Six ways to boost your sales funnel

You’ve been in business for several years and you’ve built a pretty successful firm. You followed the steps of the business plan. You discovered a product or service people wanted, found customers to buy it, and built a team and internal processes to support your vision. Check, check, check!

Now, like every other medium-sized business, what you need is more sales leads. If you don’t tell more people about your product or service, you won’t be able to support the organization you’ve established. So, you Google “how to get more sales leads” and follow the advice. You spend thousands of dollars on a new website. You throw money at Google ads, and you start posting to every social media platform.

You’re busy doing ‘marketing’ but you don’t have any sales leads to show for it. Unless you count the spam emails trying to persuade you to invest in an app for your business. You’re ready to throw your hands up and give up on this thing called marketing.

Wait, not so fast. There’s a key ingredient you’re missing. Read on and we’ll show you what will make all the difference in getting those sales leads.

The dangers of no marketing strategy

Unfortunately, you’ve fallen into a scattergun approach to marketing. You’ve jumped into tactics (activities), rather than creating a bullet-proof marketing strategy first. You’re not alone, many businesses fall into the same trap.

The reality is, if you don’t take time to build the right foundation for your marketing, all those activities risk being hit and miss. You can get caught in an endless cycle of trying more things, new things, the latest trend. If you stay on this wheel you risk:

• Running around in circles
• Diverting resources which would be better used elsewhere
• Losing sight of why you got into this business, what makes your company stand out, and what your customers need
• Wasting time
• Running out of money
• A demotivated sales team who don’t see traction when in fact what they need is a robust marketing strategy

Marketing strategy – the right foundation

This is why you need to take a step back and invest in a marketing strategy: the foundation which supports and guides the decisions around which marketing tactics have the best chance of driving sales that build your business. You wouldn’t expect a building to stand the test of time if the builder didn’t lay the right foundation for the type of construction they’re putting up. The same is true of your marketing. If you don’t build the right foundation then you risk your marketing activities and sales efforts crumbling around you. You’d laugh someone off Dragon’s Den if they didn’t have a business plan. However, when it comes to marketing, we often skip this step.

A marketing strategy is your blueprint. It clarifies:

• What you want to achieve
• Who your ideal customers are
• What makes you stand out from competitors
• How to reach your target market
• How to convert potential customers into loyal brand ambassadors

Armed with this information, you can cherry pick the marketing activities which will make a difference to your bottom line. If we’ve piqued your interest and you want a template for thinking about your marketing plan, SOSTAC is a great place to start.

Six benefits to a marketing strategy

When you take the time to build a marketing strategy before you rush to buying Facebook ads, you gain:

1. A target: you can’t hit the mark if you don’t know what you’re aiming for. When we develop a marketing strategy, we start with what you want to achieve so that you make the best use of your resources.
2. A clear focus for the whole company: A sound marketing strategy articulates your mission, vision and values. Not only does this help you choose the most effective marketing campaigns, it also helps with things like recruiting and team development. It helps you make the right investment decisions in every area of your business.
3. Clarity about the benefits of your product/service and how it’s different to the competition: This will enhance your content. People don’t buy products, they buy how those products make them feel, and the quicker you can identify the benefits of your offering, the better you’ll communicate the change you bring to your customers.
4. An effective way to connect with your customers: Our marketing strategies include ‘customer personas’ which describe your target customer. You can use these personas to choose platforms and develop messaging which resonate with these individuals.
5. A plan for reaching and converting customers: In other words, sales leads! You won’t be endlessly spinning your wheels or running in circles after the latest marketing trend. Instead, you’ll be using your resources efficiently to target the customers who are interested in the kinds of products or services you sell.
6. A method for analyzing your marketing so you can be sure you’re using your resources well, and make tweaks where necessary.

You might be concerned about analysis paralysis. We totally understand! So, we’ve developed a proprietary approach that allows us to quickly collect, research, analyse and deliver key insights into your unique strategic marketing plan, and provide the foundation to the tactics that have the best chance of delivering results for your business.

Do you need help creating a marketing strategy which delivers results? We spend our days developing strategies to meet our client’s goals. Contact us to arrange a free consultation.