How to Build a B2B Marketing and Sales Funnel That Grows Your ROI
By Neil Patel
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a guide that showed you exactly how to get more sales?
Maybe it would provide insights into what your customers want and help highlight the actions you need to take at each point in their journey.
Sounds great, right?
Well, what I’m describing is a B2B marketing and sales funnel. If you don’t already have a funnel strategy in place, you’re behind; 87 percent of marketers create content tied to different stages of the customer journey.
Here’s what you need to know about building a funnel that helps increase your sales.
What Is a B2B Marketing Funnel?
A B2B marketing funnel is a blueprint that shows businesses how their customers interact with their brand from the first encounter. It details the journey the people take to become a customer and sets out marketing actions that should take place at each point in the funnel.
It is very similar to a sales funnel and the lines have become quite blurred. However, it’s easiest to picture them side by side:
- Your marketing funnel creates touchpoints and gives the prospect reasons to purchase.
- Your sales funnel details the tangible actions you take to convince people to make a purchase.
Both B2B marketing funnels and B2B sales funnels are distinct from their B2C counterparts.
The reason is businesses make purchasing decisions in very different ways to individuals. Businesses tend to spend more money, take more time, and have more stakeholders (particularly if it’s a high-value purchase), which means the journey is longer and more complex.
In fact, 77 percent of B2B buyers say their last purchase was very complex. The B2B buying cycle is also longer, with 74.6 percent of B2B sales taking at least four months to close and nearly half taking 7 months or more.
This makes it increasingly important that B2B companies are investing in both their marketing and sales funnels to ensure they’re fully optimized.
Why Does My B2B Business Need a Marketing Funnel?
There are lots of different reasons you need a B2B marketing funnel. I’ve selected five of the most important benefits, but these are just the tip of the iceberg:
- The B2B customer journey is more complicated, so it needs more oversight.
- Modern customers value experience, which is why customer experience is the number one priority for 45.9 percent of businesses.
- It allows you to coordinate the efforts of different team members.
- You can maximize the efficiency of marketing tools to automate large parts of the process.
- It helps you spot inefficiencies and optimize your marketing process.
These are incredibly important benefits, but perhaps the most crucial benefit of a B2B marketing funnel is it provides a plan. You’re not taking ad-hoc actions; you’re taking strategic steps to move the prospect towards purchase.
Prospects have to work through each …read more
Source:: Kiss Metrics Blog
