Bridging the Gap: How to Align Marketing and Sales for Better Conversions

To achieve success in modern digital B2B marketing, the alignment of marketing and sales teams is no longer optional—it’s a necessity. Misalignment between these critical functions can result in wasted resources, poor lead quality, and missed revenue opportunities.

Despite the clear benefits, achieving harmony between marketing and sales remains challenging for many B2B organizations. This disconnect can stem from siloed teams, unclear roles, and conflicting priorities. 

This post will guide you through what marketing and sales alignment is, why it’s essential for B2B success, and practical steps to foster collaboration for limited ROI.

What is B2B Marketing and Sales Alignment?

Marketing and sales alignment, sometimes amusingly called “smarketing,” refers to unifying the goals, tools, and strategies of” these two “departments to deliver a seamless buyer experience and maximize revenue.

When aligned, these teams work as a single unit to identify, nurture, and convert leads, significantly improving pipeline efficiency and overall performance.

Why is Marketing and Sales Alignment Crucial for B2B Conversions?

Marketing and sales alignment is the foundation for successful B2B lead generation and conversion. Without it, businesses risk losing valuable prospects due to disjointed messaging, inconsistent processes, or a lack of understanding between teams. 

The benefits of alignment extend beyond just better communication—they directly impact conversion rates and revenue in a couple of critical ways:

Improved Lead Quality: Marketing can focus on generating leads that meet sales criteria, reducing wasted time on unqualified prospects.

Higher Conversion Rates: Aligned teams work together to nurture leads effectively, resulting in smoother transitions through the sales funnel.

Enhanced Customer Experience: A unified strategy ensures consistent messaging, making the buyer journey seamless and engaging.

Common Challenges in Achieving Alignment

Achieving alignment between marketing and sales is crucial for improving conversions, but it’s often easier said than done. The following challenges may prevent organizations from fully optimizing their lead generation and conversion efforts:

Miscommunication and Siloed Departments

One of the most significant obstacles to alignment is miscommunication between the marketing and sales teams. These teams often operate in silos, with limited cross-departmental interaction. As a result, each team may develop its own approach, strategies, and language.

  • Different Tools and Processes: Marketing teams may use automation tools and content management systems that sales teams aren’t familiar with, while sales might rely on CRMs and lead-tracking tools that marketing has little insight into.
  • Lack of Knowledge Sharing: When marketing and sales aren’t actively collaborating, valuable insights from one department may not reach the other. Marketing might create content based on industry trends and buyer personas that sales teams don’t utilize. On the other hand, sales teams can miss out on understanding the leads’ needs and pain points that marketing uncovers through their research and content engagement.
  • Inefficient Handoff Process: The disconnect can lead to bottlenecks where leads are poorly handed off between marketing and sales. Sales may struggle to engage with leads who aren’t yet sales-ready, or they may waste time on unqualified prospects, which reduces conversion efficiency.

This breakdown in communication ultimately results in lost opportunities and frustration for both teams. Regular, structured meetings and shared platforms help bridge the gap and enable more effective collaboration.

Differing Goals and Metrics

Marketing and sales teams typically operate with different sets of priorities, and this divergence can create friction.

  • Marketing’s Focus on Lead Volume: Management may measure the marketing department’s performance based on the number of leads it generates. This is an important metric, but it doesn’t always reflect the quality of those leads. Marketing teams may focus on casting a wide net, aiming for high lead volumes without taking into account how these leads align with the sales team’s target audience.
  • Sales’ Focus on Conversions: On the other hand, sales teams care most about converting leads into customers. They are typically judged on deal closures and revenue generation. If they are handed leads that aren’t well-qualified, the conversion process becomes inefficient, frustrating both the sales team and potential customers.

The solution is to set common goals aligning both teams’ efforts, such as joint KPIs that track conversion rates from lead generation to deal closure. 

Inconsistent Messaging

When sales and marketing are not aligned, messaging can become fragmented, confusing prospects and weakening the brand’s overall message.

  • Inconsistent Content and Communication: Marketing may produce content such as blog posts, landing pages, or email campaigns with a particular message or tone, but if sales teams aren’t aware of these resources or aren’t using them consistently, the message can become inconsistent.
  • Brand Disconnect: In the worst-case scenario, these inconsistencies may cause a breakdown in the buyer’s trust in the company’s brand. If a prospect receives conflicting messages or feels like the sales approach doesn’t align with their previous interactions, they may lose confidence in the business altogether.

To avoid this, marketing and sales must agree on the core messaging and value propositions that should be communicated at every stage of the buyer journey. 

Taking Steps to Achieve Marketing and Sales Alignment

Overcoming challenges requires a structured approach that fosters collaboration and ensures that both teams work toward shared goals. Here are vital steps to align marketing and sales for better B2B conversions:

Create a Unified Buyer Persona

Start with a shared understanding of your ideal customer. Both teams should contribute insights to develop comprehensive buyer personas, including demographics, pain points, and decision-making factors.

Set Common Goals and Metrics

Define success metrics that both teams can rally behind. For example, instead of measuring marketing by lead volume alone, focus on metrics like marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) that convert into sales-qualified leads (SQLs). 

Develop a Lead Scoring System

Agree on what constitutes a qualified lead and implement a lead-scoring system to prioritize prospects. Integrated marketing automation tools with your CRM can help assign scores based on criteria like engagement, company size, or budget, ensuring sales focus on the most promising opportunities.

Align Messaging and Content

Ensure consistency in messaging across all stages of the buyer journey. Marketing should equip sales with content tailored to different touchpoints, such as case studies for prospects in the consideration stage or ROI calculators for those closer to making a decision.

Streamline Internal Processes

Leverage tools that bridge the gap between marketing and sales. CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and collaboration tools like Slack or Asana can facilitate information sharing and keep teams aligned. A funnel audit can help identify the best tools and processes for seamless collaboration.

Regular Communication and Collaboration

Schedule recurring meetings between marketing and sales to review performance, discuss challenges, and refine strategies. Incorporate feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement and adaptability to changing market dynamics.

Measuring the Success of Marketing and Sales Alignment

How do you know if your efforts to align marketing and sales are paying off? Tracking the right metrics is crucial. Here are the key metrics to monitor:

Lead Conversion Rates: Measure the percentage of MQLs that become SQLs and eventually close as customers.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Assess how alignment impacts the efficiency of your customer acquisition efforts.

Sales Cycle Length: A shorter sales cycle often indicates better collaboration and lead nurturing.

Revenue Growth: The ultimate goal—alignment should contribute to measurable increases in revenue.

FunnelEnvy’s analytics tools can help you track your results, providing actionable insights into the performance of your marketing and sales alignment initiatives.

Moving Ahead to Align B2B Marketing and Sales

Marketing and sales alignment is essential for B2B organizations looking to boost conversions, streamline processes, and drive revenue growth. Achieving alignment may seem daunting, but it’s a journey worth taking. With a structured approach and the right support, your teams can work together to achieve remarkable results.

Are you struggling to align your marketing and sales teams? FunnelEnvy’s Full Funnel Conversion Audit is designed to identify gaps in your strategy and provide actionable insights to improve alignment and maximize ROI. Schedule your audit today and start turning your leads into revenue.

By |2024-11-27T22:15:09-08:00December 9th, 2024|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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Creating Mobile-Friendly B2B Lead Gen Forms for Better Conversions

Mobile devices are indispensable tools for professionals to research, communicate, and make purchasing decisions in today’s digital landscape. B2B SaaS companies are no exception. Today, mobile-first strategies are an essential part of the marketing tools mix.

The goal is clear: ensure your lead generation forms are fully optimized for mobile users to capture more leads for sales teams and improve conversion rates. This blog post will guide you through the best practices for creating mobile-friendly B2B lead gen forms that can turn mobile traffic into valuable leads.

Why Mobile Optimization Matters for Lead Gen Forms

As mobile usage continues to dominate the digital space, B2B audiences now rely on their smartphones and tablets to perform tasks traditionally done on desktops. 

This trend means that if you don’t optimize your lead forms for mobile, you’re more likely to lose out on a substantial portion of potential leads.

Impact on Mobile Lead Generation Conversion Rates

The consequences of non-optimized forms are stark. Contact forms that aren’t mobile-friendly can lead to frustration, high abandonment rates, and, ultimately, missed opportunities. A form that requires excessive scrolling, has tiny buttons, or demands too much information can quickly deter a mobile user from completing it.

Contact forms that aren't mobile-friendly can lead to frustration, high abandonment rates, and, ultimately, missed opportunities. Share on X

On the other hand, mobile-optimized lead forms are simple, quick, and intuitive, significantly reducing drop-offs and increasing the likelihood of conversion.

By optimizing for mobile, you’re catering to a growing segment of your audience and positioning your lead gen strategy to capture and convert leads more effectively, directly impacting your bottom line.

Designing Mobile-Friendly Lead Gen Forms

When it comes to lead generation forms, less is more, especially on mobile. The key is to minimize the number of fields required to complete the form, focusing only on the essential information needed to qualify a lead. 

Every additional field is a potential friction point that could cause a user to abandon the form. By keeping it simple and concise, you make it easier for users to complete the form quickly, which can lead to higher conversion rates.

Responsive Design

A genuinely mobile-friendly form adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes and orientations. Responsive design ensures that your forms look and function well on any device, whether a smartphone, tablet, or smaller desktop window. 

This adaptability is crucial because it allows users to interact with your form without pinching, zooming, or scrolling excessively, which can lead to a poor user experience. Investing in responsive design helps ensure your forms are accessible and easily used across all devices.

Touch-Friendly Elements

Mobile users interact with their devices primarily through touch, so designing forms with large, easy-to-click buttons and fields is essential. Small buttons or closely spaced fields can lead to frustration, especially on smaller screens. Ensure your submit buttons are prominently displayed and large enough to easily tap with a finger. 

Additionally, ensure adequate form field spacing to avoid accidental clicks, which can cause users to leave the form incomplete.

Best Practices for Lead Generation Form UX on Mobile

Clear and Concise Instructions

Clear and straightforward instructions are critical in guiding users through the form completion process. Mobile screens offer limited space, so it’s essential to communicate the necessary information without overwhelming the user. 

Use simple, direct language, and consider placing brief instructions near each field to help users understand what’s required. This approach reduces the chances of users making mistakes or feeling uncertain, which can lead to higher lead generation form completion rates.

Auto-Complete and Input Masks

Speed is critical when it comes to mobile form completion. Implementing auto-complete features, where the form suggests or automatically fills in information based on the user’s previous inputs or browser data, can significantly reduce the time it takes to complete the form.

 Input masks, which format data as the user types (such as automatically formatting phone numbers), further streamline the process by reducing errors and ensuring that users enter data correctly. 

These tools enhance the user experience and increase the likelihood that users will complete the lead capture forms.

Progressive Disclosure

To avoid overwhelming users with too many fields, consider progressive disclosure, which involves breaking the form into multiple steps or sections. This technique allows users to focus on one part of the form at a time, making the process more manageable and less intimidating. 

Multi-step forms can guide users through the process in a logical, step-by-step manner, improving completion rates and reducing the chances of abandonment.

Testing and Optimization for Mobile

To maximize conversions, you must continuously test different versions of your lead generation forms on mobile. A/B testing allows you to compare two form variations to see which performs better. Test elements like form design, field placement, button size, and CTA wording specifically for mobile clients. 

Monitoring Mobile Analytics

Data drives improvement, so tracking your forms’ performance on mobile is essential. Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor metrics such as form completion rates, bounce rates, and user interactions on mobile. 

Pay attention to where users drop off during the form completion process; these insights can highlight areas that need adjustment. Continuously analyze this data to uncover patterns and identify opportunities for improvement. 

Continuous Iteration

Optimizing effective lead generation form templates isn’t a one-time task; it requires ongoing iteration. Regularly review user behavior and feedback to identify areas for enhancement. For instance, if users frequently abandon your form at a particular step, consider simplifying that section or providing additional guidance. 

Keep testing and refining your forms based on real-world performance data to stay ahead of evolving user expectations. This continuous improvement cycle helps you maintain high conversions and ensures your forms remain relevant and practical.

Integrating Mobile Forms with Other Digital Marketing Channels

Mobile-optimized email marketing campaigns are effective in driving traffic to your forms. Craft emails with responsive designs that look great on any device and include clear, prominent links to your forms. 

Use concise copy and strong CTAs to encourage recipients to engage with your content. By aligning your email campaigns with your mobile lead form template, you can effectively funnel more users to your forms and increase your chances of conversion.

Social Media Integration

Leverage mobile-centric social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to promote form links. Share links to your forms in posts, ads (in 2022, mobile accounted for almost 48% of B2B ad spending), and direct messages, making it easy for users to access and complete them on their phone or tablet. 

Tailor your content to each platform’s strengths—short, compelling messages on Twitter or more detailed posts on LinkedIn—to engage your target audience. Integrating your forms with social media allows you to reach a broader audience and drive more traffic to your lead-generation efforts.

SMS Marketing

SMS marketing offers a direct and effective way to drive traffic to your mobile-optimized forms. Send targeted messages with a clear CTA and a link to your form, making it easy for recipients to respond immediately. Given the high open and response rates of SMS, this channel can significantly boost your lead generation efforts. 

Integrating your lead generation forms on mobile with lead magnets and other marketing channels creates a cohesive, multi-touch strategy that maximizes your reach and drives conversions. 

Moving Ahead

Optimizing forms for mobile conversions can be detailed and complex. FunnelEnvy is here to guide you. Elevate your lead generation game in just 30 days using proven form strategies from top marketers. We offer a DFY form service that ensures that your forms are not only mobile-friendly but also tailored to maximize conversions. Contact us today to learn more.

By |2024-09-05T03:52:26-07:00September 16th, 2024|Conversion Rate Optimization, B2B|0 Comments
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How to Choose the Right SaaS CRO Partner for Your Business

With competition heating up across almost all industry verticals, it is more challenging than ever for SaaS companies to improve marketing ROI. One key strategy for achieving better results is partnering with the right Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) partner.

Navigating all the options for CRO services can be daunting for a busy B2B marketing professional. This blog post provides a comprehensive guide for choosing the right SaaS CRO partner for your business, ensuring you make an informed decision aligning with your goals and objectives.

The Basics – Why CRO Matters

At its core, CRO is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as purchasing, signing up for a trial, or filling out a contact form. It can get complex because it involves many moving parts and a range of strategies, techniques, and methodologies.

CRO is essential for several intertwined reasons:

Maximizing ROI: By improving conversions, you can extract more value from your existing website traffic and marketing efforts, leading to a higher return on investment (ROI).

Enhancing User Experience: CRO focuses on creating a seamless and intuitive user experience that encourages visitors to engage with your website and take desired actions.

Data-Driven Decision-Making: CRO relies on data analytics and testing to identify optimization opportunities, allowing for informed decision-making based on empirical evidence rather than assumptions.

Competitive Advantage: Businesses prioritizing CRO gain a competitive edge in a competitive landscape.

Examples of CRO Metrics

Some key conversion metrics to discuss with a potential CRO partner include:

  • Click-Through Rate (CTR)
  • Bounce Rate
  • Average Order Value (AOV)
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

Understanding these metrics and their impact on your business’s performance is fundamental to implementing effective CRO strategies and optimizing your conversion funnel.

Choose the Right SaaS CRO Partner

Source

By focusing on CRO basics and understanding its importance, you can make informed decisions when selecting a SaaS CRO partner and drive impactful results for your business.

Building Trust and Demonstrating Expertise

How does the right CRO partner earn your trust and demonstrate expertise? Here are vital factors to consider:

Understanding Your Business

A reputable SaaS company CRO partner should thoroughly understand your business model, target audience, and unique value proposition. This understanding goes beyond surface-level demographics and recognizes any unique aspects of your SaaS offering.

Look for partners who ask detailed questions about your customer journey, pain points, and conversion funnel. Review their case studies and success stories. 

Their ability to grasp the nuances of your business indicates a commitment to tailoring strategies that resonate with your audience and drive meaningful results.

Dealing with Messy Data

Many SaaS companies grapple with disparate data sources, incomplete datasets, and data silos. A competent CRO partner should have the expertise to seamlessly navigate messy data. 

This includes data integration across platforms, rigorous data cleaning processes, and advanced analytics capabilities. By harnessing the power of clean and accurate data, your CRO partner can provide actionable insights that fuel optimization strategies and drive conversions.

Addressing Past Unsatisfactory Experiences

If you’ve had unsatisfactory experiences with previous CRO partner programs, be sure to discuss this with potential new partners. Look for a CRO partner that acknowledges industry challenges and offers a differentiated approach. 

This approach should encompass holistic analysis, combining CRO methodologies with Marketing Operations (Ops) strategies. By aligning CRO efforts with broader marketing initiatives, you can achieve synergy across your marketing ecosystem and enhance overall performance.

Showcasing Transparency and Commitment

Transparency and commitment are foundational elements that foster trust and ensure a successful partnership with your chosen CRO provider. Here’s how to assess these crucial aspects:

Transparent CRO Methodology

Transparency begins with a clear and comprehensive methodology from your CRO partner. They should be able to articulate the strategies, tools, and techniques they employ to improve your CRO. 

Look for partners who explain their testing methodologies, such as A/B testing, multivariate testing, and user behavior analysis. Additionally, a transparent CRO partner will openly discuss the limitations of specific methods and provide insights into how they mitigate potential biases or errors in the analyses. 

This level of transparency builds trust and allows for informed decision-making based on reliable data and insights.

Choose the Right CRO Partner with a Commitment to Results

A reliable CRO partner is committed to delivering measurable results aligned with your business objectives. Look for partners who offer performance guarantees or results-based pricing models.

A reliable CRO partner is committed to delivering measurable results aligned with your business objectives. Share on X

These arrangements incentivize the CRO partner to prioritize outcomes that directly impact your bottom line, such as increased conversions, higher customer retention rates, or improved lifetime value (LTV) of customers.

Ask potential partners how they demonstrate a commitment to results. Your CRO partner should not view optimization as a one-time project but rather as a continuous process of refinement and improvement. Ask about their customer support framework, regular performance reviews, data-driven iterations, and proactive recommendations for improvement. 

By prioritizing transparency and commitment in evaluating CRO partners, you can establish a solid foundation for a collaborative and results-driven partnership. 

For example, Funnel Envy’s partner program demonstrates our commitment to results for our clients. On average, we partner with our customers for over three years—this duration. We’ve improved over 100 lead generation forms and delivered an average lift of 24% in Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).

These metrics add up to an impressive 10X average return on investment (ROI), demonstrating our commitment to driving tangible outcomes for your SaaS business.

Are you Ready to Choose the Right SaaS CRO Partner?

Choosing the right CRO partner is a pivotal decision. By prioritizing factors such as understanding your business, dealing with data effectively, showcasing transparency, and demonstrating commitment to results, you can make an informed choice that leads to improved conversions and marketing ROI.

As a trusted leader in CRO services, FunnelEnvy has prepared a Free Guide to Discover Optimization Strategies Increasing Revenue up to 250% at Top Tech Companies.

You will learn:

  • The #1 most important factor to increase website conversions
  • Why top marketers only focus on key pages to improve performance
  • Examples of exactly how top tech companies boost website revenue

Download your copy today! 

    Bonus Summary: Key Takeaways When Choosing a SaaS CRO Partner:

    CRO is essential for several reasons, including maximizing ROI, enhancing UX, data-driven decision-making, and increasing competitive advantage. 

    The following are essential capabilities of a great CRO partner:

    Understanding Your Business: Look for a partner who takes the time to understand your unique business model, target audience, and conversion funnel intricacies.

    Dealing with Messy Data: Choose a CRO partner with expertise in handling complex data environments, ensuring accurate insights and actionable recommendations.

    Addressing Past Unsatisfactory Experiences: Seek a differentiated approach that combines CRO and Marketing Ops for holistic analysis and optimized performance.

    Showcasing Transparency: Prioritize partners who are transparent about their methodologies, tools, and limitations, fostering trust and informed decision-making.

    Commitment to Results: Partner with a CRO provider that offers performance guarantees and demonstrates a long-term commitment to driving measurable results for your business.

    By |2024-05-09T22:10:01-07:00May 13th, 2024|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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    Leveraging Intent, Motivation, and Friction: FunnelEnvy’s Framework for Improving Conversions

    The struggle is real. Converting website visitors into paying customers is a common challenge for every B2B SaaS company. Today’s buyers are distracted and bombarded with information. It takes a personalized experience recognizing their intent and motivation to move prospects through the sales cycle. Not only that, but they will click away at the first sign of friction. 

    SaaS form pages have low average conversion rates relative to other assets, converting an average of .02% of paid search visitors across industries. The upside is that you get a lot of data to work with to optimize for above-average results. 

    Mapping user intent, motivation, and friction at each stage of the customer journey is the key to improving your SaaS conversion rates and surpassing industry benchmarks. 

    Then, you can identify opportunities to streamline the sign-up flow, tailor content, and drive more leads through the conversion funnel.

    Understanding the User: The 3 Conversion Buckets

    Understanding user behavior is the bedrock of successful SaaS marketing. Let’s look at three key “buckets” that influence their actions and conversion rates:

    1. Intent. What is the user’s goal when they land on your site? Are they researching a problem, comparing solutions, or ready to convert to a paying customer? Uncovering their intent allows you to deliver the most relevant information and calls to action (CTAs) to maximize trial conversion and, ultimately, paid conversion rates.

    2. Motivation. What drives the user to take action? Is it a pressing pain point, a desire for efficiency gains, or the promise of a competitive edge? By pinpointing their motivations, you can craft messaging that resonates and moves them forward in the sales process.

    3. Friction. While we can make educated guesses about intent and motivation, friction in the funnel quickly becomes painfully obvious. The good news is that it has a tangible fix.   What obstacles hinder the user’s progress and potentially increase the churn rate? 

    Are there confusing forms, unclear value propositions, a slow-loading page, or a glitchy credit card payment process? Identifying friction points is essential to streamlining the user experience and maximizing conversion rates throughout the funnel.

    In the next section, we’ll explore leveraging these “buckets” to map the customer journey and unlock reasonable SaaS conversion rates.

    Mapping the Customer Journey for SaaS Success

    While the customer journey describes a prospect’s experience at each stage of interacting with your brand, a journey map visually represents the user’s intent, motivation, and friction at each touchpoint. 

    This map allows you to identify areas for improvement and personalize the user experience for better conversions.

    Improving SaaS Conversions

    Source: Gustdebacker.com

    Here’s a breakdown of how to create a user journey map that considers all three buckets and impacts conversion optimization:

    1. Define Your Buyer Personas

    Start by segmenting your audience into buyer personas. Each persona represents an ideal customer with distinct characteristics, goals, and pain points.

    2. Outline the Customer Journey Stages

    Map out the key stages users typically navigate, from initial awareness to final conversion (e.g., landing on your website, browsing product pages, requesting a demo, signing up for a free trial, and ultimately becoming a paying customer).

    3. Plot User Intent, Motivation, and Friction at Each Stage

    For each stage, crunch the data to determine the user’s intent and motivation to see where friction exists.

    • Intent. What information are they seeking? What problem are they trying to solve?
    • Motivation. What drives them towards a free trial or paid conversion? What are their hopes and anxieties?
    • Friction. What obstacles might impede their progress? (e.g., complex navigation, lack of social proof, lengthy forms, or a confusing sign-up process)

    Optimizing Your SaaS Funnel: Addressing User Intent, Motivation & Friction

    Now that you have a framework for mapping the user journey, let’s explore actionable strategies for optimizing each stage based on intent, motivation, and friction to achieve reasonable conversion rates:

    Awareness Stage. Here, users are just beginning to identify their problem. Examples of content for this stage include:

    • Informative blog posts
    • Industry reports
    • Targeted ads that resonate with their initial pain points 

    For example, offer blog posts with titles like “5 Signs You Need a [Your SaaS Solution]” or infographics that showcase industry benchmarks. Keep sign-up forms for downloadable content short and require minimal information to minimize friction.

    Use CTAs like “Download our Free E-book” or “Watch our On-Demand Webinar” to nurture leads and capture email addresses for further marketing automation.

    Highlight your SaaS solution’s benefits and spark their motivation by showcasing success stories and social proof to convert them into leads.

    Consideration Stage. Users are actively researching solutions. Content for the consideration stage includes:

    • Detailed product pages
    • Comparison charts 
    • White papers that offer a deeper dive into your offerings. 

    For example, create in-depth product pages that highlight key features and benefits. Utilize case studies that address specific customer pain points and showcase the positive impact of your SaaS product. 

    Motivate them by showcasing unique features and addressing their specific needs through targeted CTAs like “Start Your Free Trial” or “Request a Demo” to encourage deeper engagement and trial sign-ups.

    Minimize friction by ensuring a user-friendly website with straightforward navigation and easy access to valuable resources like case studies that showcase customer success. This path can help guide users toward a free trial conversion.

    Decision Stage. Users are comparing vendors and nearing a buying decision. Address their intent with content such as:

    • Case studies 
    • Customer testimonials 
    • Free trials that showcase the value proposition. 

    Showcasing customer testimonials and success stories helps quantify the return on investment (ROI) your SaaS solution can help them achieve. Emphasize the ROI and address any lingering concerns to bolster their motivation and nudge them towards a paid conversion. 

    Reduce friction by streamlining the sign-up process with pre-filled forms, multiple payment options, and transparent pricing structures.

    Retention Stage. Even the most highly optimized sales funnels will not matter if your customers ask for refunds or your customer acquisition costs are too high. You can decrease attrition and increase upselling with content such as:

    • Onboarding information
    • How to Get Started Videos
    • Special thank you email with a coupon for next purchase

    Remember to look at your results within the Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) context: Calculate the total recurring revenue a customer generates over their relationship with your company. This value helps you understand the long-term value of your customer base.

    Minimizing Friction Throughout the Customer Journey

    Friction is a rich area for improvement because you have more control over your website experience than your prospect’s intent and motivation. 

    Some areas to optimize to create a frictionless customer journey include:

    Website Speed. Ensure your website loads quickly on all devices to avoid user frustration and abandonment.

    Clear Navigation. Make it easy for users to find the information they need with a user-friendly site structure.

    Mobile-Responsiveness. Optimize your website for a seamless user experience across all devices, including smartphones and tablets.

    Compelling CTAs. Use clear and concise CTAs that align with user intent at each stage to guide them toward the desired action.

    Streamlined Forms. Minimize form fields and only request essential information during sign-up to reduce friction.

    Multiple Payment Options. Offer a variety of secure payment methods to accommodate user preferences and prevent cart abandonment.

    Live Chat Support. Provide real-time assistance to address user concerns and answer questions promptly, improving the user experience.

    Conclusion: The Power of User-Centricity

    As you can see, understanding user intent, motivation, and friction is the cornerstone of successful SaaS marketing. By leveraging FunnelEnvy’s framework for customer journey mapping, you can gain valuable insights into your audience’s needs and tailor the user experience for optimal conversions. 

    Tracking the data for this process can seem daunting. As you know, AI tools are now adding new levels of performance and complexity.

    Our FunnelEnvy customer data platform enables you to create a personalized experience that responds to your website visitors within milliseconds. Reach out today to get the conversation started.

    By |2024-04-18T10:16:05-07:00April 29th, 2024|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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    Top Mistakes in B2B Lead Generation CRO and How to Fix Them

    Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is one of the top goals for B2B marketers. Why? A significant reason is that improving CRO creates a beneficial ripple effect. It can lower customer acquisition costs by getting more ROI from existing visitors and users. Like a rising tide, when CRO goes up, it can influence other metrics and lead to higher revenue per visitor and more customers.

    CRO is the art and science of making your website more effective at converting visitors into customers. Even for relatively simple business models, this process has many variables. It can feel overwhelming to keep track of everything, and even the most seasoned marketers fall prey to the top mistakes in B2B lead generation CRO. Helping simplify the overwhelm is where Funnel Envy can help.

    The critical thing to remember is that it’s not just about driving traffic to your website; it’s about converting that traffic into meaningful leads. The overall goal is to understand your audience, tailor your digital marketing experiences to their needs, and continually adjust your strategies based on data-driven insights.

    There is so much data to track in digital marketing, especially now with the release of a new AI tool almost weekly. Improving your conversion rate is a moving target.

    Where to start? It depends on your business, of course. Organic search is most likely job 1. If budgets are tight, a synergistic combination of organic and smart blogging is an excellent place to start.

    You can use this chart from Databox to give you an overview of ideas on where to put your efforts.

    Top Mistakes in B2B CRO

    Let’s look at some common mistakes, plus ways to fix them.

    Audience, First and Always

    The success of any lead generation strategy hinges on a deep understanding of the audience. Here are two common marketing mistakes related to audience targeting in B2B lead generation:

    Not Defining Your Target Audience

    Many B2B marketing strategies falter due to a need for more specific targeting. Not knowing who you are trying to reach with your content marketing, social media, and other efforts can lead to inefficiencies and wasted resources.

    A well-defined audience is the foundation upon which marketers build successful lead-generation strategies. Defining the audience requires understanding demographics and your customer avatars’ unique challenges, interests, and behaviors.

    Forgetting the Buyer’s Journey

    Another frequent oversight is neglecting to factor in the buyer’s journey. The customer journey has multiple stages, from the initial awareness of a problem to the consideration of various solutions and the decision to purchase. Each phase requires different marketing approaches and content types.

    For example, blog posts might be effective in the awareness stage, while detailed case studies and product demos are more suitable for the decision stage. Webinars can nudge prospects into decision mode, too. 

    Aligning your content and strategies with the buyer’s mindset ensures that your efforts resonate with prospects at the right time and in the right way.

    Failing to Optimize Your Website

    Think of optimizing your website like a lever effect – a well-optimized website can simultaneously knock out several lead-generation mistakes. Search engine optimization is the essential starting point. 

    Here are some other common pitfalls:

    Focusing Too Much on Quantity Over Quality

    One of the more common lead generation mistakes is that more leads always equal better results. However, the quality of leads is often more important than quantity. You want to optimize your website to attract, filter, and convert people with genuine interest and need for your product or service.

    Poorly Designed Landing Pages

    Landing pages play a vital role in converting visitors into leads. However, many B2B websites suffer from poorly designed landing pages. Poorly designed pages have unclear calls to action, lack relevant information, and are visually confusing. 

    Optimizing your lead capture forms and content to appeal to your ideal customer profile is essential to attracting quality leads. Well-designed forms increase the chances of conversion and ensure better alignment between your marketing campaigns and sales efforts.

    A well-designed landing page should be clear, concise, and compelling. It should provide visitors with exactly what they are looking for and guide them smoothly toward the desired action, whether filling out a form or signing up for a webinar.

    Lack of Clear Goals and KPIs

    Setting clear goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is essential for any successful lead-generation strategy. Goals guide your efforts and help you focus on what’s critical, and KPIs allow you to measure the effectiveness of your strategy. 

    Common KPIs in B2B lead generation include conversion rates, click-through rates, and the cost per lead. Without these, it’s difficult to gauge the success of your campaigns and make informed decisions about where to allocate your resources for improving results.

    Ignoring Data and A/B Testing

    Data and testing are at the heart of effective CRO, yet it can be hard to know where to start. Here are some tips: 

    Testing Without a Strategy

    Random testing must have a clear strategy to avoid confusion and misinterpreting results. Each test should be designed with a specific goal, whether to improve the click-through rate on a call-to-action button or increase the number of form submissions. 

    A strategic approach to testing ensures that you are always learning and improving your lead-generation efforts.

    Pro-tip: Test Pages That Are Doing Well

    While fixing broken pages is crucial, the low-hanging fruit is improving pages that are performing well. Regularly testing and optimizing all pages, including the high-performing ones, ensures you maximize your lead generation potential. 

    Multiple Landing Pages: The More the Merrier

    Hubspot reports that business websites with 10-15 landing pages increase conversions by 55% over those with less than 10 landing pages. And that’s not all. Increasing to over 40 landing pages improved results by an eye-popping 500%.

    So, obviously, multiple landing pages can lead to a dramatic improvement in performance. That doesn’t mean it’s an easy fix. The more pages, the more complex tracking and reporting will be. If you have questions about how to scale your landing page program, we can help. 

    Not Using Social Media Effectively

    With appropriate strategies and implementation, social media is a powerful tool in the B2B marketer’s toolkit. Effective use of social media in B2B lead generation involves more than just posting regular updates. 

    Like your website content, social content requires a strategic approach, with content tailored to the platform and the audience. LinkedIn is the go-to platform for B2B marketers, offering opportunities for targeted networking, content sharing, and ad campaigns. 

    TikTok, which started as a trendy haven for GenZ self-expression, now has a rapidly growing B2B sector. Podcasts and YouTube are still the most powerful channels for teaching and trust-building. If your blog strategy is already solid, the next step could be to experiment with augmenting high-performing copy with podcast or video content. 

    Moving Ahead to Avoid Top Mistakes in B2B Lead Generation CRO

    When designing or optimizing complex processes, workflows, or SOPs, a simplified place to start is to be aware of typical mistakes and take preventive action. From optimizing your website’s user experience to fine-tuning your social strategy, optimizing CRO involves constant learning and testing.

    AI tools will continue to up the ante for marketing performance. With the right approach and focus on critical areas, you can avoid common pitfalls and drive successful outcomes for your business. At Funnel Envy, we have the expertise and tools to help you dial in your website and landing page performance to increase CRO. Reach out today. We’re here to help.

    By |2023-12-18T21:59:27-08:00December 26th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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    Beyond the Obvious – Drilling Down on B2B Buyer Personas

    From the time of Don Draper in the hit show Mad Men to mega Super Bowl ad spends in the 1980s, marketers traditionally relied on demographics and social trends to target and segment broad audiences. In the 2000s, digital marketing revolutionized marketers’ ability to reach more specific segments. 

    One risk of data is losing sight of the real people behind the numbers. Without analytics, we know nothing about the prospects behind the clicks. In 1985, a software designer named Alan Cooper invented a user persona named Kathy to add human context to the development process. 

    Over the years, marketers built on that idea to develop buyer personas – profiles of fictional people that embody several ideal client characteristics. Creating buyer personas is a subjective and analytical process based on data and actual customers or prospects.

    The idea is to translate the raw traffic like this:

    AI and ABM are driving the evolution of buyer personas

    Into information to help you fill out a buyer persona template, like this:

    AI and ABM are driving the evolution of buyer personas

    Source: Hubspot

    Why Buyer Personas Work

    The buyer persona helps craft tailor-made experiences for every buyer category. In a time when empathy and personalization are more crucial than ever for funnel performance, teams must develop a granular view of the buyer’s points and journey through touchpoints to a sale.

    A well-defined buyer persona can improve demand gen by filtering traffic for top-quality leads exhibiting strong buyer intent. While companies should tailor their personas to their industry and other factors, here are some basics all personas should include:

    • Demographics: Age, gender, location, income, etc.
    • Psychographics: Interests, values, lifestyle, personality traits.
    • Goals: What they want to achieve using your product or service. What are their motivations for considering your product or service? 
    • Challenges: Pain points and obstacles they face in reaching their goals.
    • Buying Behavior: Is this a B2B or B2C customer? How do they make purchasing decisions?
    • Preferred Channels: Where they gather information and engage online.
    A well-defined buyer persona can improve demand gen by filtering traffic for top-quality leads exhibiting strong buyer intent. Share on X

    Behavioral Analysis and Intent Data for Buyer Personas

    Effective buyer personas use quantitative and qualitative data to segment data about existing customers, website visitors, and leads. This data may include information from website analytics tools, interviews, social media insights, and customer interactions. 

    Customer surveys are also helpful in fine-tuning segments and gauging customer intent. Human nature means people don’t always do what they say they might. Analytics data combined with surveys help marketers see how well what people say correlates with the actual behavior of the website traffic. 

    Analyze data for visitor browsing behavior patterns, content consumption, engagement levels, and purchasing history. This analysis will help you understand their preferences, pain points, and motivations.

    Buyer intent refers to prospects’ actions or expected behaviors before purchasing. Analyze the keywords they use in searches, the content they engage with, and their actions on your website. Are they looking for information, comparing products, or ready to purchase? Intent analysis identifies which actions signal intent to buy as they move through the funnel. 

    AI-Driven Personalization Engines for Buyer Personas

    AI-powered personalization is providing new tools to elevate customer experiences. By harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, enterprises can delve deep into extensive customer datasets about online behaviors, transaction history, social media engagements, and demographic insights.

    Implementing AI personalization includes:

    • Data collection and integration into customer data platform (CDP).
    • Using AI algorithms to segment customers.
    • Automating marketing messages and content tailored to each customer persona, such as personalized email campaigns.

    AI algorithms enable the personalization of the customer journey in real-time, detecting shifts in customer behavior and updating personas. Dynamic content generation can match snippets of content that resonate with specific personas, offering responsive options and recommendations that adjust for buyer personas.

    Keeping up with prospects across channels has long been a challenge for marketers. AI can help synchronize personalization efforts and create more of an omnichannel user experience.

    AI is rapidly evolving and still very early. Companies need to watch for bias in AI that could have unintended results. Consumers are more sensitive about their data than in the past. Governments are stepping in with privacy and data protection regulations. Companies that adopt transparency and ethical guidelines around the use of data and AI will maintain customer trust. 

    Account-Based Marketing Personas 

    Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B model that adapts the persona concept to create personalized experiences for entire target accounts rather than individual prospects. 

    While regular customer personas offer valuable insights into your customer base as a whole, account-based customer personas are laser-focused on a select few high-priority accounts. 

    This approach aims to develop hyper-personalized strategies that lead to more effective engagement and conversion within these critical accounts. 

    ABM marketing typically targets large accounts where a buying group decides over an extended period. Account-based customer personas dive into the specific organizational structure, key decision-makers, pain points, objectives, challenges, and opportunities within the target account. 

    The goal is to gather in-depth insights that you can use to create personalized and highly relevant strategies. For a deep dive into ABM personalization in action, check out our video, The Secret to Making Your ABM Personalization Campaign a Success. 

    In crafting ABM buyer personas, sales teams should realize that B2B prospects want a DIY discovery process. More than that, 33% would rather not talk to another human to complete the sale. (source: Gartner Sales). 

    Increasingly, sales will be won or lost by depending on getting the right content at the right time to the prospect via dynamic content generation and B2C UX. B2B prospects also appreciate experiences that “feel” more B2C, such as virtual tours or shopping cart-like check-out processes. 

    Moving Ahead

    Every innovation disrupts the status quo, but eventually, the entire sector smooths into the next level. The 1990s transition from analog marketing to digital is a great example. Today, AI and other innovations are revolutionizing marketing with more personalization and precise buyer persona targeting.

    All of these changes may improve results, but they also increase complexity. If you need help figuring out where to start, we can help. Our FunnelEnvy customer data platform enables you to create a personalized experience that responds to your website visitors within milliseconds. Reach out today to get the conversation started.

    By |2023-09-08T11:10:03-07:00September 18th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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    How SaaS companies should approach pricing pages

    Pricing can be controversial in many sectors of the business community, partly due to the general human attitude towards money. According to research by Wells Fargo, 44% of Americans find talking about money more difficult than other serious topics, including politics, religion, and even death. And while it’s easier to talk money in a business context, you’d be surprised how many people are still somewhat sensitive to budget discussions in the B2B realm.

    That’s why it can be challenging for startups to address pricing pages properly. Your pricing page is like an online version of a conversation about cost with a sales rep. When done correctly, it can add value to the buyer’s journey and nurture clients toward choosing the most profitable options. Or it could repel prospects if the pricing page poorly conveys value.

    Your pricing page is like an online version of a conversation about cost with a sales rep. Share on X

    Software pricing can be particularly complex because of its nature. There is no physical product or anything to put in a client’s hand. They don’t receive a box or envelope in the mail. Yet the right business software can be exponentially more valuable than any physical package or equipment.

    If you’re a software company or similar startup looking to nail your pricing page, this post will provide some general strategies you can apply to your funnel, no matter what kind of service or product you offer.

    Presentation is Key

    The way you present different pricing options greatly influences how site visitors perceive your pricing. Consider how a restaurant might have prices on its drive-thru menu or a movie theater would set concession prices. These examples are consumer-based, but the lesson is the same: juxtaposing the cost of your desired option with more and less expensive options can help nudge prospects down the desired path.

    Consider the movie theater example. You might be offered a small popcorn for $4.00, medium for $5.75, and large for $6.50. Even if you originally wanted a medium, looking at the relatively small cost difference between the large and medium, you’re more likely to spring for the large.

    This hypothetical is just one example: we frequently see strategies involving color, shape, and page placement. Think about the many pricing or subscription pages you’ve viewed over time, and you’ll probably be able to come up with a few ideas or devices that worked exceptionally well. 

    Another significant concern with the presentation on your pricing page is how you’ll discuss the particular features and benefits mentioned. Typically, this is where software companies might tout their most crucial features or ones that differentiate them from competitors in the field. You may also consider offering a different pricing structure for those companies willing to pay a larger percentage upfront using something like a quarterly payment plan. Remember the old marketing adage here: benefits are more important than features. It’s nice to say what something does, but it’s even better to say what kind of result it will create for the buyer or their organization.

    Experiment With CTAs

    Calls to action (or CTAs) are vital because they represent the bridge from your pricing page to a prospect converting into a client. You can change many different options here, including these:

    • Copy. The specific words you use for your CTA can have an impact on how well you’re able to convert page visitors into clients. Use specific action verbs whenever possible, but don’t make them too long.
    • CTA shapes. The classic option is a rectangular button – you’ve probably seen the type frequently. Some brands might incorporate ovals, squares, or a more uncommon shape to stand out and catch a visitor’s eye.
    • Colors. The colors you choose for the background, CTA elements, and text will always influence a visitor’s decision to convert. We’ve used color psychology for decades in pricing strategies for all different kinds of companies, both B2B and B2C. For example, blue is associated with trust and safety, while orange is considered aggressive and active.

    Make sure that you track pricing page data as you experiment with different CTAs so that it’s clear which ones are moving the needle regarding conversions.

    Lean Towards Simplicity

    Many software startups provide a relatively complex digital tool for clients, whether because of regulatory concerns or industrial standards. For example, healthcare software companies may have to include an extra layer of security or encryption for HIPAA-related concerns. Manufacturing software providers might need to ensure their clients meet ISO or ANSI standards created for their field.

    Even if your software falls into this category, distilling it into the simplest possible terms on your pricing page is meaningful. Whenever possible, have a bias towards fewer options and elements. This idea holds if you want to optimize your existing pricing page or alter your pricing strategy to include a new tier. Whatever new elements you are thinking about adding, be sure they are necessary to add more context to your page visitor or help get them closer to making the best decision for business purposes.

    White space is a common design tool startups use in anything from pricing pages to content assets to landing pages. White space can help your pricing page maintain a smooth, clean look and contribute to improved readability – an important element to help visitors learn about your offering and understand why it’s worth the asking price.

    Final Thoughts on Pricing Pages

    You don’t want to take an “old school” approach to pricing where it’s hard to access or requires a visitor to offer their email address or phone number. Today’s buyer – especially in the B2B software field – is looking for valuable information as quickly as possible. 

    On the other hand, you don’t want to provide pricing for your product or service immediately on your website before you can add sufficient context. Doing this may be just as off-putting to a visitor as excessively guarding your pricing tiers and strategies. 

    Instead, your pricing page needs to land somewhere in the middle: you have to offer enough details to give visitors the information they need and allow them to determine whether or not their budget fits your asking price, but not so many details that it causes questions about the worth of what you’re offering.

    Finding this balance between informative and simplistic can be tricky if you’ve never created one before. It will take a fair amount of trial and error to determine how exactly to seek this balance for your business, your specific offering, and the kind of people you want as clients.

    One of the best ways to help speed up optimizing your pricing page is to seek help from experts who’ve done it before. Our team at FunnelEnvy has years of experience working with clients with all types of pricing pages, from complex tiered subscription models to straightforward lifetime license plans. We can help ensure your pricing page has all the elements needed to maximize conversions without any wasted space. Just fill out this quick form to make sure we are a good fit and learn more about what we offer.

    By |2023-07-26T04:06:14-07:00August 7th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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    Pipeline acceleration: Why it matters and how to get started

    When many people hear “pipeline acceleration,” they might initially think it’s strictly a sales term. We typically speak of pipelines as a sales concept. But pipeline acceleration is a critical business area requiring collaboration across departments for success. 

    From Meta to Google to Coca-Cola, the most successful companies worldwide have a long history of creating disparate teams and putting them together to achieve important goals. In 2012, Google even conducted an internal study codenamed “Project Aristotle” to study the dynamics of groups within a larger company. Some of its most important inventions have come from unexpected teams or individuals working on something outside their main responsibility.

    Pipeline acceleration is one of the most important collaborative projects any organization can take on. When done properly, it can help a business achieve its revenue goals more efficiently and help marketing and sales team members work together to create less waste and redundant work. 

    What is Pipeline Acceleration?

    To summarize, pipeline acceleration means moving prospects through the sales funnel more quickly. It’s sometimes called “sales acceleration” or “closing speed,” but the central idea is the same: getting a prospect from a qualified lead to a paying client faster. 

    As we mentioned above, pipeline acceleration isn’t just something for your sales reps to be thinking about. Research firm Forrester says the intent is to improve lead management “from cold to close,” but also that it “demands full joint and sales and marketing involvement, commitment, alignment and participation from beginning to end.” That means your marketing team has to take ownership of pipeline acceleration, too, even if many elements are ultimately under the domain of the sales team. For example, the sales team is typically the only part of the company that holds direct meetings with prospects, even though many other people may be involved in helping to set the agenda for that meeting or creating assets for the salesperson to use at the meeting.

    Should you even bother with pipeline acceleration? Yes – for several reasons.

    The Benefits of Pipeline Acceleration

    You don’t have to look hard to see the obvious benefits of moving prospects through a sales pipeline more quickly – when you start experiencing greater revenue and more satisfied customers, the advantages make themselves swiftly known! 

    Beyond the obvious benefits of closing more deals faster, pipeline acceleration also helps create shared goals and outcomes for different team members at your company. Working towards the same goals builds a sense of unity in the organization, even if your team operates on different projects with various tasks.

    Pipeline accelerations also create a deeper understanding of your ideal buyer persona. When you have people from diverse backgrounds and job functions looking to help a prospect reach a decision more quickly, it tends to create a deeper, more well-rounded understanding.

    Finally, successful pipeline acceleration will increase communication in general among your firm. Since the process requires such a high degree of collaboration between departments and job functions, your team members will develop a natural rapport and working cadence with one another that will be easy to carry over to other projects. Understanding how coworkers collaborate is important for organizations of every size, even a small startup with only a few people. 

    You might think communication is better at smaller companies, but counterintuitively there are many examples of large organizations communicating better than smaller ones. Bigger companies tend to have more streamlined processes and workflows that can naturally guide a team into successful collaboration.

    Understanding how coworkers collaborate is important for organizations of every size, even a small startup with only a few people. Share on X

    These are just a few of the many reasons to implement pipeline acceleration. If you’re convinced it’s important but unfamiliar with how to get started, the next section is for you.

    Implementing or Developing Your Pipeline Acceleration Program

    Like any other initiative, the first step is taking inventory of where you are currently. What steps have your sales and marketing team taken to move prospects down the funnel faster? What about other departments? In this stage, try not to judge progress or worry about where you are. You want to get a sense of previous measures and their results.

    If your audit has determined you are fairly early in the process of pipeline acceleration, that’s okay – it just means you may have to start with a more simplistic approach. Consider steps like holding joint meetings between departments, creating a few shared goals, or even producing an activity you can complete together. 

    If you’re a bit further along your journey to implement pipeline acceleration at your company, consider the tips below:

    • Create a living set of guidelines shared across the appropriate departments. Doing this is relatively easy nowadays with the several collaborative team platforms available, from Notion to Slack to Sharepoint. This compilation of guidelines and processes can serve as an internal wiki, helping your team document the pipeline acceleration processes but also allowing them to improve their written communication skills.
    • Pay close attention to metrics before and after implementing various initiatives to help promote pipeline acceleration. The numbers and data you gather should come from the same places so you can understand how it has changed based on the steps you took. This clues you into the results of your pipeline acceleration so you can better understand what is and isn’t working.
    •  It’s about the client first. Much of the advice in this article has been about what to do from an internal perspective. In analyzing these ideas, it can be easy to lose the forest for the trees can be easy. You must always consider your understanding and communication with prospects and clients. All of the pipeline acceleration work you do should focus on learning how to better meet prospects’ needs, thereby getting them to a sales decision more quickly.

    Final Thoughts on Pipeline Acceleration for Companies

    It’s easy to come across an idea like “pipeline acceleration” and assume that it’s too complicated for your organization to implement or something that you’ll get to eventually but don’t have the time to focus on. 

    But even if you’re a relatively small company in the earliest stages of your growth journey, closing deals more quickly is critical. It will help your business get closer to meeting tangible business goals and establish a culture of communication and collaboration. That’s a worthy goal to pursue, even if your business is only a handful of people – small companies often lack the formal guidelines around communication and business initiatives that are present at larger organizations.

    Looking to learn more about pipeline acceleration or get some expert help with incorporating it into your business? Our team at FunnelEnvy is ready to help. We’ve got many years of combined experience with funnel optimization, CRO, and other important elements of pipeline acceleration across several industries, from tech to healthcare to manufacturing.

    To learn more about working with us and see if we’re a good fit, please fill out this short quiz.

    By |2023-07-13T06:39:58-07:00July 24th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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    4 Strategies for Upgrading Your Content Marketing in 2023

    In the middle of 2023, it’s safe to say content marketing is no longer the innovative, groundbreaking strategy it was ten or even five years ago. According to recent research, nearly 70% of companies plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year.

    And while it’s likely too late to win the first-mover advantage in content marketing (unless your industry is very niche or specialized), producing higher-quality content is arguably more lucrative than ever. 

    That’s because the massive increase in spending and strategy on content marketing has come partially as a response to the jump in buyers consuming content to help them along the buyer’s journey. From blog posts to industry publications and media properties, business buyers in almost every field are using content to help them evaluate options and better understand their needs.

    The secret to success for marketers is to focus on the needs of your audience. Too many businesses treat content marketing like an obligation, churning out four blog posts a month because they have to. If you want to make your content better resonate with the right people, start with the steps below.

    Too many businesses treat content marketing like an obligation, churning out four blog posts a month because they have to. Share on X

    Assess Platform Choices

    Most companies that engage with content marketing follow a similar pattern: they choose one or two platforms to create and publish content, then never think about them again. It’s easy to get caught into this day-to-day routine, but it’s vital to continually think about the places your company is leveraging content marketing.

    New social media platforms and communication tools release every day. And while not all of them will be worth the time and effort, some might be. For example: when TikTok first launched, many companies doubted whether or not short-form videos featuring lots of music and dancing would be effective for marketing – especially those in B2B industries. But years later, TikTok is a popular place for all kinds of content, from the consumer ads you might expect to advice for CPAs and accounting firms.

    We’re not suggesting you add new platforms to your marketing once a month or once a quarter. We recommend you keep an ear to the ground so you know about new media that might fit your content marketing well before your competitors.

    Consider the Human Element

    We’ve used people, emotions, and other parts of the human experience in marketing for centuries – remember the famous carousel scene from the TV show “Mad Men”? In it, a team of executives from Kodak suggests naming their new slide projector “the wheel” because of its shape. But Don Draper looks deeper to understand that consumers don’t care about the product’s shape; they care about the nostalgia it creates upon viewing old photos.

    We often get objections from clients and prospects that sell to other businesses: “Nostalgia is great, but I’m selling software for specialized manufacturers. What does that have to do with humans?” Remember that no matter how dry or industrial your product seems, there’s always a way to connect to humans because they’re the ones ultimately making the buying decision.

    One of the best ways to help you incorporate more of a human touch into your content marketing is to interview previous clients and ask them how their situation changed. Your product or service likely had a quantifiable impact on their business, affecting the people working there. Depending on your relationship with the clients you speak with and the nature of the conversation, you could publish the conversation as a case study in audio or video format.

    Plan a Pivot Away From Personal Data Marketing

    Over the last decade or so, the world of digital advertising has followed a relatively straightforward model. Advertising platforms like Google and Facebook collect data about the people using their platforms, then sell companies on the ability to use that data to maximize profits. While this model raked in billions of dollars in advertising money, it also created an unpleasant situation where companies needed to lean on an intimate knowledge of search and social media users to sell to them more effectively.

    In the last three or four years, signs have emerged that this model is starting to disappear. In late 2021, Facebook (now Meta) announced they would no longer offer “sensitive” ad targeting categories like race, health conditions, and specific political ideas. Similarly, in a major iOS update from 2021, Apple required apps to ask permission to track user data, a request many users denied.

    The writing is on the wall: in the coming years, third-party personal data collected by advertisers will no longer be the gold mine of advertising it might have been in the early 2010s. If you’ve been relying a lot on advertising data or a similar source, you need to consider how to pivot your strategy away from this resource. User data will always be available, and this shift won’t happen overnight, but it’s still critical to prepare now so you aren’t caught off-guard by something accelerating this trend.

    Think About User Intent

    One trend in the current era of content marketing is optimizing for user intent. In 2023, there’s so much content out there for almost every industry that the biggest challenge for both B2B and B2C buyers is finding out which kinds of content will help them meet their professional needs. It’s fantastic if your site has a great content library, but it isn’t living up to its potential if you don’t organize it well.

    In a recent article for the Content Marketing Institute, strategy chief Robert Rose points out that organizing content by “e-books, white papers, videos, etc.” asks them to choose the kind of experience they want before knowing the topic. Instead of this traditional method of organization that often results in challenges for first-time users, take a deeper approach to your content’s organization and accessibility by grouping it by customer intent.

    And if you’re unsure where to start when grouping content by intent, try applying the pillar strategy to content you create for two or three of your most common buyer scenarios – copy them exactly from an existing client, if you need. Start with the buyer’s situation as your pillar foundation, and expand from there.

    Last Word on Updating Your Content Marketing Plans 

    Even in the buttoned-up industrial sector, today’s internet is noisier than ever. Your content marketing strategy of producing a set number of monthly posts is a great start, but it’s not enough to help you reach the top of your field regarding content. To truly reach your intended audience, your content has to focus on their needs and meet them on the platforms they’re already comfortable with.

    Are you interested in expert advice on improving your content marketing plan or developing a new one? Our team at FunnelEnvy is ready to help. Just click here to fill out a short quiz so we can learn more about how we might be able to help take your content game – and other elements of your digital marketing – to the next level.

    By |2023-06-14T07:58:04-07:00June 26th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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    The 4 Top CRO Tips For 2023

    It may have taken a couple of decades to perfect the modern internet, but nowadays, technology is getting more advanced by the day. Recently, we’ve been hearing a lot about how AI and blockchain will revolutionize how we do business. It’s critical to stay current on these developments as they relate to your business.

    But at the same time, many of the strategies doled out on how to respond to advancing technology look surprisingly similar to “the old way.” Often, tech just asks us to use existing principles of sales, marketing, and business with a new platform or tool.

    In this article, we’re diving into four ways to think about conversion rate optimization (CRO) given everything we know about how technology is advancing this year – and beyond.

    Revisit Your SEO Practices

    We don’t always associate search engine optimization (SEO) with conversion rate optimization. The premise of SEO is getting new traffic to your site, after all. Smart marketers know they should consider user intent long before someone even lands on their page.

    Smart marketers know they should consider user intent long before someone even lands on their page. Share on X

    That’s because the more people who get to your page, the better – as long as they have the right intentions. Having good enough SEO to attract visitors who aren’t interested in your offering might produce some good vanity metrics but ultimately won’t help you drive business goals. To rectify this issue, you need to consider SEO to attract the right traffic.

    You can assess the way you incorporate keywords on different kinds of pages to see if it still makes sense for your intended audience. Don’t forget to examine your fundamental keyword strategy, too. Since most SEO success often comes from going for longtail keywords, if your target audience has changed, your longtail keywords may also change.

    Audit the Forms in Your Funnel

    Form optimization is a long, dynamic subject matter that could fill up its own blog post (or a whole series). But the foundation of it is the same as it’s always been: go through all appropriate forms and make sure there are no obstacles, distractions, or errors that arise. Ideally, you can break this down into two parts: first, audit your forms internally from a technical perspective, making sure they work with the right software and functions in your business – like a CRM or marketing automation tool.

    The second part of the audit is about your users’ perspective. If possible, try to get a person outside your internal marketing team, preferably a prospective customer or someone with similar characteristics. You’ll typically get more cooperation with this form testing when you offer to compensate participants, even if it’s a simple thing like a small discount or virtual gift card.

    Here are a few questions to keep in mind as you go through the testing process:

    • Are people completing your forms in the amount of time you expected?
    • Is relevant information on form pages easy enough to find?
    • Are any parts of the form unclear or confusing?
    • Does the form’s language resonate with users?

    Test Load Times and Technical Elements 

    Load time is a significant factor in getting people to visit your site and convincing them to convert. According to statistics by Google, an increase in load time from 1 second to 5 seconds can increase a page’s bounce rate by 90%. If a critical page of your funnel is loading slowly, it can hinder your marketing efforts.

    There are plenty of tools available that can help marketers improve load speed and related technical slowdowns. Google’s PageSpeed test is a good starting point – based on your results there, you’ll either want to develop a plan to cut down on elements slowing down your page or ensure protocols are in place to keep the page loading at optimal speed. 

    Depending on the nature of the technical challenges you’re running into, you may require outside help. Certain changes to your domain settings may need to be handled by your hosting provider, while more advanced changes to the site itself could require specialized help from a developer.

    Diversify Funnel Media Types

    Are you using  only long-form content and headers on every page throughout your funnel? Does your main landing page use the same video you’ve had for years? Unless your forms and funnel elements are already converting at a very high level, it’s always valuable to improve your content by diversifying its delivery. While prospects in certain industries may be more predisposed to specific kinds of content, no rule says you can’t switch it up. 

    Video content is becoming increasingly popular in many industries, particularly with the rise in popularity of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. There are also infographics, audio presentations, photos, etc. You might even want to consider the presentation of your content with elements like parallax scrolling and carousels. Even if you aren’t drastically changing the information you include when you make these adjustments, you’ll find it could still add a significant bump to your conversion rate – especially on pages and funnel elements that may have been struggling previously.

    As you look to add new kinds of media to your mix, remember that you’ll need to track everything in some way. If you’re adding a new kind of video, for example, be sure you have the right software tools to track important metrics and incorporate them into the rest of your analytics.

    Last Thoughts on CRO for 2023 and Beyond

    The tools we use to conduct business have come a long way from the pen, paper, and snail mail days. Startups can access a wealth of information about people they’ve never met or interacted with. Technology is capable of helping a company achieve some truly inspiring things today.

    Yet despite all the advancements, many of the fundamentals about selling remain strong; possibly even strongerr than in the pre-internet days. When you receive messages, emails, and notifications at every turn, the fundamentals stand out as even more important now. The core tenet of conversion rate optimization is getting more people to raise their hands and signify interest in your product or service. To do that, you need to attract more of the right people, remove technical blocks that prevent them from converting, and experiment with different types of content that can better educate them on why they need your offering.

    Looking for some help implementing these or other CRO tips into your existing marketing campaigns? At FunnelEnvy, our optimization specialists have spent years studying what it takes to get people interested in our clients’ products and services. We’ll bring an objective eye to your digital marketing efforts while using our decades of combined experience to help you overcome any challenges you may be facing.

    To get started, just click here to fill out a short quiz that will help us learn more about your organization and how we may be able to help you meet your marketing goals.

    By |2023-05-03T22:23:27-07:00May 15th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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