Marketing plays a vital role in lead generation as the marketers are responsible for creating awareness for a product or service and bringing a lead to the site. They are responsible for nurturing leads and when the leads are sales ready pass them on to the sales team for conversions. However, according to Forrester Research, nearly half of all B2B marketers close less than 4% of all marketing generated leads.This is definitely shocking and the reason for this is that marketers and brand managers spend time, resources and budget to reach out to their target audience via traditional media. Here is a look at some of the traditional marketing funnels for tracking leads. A marketing funnel refers to the different methods employed by the marketers to attract new prospects and convert them into customers.

Traditional Funnel
A basic and focused funnel, it shows the transformation of leads into customers. The concept of the traditional marketing funnel via television, radio and print is to market to the masses, hoping to attract the attention of some but eventually it attracts only a few customers. However, the cost for generating these few leads and even fewer actual customers is very high.

Prospective Behavior Funnel
It focuses on the behavior of prospects in different stages of the buying cycle and determines how to create demand for a product during these various stages. The number of people making a purchase decision is insignificantly small here.

Purchase Cycle Funnel
It provides a method of understanding and tracking the behavior of an average customer throughout the sales process. This funnel can help companies plan their strategies in advance, improve conversion rates into sales and evolve the sales process to design CRM, for retaining customers.

Website Sales Funnel
This funnel measures the activities performed by the visitor on the site even before they become a lead. Source of the visitors, their level of engagement with the content on the site, their reaction to different calls to action on the site and their interaction with the company – via form fill or request form before the sale is made, are all qualifiers which decide if a lead is worthy of entering the sales funnel.

Though traditionally marketing and sales are considered as two separate departments, both share a common objective. However, the lack of alignment between the two departments has prevented enterprises from realizing their objectives. Hence, to tide over this problem, enterprises need to deploy marketing automation software that helps the marketing as well as the sales teams about the lead movement from one stage to the other.

Thus, the need of the hour is marketing automation software that provides the ability to distinguish hot leads from cold or less engaged leads, guide prospective leads and help them make a purchase decision through effective lead nurturing tactics.


Read more on - Lead Generation, Marketing Automation




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