There are many ways to get a consumer or business you are targeting with your advertising to travel down your sales funnel. Contrary to what you see online, direct response style advertising campaigns don't have to be tacky and ugly. Share on X You can grow and maintain a warm, visually pleasing brand online, and ask for business. Beautiful branding does not replace smart approaches to your potential customers. People don’t want to be sold to by a stranger, but if you are selling something, tell me what it is. (for crying out loud) If I am on your site, I am likely after something like what you sell – so provide me a clear path to buy.
Meet in the Middle
This is the gist of what is on my mind lately. The two extremes of hoaky direct response emails that are a mile long and just frustrate people, even the ones who want to buy, and beautiful, expensive branding, researched to death and compiled by the top shelf designer you found at a cocktail party. But not yielding you results. What’s in the middle that works? Beautifully branded direct response advertising. Try it, you may like it.
You likely have a web site, that you like and some products you want to sell. You may even have a messaging strategy. But how do you know if what you are doing is working? Social media advertising, keeping it energetic and engaging, is a LOT of work. And takes a LOT of time. Whether you are a budding entrepreneur or a long time business owner driving a new product, who has time to maintain something like social media advertising that is not yielding a result? So what is an advertiser to do?
Tracking the Success of Sales Funnels
A sales funnel has a start, a middle and an ending. The top of the funnel may be a digital campaign across all of your channels, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram, Facebook. The engagement may be an email sent to you or a form filled out. The bottom of the funnel is a sale or a sign up for your services – a win for you! You are creating sales funnels with your advertising, whether you realize it or not - but are you measuring them effectively? Share on XDo you know if you are succeeding at the awareness, engagement or closing state of your advertising? Are you advertising to consumers at all the stages of the consumer journey? People become AWARE, ENGAGE and then BUY, and if you are lucky, ADVOCATE for your product. Does your advertising strategy speak to and move each of these types of consumers along?
This awareness, engagement, buying and then advocating approach can be tactful, sincere and relationship oriented. You don’t have to shove your brand and messaging to an unwilling audience. You can develop an approach to your potential customers that is chocked full of information they need and want – and build relationships with them by serving them up great tools for them to win at their business. This is content marketing, and it works.
I resist that advertising that is direct and actively asking for business has to be tacky and intrusive. In the middle of tacky aggressiveness and fluffy unproductive branding is being a friendly, smart, informative professional asking for the business! You can service and inform your consumer in all the stages of their journey towards buying from you without being rude, intrusive or wasting their time.
Identify Your Funnels and Learn to Track Them – Webinar
If tracking your digital advertising sales funnels is intriguing to you, join me at my free webinar (actually a Google Hangout) the next 4 Wednesdays starting this Wednesday April 25th, at 9am! It’s easy to sign up, just fill in this form and indicate “webinar” in the comments field. And if you don’t have your sales funnels set up or identified yet, I will show you how to do that as well. If you would like, send me your web site or campaign url ahead of time and I will take a look and be more prepared to help you during our working session. I will work with at least one registered guest during the 1 hour webinar.
See you soon!
Jennifer
P.S. Sign up for the free Funnels Measurement Hang Out here! The webinar is limited to 10 participants, so sign up soon!