Do you find that you generate a lot of leads but never close any sales? Have you recently noticed an unusually large volume of leads locked in one section of your sales funnel? My friend, it appears that you have a blockage. You need the help of search engine marketing.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a kind of Internet marketing that entails improving the exposure of websites in search engine results pages, typically via paid advertising.
A sales funnel clog occurs when an unusually large number of leads become stuck in one section of your funnel and refuse to go on to the next stage of the sales process for whatever reason. Because these clogs can be quite costly to your company, they should be handled as soon as feasible by search engine marketing.
If you’ve noticed any red flags that you could have a clog, this is your plumber. I’ll show you how to locate and identify the clog’s cause.
Related: What is a sales funnel?
Learn what’s causing your clog and how to fix it.
Your leads may become stranded for a variety of reasons, from family emergencies to spam filters to your nurturing process not being long enough or simply missing the mark. Rather than jumping to conclusions, dig deeper into the facts and make decisions based on evidence rather than speculation by using search engine marketing.
First and foremost, where in your funnel does the clog appear to be? Do you have a lot of Information Qualified leads but just a small fraction of them are marketing qualified? Have you successfully nurtured your leads to the Marketing Qualified Lead stage, but have yet to receive any Free Demo sign-ups? It makes no difference where the bottleneck is located.
Second, how do the email analytics look at that point in the funnel?
Do you have a high delivery rate? It’s likely that one or more of your emails have been marked as spam.
Do you have a high open rate but a low conversion rate on your emails? Your subject lines could be improved.
You’re not getting the desired click-through rate? Reconsider your message.
Remember that unclogging a sales funnel necessitates ongoing analysis of key indicators as well as open lines of communication between sales and marketing in search engine marketing. If you don’t have those two items, you’re going to have a lot of problems.
How To Unclog A Sales Funnel
1) Take A Look At Your Marketing Messages And Content Again.
Don’t expect leads to automatically advance from one level to the next. They require constant involvement and knowledge in order to progress. And there’s a good chance you’re not sending the right messages to the right leads at the right times.
You may be under-nurturing your leads if your sales cycle is longer in search engine marketing; consider adding more content to your nurturing sequence. If you’re facing these issues, you’re not alone; these are both quite typical faults that can be remedied.
Create appropriate communications, offers, and call-to-actions for each stage of your sales process. Check to determine if your communications are still relevant to your sales cycle and funnel, and make any necessary modifications.
Related: What Is Lead Nurturing And What Are The Right Tactics?
2) Interviewing And Surveying Clients
You are the only one who truly understands your clients’ needs. That is why it is vital to conduct interviews and surveys to better understand their pain points and needs in search engine marketing. You’ll have a better sense of what’s keeping leads from progressing to the next level of your funnel after a few in-depth conversations with a few clients.
Perhaps they see the value of your solution but are wary of your brand. Or maybe they haven’t seen enough evidence that your brand is everything you say it is. Only by learning about your clients’ concerns and offering a solution can you figure out what’s creating the obstruction.
Tip: Create a survey using Survey Monkey or Google Surveys and ask them what kind of content they’d like to see, what factors they consider when making a purchase decision, and what obstacles are preventing them from making a purchase. These responses will assist you in creating content and nurturing leads.
Related: Lead Generation: Can It Be Useful For Your Products?
3) Make Use Of Form Fields Wisely
Using your forms as your first line of defense in search engine marketing to screen out any funnel clogs is a fantastic strategy. While adding more fields to capture data points that help you identify prospective consumers may irritate you and possibly lower your conversion rate, it will allow you to prequalify leads who will respond positively to your nurturing and avoid the annoying buildup.
Tips: Keep lines of communication open between sales and marketing to figure out which data elements help you identify your ideal customer in search engine marketing and include those fields in your forms. Make a scoring system that is based on the responses.
Related: What is sales training?
4) Put The Cold Leads On The Back Burner.
What happens if leads that were seemingly “qualified” turn cold and unresponsive? The remedy is simple: they obstruct the funnel because they are no longer qualified for the level in which they are now located. As a result, they should be put on a silent list,’ which is a “time-out” for unqualified leads.
Set aside the cold ones for a few minutes, then reintroduce them to the funnel stage as soon as possible in search engine marketing. You shouldn’t delete them since you might be able to re-engage them once you discover why they’ve been inactive. Keep note of when they last interacted with your content and use that data to determine your next steps.
To cut a long story short, a clog in your sales funnel is unavoidable at some point in search engine marketing. All of a sudden, leads became chilly and resentful. It’s a natural development in sales and marketing, but you’ll be in a better position to maintain your sales lines open and unrestrained if you use these four strategies.
Have you ever experienced a congested sales funnel? How did you manage to make it work? Please leave a comment below and share this article with your network if you appreciated it.
