Think you have a handle on your sales funnel? You might be surprised at how much more effective you could be with a few simple tips.
In this article, we’ll outline five ways to improve your sales funnel and get more leads into your business.
Pay-Per-Click
There is no getting away from the fact that Pay Per Click can generate more customers into your sales pipeline, but it can come at a cost and a hefty one at that!
However, that’s not to say that it isn’t something you should consider within your overall marketing strategy.
Pay Per Click allows you to easily bring prospects to your website, showcasing exactly what you can do for them. Assuming that the setup of the campaign has been done effectively, the chances are they have an active interest in what you have to sell.
Depending on the size of your annual, or monthly, marketing budget and the competitiveness of your sector, Pay Per Click campaigns can easily become expensive.
As you enter the bidding war for those top-ranking search terms, you can find yourself spending more than £25 per click! This is fine if you convert them, but if they click on someone else’s website after yours or get caught up and forget to enquire, the cost of that click is lost.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Since the early days of the internet, SEO has been a tried and tested method of generating leads. Regardless of your proposition, if you’re using your website as a mechanism to generate leads and nurture prospects, SEO should be high on your priority list!
By creating high-quality content that’s optimised for keywords that prospects are searching for, you can begin to generate new enquiries.
The higher the quality of your content, the more people will talk about it, and ultimately a snowball effect will begin to take place. It will result in you ranking higher with Google.
There are several great tools available to help with search engine optimization, including SmarttDigital, whose AI technology enables you to comprehend your market and the keywords and phrases you should be using in the content on your website. In addition, their progressive AI understands your sector, and competitors and provides you with content suggestions and in-depth insight into how to develop your SEO plan.
B2B Telemarketing & Appointment Setting
As a B2B telemarketing company, we were compelled to discuss telemarketing. This is a measurable method of finding new clients that include both Marketing Qualified leads and Sales Qualified leads.
By engaging with prospects at all levels in your sales funnel, you can begin to qualify prospects by generating new opportunities with those that have an immediate need for your services, whilst building a pipeline of opportunities that can be nurtured over the longer term.
When deploying a telemarketing campaign, especially when as part of an integrated approach, many businesses will typically find that they will generate sales opportunities of higher quality. This is because highly qualified telemarketers can influence prospects and answer questions where static content cannot.
Suppliers that are known to the buyer at the start of the review process are more likely to sell to those prospects when it comes to deciding on a supplier. By making the prospect aware of your service offering before review, and then having nurtured them until they become sales-ready, your close rate will often be higher than that of Pay Per Click.
As with anything, this does depend on the sector that you’re in. For example, if you sell office stationery, and someone clicks on your link they’re either going to buy from you or they’re not. If however, your proposition is a considered purchase then by being known at the beginning of the sales cycle you’re more likely to sell at the end!
Email Marketing
If you’ve seen our recent post Email for Marketing and Lead Generation, then you will have seen how email marketing can still be a highly effective route to market. At The Lead Gen Specialists, we use email marketing to generate new opportunities and nurture prospects for our customers.
Check out the blog above to find out how we’ve achieved 40%+ open rates and obtained a large number of responses from the cold email outreach that we’re doing.
Social Media & Content Marketing
Over recent years, social media has well and truly propelled itself into the B2B selling process. With more prospects than ever actively on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, you should be looking to engage with your prospects here!
As part of your content marketing strategy, you’re likely going to be creating content for the three stages of the sales cycle which are awareness, Consideration and Evaluation. By sharing this content with your social audience, you can continue to nurture prospects as they evaluate you as a potential supplier.
As your articles show on their news feeds, you’ll begin to create brand recognition and awareness among prospects, not to mention a personal relationship.
The information that stands out to prospects will inspire them to click through to read more, ultimately leading them back to your website to complete their evaluation of you. This, of course, depends on where they are in their own sales cycle. Learn more about optimising your marketing strategy for LinkedIn here
If you’re looking for more tips on Social Media & Content Marketing, you may find it useful to take a look at our blog 4 Tips to Improve your Lead Generation & Telemarketing Campaigns, which looks at content for social media!
If you’re currently looking at ways to increase the number of prospects entering your sales funnel, contact us on 03332 400 054 or email enquiries@leadgenspecialists.co.uk to discuss how we can help increase your sales pipeline.
