Are Online Marketing Funnels Are Dead?
I was chatting with a friend last week, and he was telling me that email marketing is dead! I was intrigued by this statement and asked him why he thought that.
He told me that he was no longer getting the results he did 3-5 years ago.
The old days of throwing a sign up form on your website. Someone downloading the guide, running a 4-5 part email sequence and getting a 30% conversion rate is over. People wise up to it, and the conversion rates on these type of things decrease.
So if this method is dying what’s taking its place?
FUNNELS 2.0
All great things evolve and while using the same lead generation techniques can help you build your lists we need to be a little smarter in the way we segment and follow up with our newly acquired leads.
Welcome to Funnels 2.0.
This slightly tweaked version of old school marketing funnels will make your follow up more relevant and help you to see better results.
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Not all leads are created equal. Or at least, not all leads are at the same point in their buying journey.
In his book, The Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet Holmes points out that at any given point of time in a particular market, about 3% of all possible potential leads are ready to buy. About 7% are open to buying, but probably aren’t looking.
Another 30% aren’t thinking about buying a solution, even if they are aware they have a problem. Another 30% believe that they aren’t interested in solving their problem. And another 30% “know” they aren’t interested in doing anything about it.
Relevance is critical
As I stated above, the secret to successful marketing is RELEVANCE, offering the right message to the right person at the right time and place.
So, how do you become relevant to your audience; to all those cold leads who don’t even know you exist?
How do you treat your new subscribers to your content or contacts through your website?
When you break your subscribers down into categories/segments, you can communicate with people in better and more relevant ways.
Highly engaged people are more likely to respond to your content with a comment, a share or purchase, so it makes perfect sense to make your content more relevant.
Motorway to success
So the best way to think about this new approach is to imagine a motorway and its three lanes. Constant moving traffic in 3 lanes all with one outcome to get to the end destination
The slow lane. This lane is where your new found subscribers will go once they enter your funnel. They’ll join your nurture sequences where you’ll be sending them great educational information looking to move them to the middle lane.
The middle lane. Once your subscribers have engaged with you and shown a real interest in your content, opened your emails, clicked on your links and shared your content. They are moved into the middle lane. This is where you can be a little more deliberate with your offers and sales messages trying to move them to the fast lane.
The fast lane. This is where the action starts. Someone in the fast lane has shown a real interest in your product or service or is already a customer. They may have clicked to one of your sales pages or completed one of your web contact forms. You can now put your foot on the floor with your sales promotions, offering complimentary services or consultation. You can also be more deliberate with your sales follow ups; this may include sending direct mail, phone calls and actual visits.
This method will require a lot of work to put all three lanes into place, but will be worth it in the long run. It gives your subscribers a much more tailored experience and you a much more advanced business generating machine.
If you need help putting Funnels 2.0 into your business – contact us here.
