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What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is a process that moves prospects from the initial stage of awareness or interest to their goal, which is usually conversion into a paying customer.

It is a framework that marketers use to track the progress of leads through the company’s sales process. It is typically designed in the shape of an inverted pyramid. It starts with the widest part at the top (the widest part represents all potential customers) and narrows to individual customers at the bottom (representing actual sales).

A typical sales funnel is divided into five stages: Awareness, Interest, Evaluation, Purchase and Repeat/Referrals.

• Awareness stage: It’s when potential customers are aware of your company or product.
• Interest stage: The customer is interested in your company or product but needs more information on it before making a decision.
• Evaluation stage: The customer has decided to evaluate your company or product but will need more information before making a purchase decision.
• Purchase stage: When the customer makes a purchase or conversion on your website or in person. 
• Repeat/referral stage: When the customer becomes an advocate for you and encourages others to buy your product or service.

How a Sales Funnel is Different from a Website?

One of the main ways sales funnels differ from websites is that a website will have multiple navigation points whereas a sales funnel will have just a single point of action where the visitor can either enter his email, click a video, make a purchase, etc. 

This way, a sales funnel is much more conversion oriented than a traditional website. The idea behind a sales funnel is to take the uncertainty out of the buying decision by guiding people through a systematic process that goes from solving their problem, to educating them about your product or service, to finally making the purchase.

The fundamental goals of a website and a sales funnel are different in nature and they can be summarised as below,

Sales Funnels:

– Build an attractive offer,

– Capture leads through landing pages,

– Guide visitors through the buying process with personalized messages,

– Convert visitors into buyers,

– Allow customers to make repeat purchases,

Website:

– Generate interest in your business or cause, product or service online,

– Provide more information on your product or service with details on features, pricing, etc.

– Provide a way for your customers or clients to contact you,

– Improve the overall branding of your business,

– Building social proof for your business with details of your existing clients and customers, testimonials, etc.,

– Give a detailed insight of your business with an in-depth ‘About Us’ page.,

– Provide information about your team members, office locations, etc. 

– Informing your clients on your company culture, things you stand for as a brand,

– Build relationships with potential customers.

Factors to consider in order to build a high-converting sales funnel

As effective as sales funnels are in driving up conversions and revenue for your business, it is important to consider the following factors while building them. Let’s have a look at these factors,

1) Attract the right prospects in order to get them interested in what you are offering

If the right prospects are not attracted to the sales funnel, then the chances of making a sale are slim.

First, it is important to understand what defines a good prospect. They are people who have some level of interest in what is being offered at the funnel.

Second, if your offer is a B2C product, they must have some disposable income or have access to funds that are not being used elsewhere. Then, they should be at least somewhat knowledgeable about the product or service being offered at this stage of the funnel.

Third, prospects must have an established desire for what is being offered at this stage of the funnel. It may be that they don’t know how their problem will be solved yet but they just need more information before they decide on buying something from you.

2) Qualification of leads

Once you have brought in prospects and leads into the funnel, the next most important aspect is to qualify the leads and see how likely they are to make a purchase. 

It is a vital step as not all leads are equal for your business and their value has to be evaluated at the earliest stage possible so that you do not waste more resources towards less valuable leads. This is known as lead scoring or lead qualification.

Lead qualification is mainly based on the following factors,

• Demographic data about the lead,
• How likely it is that the lead will convert,
• How much effort it takes to reach out and contact them,
• And finally, how much potential revenue can be created from this lead.

The time you spend on qualifying your leads provides you with many advantages such as

• Fewer resources are spent on unqualified prospects,
• By identifying your key targets, you will be able to tailor your marketing efforts to reach them effectively,
• It brings your Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC) significantly down,
• You can target your market more precisely by understanding the needs and interests of your prospects,
• It lets you come up with offers for each potential customer so they can find something unique they would want

3) Nurturing leads to convert into paying customers

Nurturing leads is a critical step in the sales funnel conversion process. Your prospects need to build trust in your company before they are ready to buy your product or service. 

A typical way to do this is through lead nurturing which consists of sending emails or using tools like webinars for example to get information about potential buyers’ needs and show how your products can meet these needs.

The purpose of nurturing leads is to provide prospects with a series of content, whether it be educational or interactive, that they need to become paying customers. 

You can use two types of lead nurturing techniques: prospecting and retargeting.

The prospecting technique consists of sending information about your company and products to potential customers through email, social media, and forums. 

The retargeting technique consists of following up on past interactions with prospects by sending them ads or promotional material via email or social media.

Nurturing leads also helps you by letting you know which prospects need more attention and which ones are less interested, so that you can focus on the right people. 

This helps increase your lead conversion rate and reduce your spent time, effort and money on uninterested leads.

Lead nurturing also provides a meaningful opportunity for companies to build relationships, answer questions, and provide resources that will help their prospects make informed decisions about the company’s products or services. 

4) Customer Retention and Increased Lifetime Value

There are plenty of reasons why customer retention is important:

• It saves time and money by decreasing lead generation costs and optimizing conversion rates,
• Increases customer lifetime value,
• Helps to build trust with customers,
• It generates positive communication between customers and your company and helps in the overall branding. 

5) Use the right Software tools for your Funnel

Sales funnels can be simple or complex in design and can include many moving parts. There are many things to keep in mind when building a sales funnel but there are two key components:

• A clear understanding of what you want your customer to do when they start interacting with your business or brand,
• A system that will work for your unique audience, which will increase the likelihood of conversion.

In order to achieve the above mentioned points, it is important to use the right software tools to map, build, and track your funnel. 

Tools like MarketPlan will help you with easing the whole process by making it so efficient to map your whole funnel before building it and track how well it converts in order to keep optimizing it continuously. 

There are no shortage of funnel builders in the market, but it is crucial to choose the right one that suits your exact requirements and patterns of usage. 

The Tools you are using ideally must be,

• Easy to use and understand,
• Intuitive to navigate,
• Collaborate with your team members and work together effectively,
• Offering good value for your money that helps your business grow. 

Conclusion

A sales funnel when done right can be an incredibly important source of revenue generator for a business. They provide a framework for marketing campaigns to ensure that they are providing value to customers at each stage of the campaign. 

However, in order to be a funnel to be effective, it is important to make sure you follow the right steps as explained above. See how you can use MarketPlan for free to start mapping your own funnels today!

Landing pages are crucial for marketing because they are the first impression prospective leads get of your business. It’s where your user lands and decides either to engage with your brand, or look elsewhere.

A good landing page should clearly communicate the benefits and features of your product or service in an engaging and unique way.

The ultimate goal of a good landing page is to convert visitors into leads or customers by convincing them to take a desired action, for example, fill out a form or download an ebook. 

While the best way to create a landing page is through testing and iteration, you can use these tips as a starting point.

The design should be clean, minimal and sleek

A clean and minimal landing page design is a good way to persuade the visitors into signing up. The visitor should not be overwhelmed by information, so it is important to put only the necessary information in the landing page. 

The design should also have a clear call-to-action, and it should be placed at the top of the page or somewhere that is easy to access for the user instantly. 

There are many reasons why people use clean and minimal designs on their website or landing pages. For starters, people like them because they look more professional and trustworthy than other types of clustered designs. It also lets the website feel more spacious which makes it easier for people to find what they want without feeling overwhelmed.

In short. the design of your landing page should ensure that you have the right balance of information so that you don’t confuse your customers with too much text or images but also make sure they are not disinterested by just having text on screen.

The Right Headline

A successful landing page starts with a good headline.

Headlines are usually the first thing that people see and they can largely affect your conversion rate. They need to be informative and have a clear call for action. Headlines usually also give the first impression of what your landing page is about.

You want the headline of your landing page to make people want to read the full content. The best headlines do this by being direct and concise, but creative and intriguing at the same time.

It also needs to be relevant to the content being offered on the page. It should not just be a clichéd phrase or promise that does not match the content that follows it. 

Although Landing pages are not best known for organic SEO traffic, you can include keywords that help search engines rank your page higher in search engine results pages (SERP’s) for people searching for those keywords.

The best way to come up with a good headline is to use the benefits-driven approach. You make sure that you have all your benefits listed in different sections and then you use them in your headlines.

To come up with a good headline for your landing page, always consider the below 5 points,

• Who is your target audience?
• What problem are you solving?
• What is your unique selling point?
• Why should the customer choose you over the competition?
• What is your call to action (CTA)?

Also, make sure your headlines have the following characteristics,

• Specific: Be clear about what you are marketing and why you think it is valuable and relevant to your audience. 
• Memorable: The headline needs to stay in the visitor’s head, so it’s not only informative but also memorable.
• Honest: There is a fine line between honesty and overhyping, so make sure you don’t oversell your product or service.

Once the above points are fulfilled, your headlines give a complete overview of your product to the visitors compelling them to take further action. 

When it comes to the length of the headline, ideally it could be anything between 8 to 10 words. It can be quite a challenge to convey so much information within such a short word count, but it can have a large impact when done correctly.

The copy should be concise

Copy is the backbone of a landing page. It sets the tone for what your visitors will experience on your site.

A good landing page copy should have the following in order to be successful, 

• A clear message: The message on the landing page should be clear and concise.
• A relevant value proposition: This is what your prospects are considering when evaluating your product in the marketplace. But how do you come up with a relevant value proposition? What are the components?

The value proposition should highlight the benefits of your product or service and how this can solve their existing problems in a unique way.

A value proposition is a statement that offers benefits in return for the costs-time, money, and effort of a potential customer. It also conveys what sets your product or service apart from competitors. Value propositions can be as simple as “We deliver healthier food in less time” or as detailed as “Our service offerings allow you to optimize revenue while minimizing risk.” 

As an example of another case, If you are promoting a mobile app, then your message should speak directly to why someone would want to download your product and use it on their mobile device.

• A clear call to action: The call to action should have the right words that would encourage readers to take action.

Here are a few tips on how to write great CTAs:

• Keep it short and simple. The purpose of a CTA is to get your reader to take an action, so make sure you keep it short and clear. Asking for more information than needed will only confuse your readers, which can lead them to unsubscribe from your newsletter or visit your website less often.

• Written in easy to understand language that communicates seamlessly. It should be written in a way that is understandable for a wide range of people.
• Use spatial formatting to make it easy for visitors to find the information they want.

Conversion Rate Optimization with Continuous A/B Split Testing

Conversion Rate optimization is the process of identifying and then implementing specific changes to a landing page in order to increase the percentage of visitors who convert into customers.

The goal is to improve conversion rates, so that you can spend less money and time on acquiring leads or customers.

A/B split testing is one of the quickest, most reliable ways for marketers to test ideas with their audience and see what works best.

It is one of the most cost-effective ways to figure out what works best for your landing page. It helps you to understand what kind of copy converts better, and also what kind of images work well.

Split testing involves running two versions of a page at the same time so that you can compare user behavior on each. It is important to start by defining what we want visitors to do on the page before we set up a test.

The aim of A/B split testing is to find out which version of the page will generate more conversions and works better in terms of user experience & conversions. For example, if one version has 10% higher click-through rate than another, then it is a data proven fact that it is the higher-converting landing page for your campaign. 

The more you test, the more you will learn about what works and what doesn’t with factual data.

It can help you determine which design, ad copy, or content will produce the best results. Once you have determined a winner with your A/B test, you can then deploy this winning combination on all of your marketing channels.

A/B split testing can be done manually with a lot of custom coding involved, but it’s much more efficient and effective when you use a landing page builder that supports A/B split testing for it. 

Unbounce, LeadPages, InstaPage are some of the tools you can use for it. Using a page builder not only saves you time and money, but makes it a whole lot easier to see the results of your split test and optimize accordingly. 

There are many ways to A/B split test a landing page. There is no “one size fits all” approach. You should build your own experiment that targets your needs and goals. The most important thing is that you have a hypothesis about each element you’d like to test on the page and you can measure whether it’s improving or diminishing the overall conversion rates.

When testing landing pages, it’s crucial not just to look at the number of conversions but also at how long visitors stay on the page and what actions they take on the site before and after converting.

You can use tools like Hotjar and SmartLook to capture the session recordings and heatmaps of the visitors to see the user behaviour and tweak your landing page accordingly. 

Map and Plan the Conversion Funnel before Building it

The conversion rates of your campaign doesn’t just depend on the landing page, but also on what happens after someone has signed up or submitted their details on it. 

It is the whole conversion funnel that matters including the email sequence, checkout mechanism, upsells & downsells, etc. that decides how successful your overall campaign is.

If you have an excellent landing page but when other parts of your funnel are broken, you will end up with a high sign up rate but extremely poor conversion rates and revenue numbers. 

Your sales funnel can be as short as two steps or as long as 20 steps in order to gradually build up the customer experience and maximize conversions. If you have not mapped out the whole funnel beforehand, it becomes difficult and complex later when you are building it. 

Mapping the funnel will help you determine what each step should be, how much time it will take, and how much investment it will need from your company. 

Your funnel map should contain,

• The traffic source – Organic traffic through content marketing or paid ads?
• The email sequence – Email marketing or any other means like LinkedIn messages, Facebook Messages via chatbots, Webinars, etc. 
• The Checkout mechanism – The main offer, upsells, downsells, cross-sells, etc. 

You can use a tool like MarketPlan to build your whole funnel map easily. 

Once you have completed the mapping, you will have an overall idea about, 

• Where to place customer touchpoints,
• What type of customer touchpoints will be used,
• The entry points into the funnel,
• Key stages throughout the funnel and how they move the customer from one stage to the next,
• The ideal customer journey that can generate the best revenue for your product or service. 

As a funnel map is a visual representation of this flow, you can completely visualize it and easily identify gaps that need to be addressed on a high priority. 

Add Testimonials, Reviews, and Social Proof

Testimonials can provide a more personal approach to marketing because it is focused on convincing people with first hand accounts rather than just telling them about the product.

Testimonials from your current customers can be a great way to show how you are already providing value. They are also an opportunity for you to get feedback from your customers on the quality of your product and services.

Text testimonials are easier to gather, but video testimonials are quite tough as not every customer is comfortable with giving a video review or testimonial. Therefore, it needs a constant follow-up process or you can even incentivize your customers to provide a video testimonial. 

It’s important to make sure that you only include the testimonial if you are sure that it’s an authentic one from a genuine user or customer. Testimonials are only as good as their authenticity. If someone doesn’t stand behind their testimonial, then it can do more harm than good for your company.

A high-quality testimonial is one that is trustworthy and gives specific information rather than generalities.

It is important to add them without disrupting the design of your landing page, so it doesn’t look cluttered or unprofessional. If you want a detailed testimonial with a lot of words, you can just include the preface of it on the landing page and host the remaining of it on a different page dedicated exclusively to testimonials. 

Then, simply add the link of the testimonials page after the preface so that if any visitor is interested to know more of a specific testimonial, they can do so by visiting the testimonials page. 

Ensure the best page speed possible

Your hosting provider is a huge factor in this. If you are using WordPress to build the landing page or a custom coded one, it is important to choose the right hosting provider to make sure everything loads quickly

Another way to optimize loading speed is by using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) which caches websites on servers around the world, so that when someone visits the site, they are served from their nearest location.

The next step is to optimize the images. Keep in mind that loading speed depends on the amount of data being transferred, so keep it as minimal as possible. You can follow the below steps to optimize your images,

• Resizing them in order for them to not take up too much space,
• Compressing them for quicker loading time,
• Enhancing their color quality,
• Compressing them even further with tools like TinyPNG.

Finally, delete any unnecessary scripts and plugins and keep the page as lean as possible. This way you can reduce the number of HTTP requests the browser has to make and load your assets faster. 

Use CSS media queries for responsive designs so that you don’t have multiple versions of assets for different devices. If possible use server-side rendering because this way your page loads more quickly in the browser and there is no need for subsequent round trips of data.

Personalized content

Apart from improving conversions, personalization can also decrease bounce rates, and increase customer engagement. The personalized experience makes your visitors feel like they are getting something special just for them.

There are different ways to personalize a landing page in response to an individual’s data. First, you can use content based on personal interests and browsing history. Second, you can target different keywords and ad copy to an individual based on their search engine queries. 

Third, you can create ads and landing pages that are based on the person’s location or the site they visited before coming to your website. Fourth, you can personalize based on the browser language settings used. 

There are a few more possible variations that can be added as well based on the, 

• Device type,
• Visitor type (New or Returning ones)
• Time and date, 
• User’s IP address, etc.

There are several tools available to make personalization easier to set up. Proof Experiences, Mutiny, If-So are a few examples you can consider. 

When considering how to effectively personalize your landing page, it’s best to think about what you want your customer’s experience on the page to be like and what would make them feel most comfortable, before diving into any technical aspects of your personalization strategy.

To summarize, personalization of a landing page can be of the below three types and when done right, it can be effective to improve the conversion rates,

1) Dynamic content: This is when the landing page changes based on who you are, what you’re looking for, and what you click on.

2) Custom content: This is when the landing page looks like it’s personalized to you because it has your prospect’s name on it. This needs a lot of data points to achieve and tools like ClearBit can be used to get that data. 

3) Geocoding: This is when the landing page takes your location into consideration and adjusts according to where you live or where they think you live.

Make the Submissions more Interactive

A landing page should be interactive in order for the user to engage with the content and take a desired action. For example, if a company advertises about their new product on Facebook, they can add an interactive element such as a quiz on their landing page.

Quizzes are extremely effective in improving conversions as they provide a medium for the visitors to interact and get value from rather than just providing their contact information. Quizzes also help in pre-qualifying your lead and makes sure that you get the right ROI for your ad spend. 

It is an effective way of gathering data on the knowledge and preferences of potential customers. It is also easy to integrate this data into personalization systems that make the customer journey more personalized and thus increase conversions.

At the end of the quizzes, it is important to send out a personalized guide or a form of value to your prospects.

With regards to the number of questions in the quiz, make sure it is not so long that they opt out and at the same time not too short that there is not enough information to pre-qualify. Ideally, a quiz of 5 to 7 questions might work the best. 

There are several tools that you can make use of to build these quizzes like Bucket.io and Outgrow.

In addition to quizzes or as an alternative, you can also use interactive calculators if you have a lot of numbers to work with. Based on the answers you can send a brief report that will be of huge value to the prospects. 

Interactive calculators are also a good idea for those who might not be so familiar with what you’re selling. It can help them understand your product or service better and will lead them towards making a purchase decision quicker.

Keep the Navigation Options as Little as Possible

The main target of your landing page is to convert the visitor into a lead. You want them to provide their contact information so that you can speak to them later to convert them into a paying customer. 

To achieve this in the most effective manner, it is important to make sure that the visitors are focused .

The goal is to keep the navigation options as little as possible to help people focus on the content. It removes one layer of distraction and provides people with a clean, clear, and focused experience.

Keeping the navigation options small will enable your users to focus on the content more and not be distracted by links they may not need or want. The number of clicks for users will be reduced since they can access all of their desired content in fewer clicks.

Add a short descriptive video in the Hero Section

A video on a landing page can help your campaign by providing a great way to introduce your product or service in the quickest possible time. It also provides the opportunity for you to engage with and educate your visitors at the first sight. 

Having a short video in the hero section of your landing page makes you catch the attention of the visitors and give a brief explanation of what you offer and how it will benefit them in just a few minutes.

Videos can be particularly useful in the case of e-commerce product landing pages. You can easily explain the features and benefits of your product in a short 1 to 2 minute clip that even hundreds of words may not be able to.

Provide a way for the Visitors to Reach you for Support

Even though you give as much information as possible about your product or service on the landing page, having a direct one to one interaction is still the way many people like to gain information. 

You can offer instant support by adding a live chat widget to the landing page. There are so many tools in the market to easily provide live chat support like Intercom, HubSpot, Drift, HelpScout, etc. Check to see if that the tool you select has a mobile app as well so that you can offer support on the go. 

In addition to live chat, you can also provide a callback option by simply adding a callback widget to the landing page. This way the visitors can ask to call them by a click of a button and have a much more personalized conversation. 

If you cannot offer live chat or callback support, make sure there is an email address to contact and you respond to the queries as early as you can.

Add Push Notifications to the Landing Page to Nurture Visitors & Retarget with other Offers

There are so many ways to retarget your visitors once they have left your landing page without converting. While methods like retargeting ads might cost you money and might not be highly converting, web push notifications are extremely cheap and proven to be effective as well. 

Push notifications work because they are sent directly to the browser and pop up as soon as the page loads. 

Conclusion

The above are some of the fundamental tips you can adapt to build your landing page for high conversion rates.

A high converting landing page is one that is focused on the user and not the business. Follow the above tips, offer excellent customer service and see how your conversion rates are affected.

Did you know that 68% of businesses have not built a sales funnel to track their buyers’ journey? And, as a result, 79% of marketing leads don’t get converted into sales.

Among marketers, there’s no overstating the importance of building and measuring a sales funnel. Yet, several B2B brands are still ignoring this crucial aspect of marketing and losing many prospects because of it.

You shouldn’t be one of them.

If you’re going to convert leads to sales without wasting time and money, you need a conversion funnel.

However, you must avoid the temptation of building your funnel solely based on theoretical models on the internet. While those blueprints can give you an idea of what to pay attention to, they are not a unique fit for your company.

Every brand’s buyer’s journey is different. While some businesses might have a four-stage conversion funnel, others may have more or even less. You should build your sales funnel around your brand’s products and the customers that need the solutions you provide.

That’s why it’s essential you carefully analyze your customers’ behavior while they interact with your business and customize your conversion funnel to fit that. This article will discuss why you should deliberately map out each stage of your sales funnel before building a final model for your B2B brand.

The Different Types of Conversion Funnels

The most popular model for building a sales funnel is the AIDA (awareness, interest, decision, and action) model. However, not every business features the four phases of this blueprint; some have more or less. Each stage’s entry point also differs according to the brand, the products/solutions they provide, and their audience.

Thus, there are various types of B2B conversion funnels for different companies. Your brand’s conversion funnel must also have a unique design to fit the products you sell and your customer’s needs. Briefly, we’ll look at the types of conversion funnels different businesses use to convert leads to loyal consumers:

The Free Consultation Sales Funnel

This type of conversion funnel begins with customers entering the awareness phase by learning about a free consultation offer from a brand.

The prospect accepts the request, and after the consultation session, the company maintains contact through regular emails about other product lines and services. Eventually, these efforts could persuade the customer to become a loyal buyer. B2B businesses that sell info-products could leverage the free consultation funnel to bring in leads.

The Webinar Sales Funnel

Prospects enter this conversion funnel by signing up for a webinar. Typically, most businesses that use this type of sales funnel request for the customer’s name and email address during the registration process. These details help them keep in touch and remind them of the event beforehand. Also, after the webinar, the brand offers guests upsells. Prospects also receive further emails beyond the occasion to remind them of other products, services, or upcoming webinars.

The Lead Generation Sales Funnel

The lead generation sales funnel is one of the most popular conversion funnels B2B businesses use. Generally, it involves getting your audience’s attention using a free offer – also called a lead magnet. Most brands that leverage the lead generation sales funnel use free e-books or coupons as their lead magnet.

To access the offer, customers need to provide their email addresses. Once they do so, the brand sends them a thank you email alongside the promised product. They also send regular automated emails to maintain interest and inform prospects of other products and services.

Organic Content Sales Funnel

This conversion funnel is also quite popular among brands. It involves using search-engine-optimized blog posts/articles and social media content to get the attention of prospects. Companies that use this funnel create valuable and insightful content related to the problem they solve. They also include relevant CTAs and opt-in links to get the prospect to purchase a product or sign up for a mailing list.

Why You Should Plan Your Conversion Funnel Before Building It

Every business is unique, with different products and customers. As such, the buyer’s journey for each brand won’t be the same. Building a sales funnel for your B2B company requires you to look at your products/services and your customers’ needs and behavior.

Since your conversion funnel plays a significant role in converting your brand’s leads to paying customers, creating one that doesn’t suit you could be detrimental to your marketing efforts. You’ll focus on the wrong entry points and lose vital leads along the way. Quickly, here are some reasons to carry out due diligence before building your funnel:

Be Visible in the Right Places

Your products aren’t for everybody: some specific individuals need the solutions your brand provides. Before building your conversion funnel, you need to know where these people are to make your brand visible to them. Knowing where to find your audience will help you pick out the entry points of your funnel.

For example, if you discover a large portion of your consumer base spends a significant amount of time on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, you’ll know you need to focus on content and ads on these spaces to get them into the awareness phase of your funnel. But, imagine you don’t have this information and don’t know where to find your audience; you’ll invest in the wrong platforms and lose your prospects.

Invest in the Right Content Strategy

Content marketing is highly crucial in today’s marketing scene. And, it also plays a vital role in almost every stage of a conversion funnel. Content can keep your audience interested and help them decide to buy from you. It can also help you retain your customer base.

However, there are different forms of content, and each appeals to a separate crowd. Some people find videos more engaging and interactive than written content, while others prefer images and infographics. Also, the type of products or services your B2B company offers plays a role in the kind of content to create.

For example, social media marketing agencies thrive on photo and video content. These two media forms appeal to the services they offer and their audience base, while brands that sell info-products do better with eBooks, podcasts, and webinars. Before building your funnel and choosing the type of content to incorporate into each stage, find out what your customers prefer and what suits your products/services.

Know the Performance Indicators to Track and Monitor

When you plan your sales funnel before building it, you’ll know the metrics to track to determine its success. Every conversion funnel has specific Performance Indicators that help to measure its effectiveness. These metrics usually depend on your brand’s objectives.

For example, if your number one goal is to increase sales, you’ll need to closely monitor how many leads are entering your funnel and how many get converted into buyers. You’ll also need to track why other prospects drop out without purchasing a product. If the results don’t meet expectations, you can tweak your sales funnel’s stages to make it more effective.

However, you need to map out your objectives first before building and monitoring your funnel. Knowing your marketing goals will help you customize your sales funnel to get the required results.

Better Resource Management and Decision Making

Building and optimizing a conversion funnel requires resources. By carefully mapping and planning a sales funnel that suits your business, you get an idea of what you need to put in to make it work. However, if you fail to carry out due diligence and build a funnel that’s not right for your brand, you’ll end up wasting your marketing efforts and resources.

How to Map Out and Plan Your Conversion Funnel Before Building It

We’ve discussed why you should plan your funnel before building a model for your brand. In this section, we’ll look at the steps to map out and create a conversion funnel that is effective at converting leads to sales.

Find Out Your Entry Points

Every conversion funnel has a ToFu (top of the funnel). Before building a sales funnel, figure out how customers first come in contact with your brand. Which aspect of your business is the most effective at bringing in leads? This channel is the awareness stage of your funnel.

However, it’s essential to know that you may have more than one entry point, and you must pay attention to each one. Furthermore, while looking to pinpoint your funnel’s entry point, don’t focus on the awareness stage alone. Find out the entry point of every phase of your brand’s conversion funnel, including interest, decision, and action. These details will give you an idea of the overall model of your buyer’s journey.

Figure Out Your Drop Points

Every business has a point where customers drop out of their journey. Knowing these drop points can help you build your funnel to ensure you don’t lose vital leads. You’ll also get a good hint of the resources to pour in to optimize these areas of your brand.

Work With Buyer Personas

At its core, a sales funnel is a customer’s journey with your brand. As such, if you’re going to build one that is effective, it is important to work with buyer personas. Buyer personas are realistic portrayals created on paper that fit your ideal customer.

With a buyer persona, you can figure out your customers’ needs, where you can locate them, the factors that influence their purchasing decisions, what prevents them from finding your business and buying from you, etc. When you understand how your customers behave, you can customize your funnel to fit them.

Work With Your Sales and Marketing Teams

Your sales and marketing teams are at the forefront of interacting with leads, bringing them in, and increasing sales revenue. As such, they have all the data you need to understand customer behavior, figure out your entry points, the aspects of your brand to tweak and optimize. Therefore, as you map out and plan your funnel, reach out to them to get an idea of these vital details to help you build an effective funnel.

Conclusion

Before building a conversion funnel, you must carry out due diligence and proper planning to ensure you get all the essential bits right. A sales funnel that uniquely fits your brand can effectively convert leads and increase sales revenue. However, a poorly-built sales funnel will cost your brand resources and valuable prospects.

That’s the reason it is very important to plan and map your sales funnel by collaborating with your team members before proceeding to build it. MarketPlan is built entirely for that purpose,to ease this whole process and make your marketing campaign more efficient and high converting.

Sign up for a free trial of MarketPlan today and see it for yourself. We believe you will like what you see.

When running a business, it’s not enough to ensure only the quality of your goods, services, and customer service. You have to learn how to promote them to your target market and establish your brand. The most effective way to do that is to develop an integrated marketing plan.

Your marketing plan serves as your guide to success. It helps you target your audience in a smarter way by showing you a clear list of your business goals and the marketing strategies you plan to use to attain them. Also, it helps you keep on track with your objectives and makes sure that you use your marketing budget properly.

If you need a helping hand in creating an effective marketing plan for your business, then this guide is for you. Read and follow the steps below to boost your chances of converting your leads into sales and getting your company off the ground.

Evaluate your last year’s marketing performance

Taking a close look at your last year’s marketing activities and results can give you a glimpse of what your future marketing plan should look like. It can let you determine points of improvement and see the marketing opportunities and strategies you should take advantage of for the coming year.

Before you begin planning for your marketing efforts, you have to know if you were able to achieve your desired results from your previous marketing tactics.

To do this,

• Check for the number of leads generated or sales or revenue figures,
• Identify the specific marketing activities that were effective and ineffective,
• Point out the areas of your marketing budget you need to cut costs and invest more in,
• Confirm if you were able to stay within your marketing budget.

This way, you can discover what marketing strategies work best for your business and use all insights you gathered to improve your marketing plan.

During this stage, creating a SWOT analysis of your previous marketing plan can help you develop new and improved marketing tactics. You need to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in terms of your business competition. Remember to also include your target audience and the current message you are trying to convey.

Develop the important components of your marketing plan

The first step in developing your marketing plan is to list down all marketing components that are crucial to your company. Here, you have to develop business goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound (SMART). Know your marketing resources, set a marketing budget, and define your target audience. Afterward, define your marketing strategies and determine how you will maximize your budget to execute your plans.

Your marketing plan should be as specific and as realistic as possible, so include every tactic and its allocated budget if applicable. Don’t forget to track your actual spend and budget variance throughout the year.

It’s also important that your marketing tactics are flexible and can adapt to the ever-changing business environment. Make any adjustments when necessary and take advantage of our marketing software that allows you to see your analytic reports.

This will help you monitor the progress of your marketing efforts, quit marketing tactics that are not producing your ideal results, and maximize the performance of your marketing campaigns.

Utilize a marketing budgeting software

At present, there are marketing resources you can explore and take advantage of to increase your chances of success. One of these is MarketPlan, our marketing planning software that allows you to connect every part of your marketing efforts into one effective workspace that works for your business.

Aside from being easy to use, what makes MarketPlan a one-of-a-kind marketing platform is it is an all-in-one marketing tool. Therefore, you can quit juggling various marketing apps that can get distracting and cause delays.

With our marketing software, you can enjoy different useful features all in a single workspace. You can map and plan campaigns and collaborate with your marketing team effectively with its live updates and do various functions, such as assigning tasks, commenting, sending files, chatting, and getting progress notifications without leaving our software.

In addition to all the above, you can ensure that you maximize your marketing budget at all times by running dynamic projections on our app before you set your marketing campaign live. Our tool also lets you track your live campaign with real-time analytics, helping you make more informed business decisions.

Whether you are pitching to your client or presenting a live report, you can add visual value to your talk, discuss analytics clearly and with confidence, and showcase your strategic marketing plan that will drive a higher return on your marketing spend with our marketing software.

We truly believe MarketPlan is a must-have marketing tool for every entrepreneur to improve and maximize their ROI. It lets you get the maximum return on investment, helps you stay on track of your goals, and guides you on how to achieve them so you can achieve the success you have always dreamed of.

Know when to adjust your marketing plan

Creating a detailed marketing plan with clear business goals, steps, and processes takes you one step closer to success. However, remember that the business landscape constantly changes, which is why your marketing tactics shouldn’t be without dynamics . In fact, even your target audience can change in the middle of the year.

Consider your marketing plan as a roadmap. It lets you see your destination, and while it shows you the ways toward your desired location, you have to learn how to adjust accordingly depending on the circumstances.

Keep an eye on market research and key performance indicators (KPIs) and use our marketing software to make sure that your marketing strategies are driving your ideal results.

Conclusion

Developing a strategic marketing plan is the key to the success of your business. It should be solid and structured to help you reach your business goals, but flexible at the same time to allow you to adapt to the constantly changing business landscape and market conditions.

Marketing software like ours is an excellent way to synergize your workforce and make your marketing efforts systematic and effective.

Revolutionize your marketing strategy by using our marketing collaboration tool.

Your product or service won’t get the recognition it deserves no matter how exceptional it is if no one knows about it. To promote what your business offers, you have to create, plan, execute, and optimize the right marketing strategies. Accomplishing this is no easy task and takes a team effort.

Project managers are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve your project goals and meet success criteria within the given time frame. Given their expertise, they are one of the most qualified persons to come up with successful marketing plans.

If you are a business owner, you may think that you don’t have the time nor money to invest in a marketing plan. However, it’s time to finally realize its importance because this can be your key to success.

Learn how to make a marketing plan like a project manager by using this article as your guide.

What Is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is an outline for a strategy for your marketing campaign. It is part of your business plan that serves as a roadmap toward your business goals and gives direction from your product or service to your potential customers.

Also, it focuses on your marketing and advertising efforts and contains historical data, strategies to reach your business goals, and predictions for the future.

What Are the Basics of a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan must have context, and to achieve this, you have to make sure to conduct an extensive market research first before planning and have a thorough understanding of its basics. These include the following:

Goals

Your goals refer to the objectives you want to achieve in your marketing plan. They should not only be a vision statement. Instead, they should be clear, specific, attainable, realistic, and measurable. Some examples of these are tasks, improvements in key performance indicators (KPIs), quotas, and other performance-based benchmarks used to track progress.

Budget

A marketing plan can be costly, but it is worth the cost to save you time, frustration, and revenue later on. To execute and optimize your marketing plan successfully, establishing a marketing budget is crucial. It outlines all the money your business is willing to spend on your marketing-related projects. Keep in mind that it must be realistic and within your financing constraints.

Building your marketing budget starts by determining the marketing goals you want to achieve and the estimated cost to reach them. Some factors you should consider are software you need to create your marketing campaigns, freelancers and full-time employees you are collaborating with, paid opportunities, and content creation.

Target market

Identifying your target market is important because this helps you develop effective marketing strategies. As soon as you know your audience, do your research and gather all the necessary data about them to understand their needs and wants better. Your study must contain your customers in that market as well as any market dynamics, patterns, and sales history.

Competition

While rivalry can seem intimidating, competition is healthy for your business. It motivates you to strive harder, innovate, create marketing strategies that work, and serve your customers better. To stay ahead of the curve and build a positive reputation in the industry, spot your competitors and set yourself apart from them in a way that will attract your customers. Conducting a SWOT analysis can help you achieve that and let you understand your position in the market.

Marketing mix

The marketing mix is a tool that helps you address the needs of your customers and make your company profitable by letting you understand the key elements you must combine to achieve your marketing goals. This involves the four Ps in marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. By uniting them, you can showcase the value of your brand and stand out from your competition.

Strategy

Your marketing plan must be built on marketing strategies that convey your sales message to your target audience and guide you in every business decision. Coming up with these tactics require detailed market research information, time, and financial resources. These should include the details on how you will coordinate advertising, direct marketing, training, trade shows, and other marketing efforts.

Monitoring & Tracking

Tracking the success of your marketing programs is vital to let you determine if they work and help you identify points of improvement. You can use a funnel mapping software, a marketing collaboration tool, or other programs to track and analyze your progress and compare your actual versus planned results.

Don’t forget to monitor the deliverables and the execution of the plan to ensure that you stay on track and are making progress towards your goal.

How Do I Create a Marketing Plan?

Build your team

Your marketing team should be composed of members who have the knowledge, skills, and experience required to help you create a successful marketing plan. Consider hiring one or assemble a team of your own.

Identify your tasks

Break down your work structure and define all the tasks you should take to make your marketing plan succeed. Start with the biggest item and work your way down to the smaller ones.

Your actions should include identifying your stakeholders, creating a communication plan, making a schedule, and generating a risk management plan. This way, you can communicate more effectively with one another, make sure the project is on course, keep track of the project’s progress, get everything done on time, and determine risks in your plan and resolve them successfully.

Report the Metrics

Measure your progress by monitoring and tracking your deliverables by using various project metrics. This will help you ensure that you are staying within your budget and on schedule and allow you to present organized data to your stakeholders easily.

Conclusion

Creating a marketing plan like a seasoned project manager can be challenging and overwhelming, especially if you have limited knowledge about marketing. By following the guide above and doing your research, you can boost your chances of establishing one that works best for your business. On the other hand, you can always seek help from actual project managers and other marketing experts.

Grow your business by taking advantage of our all-in-one marketing platform. We help businesses nationwide create and execute your marketing strategy through funnel mapping and tracking, team collaboration, and more. Get a free account today!

The marketing calendar for you is what a playbook is for sports teams. It codifies your marketing strategy in specific moves or strategies, setting you up for success by giving you enough time to plan for contingencies.

More than just a glorified editorial calendar, the marketing calendar allows you to zoom in on granular details and allows you to visualize the bigger picture. Should situations arise where you may need to make adjustments on the fly, having this well laid out will help you stay organized—giving you a more reasonable plan to proceed.

While an editorial calendar may simply display dates for posting schedules, a marketing calendar organizes all of your marketing activities, whether it be online or offline, all in one place.

Some platforms, like MarketPlan, include a free marketing plan tool that lets you integrate your marketing processes for a seamless workflow. However, before worrying about which tool to use, it’s best to get a grip on the basics in creating a marketing plan.

Start with a goal

Every effective marketing calendar rests on a solid bedrock of goals. Before you can plan out your campaign, you must first determine what you want to achieve. Concrete goals keep everyone on the same page, streamlining all efforts towards achieving the same vision.

The best way to write your goals is to ensure that they are “SMART” goals. This acronym is a 5-point guideline that entails you to create a Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based goals. In doing so, you would be able to come up with more concrete strategies to attain your laid out goals.

For example, instead of merely saying that you want to be the best company in the world, try framing it more specifically, such as “to achieve an increase of 50 to 70% of our flagship products in the third quarter of 2020.” Another SMART goal would be to “capture at least 50% of the United States market share in our specific industry in 2020.”

These goals are specific and measurable because they let your team know exactly what you are trying to achieve—complete with metrics! Whether or not it is attainable depends on prevailing marketing conditions.

Meanwhile, market share and sales ratings are always relevant; and besides that, they are time-bound because it is specified when you intend to achieve those goals.

These goals need to be codified, but they don’t need to be cast in stone. You can modify your objectives as you go, depending on specific marketing conditions.
Still, a marketing calendar keeps you updated and on-track of those goals, giving you time to plan for any last-minute or special situations, such as holiday promotions and clearance sales.

Layout your schedule

A marketing calendar is not just a day-by-day schedule of your social media posts. Instead, it is an organized timeline of marketing activities that do include an editorial calendar—but should also contain schedules for planning and execution!

This is especially true if your marketing strategy involves both online and offline efforts. Many companies like to present a united marketing effort in multiple platforms, making a marketing calendar all the more vital.

For example, suppose that you are a big-box store looking to advertise a holiday sale, and you generate buzz ahead of time through an online campaign.

In such a case, scheduling recurring advertising should be done ahead of time, which will leave you free to organize other events around your holiday promos.

This is important because such activities may involve a lot of pencil-pushing and logistical preparation as you contact sponsors and vendors for your events.

Without a marketing calendar, organizing all these marketing efforts is almost impossible and will lead to confusion and missed opportunities.

Choose the right marketing collaboration tool

Marketing campaigns are exercises of both logistical organizing and effective communication. Your multitasking skills notwithstanding, many things can go haywire in the execution of a marketing campaign.

An open marketing calendar visible to other decision-makers and key personnel will help smooth things out with little to no intervention on your behalf.

Useful marketing collaboration tools, such as the one we provide in MarketPlan, allow for multiple people to work on a marketing calendar at once.

Instead of having to refer to a physical notebook, an email thread, or a separate calendar app, you and your team can simply refer to the same tool that you’ve been using since day one for any clarifications on the schedule or scope of work.

Get people to contribute

Your marketing calendar will only be useful if all concerned decision-makers are using it. Unfortunately, many people hesitate to change, especially if you’re using a different marketing planning software that they may have never used before.

Fortunately, some tools are actually very straightforward to use. Our all-in-one marketing platform, for example, allows you to visualize strategies, optimize campaigns, and collaborate with other people—making it highly convenient for all users!

The most important people to include are the ones who have clear contributions to the campaign. That being said, it’s also important to give access to people who are higher up in the management chain.

The list of people that you may want to give access to are the following:

Upper Management – Upper management, especially the C-Suite level executives, may want to oversee your campaign. However, this is usually rare as most executives would rather receive a report that they can check out periodically. Plus, some employees may feel pressured with the knowledge that their actions can all be seen by upper management in real-time. That being said, it’s still a good idea to include them if they’re the type that likes being in the loop.

Marketing Specialists – Your marketing specialists are the executors of the marketing plan. While they may only be responsible for their particular tasks, it’s vital to keep them in the loop to see how the whole campaign is being orchestrated.

Finance – Your finance department controls your budget, making it necessary that they see where your funds are going to.

Customer Service – Your customer service team needs to be fully informed about your marketing plans to let them know which details they can divulge, and which ones are confidential.

Creative Teams – Like your marketing specialists, your creative team needs to be on the loop to follow the decision-making process that affects their output.

Conclusion

A marketing calendar is not only useful for planning; it is highly crucial for execution as well. While even the most meticulous marketing calendar won’t make the execution phase a walk in the park, it will at least allow you to see where you’re standing on. By having one laid out properly, and by utilizing a marketing collaboration tool to supplement it, your marketing process will surely streamline your success!

If you’re looking for an all-in-one marketing collaboration tool to use in your marketing campaigns, MarketPlan has got the right software for you! Our platform lets you plan, execute, project, and optimize your entire marketing strategy all from one place.

Sign up today to try MarketPlan for free!

Marketing is an ever-changing function in business, and it has seen immense growth in the industry as technology advances with the changing times. The rise of digital solutions paved the way for modern businesses to thrive in this internet-driven marketplace, changing the way things are done in every stage of its growth.

The Role Of Marketing In A Digitally-Oriented Era

Marketing has always been a crucial foundation in building brand awareness, attracting new consumers, increasing your visibility in search results and other areas that generate positive ROI for your bottom line.

While digital marketing today offers colossal opportunities for businesses to scale, the endless options can be confusing and result in weak campaigns. To create an effective plan, there are some fundamental tenets in marketing that you need to consider.

With that in mind, the factors below are some of the timeless pillars behind a strong and successful marketing strategy for your business:

Tip #1: Define Your Pain Points And Common Challenges

When it comes to taking apart your marketing strategy to create better campaigns, the best way to start is to think ahead. Many people see their goals towards the end of the line, but what are the common challenges you’ll run into along the way?

Identifying the problems and opportunities you’ll face as you move forward is crucial as it helps establish more substantial objectives. With a head start on the likely blunders relevant to your brand, then you can see what steps you need to take to avoid these issues and ensure there are little-to-no loopholes in your strategy.

Tip #2: Identify Your Target Audience

You have a clue of what your marketing journey will be like, but do you know who you are tailoring your campaigns for? While marketing strategies should be relevant to your brand, you need to look at your buyer persona’s if you want to tap into the right audience.

Getting to know your consumers will help you outline your goals and create campaigns that interest the targeted demographic in more ways than one.

Tip #3: Set SMART Goals

When thinking about what you want to achieve for your bottom line, the future is often broad. Now that you know the common challenges you’re likely to face, you can use it to paint a clearer picture of your future objectives and set specific goals, one that is relevant to your needs, target audience, and addresses your unique pain points.

With that in mind, the best way to create a plan that drives your business in the right direction is to define your SMART goals:

Specific – All businesses want to improve their marketing plan, but what specific part do you want to enhance? Think about areas that can give your brand a competitive edge – whether it’s to boost your website traffic by X percent, increase your response rate, or increase your brand awareness.

Measurable – It’s good to have goals, but your strategy needs to be grounded if you want to take your marketing to greater heights. With that in mind, your goals need to be quantifiable and trackable, so setting a specific purpose means you can identify your progress from the starting point to the result.

Achievable – If your goals are measurable, then there are higher chances of it being achievable too. So long as you have the right skills, experience, resources, and timeframe to complete it, your objectives will be realistically attainable.

For instance, if you receive 500 visits on your website this month, jumping to 50,000 for your next goal is unreasonable.

Relevant – Driving more traffic to your website sounds like a good goal, but is it appropriate to your current business needs? Unrelated plans will only waste your resources and efforts, so be sure to identify solutions that will benefit your needs now.

Time-Bound – You can’t rush progress, but specific goals still need to have deadlines. Your campaigns will be messy without a finish line since plans that have a 3-month timeframe will significantly differ from goals with a 3-year deadline.

Tip #4: Identify Your Resources

Having a solid marketing plan is only half the battle; the rest of the execution is up to your existing resources. Consider if you have the budget, technology, and people with the right skill sets to set your plan off.

Without the right team, you can fall behind in multiple areas – be it in your web design due to a lack of web designers or coming short with the tools you need due to working within your budget constraints.

Tip #5: Identify The Right Metrics

There are multiple ways to analyze your current marketing’s performance, and while it seems like a good idea to gather more information, collecting fruitless data can be problematic to marketers.

Analyzing your metrics should be in line with your goals, which means you need to choose the key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter to your company and steer clear ones that will confuse you, such as vanity metrics.

The Bottom Line: Creating An Outstanding Marketing Plan That Generates ROI For Your Business

Despite its mass amount of opportunities, the worldwide web seems significantly smaller now, thanks to the power of the internet and interactive media. Businesses are in a head-to-head competition, but with the right marketing plan, it can propel start-ups ahead of the crowd and in line with leading brands in the industry.

The most effective marketing plans should address your biggest pain points and challenges, allowing you to utilize solutions that align with your goals and overall vision.

How Can We Help You?

Drafting a marketing plan can be tricky, so why not simplify the process by doing it all in one marketing platform? We offer a marketing planning software that allows you to outline, execute, project, and optimize your entire strategy under one virtual roof, making it easier to have an overview of your journey from start to finish.

Get in touch with us, and let’s see what we can do to help you create a clear plan of action and enhance your campaigns today!

Creating a marketing campaign that actually achieves your goals is more complicated than many people realize. And unfortunately, the amount of effort or money you put into a promotional action doesn’t translate into proportionate numbers. If you’ve been feeling like you’re bouncing between ideas without being sure of your impact or consistency, you’ll need a strategic marketing plan.

You may argue that you already have a marketing plan, but if it’s not working for you, it’s time to create a new one. Establishing one with clear goals, audience personas, and comprehensive strategies will help you set a straightforward path to achieving the targets you want. However, if you don’t already have a marketing plan, you’ve probably heard of marketing misconceptions that have made you hesitate towards working on a strategy that your organization needs to succeed.

Here are five marketing plan misconceptions that are preventing you from succeeding:

It’s Too Time Consuming

A solid foundation take time to build, and that also applies to a solid marketing plan. You might think that you’ll be stuck in the vicious cycle of spending your time planning on a campaign that ends up not working, but coming up with a flexible yet strategic plan will help you stay on track. It will also stop you from being reactionary to put out any fires quickly, which, in itself, is incredibly tedious and time-consuming.

Coming up with a strategic market plan doesn’t mean you have to hunker down for hours and whittle it down to perfection. Start by thinking about your current marketing setup and your goals in the big picture, then break it down into chunks. Outline what you need to plan, or use a free funnel mapping tool to help you get the ball rolling. It’s essential to be realistic about the time you need to accomplish each step, so approach it as a mini-project and work on it every day. That way, you can continue performing your regular tasks while working on a marketing plan that’s more likely to work.

It’s Too Costly

Although most people shy away from making buying decisions due to cost, it’s worth the investment if it helps improve your business in the way you need. Although businesses with smaller budgets may balk at the resources needed to create a robust marketing plan, the truth is that without it, you’re wasting money. Without proper guidance and planning, you’re probably funneling your hard-earned cash into platforms and channels that aren’t delivering results or lead you to take actions that don’t get you closer to your end goals.

By putting your time, money, and effort into creating a detailed marketing plan, you’ll gain much-needed clarity into what you need to accomplish your objectives, who you’re trying to reach, and the market analysis you need to make. You’ll also realize the best approach to promote your brand to your target audience, ensuring that you’re finding innovative ways to convert your audience into paying, loyal members of your customer base.

It Requires You to Know Everything

Another misconception that may have discouraged you from creating a marketing plan is that you need to have all the right answers immediately. Although drafting your comprehensive blueprints will help you look for the answers to specific questions, it can also allow you to test your guesses and figure out what works.

Working on a marketing plan isn’t something you should do by yourself, so ask for help when you can. Apart from using funnel mapping software, ask your team to get together and discuss your goals and objectives. It may be a challenging discussion, but utilizing the sharp minds in your company will help you overcome the obstacle of coming up with a plan that produces the results you want.

It’s Too Rigid and Constricting

On the other hand, some people believe that marketing plans restrict their growth or leave little to no freedom to explore and realize their creative potential. In reality, having focus and direction will allow you to channel your ideas into endeavors that will translate into success. It will also keep you from moving around aimlessly without context, helping you save time.

A plan also gives your marketing team a point of reference, which they can take in relevant directions. Although many companies have claimed to come up with their viral campaigns on a whim, that’s what they want everyone else to think; they’ve certainly put a lot of thought and resources into executing their vision. Keep in mind that it takes a lot of planning to appear effortless.

That isn’t to say that creative minds can’t come together and come up with a brilliant campaign right away, but having a marketing plan steers you in a much-needed direction. With that said, make sure your blueprint is flexible enough to allow you to experiment but ensuring it’s aligned with your goals. If this is too daunting, you can start with a short-term marketing plan and gradually work your way up.

It’s Not Worth the Effort Because It’s Too Difficult

When creating a solid marketing plan, remember that the task of creating this doesn’t rely solely on your shoulders—you have a whole team that can help you! Working with them, along with using team collaboration software, will help you realize all the benefits it has to offer, and you’ll see that producing a marketing plan is all worth the effort.

However, if you don’t have a team, you can work with a consultant and use an all in one marketing platform to construct actionable plans and carry them out from one place. It won’t be a fast and easy process, and it might not be the cheapest endeavor, but the value a marketing plan can offer your business will manifest itself over time. At the end of the day, you’ll be glad you did it.

Conclusion

Having a marketing plan is crucial to your success. Without it, you’ll be throwing money aimlessly at campaigns that aren’t generating your desired results. Now that you know the truth behind these five misconceptions, you’ll have what you need to start the exciting process of creating a marketing plan.

Market Plan is an all in one marketing platform with a funnel mapping tool that allows your company to execute, project, and optimize your marketing strategy from one place. You can map campaigns, collaborate with your team, run projections, and access real-time analytics.

Sign up and try it for free today!

Successful businesses have several things in common, one of them being a well-managed marketing budget. Knowing how to allot your budget effectively can make or break your marketing strategy—which is undoubtedly an essential component for your business’ growth and success! While pouring all your resources into a single channel seems like the easiest method, it poses more of a risk, as you might miss out on engaging with your customers and making a sale.

Using the right all-in-one marketing platform to refine a marketing strategy and properly allocate finances is a great way to success. Before deciding what to spend, business owners must first understand how their marketing budget influences the entire customer journey, from the initial stage of brand awareness to the final stage of the purchase. Choosing which part of this process to invest more of your budget in will depend on your marketing priorities.

To help streamline your efforts even further, here are some of the things to consider when managing your marketing budget for the different points in the customer journey:

Brand Awareness

How much you spend on marketing your business to increase brand awareness depends on how well-recognized you are. For small businesses with a relatively modest following, this might be the stage where funneling a little more money would be advantageous, as this increases your reach and, if implemented correctly, your sales.

Engaging with customers is key, which is why investing in a strong online advertising strategy with reputable branding platforms that have video and banner ads capabilities typically results in more traffic from potential customers. Targeting customers based on what they’re browsing for is an effective marketing strategy that draws visitors to your website.

Marketing tools aren’t just limited to digital platforms; print media, while sometimes considered obsolete, can still promote your business effectively—but only if used correctly.

This is especially true if your audience is in the more mature demographic. Placing your ad might reach this age group better through a medium like newspapers, which is a source they already frequent.

Consideration

Investing in a marketing plan software can help your business use different advertising techniques to show your audience what your brand stands for and what you can offer them. Moving forward from brand awareness to consideration can be done with sponsored content, where brands are associated with relevant content that engages customers.

Taking advantage of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram—both of which boast supreme advertising capabilities and a well-developed social functionality—can lead to meaningful interactions with your prospective customers.

Facebook ads, for instance, specifically target customers based on age, location, and hobbies using data on the platform, such as their history of likes and comments. When businesses advertise on social media, they have more flexibility and creativity to really show audiences what their brand looks and feels like!

Preference

Now that customers are starting to recognize your business, it’s time to set yourself apart from your competitors. It’s essential to use the right strategies to market your brand as one that’s unique so that consumers have a clear understanding of why they should choose your business! The key is to reaffirm your identity as a brand that they can find truly helpful and will show a preference for.

If you happen to think about all the brands that you’ve discovered and come to enjoy, then you may appreciate just how web presence has enabled them to create a more engaging and genuine relationship with their customers. While you’ve got your advertising down pat, producing quality content on your website, creating regular social media posts, and responding to reviews can make a difference in how customers perceive you. People will remember brands that took the time to respond to them personally regarding a query or their review!

Customers also enjoy valuable content that your brand might produce with your content marketing strategy. Working with professional copywriters using a marketing collaboration tool will have you seeing returns in the form of new sales and web traffic. Good content will also give your brand a unique voice, strengthening your relationship with your buyers, who will get to know you even better.

Purchase

If everything goes well, then by this point, you should be seeing the closing of a sale. The goal moving forward is to generate even more and maintain how your brand is recognized, engaged with, and chosen over your competitors.

Back when customers still needed to be convinced, online and social media advertising was the focus of your budget. But once your business has reached a stage where sales are a regular occurrence, you might want to consider investing in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to really zone in on customers who know what they want. It is a way of targeting consumers more specifically by using keywords to boost engagement with the brand.

PPC advertising means that your business will only be charged once the customer clicks on the ad and reaches the website, which can turn out to be a more cost-effective way to continue advertising your brand or business. One of the most popular PPC services comes from Google Ads, which works by placing your business at the top of any customer’s search results as they key in specific keywords or phrases when running a search query.

As you work to maintain your standing and create even more sales, using the right tools can help you generate and manage more leads. It can also ensure that your information is up to date on listing platforms, such as Google My Business.

Conclusion

Allocating a marketing budget to different parts of a customer journey when starting is a tricky ordeal, especially since newer businesses are still establishing a good foundation that can grow steadily. Developing the right marketing strategy for your specific business needs will allow you to zero in on what aspects of the customer journey need to be prioritized over others.

Once you’ve decided on your objectives, that’s when you can allot funds to bring in the growth you’ve worked difficult to attain. With the right marketing planning software, you’ll organize this plan and budget more effectively to gain more profit for a successful business.

Are you looking for an easier way to manage your marketing budget? Here at Market Plan, we offer the all-in-one marketing platform that businesses can use to plan, execute, project, and optimize their marketing strategy.

Sign-up for a free account with us today and take advantage of the best marketing software for agencies.

When you build a business, you will eventually reach the point when you cannot give potential customers an in-person sales pitch. As a business owner, you have to ensure that you highlight what makes your products great even if you’re not in front of people to do this. 

One way to do this is by showing social proof—offering evidence of past clients being satisfied with your offerings and finding value in them. When you do your funnel mapping and tracking, you should include instances where you can incorporate social proof.

Here are some ideas to consider.

1. Show written or video testimonials

If a customer has written to you telling you how much they loved your product, you can show this as a featured quote in your sales funnel. Secure permission to show their note; you don’t want a satisfied customer to turn into an angry one! Also, check with them if they are okay with their real name and photo being next to the quote. 

For the more tech-savvy, a video testimonial could be a better option. Video conveys more authenticity since an actual person is saying in their own words how your product has helped them. Testimonial videos are best for order forms, sales pages, or places people decide to click ‘Buy.’

2. Display case studies on your page

Testimonials only have one customer vouching for your product. To show quantitative proof of your product’s effectiveness, you should have a case study on your website. Case studies go more in-depth into discussions of outcomes and could show readers the process you took to achieve results. A case study does not even need to in text form; you could have multimedia packets with video interviews.

3. Enlist the endorsement of an influencer

You can take the route major brands choose and get an influencer to endorse your products. Influencer marketing does not involve large sums in exchange for testimonials from someone popular in your niche. Get an influencer in your niche to speak positively about your business. An endorsement like this will likely matter more to people who are in your space!

4. Display your numbers if possible

You can quickly obtain your business’ statistics from your marketing planning software. People are more comfortable when they’re not the first to try something; if you show that you have a sizable following who have already committed to your brand, it’s likely to bring in more customers.

Stating the number of enrollees you have for your course, the number of books you have sold, or the number of users your product has can translate positively on your sales.

5. Use pop-ups for social proof

Sometimes, you might see pop-ups in the bottom left-hand corner of a sales funnel page, or come across an opt-in page that lists who had recently bought the product or clicked into the website. These are called social proof pop-ups, and they show in real-time who is engaging with the sales funnel. 

You can use services by Proof, Provely, Morevago, ProveSource, and more to help you create this for your business website.

6. Emphasize media mentions of the business

Being featured on television still lends people credibility. As such, make the most of it and stress that your product has been in a TV feature. Make sure you put the logo of the outlet in your sales funnel, especially if you have videos or articles online about the media coverage.

7. Bring attention to awards it had won

No matter how small, an award can affect how people view a particular service or product. Having an award means you had met a level of quality that a panel of judges had deemed superior to its peers. Otherwise, people think, why would this product win? An award is a social proof that works double duty; it indicates both quality and popularity, so make sure you add them to your website.

8. Have partner or “used by” logos

If major industry players use your product in their operations, put their logo on your sales funnel. This practice enables you to look ‘credible by association’ and appear more confident. If your product has been featured on sales websites like Amazon, you should consider putting your five-star-rated customer reviews on your page as well. 

Like your business statistics, the number of industry peers using your product can be a factor when it is time to go back to your marketing budgeting software for a new campaign.

9. Consider oblique ways of gathering proof

When thinking about social proof, you should not limit yourself to direct evidence that the product is doing well. Social proof could also come from organic interactions with customers. 

You can still use the comments and leads generated during social media outreach efforts even if you cannot directly make money out of them. Also, connect your Facebook business page with embeddable widgets. Your opt-in pages could have plenty of ‘likes,’ but if visitors to your website are not aware of this, it would not matter much beyond Facebook. Allow social media to help your marketing by linking your website to this plugin.

10. Include trust seals and certifications

Customers feel better about online purchases when they know that they’re buying their goods from a company with a good reputation. Have your products certified by an independent third party, use secure systems, or have employees undergo training that leads to certification. When you display these ‘trust seals,’ you show that people should take your business seriously.

Conclusion

Businesses that want to leverage past success can do so in several ways. From including video testimonials on your website to show that your team has been certified for particular skills, make sure you include proof that you have had satisfied clients or customers in the past. Doing this ensures interest, at the very least, in what you can offer, and possibly convince people to download your app or sign up for your classes in the future.

Our marketing collaboration tool allows you to take care of all stages of the funnel; from mapping and planning to live analytics, we have you covered! Sign up for a free account today or get in touch with us to learn more.