Importance of B2B marketing and sales funnels

Hi there! Today I want to talk about why B2B businesses need a marketing funnel.

There are lots of different reasons why you need a B2B marketing funnel. 

It maps out the various stages of the journey as a potential customer, moves through the marketing and sales process. 

In simpler terms, it tracks the progress of a visitor to becoming a prospect and eventually converting into a loyal and paying customer. 

I speak with many business owners, coaches, and consultants each week, and during our discovery calls, I explained the need for a clear marketing and sales funnel. 

I ask if they have a customer journey, from prospecting to decision-making strategy in place?

As the B2B customer journey can be complicated. 

Prospects have to work through each prior stage to reach the consideration stage. 

They need specific information, at specific points in the journey to do this. 

The stages of a B2B marketing funnel. 

Someone who is interacting with your brand for the first time has different needs than someone who is a regular site visitor.

They'll have different questions and expect different things from you. 

How do you make sure that you deliver the right content or experience at the right time? 

Top of funnel awareness and attention. 

For many businesses today, the top of funnel is characterized by. 

1. Brand building. 

2. Content marketing 

3. SEO. 

4. Paid advertising, 

5. Social media posts. 

6. Influencer marketing. 

 7. Video marketing. 

At this point in the marketing funnel, your potential customers have a question or pain point that needs to be solved, but there is no relationship between you and your client yet. 

You need to grab their attention, and offer them a solution. 

It's not easy to do this in crowded spaces like social media platforms. 

This is why having a clear marketing funnel is so helpful, and it will build awareness of your brand and set the platform to grow relationships. 

Interest and consideration in the middle of the funnel.

B2B sales are rarely made at the first touch point. 

On average, it takes eight touch points to make a sale, which shows you've got plenty of marketing to do. 

You have to build a relationship and create trust before the businesses sign on the dotted line. 

The middle of the funnel is where you build interest and position yourself as a trustworthy partner that can help solve pain points, to do this you've got to demonstrate that you understand what the clients' or prospects' problems are. 

You care about the prospect's problems, you have a solution to those problems. 

 Business owners need targeted educational content to point potential buyers in the direction of solutions to their problems. 

You'll give away lots of information here, but don't lose sight of the ultimate goal. 

Persuading prospects that the quickest, easiest, most effective way to solve their problem is with what you're selling. 

Bottom of the funnel intention and action. 

At the bottom of the marketing funnel, the goal is clear, get the conversation. 

You've put a lot of work into getting people here and now it's time to capitalize, to do this, you will want to be direct with strong calls to action that lead to purchase pages. 

Thanks to your help, the company now understands their problem, and sees that they need help in solving it. 

To make sure they choose you, here are a few points to consider. 

• Provide case studies. 
• Provide comparison guides. 
• Host webinars. 
• Provide demos of your services or products. 
• Free trials. 
• Optimize landing pages. 
• And make sure you have social proof. 

The top and middle of the funnel are designed to get people to the bottom of the funnel. 

But it's here that you'll drive it home and complete that sale. 

Post funnel. 

This is an area that a lot of businesses are not considering, which is the post funnel. 

A B2B marketing funnel doesn't just finish when you make the sale. 

You've worked hard to build a relationship with these people. 

So you want to maximise its value. To do this, you need to have a firm understanding of your post-purchase marketing. 

Repeat customers are nine times more likely to convert. 

So this is crucial, in the step towards driving higher ROI. 

This is where you will continue to engage with the customer, ensuring they're getting the most out of your product or service and also solving any problems or issues they may have. 

This could also be a time where you look to upsell or cross sell other services you may provide. 

• Demonstrating how other products or services may work better together.
• highlighting the features of upgraded packages and communicating new improvements you're making to your products and services. 

The goal is to keep the conversation going, so when the customer decides they may need something more, you're the first business that comes to mind. 

So, in conclusion, B2B marketing and sales funnels, are a complete guide to how your business builds a customer base and makes sales. Ultimately, business is about making sales. 

You'll never convert every prospect, but making small improvements to your conversion rate can transform your business. 

Your B2B marketing and sales funnels show you how to do this by providing you and your team with a clear picture of what action they need to take in any given situation. 

Once you map out the process, it becomes easier to track results and improve the performance. 

The B2B customer journey is complicated, but it's much easier to navigate with a good B2B marketing and sales funnel. 

So, how are you incorporating your B2B marketing sales funnel into your business plan?