Sales and Marketing - Jen Jordan
Jen Jordan brings a wealth of life and leadership experiences to her writing. After 10 years creating a variety of content for a nonprofit, Jen decided to establish her own writing business. She specializes in creating high quality blog and website content for small businesses. When she's not writing, Jen is a competitive triathlete with a goal of completing a triathlon in all 50 states.
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The Marketing Hourglass Is Better for Small Businesses than the Sales FunnelThe "sales funnel" is a concept that many companies use to outline the progression of a potential customer from the first point of contact with your business to the point they make a purchase. The goal of the sales funnel is to offer insights into how a business can reach customers at different stages of the buying cycle. This knowledge helps companies to create effective marketing content and sales strategies. Unfortunately, the traditional "sales funnel" marketing model is incomplete. It doesn’t illustrate or address the entire life cycle or journey of a customer. After all, the initial purchase or sign-up is just the mid-point of a customer’s relationship with your business. Particularly with the importance of customer reviews, referrals, and word-of-mouth advertising in the digital and social media age, small businesses must view the customer’s progression beyond the point of purchase as an essential part of marketing. Stages In the Marketing Hourglass A traditional marketing funnel includes stages like Awareness, Consideration, and Purchase. A marketing hourglass typically consists of seven stages: Know, Like, Trust, Try Buy, Repeat, and Refer. While there are clear stages in the marketing hourglass, one thing to note is that many customers do not journey through all the steps in a linear manner. Even your best customers may not move seamlessly from one stage to the next, and they may return to prior stages or skip around. Building a Marketing Hourglass for Your Small Business The first step in designing a marketing hourglass is to identify all the different ways your business comes in contact with or engages with a current and potential customer. Some are probably very intentional and scripted, while others are accidental or completely unintentional. For example, running an ad in a local paper is a very intentional and scripted customer interaction. In contrast, one of your current customers referring you to a friend on social media is very unscripted and spontaneous. Yet, all of these interactions can be valuable in your marketing hourglass. Next, you must fully understand the questions your potential customers are asking themselves before they’re even aware that your company exists. If you own a lawn care company, you might start to build awareness by addressing how customers can have better, more sustainable lawns or how much time they’ll save by hiring you (whatever the draw might be or pain point they most likely feel). Now that you’ve developed an understanding of your customer’s journey and all the potential touchpoints they might experience with your business, you’re ready to create the strategic stages of your marketing hourglass. This will include marketing campaigns, processes, and strategic touchpoints to give your customers a great experience. Here are some ideas of things to focus on or incorporate for each stage of your marketing hourglass: Know: Since you’re building awareness about who you are and what your business does, this phase should include things like informational articles that do well in search results, mass advertising, and even referrals. Like: Once you’ve attracted a potential customer to your website, it’s time to give them reasons to come back or ways to relate to and like your team. This might include valuable "how-to" guides, introducing your team and processes, etc. Trust: Reviews, success stories, client testimonials, and even "behind the scenes" style content are critical to building trust with potential customers. Try: Now that potential buyers are interested in how your business might solve their specific problem, it’s time to give them opportunities to try you out or learn more. E-books, webinars, evaluations, trial versions, or low-cost options are great resources in this stage of your marketing hourglass. Buy: Keep the purchasing experience high. Focus on offering quality customer service through the entire purchasing experience. Repeat: Make sure your customers understand how much you value their business. Offer upsell and cross-sell options as well as satisfaction reviews and other opportunities to continue interacting with your customers. Refer: Turn your satisfied customers into referral clients. Create a process and make it easy for your best clients to introduce and refer your business (and consider making it worth their while with discounts or special perks for referrals). A marketing hourglass is a powerful and effective tool for any small business. But it’s never a finished product. There are always improvements, changes, and adjustments to make it better and keep it relevant. Works Cited https://ducttapemarketing.com/build-marketing-hourglass/ https://get2growth.com/marketing-hourglass/ https://ironcladbrandstrategy.com/ask-lindsay/what-if-the-sales-funnel-is-really-an-hourglass |
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