Capitalizing on your Marketing Efforts with Effective End to End Processes
Marketing your company happens throughout every single interaction a consumer has with your business. From the initial marketing efforts that brought them to your website, to the sales process, employees they may work with and after sale care they receive, everything that your customers (and potential customers) encounter creates their impression of your company.
They either have a great experience that creates an emotional connection, or they don’t. Either way, you can rest assured that the experience they have will impact whether they refer your company, give reviews and testimonials, repeat buy and continue to connect with your company’s ongoing messaging through newsletters, podcasts or social media.
Considering that every single touchpoint matters, it can be a little baffling when a company invests significant financial resources into marketing, but fails to invest in the other areas of their business that facilitate converting leads, processing sales and ensuring a customer is happy and refers their business to others. Marketing will “lead the horse to water”, but you also need to figure out how to ensure it “drinks” by moving it through solid experiences and processes once attention has been captured
Your marketing, conversion and sales and client care processes all work together as a single end to end process that moves people through the sales funnel towards becoming your customer. In order to make the most of your marketing dollars and capture your fair share of the market, it is critical to take a holistic approach to the entire cycle a prospective customer will go through by viewing each step as part of an integrative process.
When assessing your full sales cycle, it is critical to examine these key areas:
● Marketing – Typically the first interaction with your company happens through marketing, including referrals. Your social media accounts, lead generation and SEO game should be optimized and on point
● Website – No matter how you “met” a prospective customer, they need to move through a frictionless conversion process that will find them, 90% of the time, on your website or a landing page of some sort. It is paramount that the website experience is optimized, concise and that the conversion process is simple and seamless. Can a prospect client buy directly from your website? Is that process easy to maneuver? Can someone reach your team or get more information quickly and easily?
All of these important details matter – A LOT! Anything from a slow load speed to complicated ecommerce platforms can cause a buyer to abandon their cart. And if it’s hard to reach your company or get more information, they are on to the next company as quickly as they came.
Get your website and conversion processes nailed down to perfection by consistently testing them yourself, with your team and with friends and family who are strangers to your site
● Sales – The sales process will look very different depending on who your customer is, what you sell, your typical sales cycle and many more details. The most important advice on sales is to ensure the process is simple, seamless and creates the least amount of friction for your customer as possible. The best way to ensure you’ve got this process perfected is to talk to your customers. Find out what they loved, what they didn’t and how you can improve. Check in often to ensure customers are happy, the process still works well and that any updates or refinements possible are completed.
Also critical to your sales process success is your sales team, if you have one. If your sales process is not fully automated, customers will be required to connect with someone in your company before a sale can be completed. Getting your sales people in line with your brand, values and messaging is crucial to your success. In return, you owe it to your team to ensure they have the right tools to get the job done and that you are regularly checking in with them to see how things are going. Salespeople are one of the best places to find out what your customers are saying about various areas of your business, so be sure to listen, and act, on what they share with you
● Customer Support – Once someone has become your customer, the way they are supported is the single most important factor in whether they will refer your business, give great reviews and ultimately if they will continue to purchase from your company. It’s amazing how many companies we have worked with who were able to dramatically improve their marketing and revenue results by focusing more on client care after a sale is completed.
How your company handles delivery, requests, issues and complaints will matter as much, if not more than the product or service they actually receive. In a recent poll, 69% of customers said they would switch brands due to poor service, with 88% saying they would choose great service over the best products
● Re-Marketing – Once you have captured a new customer, or a new lead, it’s a huge missed opportunity if you don’t keep in touch. Whether you use a newsletter, podcast, email marketing, events, social media or paid retargeting through Facebook, Google or other platforms will depend on your business and customers, but the most important thing is that you’ve fully considered the best way to keep your leads and customers engaged on a consistent basis. Find out how your customers want to keep in touch and consider a multi-pronged approach to capture each type of customer you have. Ensure the cadence you choose is in line with your customer preferences and that you have enough resources to keep up with that contact level on a regular basis. Consistency is key!
● Referrals & Reviews – Last, but certainly not least (actually, for most businesses, this is the most important step), your final process step that needs to be maximized to ensure you get the most out of your marketing is encouraging referrals and attracting customer reviews.
If you think about the last time you made a purchase, one of the first things you do is ask around, or you may even be making the purchase based on the referrals of others. And it’s not just customers that can give you a referral – even a potential lead who did not do business with you can give a great referral if they received great service but didn’t proceed for whatever reason. Either way, everyone feels more comfortable spending their hard earned money with a company they can trust and the opinion of someone they know and trust already adds that same credibility to your business.
The next best thing to a personal recommendation is positive reviews – Google, Facebook, Yelp – wherever people are talking is where you’d look to find out about a certain product or service.
So if this step is so important to us as consumers, it makes perfect sense that it’s imperative to your business that your customers will refer you, share your content and leave positive reviews. Often all it takes is asking and your customers will happily oblige, but many businesses miss the step of asking because they are busy or too shy. Regardless of the reason, this step can make a huge difference in your revenues, client acquisition costs, brand value and marketing success, so it’s a must have. Plus, positives reviews give you an invaluable SEO boost, which your marketing team will be very thankful for!
Marketing brings the prospects to you, but you also need a website that is set up for conversions and a sales process to work a lead in to a sale, whether that’s automated or includes human interaction. You also need to provide exceptional after sale support and be sure to keep marketing to the customers and new leads you meet along the way. And don’t forget referrals, which are the easiest and most cost effective way to get new customers, as well as reviews, which inform potential buyers about your products and lend credibility to your company, not to mention SEO improvements that you literally can’t buy.
All of your processes work together to form an end to end process that moves people through the sales funnel towards becoming your customer and then back around to buying again, or bringing you new customers. Every step is important to the success of your business and integrates into your marketing plan. Essentially, everything your business does and every interaction it has is marketing your brand and your company so if you want to capitalize on your marketing investments, it’s crucial that you have effective processes in each step of your buying cycle.
Digital Monk takes this type of holistic approach when working with our customers. An immersive deep dive to truly get to know your business is our first step with new clients, but it’s also revisited yearly to ensure our eyes are always on the current business needs and goals you are working with. By optimizing each of these areas, we are able to help your business capitalize on the opportunities each step presents and ensure you are getting the most out of your marketing dollars, increasing revenues and elevating your brand presence. We’d love to help YOUR business to succeed as well – Reach out today to get the conversation started!
