As the number of digital tactics and channels increase, and the approach becomes progressively customer-focused, the sales funnel has evolved to meet these changing dynamics. The updated funnel isn’t just about capturing leads and selling, but a lead-nurturing pathway to conversion and retention through contextual engagement.
According to a Demand Gen Report, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales leads at 33% lower cost. As one of our core propositions, lead nurturing and conversion optimisation for the financial service sector means ensuring we need to consistently innovate in the tactics and channels we recommend to our clients.
In the crowded financial services marketing landscape, our inbound methodology and techniques put the customer at the core of every outreach plan and is centred on helping our clients solve their digital challenges in the fast moving landscape of digital lead generation.
The B2B sales funnel is more open-ended than the traditional model, with a continuous mission of attracting, engaging and delighting prospects; recognising that converting a customer doesn’t end at the sales stage but continues through building a personal connection with content.
The B2B sales funnel now includes four key elements with an initial focus on lead generation within the Attract stage, using our inbound methodology to build trust, credibility and momentum, adding value at every step of the customer’s journey:
First you need to get the attention of your target audience. At the top of the funnel, we build brand awareness through understanding potential customer’s pain points and challenges. By distributing compelling blogs, website copy, social media posts and ads that solve your customer’s core challenges, you can set yourself as a knowledge base and easily turn users browsing the internet, into visitors and eventually customers. Our mission is to drive traffic to our client’s website, and then help them to turn that traffic into sales that enables business growth.
Once we have gained the customer’s interest and potential trust, we use digital automation and contextual content with Call to Actions (CTAs), forms and email to nurture them throughout the buying funnel.
Marketing automation and lead scoring helps to ensure a customer is individually targeted with relevant content that is specifically targeted to the relevant position within the buying funnel which helps to build a relationship with your brand.
Once a prospect is a customer, we work with clients to maintain that relationship with engaging content that promotes loyalty supporting upsells and renewals, and ultimately referrals to more prospects. These new prospects then loop new potential customers into the attraction and awareness phase of the sales funnel, providing a regular and strong lead generation mechanism for our clients.