So how do you ensure buyers are moving through your funnel smoothly without the aid of sales? It requires a strategy that is well planned, automated, and measured.
A viable B2B funnel first finds your ideal buyer, then attracts that buyer to your funnel asset (website). From there, the website user experience and content strategy are at play to convert these buyers into enthusiastic hand-raisers and book sales calls. Woot woot.
Sounds straightforward enough, yes? It is. The work in funnel development is in the craft of content, communication, copy, media buying, channel development, user experience, design, and automation. Not every organization has a production team. That’s where Orogamis comes in.
Personas are not only integral to funnel development they are foundational to every program at Orogamis. Without them, we are left to make best guesses from industry standards and trends.
When we know the buyer persona intimately we discover what channels they are active in. Knowing pain points empowers copy and content to pack a punch. And listening to your personas enables product development to dovetail solutions to your customers’ needs. Other factors, like position, demographics, and experience influence what type of media goes into production; i.e. print, digital, video, chat, SMS, etc.
Channel development is a mix of paid, earned, and owned channels that your brand's campaign messaging is pushed through. What channels will create your final channel mix? This will depend on budget, timeline, and overall goals; generally speaking: search, social, outreach, periodicals, and partners.
A B2B website is a viable entity representing your organization 24 hours 7 days a week. While you are sleeping or in another timezone your website is greeting buyers, revealing relevant content, carving out mindshare, and illuminating the path to request a meeting with sales.
Leads resulting from your funnel, aka sales-enablement engine, are informed, knowledgeable, and likely a fan of your company. Not to mention, much of the heavy lifting has been done setting up sales to smash a home run.
Where would we be today without automation? It has changed the realm of business forever, and though there are dos and don’ts, automation is here to stay. With automation, the B2B funnel may achieve scalability. Manual functions like chat, email, lead routing, and much more are now automated freeing up your human resources.
Sticking with the engine analogy, content is the fuel this engine runs on. Today, content means more than the written word, it’s video, and podcasting, it’s interactive experiences and chatbots. Content strategy will look different for every company but one thing remains: B2B buyers require more content to make an informed buying decision than ever before.
Why? Look back at the headline in the introduction; buyers are not talking to sales first. They are researching first. And there’s a good chance the buyer researching isn’t the only buyer in the purchase decision. It’s normal to have 2-5 personas in sales meetings; all with unique needs, questions, and agendas.
B2B funnels change and evolve over time. The market needs change, new features are released, and products sunset. The same goes for your baseline KPI metrics. It’s known that campaigns and content lose their impact over time; experience gets outdated or becomes the status quo. Keeping content, campaigns, and experience fresh helps meet internal expectations and keep projections healthy.
Looking through the lens of experience of those you invite to your doorstep, IRL or digitally, places your feet in the shoes of your audience. This helps your organization align with and deepen the connection you have with your customer.
Why should they pay attention to you and not someone else? Experience.
Why should they buy your solution and not another? Experience.
Why do they stay with you year after year? Experience.
