I love the image of a funnel when we’re talking about marketing and sales.
The sales cycle only applies to sales. The 4Ps only work for marketing. But the funnel is where marketing and sales collide.
In the funnel, you have a framework for offering relevant communications to generate leads and move them smoothly toward the sale. Offer those communications on your website, combine them with strong SEO tactics, and you’ve turned your website into a powerful lead-generating machine.
What kind of offers do you need?
Top-of-the-funnel offers
When visitors first arrive at your website, it’s probably because they’re searching for information. So you’ll need educational pieces (tagged with appropriate long-tail keywords) to draw them into the funnel.
These are great top-of-funnel offers:
- White papers
- E-books
- Special reports
- Statistics
- Contests
- Give-aways
Middle-of-the-funnel offers
To nurture leads and keep them coming back for more, you’ll want to talk about benefits. Introduce your product and build its value with offers like these:
- Webinars
- Case studies
- Sell sheets
Bottom-of-the-funnel offers
This is the stage where your prospects are finally ready to talk to a salesperson. They’re deeply interested in your product (or solving their problem). And they usually want features, not fluff. Your job is to turn interest into desire.
Your best offer will be personalized:
- Demonstrations
- Consultations
The trick is to pack your website with plenty of offers. Of course, to do this you’ll need to create content that you can build your offers around.
What content should you offer?
Consider your firm’s services and product. Write best-practice pieces, how-tos and think pieces that show why you do what you do.
Consider your prospect’s frequently asked questions. Write pieces aimed to reduce questions and demonstrate the value of choosing your product or services.
Consider the marketplace. What sets you apart from your competition? What do you do that no one else does? Write content that makes you the best choice for your services.
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How are you doing at providing great offers on your website (and off)? Which offers have gotten the best responses? What are the challenges that keep you from being able to provide great offers?
Need help creating content for your offers? I write (and ghostwrite) content that will fill your funnel to overflowing. If that’s your need, contact me today for a complimentary consultation.
[image © Julesunlimited | Dreamstime.com]
