Word of mouth marketing is still the #1 way a small business can generate more business. Referrals from current customers and warm leads from your strategic partners will still be the way most relationships start. Now put yourself in your prospects shoes for a minute. Someone just told you about a company and how they can help you. What will you do next? You will check them and their company out online if you’re like 9 out of 10 people!
There Are 7 Phases To Your Sale Funnel…
By guiding prospects through the following phases of your sales funnel, you effectively move them towards a successful purchase…
- Awareness: You start by making potential customers aware of your brand or product or service. This can be through online marketing, advertising, social media, content marketing, or other outreach efforts.
- Interest: Once you’ve captured their attention, you work to engage them further. You provide valuable information and insights that spark their interest in what you offer.
- Consideration: At this stage, prospects are evaluating your product or service. You provide detailed information, comparisons, and testimonials to help them see the value and benefits.
- Intent: You identify when prospects show intent to purchase. This might be through actions like adding items to a cart or signing up for a demo. You use this opportunity to engage them more directly.
- Evaluation: Here, you address any final questions or concerns they might have. You might offer trials, discounts, or detailed consultations to help them make a decision.
- Purchase: You guide them through the purchasing process, ensuring it’s smooth and straightforward. This involves confirming the sale and providing any necessary support.
- Post-Purchase: After the sale, you follow up to ensure satisfaction and encourage future engagement. This helps turn customers into repeat buyers and advocates for your brand.
You Need an Internet Presence to Get Past the Interest Phase
After someone refers a prospect to your business or they discover your business online or in some other fashion, your prospects are going to want to know more about you and your business. This is their Interest phase. They don’t want to meet with you right way. That takes too much commitment and too much of their time.
In the Interest phase, prospects want to…
- Explore your website
- Spend some time with your blog articles, videos, and video podcasts.
- Check you out on social media, especially Facebook and LinkedIn (sometimes Instagram and Twitter)
- Subscribe to your enewsletter (if you provide a lead magnet)
- Ask their personal and social media networks about you
- See what you’ve done for others just like them via featured work posts on your website
- See 3rd party testimonials from your past clients on Google and Facebook
The interest phase is really the way you start your relationship with your prospects these days. They want to know at least 80% about you and the solutions you offer before they will contact you on the phone or ask for a meeting. This is the step that “old school” businesses are tripping on. Most times “old school” businesses are good at getting discovered, bad at building online relationships, decent at closing a deal when someone is interested, and OK at following up. It’s their lack of online relationship building that prevents them from getting to the closing stage.
Small Businesses Who Don’t Adopt Online Marketing Tactics Will Not Get a Seat at the Closing Table
At the exploratory phase, you need to make sure you give your prospects what they want or they’ll never pass you on to the closing phase. In the closing phase they will meet you and give you a chance at their business. A lot times prospects move 2-3 companies into the closing phase. Companies who aren’t giving prospects the info they want in the exploration phase are simply being left out of contention without ever hearing a peep. This is where old school companies with antiquated marketing models die a slow silent death these days. The phone stops ringing and the inbox stops filling.
No Excuses! All Small Businesses Need To Find the Budget For Online Marketing If They Want to Stay in Business
Small Business are all spending their money on some sort of marketing or advertising. It’s time to reevaluate how you’re spending your budget. Maybe you have hired someone to handle your marketing. Maybe it’s just a part of their role. Your employees should all be doing what they do best and you need to outsource the rest. Outsource it to a company who can do it better and for less and let your employees add to the bottom-line. Are you advertising before you have an Internet Presence? PLEASE stop! You need business cards, you need word of mouth marketing, then you need online marketing, then everything else. Don’t advertise until you have the rest taken care of first. Advertising, print, radio, cable, etc. all have their roles and are great marketing vehicles but you have to have a firm foundation online before they can work. If you have advertisements that lead people to CALL YOU but they really just want to EXPLORE YOU, then you are wasting your money. Build your word of mouth, then your internet presence, and then everything else.
Our Internet Presence Package is a Combination of Marketing Strategies that will help your company to teach and communicate better with its prospects and customers.
Contact us (859-904-8035) today to get started!
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ABOUT MAIN STREET MARKETING
ABOUT MAIN STREET MARKETINGSince 2006, Main Street Marketing has been creating Internet Presence Solutions for small businesses. Main Street Marketing uses internet marketing, search engine optimization, social media, lead generation, and video to create a true Internet Presence for its clients. When integrated correctly, this core group of services provide results together that none of the services could provide on their own or in phases.
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