Many online business owners struggle with lead generation. It is an ongoing challenge to keep your sales pipeline full without having a large marketing budget or team of employees devoted to the task. Lead generation can be quite challenging if you don’t have a solid system for gathering contact information from potential customers and nurturing them until they are ready to buy. However, there are plenty of simple tactics that any entrepreneur can use to generate high-quality leads and nurture those leads into paying customers.
In this article, we will discuss:
- What Is A Lead Generation Funnel?
- How Do You Establish One?
- The Components Of The Funnel and How To Build Your Own Lead Generation Funnel With These Components?
What Is A Lead Generation Funnel?
A lead generation funnel is a straightforward process that moves potential customers through the sales pipeline until they become paying clients. These funnels usually consist of five distinct stages:
- Awareness Stage,
- Interest Stage,
- Education Stage,
- Decision Stage, and
- Action Stage.
Leads typically start filling your funnel in the awareness stage. There are several ways to generate leads for your sales funnel from these different stages, including pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, and email marketing campaigns. Whatever tactics you choose will depend on your skillset and the nature of your business or product offering. The following sections explain how you can use these tactics to improve your lead generation process.
How Do You Establish One?
You need to know what you are trying to achieve before putting a funnel in place. If you are serious about generating more leads, then it is essential that you set SMART goals for each stage of the funnel.
Identify The Ideal Customer Profile
It can be easier said than done, but if you want to generate high-quality leads that convert into paying customers, you must define an ideal customer profile and use this as a reference point when drawing up your business plan.
- What sort of demographic do they fall within?
- What problems are they looking to solve?
- How much will they be willing to spend?
- What is their level of technical expertise?
By simplifying your customer’s wants and needs, you will be in a better position to move them through the sales funnel.
Gathering The Contact Information
Once you have a strong understanding of who your ideal customers are, it becomes much easier to gather their contact information from different sources.
One great way to gather contact information is by using a lead capture form on your website. This form can be as simple as a name and email address, or it can include more detailed information such as phone number, company name, job title, and so on.
You can also gather contact information from potential customers by attending networking events and trade shows or conducting online surveys. The key is to make it easy for potential customers to provide their contact information in a way that is convenient for them.
Building Out Your Funnel & Using Marketing Automation
As mentioned above, there are five stages in every lead generation funnel: awareness stage, interest stage, education stage, decision stage, and action stage. It is important that moving prospects through these different stages, you need a system that can collect their contact information and move them through this process efficiently. Marketing automation is the perfect solution for this problem as it allows you to easily build out funnels and automate just about every stage of your marketing campaign.
The Components Of The Funnel and How To Build Your Own Lead Generation Funnel With These Components?
Awareness Stage
In this initial stage of the funnel, you are trying to gain visibility. You want potential customers who have never heard of your products or services before to know who you are and what solutions you provide. This can be done with pay-per-click ads on Google AdWords or Facebook ads that direct users to a blog post or landing page with a video that explains how your product or service solves a specific problem.
Interest Stage
This is the second stage in a lead generation funnel. In this stage, you need to convince your leads that they have a problem, and by using your product or service, it can be solved.
Education Stage
Here, you provide more information on how your products or services solve their problems. Some of the best examples of these educational materials include blog posts, ebooks, infographics, or webinars with an expert who provides more insight into potential solutions to the problem at hand.
Decision Stage
Once leads know about your company and what you offer, they will likely want to do some research before making a decision. Here you should provide forms that allow leads to rate different features of your product or service so that they can narrow down the best match.
Action Stage
Not everyone who visits your website or opt-in to your lead magnet will buy from you right away. Many potential customers will need some time to mull things over. This is why it is important to set up a nurturing email series that allows you to slowly move them through the buying process. You can also automate this using marketing automation tools that send out email drip campaigns in accordance with when someone has joined one of your specific landing pages or opted-in for one of your free offer ebooks etc.
Why Is It So Important?
Not only does building out a strong lead generation funnel increase conversions rates, but it gives businesses an edge when it comes to staying ahead of the competition. So if you are looking for a more efficient way to market your business, set up marketing automation tools and start building out your lead generation funnel today.
Conclusion: What Is A Lead Generation Funnel & How Do You Establish One?
Marketing automation platforms have made it much easier to build out a lead generation funnel where you want potential customers to go when they land on your website. For more information about marketing automation and how it can help your business stay in touch with the right contacts at the right time, check out this blog post.
What Is Your Opinion?
Do you think marketing automation can help businesses get ahead of their competition? Let me know in the comments below.
