Virtual Collective

PART 2: WHY DO YOU NEED A MARKETING FUNNEL?

"BECAUSE IF YOU CAN'T MEASURE IT, YOU CAN'T CHANGE IT."

The great business guru Peter Drucker taught about the importance of defining metrics that matter so you can track performance.

Implementing a marketing funnel provides an automated, measurable system that will not only serve as a guide for your customers but provide a baseline of measurable touch points.

Since people are probably not going to just randomly stumble across your website and immediately make a purchase, they will need a bit of nurturing, educating, and convincing before they get to that point. The measurable touchpoints throughout the marketing funnel will let you know what is working and what isn’t so you can adjust and refine your content to give your customers exactly what they want. 

Think of these funnels as a “get to know you” process that explains to people the different reasons why they should make the leap and become a paying customer.

The most effective way to communicate directly with people who are interested in your brand is via email campaigns. Once you get people to opt in to your email list, you can deliver content directly to their inboxes and track how they respond to that hand-picked content. Trust us, it’s much easier to adjust your content once you can see what your prospects are most interested in and engaged with. 

Know Your Data, Know Your Customer

NEED HELP GETTING STARTED WITH A DATA COLLECTION PLAN?

Know Your Data, Know Your Customer is a course designed just for you!

HOW TO COLLECT, TRACK, AND MEASURE DATA DURING EACH STAGE

If the thought of collecting, tracking, measuring data from a sales funnel makes you nervous, fear not. We have created a quick list of some basic things you can start thinking about before you dive into learning how to set up your data collection dashboard.

During Awareness Title Graphic

Use a tool like bit.ly and add some unique, trackable links to your blogs, email campaigns, and social media. Even if you’ve never looked at Google Analytics before, you can get your feet wet by seeing how many people clicked on these links, and which channel they were on when they clicked.

During Interest Title Graphic

Your email platform will have some sort of reporting that will be super user-friendly and will give you great insight into how your prospects are interacting with your content.

In a basic MailChimp report (even with a free account), you can see what kind of “open rate” a specific email had, how many people opened it, and—even more interesting—what time they opened it. It’s important to take a peek at which links they clicked on, too.

If you have intake forms (contact forms, newsletter signups, wholesale applications, etc.) as part of your marketing funnel, you should have a notification set up to get an email anytime someone fills out the form. This is data, and all data is golden! Just from those few interaction points, you can get a good feel for how your community of potential customers is interacting (or not) with the content you have created.

During Desire Title Graphic
The data starts to get a little more tangible at this stage, which means it’s easier to track and measure. A few examples of tangible info you should pay attention to at this stage are:
During Action Title Graphic
This one’s easy! Have your prospects done the thing you’ve been guiding them to do? Have they been willing to part with their hard-earned money because they believe that your brand offers a trustworthy solution that will help them solve their problem? Even without Google Analytics, you can get an idea of where your funnel is and isn’t working. If people are “stuck” in the lead stage and are taking forever to become a prospect, then you can start adjusting your offers. It could honestly be as simple as changing some of your wording or the image you’re using on a landing page. But how cool is it to have a way to identify what needs to be fixed, and to be able to pinpoint exactly where you might be able to try new strategies to increase engagement?
Lead Magnet Graphic

Once you get one funnel flowing, then you can start using more funnels to create other unique customer journeys. You might have a few marketing funnels working at the same time because you may have different target customers. You aren’t limited to using your funnel strictly for signing up and/or purchasing. You can put funnels all over your website to see how visitors move through a specific website flow.

Marketing funnels have helped us narrow down and prioritize how much money and time we spend each month on our marketing efforts. You won’t be able to do it all at once, but sometimes as a “solopreneur”, or small business owner, you have so many things going at once that you won’t be sure what needs your attention most at any given moment. But once you establish a marketing funnel and stick with it for a few months, you’ll be able to tell what’s working and what isn’t within the boundaries of that funnel—which is such a relief if you’ve been trying to implement and refine everything, everywhere at all times. So now that you’re sold on the whole marketing funnel idea, are you wondering how you set up the damn thing? We’re not going to leave you hanging! You can follow the eight easy steps listed in the infographic below to set up and track your very own marketing funnel.

SUMMARY

As you can see, having a marketing funnel is a critical element to any online business. It may seem daunting at first, but once you begin to see what’s working and what needs tweaking, it’s pretty exciting. Why? Because you’ll be seeing your business take shape right in front of your eyes. Having a measurable way to know what makes people want to buy what you’re selling is nothing short of thrilling after all your hard work.

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