Optimize Productivity with Marketing Funnels

People Don’t Buy from Businesses. They Buy from People They Know, Like, and Trust.

“Hey there. My water pump went out on my vehicle. Can I borrow your car?”

Odds are good if I walked up to you and asked you that question, you would say “Nope, not gonna happen.”

That’s unfortunate for me. You see, my water pump actually did go out on my vehicle a few weeks ago. I felt completely landlocked.

However, I did have a friend who told me if I needed a ride, she would give me one. And, if I needed to borrow her vehicle, I could.

Now, that’s not something she would do for just anybody. The only reason she was willing to take that kind of risk with me is because she knows me, likes me, and trusts me.

And the key word there is risk.

Anytime you are trying to make a sale to potential client, you are asking them to take a risk on you. When we think about it that way, it becomes common sense to say that we have to earn their trust first.

From a marketing standpoint, that’s all a marketing funnel really is: it’s an ongoing series of engagements that helps potential clients to learn that you are trustworthy and safe. In other words, it’s about building up a quality relationship.

But, here’s the thing: Because of the way marketing funnels precisely pair up portions of your audience with just the right content, they optimize productivity. 

The Buyer’s Journey and Funnels

Recently, in a previous article, I talked about the buyer’s journey when creating content. Now, I want to talk about it with regards to funnels and how they optimize productivity.

Awareness Phase

During this phase, the buyer is becoming aware of the fact that they have a problem. They’re also learning to identify the problem. Only after they know what they’re dealing with can they move on to the next phase. For example, if you are not getting the number of leads and clients you think you should be, you may determine that you have a problem with your marketing.

Consideration Phase

Once the buyer can name and understands their problem, they can look for a solution. Of course, there are a lot of ways to address a problem, and at this phase their primary task is to narrow it down. To carry on with our previous example, once you’ve decided that you have a problem with your marketing, you need to find out what options you have to address that. You might need a new website, a marketing system, marketing coaching, or simply build up your marketing book library.

Decision Phase

After having narrowed down how to move forward, you need to decide who you’re going to work with. By this time, you’ve usually focused your efforts on a short list, and you need to look through what they offer to see who can best meet your needs.

Loyal Customer Phase

I did not mention this phase in my previous article. Today, however, I’m focusing on funnels and how they optimize productivity. So, now it’s time to emphasize that a funnel system does not end with the sale. It would be a mistake to think of a funnel system as a 100-meter dash that ends with a finish line. Instead, try thinking of it more like a never-ending relay race. Once you reach the end of one portion, that simply starts the next.

In the same sense, once someone has made a purchase from you (even if it’s your biggest package), you want to keep them in your funnel system so that you can continue to nurture your relationship and continue to make sales to them.

It will help if you remember that your funnel system as less about making a sale and more about continually strengthening a relationship that might lead to a sale. If you focus too much on the sale itself you can easily get ahead of the relationship-building process. As long as you continue to nurture relationships specifically with your ideal clients, the sales will just happen.

Rather than getting into this too much, I’m going to point you toward a fantastic resource. Heather has created her Get Leads & Clients Master Class which is free to view. I strongly recommend you take the time to watch that because it is a fantastic system for any service-based business.

Marketing Funnels Help You Target Specific Phases of the Buyer’s Journey with Your Marketing

Once you know the phases of the Buyer’s Journey, you can start creating marketing content to address each one. This will naturally optimize productivity. Let’s look at a Facebook audience as a good example of how this can work. For the sake of the example, I assume you are a marketing and sales company.  

The Awareness Phase

Let’s first think about the people who are not following you, but who fit your ideal client profile. It’s probably best just to assume not only that they don’t know who you are and what you offer, but also that they have a problem in the first place. Maybe they are doing their own marketing themselves (or what they consider to be “marketing”). More than likely, they are spending a ton of time and energy trying to learn everything they can about how to get their products and services in front of people. 

This audience (those in the Awareness Phase) is perfect for the “Intro to Marketing” blog articles. Because they struggle to understand what they need to do, any insight you offer becomes immensely valuable. You can write articles that help them to understand what they are up against. In order to get those articles in front of them, you can create targeted Facebook ads. 

The Consideration Phase

If that audience finds value in what they read, they are likely to want more. They may follow you on Facebook, or they may even sign up for your newsletter. Overall, the benefit for them is—thanks to your help—they are now in a position to determine where they want to direct their energy. They have gone from feeling lost to having a sense of direction. 

I like to assume that people who are following your Facebook page are a warmer audience. More than likely, they know they have a marketing problem, and they know there are different ways to tackle it (which puts them in the Consideration Phase). 

I like to focus on simple, yet powerful, products here. These potential customers are ready to dip their toes in various waters to see what feels best to them. It’s a perfect time to promote ebooks that cover a variety of different topics. If you charge for these, it’s probably best to keep the prices low. After all, once you start asking for money, you start asking them to take a risk. Many people are willing to invest a small amount, but larger price tags will scare them off. You want your audience to experience no or minimal risk at this stage. 

The Decision Phase

Once they start consuming your materials and find value in them, they will start to identify your brand with their much-needed solution. 

Eventually, some of that warm audience will start to realize the extent to which the right help can catapult them past their competition. At that point, this group is hot and ready to hire someone to work with them as they develop their business (which brings them to the Decision Phase). 

The content you write for this audience is designed to demonstrate that you have a solution that is better than your competition’s. This is where you bring in the testimonials (which are written by past and current clients). You could also highlight case studies, or “success stories” (which are written by you with the permission of the former client). And you want to make sure to reference and display any awards or prestigious affiliations you have, such as working with a Fortune 500 company. At this point, the potential client is ready to buy, they just need to know why they should choose you. 

Have you ever heard this saying: “Until people work with you, they don’t know how good you are. They only know how good your marketing is”? After potential clients have decided that you’re worth the risk and have turned into paying clients, they now truly know what it’s like to work with you.

This opens up a whole new door possibility. Make sure to tell them about all the new products and services you have coming out. Perhaps you’ve already covered information that could help them through your services in the past, but having a tangible ebook to remind them of what to do can be incredibly valuable. As they see it in your promotions, they may think, “I need that as a reference.” And even if it takes them a while to buy something new, you want to keep them informed about new opportunities because they are in the elite group who knows for sure that they can indeed trust you. When you want to optimize productivity, being able to target this group becomes extremely helpful.

Why Do Funnels Work So Well to Optimize Productivity?

It’s because they are a powerful way to enter into relationships with many people all at once. If you create your marketing funnel system right, you will target the right people with the right content. That means more sales with less work. 

No more throwing spaghetti against the wall day after day just to see what sticks. Instead, plan your path and strategically follow it.