In a perfect world, leads come to you with cash in hand and full product knowledge, and all you have to do is accept their money. In real-world B2B marketing, there are a few more bumps and snags in the sales funnel. Every one of those sticking points can become a roadblock for otherwise promising leads, so it’s imperative for marketers to smooth the way and create as frictionless a surface as possible for leads. You want them to feel comfortable going with the current so they move effortlessly from conversion to conversion. Here’s how to reduce unnecessary friction and give leads the best buyer’s journey you can.
Customization
You feel at ease with the people who know you best, and so do your customers. They appreciate it when you showcase some of that knowledge by using names and alluding to job titles. It’s the difference between a plain sheet cake and a beautiful birthday cake with your name written on it in sugary script. Data enhancement that tells you more about your leads can reduce a lot of friction in the sales funnel because it lets you fill in the blanks about your prospects. They may not remember to tell you about their latest promotion, but they’ll definitely notice if you start using the new job title in your email correspondence with them.
Testing
Old-fashioned A/B split testing took a while to analyze, and by the time you got the results, your audience’s tastes may have changed. Marketing automation tools reduce the turnaround time on testing to a matter of minutes, allowing you to go live with content while it’s still ultra-fresh. It won’t matter how fresh your content is, though, if it never gets to its audience because your data’s stale. Data enhancement keeps information flowing to the leads who are most keen to have it.
Nurturing
What do your leads need to know? They’ll tell you, but not always in words. Watch the way they move through your site, and you’ll learn a good deal about what matters to them. You can then use that behavioral data, along with demographic and firmographic details from data enhancement processes, to get a good idea of where your leads are on the buying journey and which routes they’re taking to get to the next decision-making point.
Lead nurture programs then supply relevant content to them, sometimes even anticipating where they’re headed and letting you build an outstanding customer experience for them just before they get there. It’s the marketing equivalent of turn-down service and a mint on the pillow; who doesn’t love to feel catered to?
Your leads have busy, complex lives. When you use data enhancement and marketing automation to simplify and streamline their decision-making, you earn their goodwill – and their business.
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