Do You Have Big Holes in Your Funnel?
Here’s a fact that sometimes surprises our new clients, but it proves to be true over and over again. More than 75% of your best prospects are not ready to buy when they visit your site for the first time. 25% aren’t even ready to give you their contact information in exchange for a whitepaper or eBook.
How do You Keep Your Visitors “Engaged?”
The good news is that many of the people who do visit your website or inquire about your product or service will eventually buy from somebody, but it may not be you unless you keep nurturing the relationship with them.
Marketers often use the image of a funnel with web traffic and prospects pouring into the wide mouth at the top and a smaller number of “converted” buyers exiting out the narrow opening at the bottom.
Middle-of-the-Funnel is Where the Gold Is
Many Inbound (web) marketers in the Denver-metro area tend to focus on the top portion of their marketing funnel – looking to drive more traffic to their website in general, for example, and less on the “bottom of the funnel” – closing the sale. These sites are set up so that if prospects aren’t ready to buy from you right now, they are abandoned. Sometimes they’re never even identified in the first place.
But that’s where the gold is.
For those of you that are not familiar with the term, “MoFu” refers to “Middle of the Funnel.” As the name suggests, it refers to the area in your inbound marketing funnel (the middle) where all of your leads congregate before becoming your customers, your competitor’s customers, or fading into the sunset.
This is when it is absolutely critical to nurture these leads: converse with them, share more information, keep them engaged and interested in your product or service. This is where the battle for market share is won or lost, so winning the middle of the funnel is mission critical.
What Happens When Your Visitor is Not Ready to “Convert?”
You have to engage prospects at various stages of the buying process and “nurture” or develop them into customers. Not everyone is ready to reach for a credit card or speak to your sales team or even give you their contact information. This doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable to you.
Take a look at your marketing process. I’ll bet you’re clear on what you’re doing to generate traffic or inquiries at your site. And you may know what you’re doing to close sales. But what are you doing to continue to nurture the top of the funnel inquiries and convert them in to sales?
Let us know your thoughts! Do you agree that the MoFu is critical? What are you doing to strengthen this area of your process?
