A marketing (or sales) funnel is a concept used to show how a marketing and sales team will guide an individual, who has expressed a problem / need, to choose a specific solution.
Sales and marketing managers use a sales funnel to help them figure out what information a decision-maker will need at different stages in her process to help her make a choice.
A sales funnel identifies in what format that information will be delivered (everything from a .PDF or .doc to videos, webinars, and podcasts, etc.) as well as how or where a decision-maker would find or receive that information (YouTube, iTunes, email, web site, landing pages, etc.).
The underlying premise is that as decision-makers go through the marketing funnel, those who decide that the solution or information being offered doesn't match their needs, won't progress through the funnel—they'll disengage or opt-out. While those decision-makers who do progress down through the funnel, do so because they are getting value from the information and see the benefit of the solution being offered.
The most effective marketing funnels (aka sales funnel, marketing and sales funnel, sales and marketing funnel), call it what you will, are those that mirror the decision-maker's process from the first moment her pain is recognized, all the way through to her exchange of money for a product or service.
Internet marketing funnels identify numerous calls-to-action, conversion forms, a wide variety of continuously fresh, new and relevant content delivered in multiple formats, published on expected channels, coupled with behavioral lead nurturing campaigns and disciplined tracking and analysis to tweak the various elements to ensure they're operating at peak efficiencies.
When suspects (aka web visitors) (at the very top of the funnel) are willing to trade their email (or other information) in exchange for useful and relevant content, they are now considered a lead or prospect. A good all-in-one-marketing software system tracks prospects and sends them information at appropriate points in the decision-making process (the middle of the funnel).
At a certain point, best determined in conjunction with sales, those prospects have reached a level of qualification that makes it advantageous for sales to directly contact the lead (bottom of the funnel). At that point, the sales team takes over monitoring and managing the lead.
In a closed-loop marketing system, once sales has either closed a sale with that lead (or not) that information is now shared back with marketing. In doing so, a marketing return on investment (ROMI) analysis is possible, showing the degree to which various marketing channels, content and sales activities (phone calls, emails, etc.) are the most cost-effective and efficient.
It is in the hand-off of leads from marketing to sales that disconnects usually occur and potential business is lost.
This is why having marketing and sales align objectives, intentions, processes and roles and responsibilities is so crucial to the success of every organization.
Related Posts:
- Where's Your Internet Marketing Funnel?
- How to Optimize Your Marketing Funnel, Part 1
- Optimizing Your Marketing Funnel, Part 2
