Leads are arguably the most important thing for B2B companies. However, generating leads is often challenging. If you’re one of those who are learning how to collect leads for your business, the best solution is to start building a lead generation funnel.
What is a lead generation funnel, by the way?
Also known as a lead funnel, a lead generation funnel is a systematic approach on how to get leads or potential customers. In this process, you are “funneling” your target market through proven effective stages that will persuade them to make a purchase.
Important Steps in the Lead Generation Process
An effective lead generation funnel comprises the following steps:
1. Top of the Funnel (TOFU)
This is where awareness is established. This is actually your business’s first contact with a potential customer. In this stage, you may introduce yourself to a prospective buyer. Videos, blogs, and others are the content involved in this initial step.
2. Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)
The second stage is all about engagement. Your prospects start to engage with you; thus, you need to keep nurturing them. Provide ebooks, free calls, whitepapers, and other valuable content to them.
3. Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)
This is the stage when you have converted your prospects into leads. This is also the time you keep ensuring that a strong relationship is built with them. Value the trust that they give you when they decide to become paying customers. An optimal BOFU may comprise but are not limited to demos, discount offers, trial extensions, and consultations.
So, how can you build a successful lead generation funnel?
Understand your customer journey
Make sure to map out your customer’s journey. Know their problems, what they like, and what they expect to solve their problems. You can check your website’s analytics and look for metrics like traffic, session, bounce rates, and conversion rates. Besides, these metrics will also give you an idea of what you need to improve in your marketing strategy. However, do not depend on data and numbers only. You can conduct interviews, send out surveys, and read comments and concerns from your customers.
Provide valuable content
Offering something of value to your prospects is a crucial step in a lead generation funnel. Your content should be informative, entertaining, and interesting. Keep that in mind when you create blog posts, ebooks, podcasts, videos, and more. Also, ensure that your content is SEO-friendly so that it can be visible online.
Drive traffic
There are various techniques on how you can drive traffic to your content. The most common and proven effective are organic search, social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.
Create a lead magnet
Once you’re already driving traffic to your website, the next thing to do is collect your target audience’s information. How to do that? Create a lead magnet that is to be given free in exchange for their email addresses and other details. A lead magnet can be a giveaway, a free ebook, consultation, and others.
Offer your products and services
Once they are already a subscriber in your list, the next thing to do is sell them your products or services. However, you need to be creative and not overly promotional when doing this. To close a sale, make sure to attract your leads with the value they can get from your offer.
Conclusion
An effective lead generation funnel will help the business improve conversion rates and generate ROI. Make sure to follow the process while always taking into consideration that providing something valuable to your leads is of utmost importance. Utilize also some lead generation tools that are now highly available.
Start finding the best lead generation tool for you to convert leads into customers effectively. We love providing the right solutions for all your business’s needs! Contact us today!
