Imagine your marketing department as a well-coordinated baseball team. In baseball, each player has a specific role and a clear understanding of the game plan. Similarly, your marketing efforts can achieve their best potential with streamlined processes. This approach ensures everyone is on the same page, leading to efficient and effective operations. The result? A winning team that consistently delivers high-impact results, with team members who are happier and more motivated.
Generally, marketing activities should fall under one of three umbrellas: Prospecting, Nurturing, or Converting. Each area is an important player, so let’s create a plan that can potentially result in a win for your business.
Prospecting (Top of the funnel) – Identify potential customers. Ideally, you develop a database of likely customers and continuously fill the top of the funnel with them. Here are some tools you should use in your process:
- Identify your ideal customer
- Develop a list/lead database
- Develop a script
- Create measurable goals
- Create a qualification checklist
Nurturing (Middle of the funnel) – Communicate with your prospects and systematically filter out qualifiable leads based on behavior patterns and lead scoring. Here’s how you can put this phase into a framework:
- Set up a CRM/database for lead activity
- Automate a schedule for emails and text messages based on your customer’s preference
- Identify behavior patterns – most or least active and engaged
- Create segments for personalized campaigns
Converting (Bottom of the funnel) – Winning your prospects’ business. Your sales team will directly engage with your nurtured prospects for this final piece. Have the following in place for your sales team to engage effectively and efficiently:
- Create content assets – Demos, pitch decks, case studies
- Task creation and notification for follow-ups
- Preset discounts, promotions, free consultation templates
- Automate webinars/events
The current landscape of MarTech offers many opportunities to automate and create efficiency in your lead generation cycle. A well-defined process will help your team automate repetitive tasks and bring more consistency to your day-to-day marketing activities.
Feel free to contact me if you want help setting up a process or identifying the right steps. It can be as simple as figuring out where and how to get started!
