The idea of a marketing funnel isn’t new. It was developed by St Elmo Lewis, a prominent advertising pioneer, about 130 years ago. For its delivery time, this model was fresh and innovative since it was focused on the customer and their needs. Marketers caught it up enthusiastically and today’s B2B marketing funnel stages are based on the same theory.
You are reading this article, so chances are you have a B2B business that sells a product. Since you live in the Internet era, your company has a website ready to serve your customers. You have successfully found a whole lot of leads by using a free email finder or similar software. But do you have a coordinated strategy of driving them to purchase?
This is exactly what a well-thought-out marketing funnel strategy can do for you. How can you craft one and ensure your company’s effective sales performance? Follow this blog and learn the basics of marketing funnels, how their stages work, and which steps you have to take to move from finding leads with your email extractor for Chrome to closed deals with them.
How to Create a B2B Sales Funnel?
Before you can answer this question, you should understand the essence of a purchase funnel. You will come across its multiple versions, but all of them comprise four classical elements of the 1898’s model of St Elmo Lewis. As the below picture displays, typical B2B marketing funnel stages are:
- Awareness;
- Interest;
- Decision;
- Action.
It all starts when your leads get to know your brand. Today’s technical means and such a unique social network as LinkedIn allow you to generate heaps of potential customers. (If still needing some guidance on how to do it, read this GetProspect review.) But only a small number of them will actually buy your product.
There are numerous researches in this respect, but most of them give figures asserting that you will be able to hammer out a deal with about 10%-15% of your leads. And how much time and effort you will have to spend to reach this level of productivity!
A perfectly thought-out B2B marketing funnel template in its turn will take your leads through each stage in the most efficient way and make them do a deal. So, let’s take it easy and go over all the stages with the best practices you can adapt to them.
Stage 1. Awareness
At the awareness stage, your lead gets info about your company and products. They may have questions or search for a certain solution for their specific problem. Your brand might be this solution, but knowing their email and reassuring them about it is only half the battle.
At the moment, the prospect of purchase is clouded. And this is why you need a working digital marketing funnel strategy not to get stuck in an ever-cold age. There is at least one step to improve your chances to warm up your leads:
#1 Supply Your Leads with Proper Content
You have to introduce yourself to potential customers in the most creative way. Gone are the days when it was enough to post an extended article carrying the full list of your strengths on the website. This will now look like starting to date a girl by presenting her with a no-picture book of your bio – a catastrophe since the reality is that most visitors spend less than 40 seconds on your writing. But do not rush to short-cut it to this limit. Instead, fill your site with enough content like infographics, educative videos, live streaming, etc. Be sure to share this content across all relevant social platforms, including Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and such likes.
Stage 2. Interest
Among all the B2B sales funnel stages, the Interest stage might be the most crucial – or at least decisive – for getting in touch with leads. Here, they show interest in your brand, product, or service, and you have to stir it up.
#2 Become Aware of The Leads’ Needs
Having enough high-quality content is a cornerstone of a successful sales funnel B2B businesses can create. It will attract more clients-to-be, of course. But not only this. You will be able to analyze their activities both on your website and on other platforms. There are analytics tools that will provide you with enough data and answers to the following questions:
- What is this lead looking for?
- What are their pain points?
- Which is the best solution for their problem?
When you have found responses, you can offer effective solutions for your potential customer’s problem. It will be much easier for your reps to create the right email and thus drive the lead to purchase.
Stage 3. Decision
Now your lead is a footstep from purchasing a product of yours. You have piles of videos and webinars, so why bother with all these B2B marketing funnel stages any more? But actually, there’s still work to do.
#3 Show How Effective Your Solution Is
Now use the appropriate means you have to show that you understand your lead’s need, you can solve the exact problem, your product or service will be the best solution to it, etc. Webinars, case studies, or whatever means should display how you are going to cope with the task or how you have managed to solve it recently.
Stage 4. Action
Your customer is ready to pay money for your product. But are your reps ready for closing a deal? You only can say ‘Yes’ when they have enough instruments to urge the customer to make their final decision.
#4 Make Your Reps Capable of Convincing
It would be a pity to go through all the B2B marketing funnel stages and fail at the final. So, to crown your job with success, ensure your reps have the product demos, lists of incentives, the same old case study showing how it all works, and which benefits it will bring to your customer.
Do not forget that a closed bargain does not always mean the end of the partnership. In fact, it shouldn’t mean it. At this stage, you have the right to ask for a referral in particular and ensure non-stop communication with your customer in general. This success should serve as the basis for further progress.
Final Word
Take recent research like the 2021 B2B Ecommerce Market Report and you will find similar conclusions in them. B2B businesses will continue to grow; however, the digital customer and eCommerce strategies of how to satisfy their desires will play the central role.
Bringing your leads through your B2B sales funnel stages is no picnic. However, you know how to work out an efficient strategy to step over them successfully now. The key approach here is to use various digital tools and means for finding and exploring your targeted audience and keeping them engaged in purchasing your brand.
