What's the Attraction?
How to Draw Customers Into the Sales Funnel
If you are like 61% of direct mail marketers, lead generation is your number one business challenge. Indeed, a HubSpot survey found that more than half of marketers spend at least half of their marketing budgets on generating leads.
Lead generation is critical because not all marketing contacts result in a sale right away. With high-priced products such as financial services, it often takes time to win a prospect over. You may send out 10,000 postcards, knowing that only a few recipients will open an account, and that of those who do, even fewer will do so based on the first mailing. That’s why the journey for larger, more complex sales is often described as a funnel.
What does this funnel look like?
At the top of the funnel is your initial call to action. This offer isn’t designed to sell right away. It’s designed to attract interest and get people to seek more information. As soon as your audience responds, such as by going to your website or clicking a link, they have entered the funnel. These are called “warm” leads.
Once people respond, they move deeper into the funnel. Maybe they sign up for a free trial, ask to have a brochure mailed to their home, or take some further action. There are fewer people in this category, so as they continue to express interest, we describe the funnel as getting narrower (fewer people), but deeper (more interested).
As buyers move further into the funnel, drip content is necessary to keep them moving. This might be spec sheets, product comparisons, customer testimonials, and other content that helps them make a decision. Every time a customer requests more information, they are moving even deeper into the funnel.
Once people have shown enough interest, follow up with a phone call. These are “hot” leads. By sending salespeople only those leads that are most likely to convert, you are maximizing the use of their time and, thereby, your profitability.
Highly targeted direct mail is a great way to draw leads into the top of the funnel.From there, continue to feed prospects the right information, at the right time, to draw them in more deeply. Use all of the channels at your disposal to drip the right content—little by little as appropriate to each stage of the process—until the prospect is ready
to say yes!
| Last Updated: 27 September 2022
