target market.
- When a client gives you a testimonial, tweet it and post it on your Facebook page.
- Ask them to leave that same testimonial for you on LinkedIn.
Experience: People are more likely to buy from you if they’ve enjoyed their experience.
- This is where social media comes into it’s own; people can experience you or your business virtually before actually engaging with you.
Sales Conversation: Make it easy to smoothly drive customers through the marketing funnel.
- When someone is ready to buy, make it easy for them. If you sell services, have a detailed web-form on your site, capturing as much information as possible. If you sell products, make the sales process an easy and enjoyable one.
Online marketing techniques work when they are strategically placed together, where all pieces fit with those around them.
By utilising online platforms that facilitate your prospects through their research, relationship-building and buying stages, you’ll drive more customers through your marketing funnel and as a result, reap significant results.
