In order to build a successful follow-up process in your sales funnel, it’s vital to remember that a variety of different approaches are needed to keep a lead interested and engaged.
There are so many distractions both online and offline that a lead may easily forget why they signed up to your mailing list or even followed you on Twitter in the first place. To keep your business and your products/services firmly in front and centre of their thoughts, you are going to have to be smart in how you follow up. There are four approaches, in particular, you should look to focus on:
Blog Content
When you promote your blog posts on social media, it is important to be sure that the demographics of your social media followers align with the content you are producing. If you produce the right type of post, it can then gain traction and attract leads to your site.
You should also have a lead magnet already in place which helps to entice potential leads. A well-optimised landing page with the right language and content will encourage many visitors to opt-in, but it won’t capture everyone. This is where social retargeting can help you out.
Social Retargeting
Some visitors to your site may not be ready to purchase or may initially not yet be interested in your specific product or service. However, they may be considering buying a product/service in the future and were doing a bit of research by reading your blog post. They may even choose to sign up for the free white paper or ebook you are promoting as research on your company.
Still, in a lot of cases, nothing may come of it. To re-engage these leads, you can use social retargeting campaigns. By using cookies to track them when they enter your website, you can use social media advertising to keep your special offer at the centre of their attention so they can easily revisit your landing page at a later date.
Even when they have signed up, and are already in your sales funnel, it is still beneficial as it keeps your business firmly in the mind of those considering buying your product/service. It also builds your brand awareness with consistent messages in both your email marketing and social media advertising.
Segmentation in Email Marketing
Depending on how a lead arrived on your mailing list, you may already have a good insight on your leads. A CRM system, like Infusionsoft, can help ask for specific information on an opt-in form. Once they sign up, the lead can then be segmented into different lists with a personalised campaign that better fits their buyer persona.
If a person requests to have information about a specific topic, you can send them information on what they’ve asked for, rather than anything unrelated. People are far less likely to unsubscribe if you have targeted your email campaigns effectively, and it will increase your conversion rates in the process.
If you have more insights into how demographics affect buyer behaviour, you can use this knowledge to create better-targeted campaigns, split testing emails along the way to see which have better open rates. You can even segment based on what links your lead clicks on within emails, indicating what they are most interested in, allowing your sales team to come into the process and contact them directly.
Your Sales Team Is Only Part Of The Sales Process
As you can see from the above, your sales team is only one part of a larger follow-up strategy. You can use website content, social media and email marketing as powerful tools to aid your sales process and increase your chances of leads to purchasing your products and services.
To find out more and maximise your follow-up strategy download out E-Book.