As a marketer, you take on the challenging role of reeling in new customers and generating leads for sales. Most likely, your company has a sales funnel set to funnel traffic into the buying process and convert them into customers. However, sometimes you run into problems and discover that not only is your sales funnel not working effectively, but that it’s broken.
If you’re looking to identify certain problems and cracks in your sale strategy that have caused your funnel to break, consider these top four reasons:
You Have Poor Quality Leads
One of the greatest indicators of why a sales funnel is broken starts with the leads. Having a lead capture campaign that may not have been targeted correctly can be one of the biggest factors that end up derailing your sales efforts. Look out for comments from your target audience that indicate their lack of interest in your marketing campaigns.
Some typical comments to keep on your radar are ones like “I’m not sure why you are calling me”, “Please take me off of your list,” and “How did you get my contact information?” These are hardly ever positive things to hear on a call, receive in an email or on a social media page. However, despite the fact that they almost always signify that your lead capture campaign is off, they also give you insight into who not to target in your next round of efforts.
You’re Not Providing Valuable Content
Today’s consumers aren’t interested in becoming an advocate for your brand. Instead of sharing information about products and services on their social media pages, they’re interested in posting content that their followers and friends will consume, like, and also share. If you’re just pushing out content about your product and what makes it so great, you’re decreasing your chances of attracting an audience that will engage and share information about your brand.
Rather than publishing and promoting product-focused content, focus on content rich with tips and shortcuts that can help to your target customer address their own pain points and relieve the ones of their followers as well. Targeting your content to the different marketing personas you have defined for your business will help you to connect with prospects who will be much more likely to engage with your brand. This increases your chances of completing a lead-capture form from your content. In short, be sure to provide targeted, useful content that will help you generate more qualified leads that won’t just be interested in what you have to offer but will also spread the word about your brand as well.
You Have No Call-to-Action Or Landing Page Link
Never leave the decision up to your customer. Instead of simply telling customers that you have a great blog or that your followers should try out your produce, use an enticing call-to-action to that directs them to do so. Furthermore, be sure to share targeted links. Keep in mind that today’s consumers are taking in hundreds of pieces of content in a single internet session. Distractions are popping up left and right on their screens and in order to ensure that the message of your own content doesn’t fall into the flood of closed out windows, capture your audience’s attention and direct them to a landing page.
Instead of encouraging your users to provide your information or head over to your website, use your CTA to link to a targeted landing page where visitors are given a task to carry out. Always be sure to target specific content to different platforms. Remember to include special offers for your Twitter followers that are different from the offers your provide to your Facebook friends.
You Don’t Display Social Share and Follow Buttons
Sales isn’t the time to be sheepish about your efforts. Your consumers don’t love advertising, that’s a fact, but at the end of the day they know that as a business your job is to get them to try and buy their product and make recommendations for potential customers.
The key is to teach your sales team to get them to do this without being too push or agitating. Start by ensuring that the website and blog you have will allow them to easily share your content and or post it to their wall. Place visible and usable share and follow buttons on every piece of your content so that you can ensure that you increase your reach. The more content shared by your followers, the better your sales funnel and the more potential new leads you will likely see.