Effective lead generation starts with a clearly defined sales and marketing funnel that optimises every opportunity. In our three articles, we’ll show you lead generation marketing hacks to grow your sales funnel step by step for success.
Join us every week as we guide you through increasing acquisitions at the top of the funnel (ToFu); provide tips to navigate the challenging middle of the funnel (MoFu); help you close more deals with an optimised bottom of the funnel (BoFu). This is lead generation growth hacking from top to bottom, literally.
Need immediate support generating leads? Call 01565 632206 for a no obligation chat with one of our team.
What is a sales funnel?
Before we delve into top of the funnel marketing tactics, let’s start with a clear definition of what is meant by “sales funnel.”
In simple terms, sales funnel refers to the journey prospects take from awareness of your brand through to purchase. Often represented as an inverted pyramid or cone, sales funnels are typically divided into three decreasing stages of ToFu (top of the funnel, the awareness phase), MoFu (middle of the funnel, the evaluation and qualifying phase) and BoFu (bottom of the funnel, purchase).
Refresh your knowledge with our sales funnel short guide.
Why does a sales funnel matter?
If the mere mention of ToFu, MoFu and BoFu leaves you cold chances are you are one of the 68% of companies who have yet to identify their sales funnel. This means that you are missing out on strategic insights and ultimately, sales.
Funnel management is key to identifying, measuring and optimising what good looks like as well as highlighting areas of leakage. What’s more, reverse funnel analysis helps you to set accurate, achievable goals for every stage of the sales and marketing process.
Lead generation hacks #1: Top of the funnel marketing tactics for increasing leads
When questioned about what stage of the sales process reps struggle with most, an overwhelming majority of Hubspot survey participants said “prospecting.”[1]
Fill your pipeline and build brand awareness by following these five ToFu marketing tactics:
- Be search engine friendly: Develop a SEM strategy that adheres to best practices across leading search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo to boost top of the funnel acquisitions. This means paying attention to factors such as keywords, website content and landing page experience whether you are focussing on driving leads through Pay Per Click (ppc) campaigns or organic SEO (search engine optimisation). Find out how we can get your digital marketing working.
- Leverage the power of social media: grow awareness through social media channels and influencer marketing to attract new followers and leads. A solid social media strategy and plan will outline how you plan to engage, encourage and drive brand advocacy.
- Utilise partner opportunities: Joint webinars and content syndication are just two ways to increase brand awareness using partner networks. By working alongside partners who offer complementary services or products to your own, lead generation can be amplified.
- Don’t neglect outbound marketing: It’s not all inbound marketing activity – outbound or push marketing still has its place. Consider layering activities such as trade shows, outbound sales calls and direct mail with specific targets to bolster new lead acquisition.
- Don’t be too specific: when building brand or product awareness it is vital that you do not narrow your target too much or you risk alienating leads who don’t have the right knowledge base just yet. Some prospects may still be identifying their problem and symptoms.
Should I use predictive marketing tools to fill my sales funnel?
Any discussion of lead generation would not be complete without answering how predictive marketing can fill your funnel. Using machine learning AI (artificial intelligence), statistical models and data science, predictive marketing tools help pinpoint intent and those prospects who are actively looking to purchase. As a result, predictive marketing not only fills your funnel with leads; it drives quality “in-market” leads that you may have otherwise missed out on.
The competitive advantages of intent based marketing are clear:
- Reach buyers before your competitors do
- Probability of sale is increased by up to 70%
Effective, accessible and flexible to different sectors and industries, predictive marketing is your chance to “jump the queue” in quality lead generation.
Can only B2B’s use account based marketing for lead generation?
Closely related to predictive marketing, an account based marketing approach favours the few over the many. Offering razor sharp targeting, ABM focuses efforts on target accounts to deliver quality acquisitions and a superior ROI.
But ABM is not solely a B2B strategy. Some 60% of businesses plan to increase their spend on ABM. Our consultants recently helped one company to increase their revenue opportunity by 3000% with a tailored ABM programme.
Building ToFu awareness starts with marketing strategy
Acquiring new top of the funnel leads is all about awareness. The above marketing tactics show how you can increase brand reach, both online and offline.
But any tactic needs to be underpinned by strategy. A strategy that is geared towards your business goals. A strategy that unlocks market insights and a strategy that outlines your value proposition and competitive distinction.
We are a marketing consultancy providing tailored marketing strategy support to businesses of all sizes. Our aim is to drive your growth.
Book a marketing strategy consultation by calling 01565 632206 or email sales@think-beyond.co.uk.
You can also request more information about our marketing support services via this easy contact form.
Now that you have seen lead generation marketing hacks to grow your sales funnel step by step, check out how to optimise leads in the tricky middle of the funnel. The final part of our 3-part series looks at tips to support conversion at the bottom of the funnel.