Fire Up Demand Gen and Sales: Best Practices for SaaS Landing Pages 2024

As global unrest and economic uncertainty persist, belts are tightening in most business sectors. While ChartMogul takes the optimistic spin that SaaS growth has “stabilized,” in reality, that translates to the fact that growth in many specific SaaS sectors is stalling or declining.

Best Practices for SaaS Landing Pages 2024

Source: ChartMogul

Optimizing consumer touchpoints is more crucial than ever. High-converting landing pages are strategic assets that transform curious visitors into engaged users and paying customers. 

Imagine a visitor landing on your website after clicking on a targeted ad. Their initial impression, shaped by your B2B SaaS landing pages, determines whether they become a lead or bounce away. Technology and consumer trends are changing, so we’ve adapted our best practices for SaaS landing pages in 2024 to reflect changing buyer expectations and new AI tools. 

Effective landing pages take time to optimize. They are part of strategic SaaS marketing campaigns that understand the different stages of the sales funnel. If you invest in ads, nailing your PPC landing page best practices is essential!

Just like buyers, landing pages are not one-size-fits-all. This post explores landing pages in the context of the SaaS funnel buyer stages: Awareness, Activation/Purchase, and Expansion/Upsell. But first, let’s look at some basics that every landing page should have, regardless of buyer stage. 

Global SaaS Landing Page Best Practices

Regardless of the prospect phase, the best SaaS landing pages share some common attributes. For inspiration, HubSpot offers many examples of best practices for landing pages. Additional tips include:

Regardless of the prospect phase, the best SaaS landing pages share some common attributes. Share on X
  1. Understand the importance of customer journey and intent.
  2. Use strong visuals and compelling copy throughout the landing page. Be sure your landing pages integrate with the website design to keep the customer journey on-brand.
  3. Ensure an optimal experience for mobile landing pages to ensure happy mobile users across devices.
  4. Prioritize page load time for quick access and improved engagement. Slow pages lead to an increased bounce rate.
  5. A/B testing at all phases helps optimize page elements to improve conversion rates continuously. You can optimize everything on the page with testing, from the CTA button color to your headlines. With multiple pages and stages, A/B testing can get overwhelming. At Funnel Envy, we’re used to dealing with that complexity. Reach out if you have questions.
  6. Closely track upgrade metrics. Monitor conversions, upgrade paths, and churn rates to understand what resonates with your user base and optimize your expansion landing pages accordingly.
  7. Measure performance metrics and track key funnel stages.

Sparking Interest: SaaS Landing Pages for the Awareness Stage

The awareness stage represents the first encounter between potential customers and your SaaS product.

At this point, visitors are likely unfamiliar with your brand, and their main focus is understanding how you can solve their pain points. The awareness stage can be the best landing page for lead generation. A common desired conversion is to capture email addresses for email marketing.

Key Strategies for High-Converting Awareness Landing Page

  • Hook Them with a Captivating Headline. Use clear, concise language that addresses your target audience’s pain points. Think benefit-driven statements that pique curiosity and promise a solution.
  • Showcase Solutions, Not Features. Don’t get bogged down in technical jargon. Instead, focus on your product’s benefits and how it makes users’ lives easier.
  • Visuals Tell a Story. Include high-quality images and videos that resonate with your audience and visually represent the value proposition. Think hero images, screenshots, or explainer videos.
  • Social Proof Builds Trust. Feature testimonials, case studies, and logos from satisfied customers to establish credibility and build trust with first-time visitors.
  • Frictionless Lead Capture. Offer valuable, downloadable content like e-books, white papers, or webinars in exchange for email addresses. Keep form fields minimal and focus on capturing essential information.
  • Clear Call to Action (CTA). A clear CTA button is essential. Tell visitors exactly what you want them to do next, whether signing up for a free trial, scheduling a demo, or subscribing to your newsletter. Use strong, action-oriented CTA buttons that stand out visually.

Key Tips for Awareness Landing Pages

  • Target Your Messaging. Personalize your landing page content to different audience segments for increased relevance and engagement.
  • Mobile-First Design. Ensure your landing page is responsive and optimized for mobile devices, where a significant portion of your traffic will likely originate.

Landing Pages for the Activation/Purchase Stage

Congratulations! You’ve successfully captured attention and ignited interest in your product during the awareness stage. Now comes the crucial activation stage, where you need to transform those intrigued visitors into engaged users and paying customers.

Best Practices for SaaS Landing Pages in 2024 to Generate Sales

Focus on Early Wins

  • Highlight Quick Value. Showcase how users can achieve tangible results and solve minor problems within the first few minutes or days of using your product.
  • Frictionless Onboarding. Streamline the signup, login, and onboarding process to minimize friction and ensure a smooth user experience.
  • Demo the Power. Utilize product demos, explainer and demo videos, and interactive walkthroughs to visually demonstrate your product’s key features and functionalities.

Drive Product Engagement

  • Showcase User Achievements. Display progress trackers, badges, or gamification elements to keep users motivated and engaged as they explore the product.
  • Offer Personalized Tutorials. Based on user actions and preferences, suggest relevant tutorials, knowledge base articles, or contextual help menus to guide them further.
  • Live Chat Support. Offer available chat support to address user questions and concerns in real time, fostering trust and a sense of community.

Nurture User Satisfaction

  • Gather Feedback. Implement in-app surveys, feedback forms, or satisfaction ratings to understand user experiences and identify areas for improvement.
  • Highlight User Success Stories. Showcase testimonials, case studies, and success stories from existing users to demonstrate your product’s positive impact on real people.
  • Personalized Communication. Leverage AI tools to trigger customized email campaigns, in-app notifications, or targeted recommendations, keeping users engaged and interested.

Key Tips for Landing Pages That Drive Sales

  • Track Key Metrics. Monitor user behavior, engagement rates, and conversion points to identify areas for optimization and ensure your landing pages are effectively driving activation.
  • Leverage Data-Driven Insights. Use the data you gather to personalize your landing pages and tailor your messaging to resonate with each user’s unique needs and journey.

Level Up Growth: Pages for the Expansion/Upsell Stage

Your users are now familiar with your SaaS product and experiencing its value. The expansion/upsell stage presents an exciting opportunity to encourage upgrades, promote premium features, and cultivate long-term customer loyalty.

Key Strategies for High-Converting Expansion Landing Pages

Quantify Achieved Value

  • Highlight User Progress. Showcase user dashboards, progress reports, or data visualizations that demonstrate the tangible benefits they’ve achieved with your product.
  • Personalize Milestones. Identify critical moments within the user journey and trigger targeted landing pages highlighting relevant premium features that can enhance their progress.
  • Social Proof for Premium Users. Feature testimonials and success stories from users who have upgraded to premium plans showcasing the additional value they unlocked.

Introduce Premium Features

  • Clearly Communicate Benefits. Don’t just list features; focus on how they solve specific pain points, unlock new capabilities, and accelerate user goals.
  • Personalized Feature Recommendations. Based on user data and activity, suggest relevant premium features directly addressing their needs and aspirations.

Motivate Upgrade Action

  • Limited-Time Offers. Trigger scarcity and urgency with limited-time discounts, exclusive bundles, or early access opportunities for premium plans.
  • Frictionless Upgrade Flow. Make the upgrade process as simple and seamless as possible with clear CTAs, minimal fields, and secure payment options.
  • Support. Offer readily available support to address users’ questions or concerns during the upgrade process.

Key Tips for Conversion Stage Pages

  • Maintain Trust and Transparency. Communicate the value proposition of each plan and avoid misleading tactics. 
  • Social Proof Markers. These can do the talking for you. Focus on building long-term customer relationships based on trust and mutual benefit.

By implementing these best practices, you can craft upsell landing pages that effectively showcase the enhanced value of premium plans, motivate users to upgrade, and unlock the full potential of your existing customer base. 

Moving Ahead with Best Practices for SaaS Landing Pages 2024

This year, 2024, promises to be challenging for SaaS companies. However, don’t forget that challenge means opportunity for those who keep current and keep moving! 

We hope these tips help you implement some best practices for SaaS landing pages in 2024 that are free of jargon, clutter, and distractions.

If you want to know where to start improving, testing, and optimizing your SaaS landing pages, Funnel Envy can help. We have used AI tools long before the ChatGTP era and are experts in new integration and possibilities. You don’t have to do this alone. Reach out today to get started.

By |2025-05-12T04:37:12-07:00February 19th, 2024|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

Powering On-Page SEO and PPC to Boost SaaS Website Traffic

The rise of AI set off a series of shockwaves in the SEO services industry while handing Google the first serious threat in years to its preeminence. In response, the search and web ads giant is revamping its search engine results page (SERP).

Many companies are re-evaluating their marketing strategies, from social media marketing to SaaS SEO strategy. From this point on, it will be all the more essential to acknowledge Google’s changes and the role of AI in powering on-page search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay-per-click (PPC) ads to boost SaaS website traffic.

Google’s New SERP and Search Generative Experience (SGE) 

Google’s new AI search experience, Google Search Generative Experience (SGE), integrates AI into the SERP. Instead of offering organic search results and featured snippets above the fold, organic results are further down the page and may impact non-paid search traffic and click-through rates.

While changes are still in play, the upshot for SaaS businesses is that Google’s search results pages will probably send less direct traffic to websites. At the same time, increased use of AI in an already competitive space will likely drive up keyword and ad prices.

Let’s look at an update.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO refers to optimizing elements on a website to improve its visibility, technical performance, and ranking in search engine results. On-page SEO now leverages AI tools for optimizing keywords, content relevance, and enhancing user experience.

Improving On-Page Search Rankings 

With so much pressure to adapt to an AI marketing strategy, it can feel overwhelming where to start. A good strategy is to focus on shoring up the SEO basics, starting with technical SEO. The good thing about technical SEO techniques is that they give marketers a checklist of specific actions to improve SEO.

Technical SEO checklist for better search engine rankings

Technical SEO focuses on improving a website’s speed, security, mobile-friendliness, and user experience. Here are a few website elements that search engine bots evaluate:

  1. Positive user experience: A positive user experience can lead to better search engine rankings; a poor user experience can negatively impact SEO efforts.
  1. SaaS Content optimization: Optimizing content for organic traffic from specific search engines can help you rank higher in search results.
  2. Canonicalization: This technical SEO approach involves choosing a preferred URL for a website’s content to avoid duplicate content issues, which can harm search engine rankings.
  3. Mobile-friendliness: Good mobile UX is a ranking signal on most search engines, including Google and Bing. Mobile-friendly sites will show up higher in search results.
  1. Page speed: Page and site speed are primary considerations for search engines. A technical SEO audit can help pinpoint where to improve on-page optimization.
  2. Crawling and indexing: When search engines can crawl your website easily and quickly, it leads to better indexing and ranking of your website in search engine results pages (SERPs). Create XML sitemaps, use formatting and correct url structure to help search engines quickly glean and index content.

With an optimized on-page experience, your pay-per-click conversions should improve, too. Let’s go over some basics.

Effective SaaS Content Marketing and SEO

Content marketing is essential to online marketing efforts. Here are some tips for building strategies and creating content to fuel SaaS growth.

  • Design a content strategy with high-quality content conforming to Google’s EEAT framework.
  • Content creation should include blog posts, guides, webinars, and a case study of your ideal client’s success. Produce an “ultimate guide” of informative content addressing your target audience’s common questions. Be intentional about link building and internal links.
  • Optimize content for users and search engines: Use relevant keywords naturally throughout your content in meta tags, title tags, and meta descriptions. Ensure content is well-structured and easy to read. Avoid keyword stuffing. 
  • Promote content across channels: Besides internal linking, share your content on social media, guest blog on industry websites, share case studies, and utilize email marketing to reach a wider audience.

What is PPC? 

PPC is a digital advertising model that drives paid website traffic. Instead of free organic traffic, advertisers pay a fee each time someone clicks one of their ads. PPC strategies are evolving to leverage AI’s ability to analyze large data sets for precise targeting and bid management. 

AI and PPC Marketing – Good and Bad News

AI makes some things harder even as it helps with other tasks. Keyword strategies are what fuel PPC marketing. The bad news is that AI is fueling more keyword competition, which drives costs. The good news is that all marketers can access new tools to help improve targeting, ad copy, and ad campaign efficiency. 

PPC Strategies: Keyword Ideas for Targeting High-Intent Buyers

Different keywords map the buyer persona’s different awareness stages in the marketing funnel. Organizing content topics and long-tail keywords around search intent is a simple way to organize your approach.

SaaS SEO and PPC

Source: Penheel Marketing

Using Google Ads for High-Buying Intent Terms

By carefully selecting keywords and terms that prospective customers use when they’re ready to buy, a SaaS company or SEO agency can position your ads to capture this valuable audience. 

Generally, it’s more cost-effective to run paid ads in the transactional phase of awareness when the prospect is highly intent to purchase. Use high-intent seed keywords within keyword phrases to attract users ready to pull out their credit cards. Examples include words such as buy, price, deals, and shipping. 

Focusing on targeting and personalization is critical if your goal is to maximize ROI with targeted PPC campaigns. If you’re thinking that this can get complicated, you are right. Funnel Envy can help.

SaaS SEO and PPC Best Practices in 2024

On-page SEO and PPC can increase website traffic, but each has different strengths. SEO primes long-term growth, and PPC provides an immediate impact.

The magic balance? Combine them both! Use PPC data for SEO targeting, optimize both channels’ landing pages, and leverage PPC boosts for new content.

Here are the best practices to use as a PPC and SaaS SEO guide in 2024. These suggestions are prioritized from most important to least important. Every business differs, so you should adjust based on your marketing and customer acquisition goals.

  • Align goals: Ensure both efforts support shared objectives and use data from each to inform the other.
  • Optimize for user intent: Conduct thorough keyword research and create content for targeted landing pages.
  • Prioritize mobile experience: Design and optimize for mobile users and address technical SEO issues.
  • Focus on quality content: Create engaging SEO content and compelling ad copy for PPC. Make sure your blog includes high-quality backlinks.
  • Utilize data and analytics: Track performance with tools like Google Analytics. Conduct A/B tests and iterate strategies.

Landing Pages

On-page SEO and PPC for SaaS landing pages deserve special mention. At the landing page level, develop targeted landing pages for each PPC campaign and SEO keyword cluster to match the specific user intent behind the search query. 

Focus on a clear value proposition and concise copy highlighting the benefits of your SaaS solution and addressing user pain points. Finally, optimize for conversions with an intuitive user experience, clear calls to action, and fast page load times.

On-page SEO and PPC Strategies: Drive Qualified Traffic

With best practices guiding your overall plan, here are some specific strategies.

Keyword Strategy, Research, and Targeting

Organize target keywords by intent and customer journey. Use a broad keyword list to cover general industry searches, niche keywords to target specific stages, and branded keywords to capture users already aware of your brand.

Analyze competitor’s SEO and PPC for keyword ranking factors. Identify high-performing keywords and leverage them in your campaigns while finding gaps and targeting underserved niches.

Research seasonal and trending topics. Tailor your keyword usage to current industry trends and seasonal events to capture timely traffic.

Leveraging PPC for Qualified Traffic

All traffic is not created equal. Besides converting sales, another benefit of PPC is it can help you qualify your website traffic. Here are some ideas: 

  • Smart bidding strategies: Utilize automated bidding options like target CPA or ROAS to optimize ad spend and focus on conversions.
  • Retargeting campaigns: Target website visitors who haven’t converted yet with relevant ads reminding them of your product.
  • Dynamic search ads: Automatically generate ads based on your website content, ensuring relevance to user searches.
  • Experiment with different ad formats: Test video, image, and carousel ads to see what resonates best with your target audience.
  • Track and analyze data: Regularly monitor the performance of your SEO and PPC campaigns, using insights to adjust strategies and optimize for better results.

Remember that building a successful SaaS SEO and PPC strategy is ongoing. Experiment, test, and refine your approach based on data to attract qualified traffic and convert visitors into paying customers.

Moving Ahead with On-Page SEO and PPC

Anyone in the business can tell you digital marketing wasn’t easy even before AI. While AI tools are opening up significant advantages, they are also introducing new challenges, not to mention a considerable learning curve.

If you are wondering where to start with on-page SEO and PPC to boost your SaaS website traffic, Funnel Envy can help. We have used AI tools before the ChatGTP era and are experts in new integration and possibilities. You don’t have to do this alone. Reach out today to get started.

By |2025-05-12T04:37:11-07:00February 5th, 2024|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

Capitalizing on Google’s Algorithm Adjustments for AI-Generated Content

In the early days of the internet, Google won the search engine wars against companies like AltaVista by developing more sophisticated algorithms rather than solely focusing on keyword matching. For example, Google’s PageRank algorithm incorporated authority, relevance, and keywords.

Since that time, Google has continued to provide search results based on user experience and search intent. At the same time, SEO strategists have continued to try to predict what the algorithm wants and create content that “hacks” the algorithm without violating Google’s guidelines.

In response to ChatGPT’s meteoric adoption rate, Google has significantly updated its algorithm and content guidelines in 2022 and 2023.

Google AI SEO

Source: The PHA Group

ChatGPT presents the first serious threat to Google’s dominance in many years. Google has been scrambling to adjust to the tidal wave of AI content that is just beginning to build. Google also recognizes that if users can get direct answers from a ChatGPT query, why would they still use Google? 

Like most technology earthquakes, the first big jolt has seen sharp aftershocks, such as copyright infringement lawsuits and questions about AI ethics. Predictions of Google’s demise are premature. The company is already responding to marketers about what generative AI means for content, SEO, and website traffic optimization. 

As AI transforms content creation strategies, CMOs want to leverage AI to meet Google’s standards. AI will continue to improve, but it’s still unable to do all the heavy lifting of a good marketing strategy. For content production, human supervision of AI content is vital. 

Google’s stance on quality content has stayed the same even with AI. Before AI, they punished keyword stuffing and other attempts to manipulate searches at the expense of quality information and user experience. In the AI era, they will do the same. 

Google continues to seek meaningful, informative, and engaging material that resonates with a target audience, whether the author is a human or a bot.

Let’s take a look. 

Google’s Algorithm Adjustments and Current Content Guidance

With some algorithm updates, Google releases additional content guidance. Google’s September 2023 Helpful Content Update modified its AI and third-party content guidelines. 

The update supports AI-generated content and emphasizes quality and user-centricity by removing “written by people.” Most experts interpreted this to mean Google would not penalize AI content simply because AI writes it. For Google, the main points are quality and user experience.

Google AI SEO

Source: Google

In Google’s view, helpful content should be high-quality. What do they mean by that? Let’s look at some additional content guidance.

E-E-A-T Content Framework

Google’s guidelines for evaluating quality content are known as the E-E-A-T framework. The acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. While E-E-A-T is not an algorithm, it is an SEO fundamental because it influences how Google assesses and ranks content.

Content that conforms to the framework is more likely to rank higher. Here is a bit more detail about what each term means: 

Experience: This evaluates the content creator’s experience and firsthand knowledge of the topic, ensuring the content uses practical, real-world understanding.

Expertise: Focuses on the content creator’s qualifications and knowledge in a specific field, particularly important for specialized or technical topics.

Authoritativeness: Measures the credibility and recognition of the content creator and the website in their field, assessed through credentials, external citations, and industry recognition.

Trustworthiness: Relates to the reliability and accuracy of the content and the website, ensuring the information is truthful, transparent, and dependable. Consistent posting also increases the trustworthiness score. 

The E-E-A-T framework is essential for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics, where accurate and reliable information is crucial. It guides content creators in producing high-quality content that Google’s search algorithms favor.

You can refer to Google’s guidelines on E-E-A-T for a detailed understanding.

Hidden Gems

In November 2023, Google announced its “Hidden Gems” algorithm and ranking, separate from the Helpful Content algorithm. Hidden Gems aims to promote content based on personal insights, experiences, or deep expertise from forum posts, social media, and blog posts. 

Content Dont’s, According to Google

Finally, sometimes it’s easiest to know what to do by looking at what not to do. Google has clear guidelines on what qualifies as unhelpful content, whether the creators use AI or not. The overall situation Google is trying to avoid is rewarding a tidal wave of unhelpful content because AI makes it easier to produce it. The following list includes types of content to avoid.

  • Search engine-first content focused on keywords
  • Content with little to low-added value
  • Content repeating what other sources have already said
  • Content that makes false promises
  • Publishing content only on trending topics
  • Repetitive content to meet a specific word count

How Google’s AI Changes Affect SEO 

When you consistently produce high-quality E-E-A-T content, that makes Google’s algorithm happy. Will your website traffic likely increase?

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee. As you know, in the past, Google would offer up links to ranked content in response to a query. The user then would click through to the content source to gather more information.

In response to losing users to ChatGPT’s conversational searching style, Google is developing its own generative AI results format. They are changing the user experience on the search page. It’s like a search workspace, where users can get complete answers to their questions (with citations) and ask follow-up questions.

Google AI SEO

Image source: TechCrunch and Google

This new functionality likely means more users will get the answers they need directly from the Google page, resulting in lower click-through rates to source material (like websites). 

Optimize Landing Pages – Job One for Maintaining Conversion Rates

With the risk of lower traffic due to Google’s on-page search changes, optimizing your website content and landing pages is more important than ever to increase visitors’ conversion. 

The good news is that AI can be your friend in improving your site’s on-page experience and conversions. AI can personalize the visitor’s experience in engaging ways and simplify scaling A/B testing for dozens of landing pages. If you need help figuring out where to start, FunnelEnvy can help. 

AI Integration SEO Strategies

Besides optimizing landing pages, consider developing a plan to create more search-friendly content. Given the changing dynamics of search, here are some tips for search-friendly content that improve the odds of traffic coming to your site:

  1. Optimize your content brief and outline for SEO before you use AI. Then, edit the AI-generated content with original thought and research, brand voice, anecdotes, and expert insights.
  2. Keywords are still your friend; just don’t overuse them. Use the keyword phrase in the title, the first 100 words, and one header. 
  3. User experience is very important to Google. Format your post for easy reading and indexing. Use headers and bold emphasis. The post should have a logical flow. One of the telltale signs of a poorly edited AI article is that it is hard to follow. 
  4. Use internal and external links. 
  5. Create comprehensive content so users won’t click away to find more info elsewhere. 
  6. Content should be concise and not repetitive. Avoid passive verb tense. 
  7. Always check AI content for accuracy. Editors and SMEs can fact-check and improve AI-generated content.

You can check out SemRush’s Content Marketing Guide for more in-depth suggestions.

Moving Ahead with AI-Generated Content for Google

You are not alone if you feel overwhelmed with all the changes from AI’s transformation of SEO and content marketing. The good news is Google’s fundamental stance on quality content has not changed, even with the advent of AI. Level up your content with E-E-A-T, and focus on optimizing your landing pages. If you have questions about a strategy for maintaining search and conversion results amid the changes, reach out for a call today; we can help.

By |2025-05-12T04:37:11-07:00January 22nd, 2024|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

2024 B2B SaaS Buyer Preferences: Human-Centric Digital Experiences over Sales Calls

Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence is the big news for B2B SaaS marketing and sales in 2024. Yet while generative AI is transforming B2B SaaS marketing, the other big news is not about tech disruption but about people – specifically about the sales experience buyers want now.

The sales process, in particular, is undergoing a transformative shift. We’ll go over some research about what modern SaaS buyers are looking for in the sales experience. 

First of all, though, you should revisit the difference between sales and marketing before you revamp your strategies. Many teams understand this, but it can also be confusing because the rise of “growth marketing” may blur the line between marketing and sales.

B2B SaaS Marketing vs.Sales

Gary Vee, mega influencer and Vayner Media’s CEO has talked about authenticity and consistency as the key to audience engagement for several years. Digital super-marketer Neil Patel’s recent email to his million-plus subscribers said brand authenticity and consistency are critical for 2024. 

Forbes echoes these thoughts, pointing out that B2B brands create interconnected experiences to differentiate themselves in 2024. Experiences such as virtual reality product demos, interactive webinars, and personalized online journeys can enrich a digital-first sales process. 

Additional B2B Digital Marketing Trends for 2024 Include: 

  • Using artificial intelligence (AI)
  • Video marketing, especially short-form videos
  • Automation to speed up time-consuming tasks
  • Authentic marketing
  • Personalizing the audience’s experience
  • Focusing on sustainability marketing

How should brands hit the ground running with these trends? The first step is to clarify marketing vs. sales. A lot of content online offers tips on marketing strategy alongside sales advice without clarifying the difference. This lack of clarity can lead to feeling overwhelmed or pushing on the right actions at the wrong time.

Marketing creates awareness to attract and educate potential customers. The goal is to generate interest in the product through content marketing (like social media and blogs), SEO, and digital advertising.

Some B2B SaaS businesses contract with marketing agencies to create marketing strategies. To develop these marketing plans, the marketing agency focuses on SaaS trends and the customer journey. 

The sales function truly begins when the marketing funnel increases demand generation. Sales converts prospects to paying clients by understanding the prospect and personalizing their journey. Yet, regarding engaging in sales conversations, recent research shows that most buyers no longer want to talk to salespeople. 

This post focuses on solutions to help sales update SaaS sales processes and where to optimize to increase customer acquisition in a world where buyers prefer seamless digital experiences over in-person calls.

A Shift Towards Digital Engagement over Traditional Sales Interactions

Safe money suggests that AI and automation will scale the processes that fuel sales and revenue growth in the future.

2024 B2B SaaS Buyer Preferences

Source: Garnter, The Future of Sales: Digital-First Sales Transformation Strategies

Gartner’s B2B buyer preference research found that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience. Share on X

Buyers today prefer to explore options, compare solutions, and make decisions without engaging with a salesperson. This shift reflects a broader trend in the digital transformation of business operations and the growing comfort of buyers with online transactions.

Digital marketing funnels are second nature to the SaaS industry. SaaS products naturally lend themselves to a digital sales approach. The opportunity for developing a competitive advantage lies in Gartner’s finding that buyers purchasing via self-service channels are far more likely to regret the purchase.

Focusing on customer retention via optimizing human-centric digital experiences is critical. Let’s look at some practical steps teams can consider. 

How to Reduce B2B Sales Friction in the Digital Journey

In simplifying the digital sales process, the goal is a user experience that is as frictionless as possible, enabling buyers to find information, evaluate solutions, and make purchasing decisions easily. Here are three ways to do that:

Streamlined Website Navigation and User Interface

Design your website with straightforward, intuitive navigation and a user-friendly interface. Frustrating websites are an automatic turn-off. 

Responsive Websites

Invest in technology that helps you serve personalized content to visitors based on their actions. This content improves the user’s experience, increases conversions, and builds trust. If you have questions about how this works, we can help.

Interactive Chatbots 

AI-powered chatbots on your website that can provide immediate, 24/7 assistance to visitors. The key is to ensure a high-quality interaction. We’ve all had the experience where the chatbot was more frustrating than helpful.

Navigating this shift towards a more digital-centric sales process takes time and effort. It requires not only an understanding of technology but also of the changing dynamics of B2B buyer behavior. 

Creating Human-Centric Digital Experiences

As digital interactions become the norm, the challenge for B2B SaaS companies is to create interactions that mimic authentic and engaging in-person experiences. Designing digital touchpoints that resonate with emotions is a great start. 

It’s easy to see that social media is the perfect vehicle for emotionally resonant content. It’s about connecting with the buyer, understanding their needs, and building relationships. 

However, social media is usually more influential during awareness and discovery. For the sales funnel, here are some ways you can optimize content:

Personalized Video Messaging

A personalized video message can convey warmth, sincerity, and a genuine interest in solving the client’s problems.

Interactive Webinars and Virtual Product Demos 

Webinars can be an excellent stand-in for prospects who want to avoid 1:1 sales calls. Host webinars or virtual product demos that are informative and interactive, giving sales representatives a chance to talk with prospects and answer questions.

Tailored content and recommendations

Use data analytics and AI to understand your prospects’ interests and behaviors. 

Technology plays a pivotal role in crafting these human-centric digital experiences. You can use advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning to understand buyer behavior and preferences, allowing for more personalized and relevant interactions. 

Create a personalized website experience where visitors see content based on their customer journey. Not sure how you can make all that happen? No problem, we’re here to help. 

The Role of Self-Service in SaaS Sales

SaaS products have a natural alignment with self-service sales. From free trials to subscriptions, SaaS prospects often look for a quick way to try and purchase products. 

With buyers now looking for more self-service options, the information-gathering segment of their journey is a logical place to optimize and stand out. 

Here are two suggestions:

Comprehensive Knowledge Bases and Resource Centers

Develop a thorough knowledge base or resource center easily accessible on the website. This resource should include detailed FAQs, how-to guides, tutorials, and case studies.

Interactive Product Tours 

Interactive product tours allow prospects to explore the features and functionalities of the SaaS product at their own pace. These could include virtual walkthroughs, interactive demos, or customizable feature explorers.

Moving Ahead in 2024 with B2B SaaS Buyer Preferences

The future of B2B SaaS sales will reveal rich digital interactions, personalized experiences, emotional touchpoints, and seamless self-service options. Companies can increase profits by creating more effective, efficient, and customer-centric sales processes focusing on these areas.

We know that implementing a digital-first landscape can be challenging. Funnel Envy specializes in helping B2B SaaS companies adapt to these changes. We know you have unique concerns and are here to help you. Reach out today to get the conversation started.

By |2025-05-12T04:37:11-07:00January 8th, 2024|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

The Power of Short B2B Videos for Marketing: Leveraging the TikTok Effect

Even before the internet, corporate video was a powerful (and expensive) tool in the marketing mix. During the 2000s, video production costs plummeted, bandwidth increased, and B2B videos quickly became a staple for online marketing.

After its 2005 launch, YouTube was the dominant video platform until TikTok’s meteoric rise in US popularity from 2018 to the present. Initially popular with mostly young viewers watching videos for entertainment, TikTok’s bite-sized videos offer an increasingly viable option for B2B marketing.

For example, after almost changing careers due to a lack of business traction on LinkedIn, B2B Marketing expert Jade Tambini now leverages 30,000 followers on TikTok and a growing YouTube presence. Only after she grew and monetized her TikTok following did she re-invest time into LinkedIn.

From B2B SaaS to high ticket sales, video is the perfect format for providing richer content to keep fans engaged. Share on X

Today’s B2B buyer wants as much self-service info as possible on their customer journey with brands. From B2B SaaS to high ticket sales, video is the perfect format for providing richer content to keep fans engaged.

B2B Video Marketing

Source: Sprout Social

Regardless of the platform, the versatility and accessibility of short videos make them a powerful option in the B2B marketer’s toolkit, providing opportunities to connect with audiences that increasingly prefer video.

How can your business tap into B2B video? Check out our tips and best practices in this post.

Planning B2B Short Video Campaigns  

Before you press Record, the first step is establishing clear, measurable video marketing campaign objectives. These goals include increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or boosting engagement. By setting specific targets, you can focus your efforts and measure the success of your video content more effectively.

Compelling videos share a few common traits. Let’s explore this a little further. 

Choose one key point: Simplicity is vital in short-form video content. Focusing on one core message per video is essential to avoid overwhelming your audience. This singular focus ensures that your message is clear, concise, and memorable, making it more likely for viewers to take the desired action.

Importance of the Hook: The opening seconds of your video are crucial. Captivating your audience right from the start is necessary to keep them engaged. The hook should be intriguing, relatable, and relevant to your audience, enticing them to watch the entire video.

What is the One Thing? Narrow down your key point even further – What is the one takeaway you want your audience to remember? Mention it early in the video and right before your CTA at the end. 

Always use captions: Most people watch videos with the sound off. Be sure to use captions for accessibility and a better user experience. 

Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience is crucial in creating impactful video content. Before you start brainstorming videos, check in with your marketing basics.

Buyer Personas for B2B videos

Now is the time to lean on your Buyer Persona. Relying on your buyer persona information helps you develop a personalized approach that ensures higher engagement and a deeper connection with your messaging. Here are three ways to leverage Buyer Personas for impactful B2B video content:

Addressing Specific Pain Points and Interests: Craft your video content to address your personas’ specific challenges or interests. For example, if your persona is a marketing executive concerned about ROI, create content demonstrating how your product or service can enhance marketing efficiency and profitability.

Using Appropriate Tone and Style: Align the tone, style, and language of your videos with the preferences of your personas. A more formal tone may suit C-level executives, while a casual and energetic style might appeal to creative professionals. 

Choosing Relevant Topics: Select topics for your videos that are relevant to your buyer personas’ industry and professional interests. For instance, IT professionals may appreciate videos on the latest tech trends or cybersecurity tips. 

Tailor B2B video content to the B2B funnel stage

Each stage of the buyer’s journey requires a different approach. You can customize short videos to address these various stages, from raising awareness to nurturing leads and closing sales. Here are some examples:

Awareness Stage

Educational videos, explainer videos, and brand videos

Interest Stage

Webinars, how-to videos, and product demos

Consideration Stage

Testimonials and case studies, detailed product demos, and comparison videos

Decision Stage

FAQ Videos, customized product demos, and consultation offers.

Retention Stage

Training and tutorial Videos, customer success stories, updates, and new features videos. 

Advocacy Stage

User-generated content (UGC), community-building videos, and referral program explainers

Videos that meet the needs and objectives of the respective stage in the sales funnel establish trust and help keep potential customers moving through your funnel. 

What Platform is the Best for B2B Videos – TikTok or YouTube?

When it comes to choosing the right platform for your short video content, there are several considerations. Both platforms offer unique advantages and cater to different audience behaviors and expectations. 

Here’s some info to consider to determine which platform aligns best with your B2B marketing goals:

TikTok: Known for its virality and creative content, TikTok is ideal for reaching a younger demographic. The platform’s algorithm is excellent for discoverability, making it easier for new audiences to find your content.

YouTube Shorts: As an extension of YouTube, Shorts allows you to leverage the platform’s vast audience. It’s well-suited for longer-form content edited to shorter clips. YouTube’s detailed analytics can be invaluable for understanding audience engagement and refining your strategy.

Audience Demographics: Evaluate where your target audience spends their time. If your buyer personas skew younger or are more engaged with trendy, fast-paced content, TikTok might be the better choice, although, as we’ve seen with Jade’s example, TikTok can also work to reach the Millennial B2B audience. For a more diverse age range and a preference for informative, detailed content, consider YouTube Shorts.

Integration with Existing Marketing Channels: YouTube’s strength lies in its seamless integration with Google’s ecosystem, offering advantages in SEO and content discoverability. TikTok is growing fast and offers unique social sharing and engagement opportunities. If Facebook is critical to your brand, then Instagram reels can have a ripple effect on your Meta outreach strategy. 

Choosing between TikTok and YouTube for your short video B2B marketing efforts hinges on understanding your audience, content style, and marketing goals. By aligning your platform choice with these factors, you can create more effective and engaging video content that resonates with your target audience.

Maximizing LinkedIn for B2B Short Video Marketing

LinkedIn holds a unique position for B2B video marketing, and it’s not entirely positive. LinkedIn’s process for uploading videos is not seamless, and they gatekeep who can go live on the platform.

The good news is that a LinkedIn video can be valuable for targeted outreach if you put in some extra effort. LinkedIn videos get 3x more engagement than text posts. Members also reshare B2B short videos more than other types of content. 

Use LinkedIn’s networking capabilities to amplify your video content. Engage with comments, share your videos in relevant groups, and tag industry influencers or partners to expand your reach. 

Ideas for video content on LinkedIn include industry trends, thought leadership, case studies, webinars, and how-to guides. Be sure to keep them concise and informative. Well-done videos have a higher value than most written content, so sharing a video as part of a LinkedIn messaging outreach can also be an effective tactic.

Moving Ahead with B2B Short Video

Video for B2B marketing is a valuable tool, but it takes extra work. Creating the content is only half the story. Planning, testing, integrating analytics, and tracking the results of your video marketing efforts can be complex and time-consuming. These steps are critical in understanding your campaigns’ effectiveness and making data-driven decisions for future strategies.

FunnelEnvy has helped many clients across diverse sectors better understand the impact of their video content. If you’re interested in discovering how our services can align with your needs and to get more information on our pricing, we invite you to fill out a brief questionnaire. Click here to get started and see if we’re the right fit for your needs.

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

By |2025-05-12T04:37:10-07:00December 11th, 2023|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

Two Keys to Unlock B2B Landing Page Performance – Customer Journey and Intent

Who hasn’t had the experience of being chased out of a showroom by a pushy salesperson? Those experiences are tiresome because they don’t respect where we are in our customer journey. 

We see this mirrored in B2B landing page performance with annoying popups and premature calls to action (CTAs) that don’t offer prospects what they need when we need it. 

For digital marketing, integrating customer journey and intent into landing page design is essential for its success. You can reverse engineer a path to higher engagement and conversion rates by mapping out the customer journey and intent across all stages.

What Is Intent in the B2B Customer Journey?

The customer journey is like a timeline of their experience with your brand, from initial awareness to the final decision to purchase. At each journey stage, prospects have a specific intent for their goals. 

Intent refers to what the customer wants to achieve at each journey stage – and this also speaks to their underlying motivation. 

Remember that customer intent is almost always very different based on price. For example, in high ticket sales, customers rarely intend to purchase the first time they engage with a brand. 

Prospects may value their time more than shopping around for small, low-risk purchases. In this instance, the landing page may look like a traditional sales page, hosting the entire funnel content from awareness to consideration to a “buy now” button. 

Understanding intent can help businesses create targeted, intentional marketing strategies that align with the customer’s journey phase. This awareness is essential to creating an excellent customer experience. From the customer’s perspective, the wrong offers at the wrong time are confusing or irrelevant at best and annoying at worst.

Why B2B Landing Page Performance is More Important Than Ever

Recent research shows that most post-pandemic B2B buyers prefer a self-service customer journey over “booking a call” to speak to a salesperson or company representative. 

Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions will occur in digital channels, making landing pages more crucial to lead gen and conversion than ever. 

It’s also excellent news for companies that fully embrace digital marketing. Landing pages allow for a precision-tailored approach to marketing. Optimizing landing pages can result in more effective lead generation, higher conversion rates, and better customer retention.

Successful conversion rates for landing page forms vary across industries but tend to hover around 2 to 3%.

B2B Landing Page Performance with Customer Journey and Intent

Source: Ruler Analytics

When you consider landing page content for each stage of the journey, a good starting place is to ask what kinds of questions your prospects have at each phase.  That question can help you tailor content that anticipates their needs.

Optimizing CTAs for B2B Landing Page Performance

What makes a landing page a landing page? It’s the Call to Action (CTA). The most important predictor of landing page success is how well the content and the CTA align with the customer journey. 

For example, a prospect at the awareness stage of a high-ticket purchase will likely not click “buy now” but may respond to a CTA for an educational webinar. A typical conversion CTA is a free trial requiring credit card information with lower-cost products and services.

Now, let’s look at some landing page tips for each step of the customer journey. 

B2B Landing Page Tips for the Customer Journey Awareness Phase

In the awareness stage, the customer is just getting to know the brand. Common questions include “What solutions or options can address my business problem? Who provides these solutions?”

Their intent likely includes narrowing their options. Here are some key considerations to increase B2B landing page performance in this phase:

  • Content: Landing page content at the awareness stage should seek to move prospects further into the consideration funnel. For lower-cost purchases with minimal risk, like a SaaS subscription, the funnel is relatively short, so the landing page includes consideration information and a “sign up now” button.  

For higher ticket items, you can use “top of funnel” (TOFU) content like blog posts, whitepapers, and industry reports to cover the most common questions and challenges your prospects face to drive organic traffic to your landing page. 

  • SEO Optimization: Conduct keyword research to understand what your target audience is searching for and optimize your landing page content to increase visibility in search engine results.
  • Retargeting: Only some visitors will convert on the first visit. Showing targeted ads to visitors who didn’t initially convert keeps your brand top-of-mind and provides multiple touchpoints along the customer journey. With dynamic retargeting, these ads can showcase products or services they viewed, reminding them of their interest and your value proposition.

B2B Landing Page Tips for the Customer Journey Consideration Phase

In the consideration stage, you now have something precious and rare – your prospect’s attention. Gary Vaynerchuk goes so far as to say that attention is the number one asset in the business world today.

In this stage, simply providing more information about your product is not enough to engage and nurture leads. The CX during this phase builds trust. Trust is essential because people rarely buy from companies they don’t trust.

So, how do you keep the audience’s attention and build trust with B2B prospects? Here are some ideas.

  • Personalized messaging and experiences. Consumers now expect personalized experiences across all their customer journeys. Let your prospects know you understand where they are in their customer journey by providing appropriate content. For example, 

consumers looking for in-depth information will be annoyed by constant “buy now” pop-ups or repeated offers for the same lead magnet they just downloaded.

  • Personalize the viewer experience. Implement dynamic content on your landing pages, meaning integrate that content changes based on visitor demographics, industry, or behavior on your site. 
  • AI for landing pages. As you might expect, AI tools are taking landing page personalization options to the next level. At Funnel Envy, we leverage AI and manage the added complexity of multiple landing pages to help our clients optimize results.  
  • Lead magnets. Customer preference for self-service info is good news for lead magnets if done correctly. Instead of making “book a call today” the only option for moving ahead, offer valuable resources like webinars or downloads appropriate for the consideration phase in exchange for contact information. 

B2B Landing Page Tips for the Customer Journey Conversion Phase

By this time, your prospect has gotten to know and trust you. Landing pages for sales are both an art and a science. Here are some tips:

  • Testimonials and Case Studies: Provide social proof through testimonials, reviews, and case studies. Real-world success stories can significantly influence decision-making.
  • Live Demos or Consultations: Now is the time for in-person contact for high-ticket items. Offer live demonstrations or free consultations to prospects who have shown a high level of engagement. This direct interaction can be the final nudge they need to convert.

AI for Continuous B2B Landing Page Improvement 

Continuous improvement in B2B landing page performance is a crucial goal. With AI, A/B testing is evolving rapidly. AI can now manage dozens of split tests of landing page elements, such as headlines, images, and CTAs, and even automate optimization based on the results. 

This development has significant implications for improving lead gen because studies show that the more landing pages companies run, the better. The study revealed that 31 to 40 landing pages generate five times more leads than 1 to 5 landing pages, and over 40 pages generate 12x the leads. 

Moving Ahead

Optimizing even five to ten landing pages can be a lot to manage in-house. From testing to reporting, Funnel Envy can help you with the complexity of scaling your landing page strategy. We specialize in optimizing B2B landing pages to drive conversion and boost sales.

We understand the complexities and have the tools and expertise to help you take your landing page performance to the next level. Reach out today to get started.

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

By |2025-05-12T04:37:10-07:00November 27th, 2023|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

Top 3 Demand Gen Strategies of 2023 and Beyond

In the fast-moving landscape of B2B marketing, demand generation isn’t just a buzzword; it’s the backbone of success. You may have the best product or service in the marketplace, but growth will be challenging if your target audience doesn’t know about you. 

This gap is where the power of demand generation comes into play; the art and science of creating awareness, interest, and desire among your potential customers. This blog post will review three tried and true strategies to improve your demand generation.

As a backdrop, let’s review the difference between lead and demand generation. They sound similar, but they are very different.

Remember, demand generation is for the top of your funnel, where people notice and interact with your content. Share on X

Remember, demand generation is for the top of your funnel, where people notice and interact with your content.  This chart from Gartner will help you clarify and create content for your demand gen phase.

Top 3 Demand Gen Strategies of 2023

The information in the chart speaks to implementation. Let’s look at the strategies to boost your demand gen efforts. 

Clarify Your Unique Selling Point (USP)

Before diving headfirst into demand generation, it’s crucial to answer one fundamental question: What sets your business apart? Your Unique Selling Point (USP) is your competitive edge, differentiating you from the competition. It should be something that you could sum up in a short statement. 

Your USP isn’t always the same as a company slogan or tagline, although it could be. For example: 

“Fast, efficient deliveries” is not unique to one company.  That is a tagline. 

“Overnight or it’s free” – that’s a USP.  

To pinpoint your USP, look for a corner of the market where you can establish dominance. Take a fresh look at your industry to uncover gaps, unmet audience needs, or underserved niches. 

Study what your competitors offer, not to copy them but to identify the untapped potential your business can uniquely fulfill. The book Blue Ocean Strategy is one resource to help you think outside the box and craft a strong USP. 

The authors include many examples of how some companies have created new markets with few or no competitors. One technique is to reconstruct an existing market’s boundaries. 

With an emphasis on carving out unique market space, Blue Ocean Strategy is a toolkit for taking advantage of untapped market space in almost any industry, including tech, healthcare, and manufacturing.

Create a Targeted Social Media Plan

Social media can be a potent tool for B2B demand generation. However, social media creation and distribution are resource-intensive and time-consuming. It’s essential to have a content strategy in place before you begin ramping up your socials.

Tailor your tactics to match your goals. An organic growth strategy is the long game of consistently posting free content and sharing or commenting on others’ posts. Paid strategies are usually part of a strategic funnel, with content focused around a specific outcome, like driving traffic to a landing page or freebie.

Once you have your content strategy in place, here are some tips.

Tip 1 – Repurpose Your Blog. 

To increase efficiency, use your blog as the foundation of your content. Doing this makes it easy to repurpose snippets from blog posts for social. 

Tip 2: Create a Social Metrics Dashboard

Be sure you have a dashboard for capturing metrics on your posts to help you avoid the trap of posting just to put some content out there, aka “spray and pray.”

Tip 3: Be Choosy About Platforms.

Remember, you don’t have to be on every social platform.

To decide where to post, check out where your prospects are spending time on social. For most B2B companies, LinkedIn is the obvious choice. X (as in ex-Twitter) is also a popular B2B and B2C channel.  X has an informal chat format with more flexibility than Linkedin for interacting with people.

Tip 4: Consider TikTok

Finally, don’t discount TikTok as a source of leads. Successful B2B marketer Jade Tambini says most of her leads come from TikTok.

Top 3 Demand Gen Strategies of 2023

Source: DataAI via HootSuite

TikTok is the current growth metrics winner for both B2B and B2C. In 2022, people averaged more time spent per month on TikTok than every other platform except YouTube.

Tip 5: Link to Your Website Early and Often.

While not every social post has to include a link back to your site, the overall goal of social media should be to drive traffic to your website. That’s because when prospects visit the website, you can track their progress through the conversion funnel. 

Incorporate Data into Decision-Making

The best part of marketing today is the data it provides versus the pre-internet era. Data is the compass that helps cut through insider bias and assumptions that may or may not be on track. 

An important step to remember is to ensure you have a good sample size before drawing significant conclusions. Small sample sizes can lead to skewed insights and misguided decisions. 

Also, remember that not all metrics are critical. Ensure your dashboard tracks the correct numbers, not just vanity metrics. If you need clarification about what to track and why, Funnel Envy can help. 

Moving Ahead

Demand generation is like the broader net for your lead generation that can also be an accelerator for your lead gen efforts. Improving demand gen can create a ripple effect that enhances results through the rest of your funnel and organization. The flip side is also true. A weak demand generation strategy wastes resources and undermines sales from the top to the bottom of the funnel.

Interested in learning more about leveraging demand gen and getting expert help optimizing your results? Our team at FunnelEnvy is ready to help. We’ve got many years of combined experience with funnel optimization, CRO, and other vital elements of demand gen across several industries, from tech to healthcare to manufacturing.

To learn more about working with us and see if we’re a good fit, fill out this short quiz.

By |2025-05-12T04:37:08-07:00September 4th, 2023|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

Tips for connecting product development and marketing

The broader tech and startup world has seen a significant hiring contraction over the last few years. Some of the biggest names in the space (Meta, Google, and Microsoft, for example) eliminated thousands of jobs and cut back on adding new employees. Recent data published by CNBC shows that tech layoffs in 2023 are up 38,487% compared to last year. 2023 is on track to be the worst year for tech layoffs since the Dotcom bubble burst in 2001.

Layoffs and contractions can be challenging, but they can also free companies to create efficiencies and innovations for role responsibilities across the organization.

Layoffs and contractions can be challenging, but they can also free companies to create efficiencies and innovations. Share on X

One result of this situation is the creation of hybrid-type positions that combine roles from several different traditional positions. These positions have been around for many years in some industries, but new ones are being created across various fields all the time. 

Business layoffs and contraction certainly aren’t the only reasons for hybrid positions. And not just a single team member who fills multiple roles on your team out of necessity. This particular article focuses on a unique connection: marketing and product development. While these two departments should always be closely connected, in reality, there’s often a lot more distance than there should be.

Whether you’re looking to bring on a hybrid team member, broaden the responsibilities of existing departments, or simply ensure these two parts of your business are more connected, this article will help.

What Are Marketing and Product Development?

Both functions focus on a larger concept: your company’s product or service. 

Product marketing refers to getting your brand and its offerings in front of the right people to encourage them to enter your sales funnel. Product development refers to all the people and processes involved in designing, launching, and updating the offering.

They’re both vital to the overall health of your business. You’ll hear arguments from proponents of both sides about how marketing or product development is more important. But you must be effective at both for optimal success in today’s business environment. You can develop an industry-leading, cutting-edge solution – but if you’re not getting it in front of the right people, its success will be limited. On the other hand, if you have a poor-quality product but great marketing, you’ll find customer complaints and frustrations everywhere. As the legendary ad man David Ogilvy once said, “Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.”

Connecting Marketing and Product Development in the Business

Now that you understand the two ideas better let’s review some practical strategies for making them work better together.

Clearly Define Roles From the Beginning

When was the last time you sat down and listed the specific duties and roles of team members working in each function? If you’re like most startups, it’s probably been quite a long time. If you want your team to work more effectively together, it’s essential that each team member knows what they should and shouldn’t be doing. One of the most significant sources of friction in the modern workplace is when people feel like they are doing a job someone else should be doing.

Only you can know for sure which particular job roles fall into these two categories, but here are a few common ones to start with:

  • Marketing Manager
  • Marketing Analyst
  • SEO Strategist
  • Content Marketer
  • Social Media Manager
  • Graphic Designer
  • Product Manager
  • Backend Developer
  • Product designer
  • Go-to Market Manager
  • Product Development Coordinator

Remember, this applies not just to internal roles but also to members of the team who may be contract or freelance.

Make a Preferred Meeting Cadence 

For two teams to work well together, they have to communicate regularly. Luckily, thanks to today’s technology, there are more options than ever before for how that meeting takes place. With the prevalence of agile principles, many companies are implementing “stand-up” meetings – quick check-ins that may only last 15 minutes to provide quick progress updates and highlight any specific sticking points.

We can’t tell you exactly how to have meetings within your business, but we can tell you how to decide: evaluate the people involved. Because your marketing team may have different preferences and requirements than people on the product side, doing this may stir up some challenges. The key is coming to a happy medium that can satisfy (at least partially) both sides’ requirements. Some companies have even been able to go entirely away from meetings, relying on async chat and messenger tools to communicate. Whatever style you choose, be confident it helps the maximum number of people on your team work efficiently. 

Define Shared Goals and Data

Even though the product and marketing teams are ultimately working towards similar ends, they may feel distant from people in other departments. This distance often happens because the tools, information, and objectives vary across business functions.

To overcome this obstacle and attain a more cohesive working style, ensure you have at least a few goals shared by those in different functions at the company. These goals should be related to the product and its marketing, but they should also be controllable by both sides. The marketing team can’t do much to influence code sprints, just like the development team may not be able to help your latest social media ad campaign meet your desired numbers. 

To set practical cross-disciplinary goals, recall the idea of lagging and leading indicators. You cannot directly change the lagging indicators any more than you can your weight on a scale or quarterly revenue. There’s no way to force more people to buy your product or service. But if you focus on the factors you can control for leading indicators – the time you spend tweaking your offering – you’ll find that the lagging indicators eventually get where you want them to be.

Final Thoughts on Merging Product Development and Marketing

If you’ve never even thought about connecting these two essential functions of your business, the ideas in this article may seem a little overwhelming. And while it’s certainly possible to survive and even grow as a company, if your departments aren’t working cohesively, you’ll eventually find a ceiling on the level of efficiency and size you can achieve.

For best results, you should consciously connect team members across departments or even consider hiring hybrid-type employees, as we described in the intro. Downsizing and layoffs aren’t the main drivers for this kind of cross-disciplinary interaction – instead, it’s intended to achieve maximum internal efficiency and reach as many clients as possible.

Looking for some help attaining this kind of connection at your own firm? Our team at FunnelEnvy can help. We have many years of experience working with companies of all sizes who want their marketing and product development teams to work better together for the good of the overall business. To get started, click here to fill out a short quiz so we can learn more about your specific problems and determine the best way to assist.

By |2025-05-12T04:37:07-07:00July 10th, 2023|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

How to Make Your Ads Less Expensive

Paid advertising campaigns on one of today’s many prominent digital media channels can be a valuable part of any funnel. One of the key advantages of paid ads (also called PPC) is that they offer quicker access to a larger audience than organic strategies like SEO and referral marketing. In this sense, building a massive audience almost “overnight” is possible, often reducing the time it takes to achieve your KPIs.

But like every strategy to promote your funnel and company offerings, paid advertising has a downside: cost. Investing in paid placement on social media networks and search engines can get expensive, especially if you aren’t sure about the return you’re getting.

Based on our experiences working with clients incorporating paid advertising campaigns into their funnel, we’ve found a few specific strategies work best for cost reduction.

Tweak Audience Targeting

On most paid advertising platforms – especially social media networks – one of the first things you’ll do is set up a target audience that dictates what kind of people will see your ads. One significant determining factor is often location: some companies running ads will want to restrict them to people in a specific location. For many software and digital services companies, geography is no longer significant in determining their target audience for paid ads.  

However, you can still use geography as a variable as you adjust your audience targeting until you can find an ideal audience set that gets you the results needed for sufficient ROI. Here are a few other ways to adjust your audience targeting:

  • By device. While it’s essential to ensure all elements of your funnel are accessible from any device, it’s sufficient to experiment and see if one particular device works better for generating engagement and visitors.
  • Browsing time. Each PPC platform will allow you to target the time of day or browsing windows slightly differently. You may find it best to break up these metrics into six or 8-hour periods and see which timing works best.
  • Lookalike audience. A lookalike audience is a predictive feature that allows a network to list people who share the same characteristics as another group of people who have already shown interest in your audience. For example, on Facebook, you might use “Fans of the Business Page” as a lookalike audience to draw on for an ad campaign.
For many software and digital services companies, geography is no longer significant in determining their target audience for paid ads. Share on X

Make the Offer Better

Another big element of getting more traffic from each ad campaign – thus lowering overall costs – is the offer; how do you intend to attract people into your funnel? It starts by getting them to click on the ad while browsing the platform on which it appears; an action sometimes referred to as a “clickthrough.” It is an important first step in any paid ad campaign. No matter how well-optimized your audience targeting or how great your ad creative is, you’ll struggle to bring in enough prospects if your offer isn’t as compelling as it should be.

There are many ways to improve your offer, but we’ve found a simple and quick way to upgrade substantially: keep your current offer but expand what you provide. For example, if you offer a 15% discount on an initial package, you may increase that discount to 20%. If you’re offering a 20-minute evaluation, maybe change it to 30 minutes. 

If these adjustments don’t bring about sufficient improvement, you may want to consider completely changing the nature of the offer. In these situations, look to competitors or companies who work in related industries to see the most successful paid advertising offers.

Strengthen the Hook

In this context, the offer’s ” hook ” refers to the ad’s elements that bring in prospects. Usually, this consists of an image, a headline, and a “sub-headline” element that appears at the bottom. There’s also usually a CTA button that entices users to click and take the next step in the ad’s funnel.

Bringing as many prospects into the funnel as possible is crucial to minimize the amount of money you invest in each ad campaign. One way to do this is by improving the elements listed above. Pick an individual component to work on – like the headline – and go through some testing to determine an ideal version. From there, you can open up the testing to other ad creative elements. For example, should your subheadline be a question that piques readers’ curiosity or a bold statement that challenges their beliefs on an important subject? Either could be practical, depending on your specific needs and target audience.

Call in a Specialist as Needed

As is the case with most elements of a digital marketing campaign, sometimes it’s hard to have the right perspective when you are so close to the internal workings of your funnel. You and your team may have strong opinions about what is or isn’t working for your ad campaigns and the rest of your digital efforts, but you may be missing one key piece of perspective that’s hard to find inside your own business.

These are situations in which outside experience can be precious to your marketing efforts. Cost is a big factor here – there’s no point in reducing the amount of money you’re spending on paid ads for your funnel just to replace that spend with money going towards a consultant or expensive agency. And it’s true that in some cases, bringing in an outside party to review your ad campaigns can make things more convoluted and frustrating.

There are two keys here: first, you must seek assistance on a level that makes sense for your business and your budget. As a smaller startup just beginning to experiment with paid ads to bring in revenue, one probably doesn’t need to rush out to lock down a yearlong agreement with a boutique agency with a five-figure monthly retainer. Even a casual “brain-picking” session with a respected mentor or expert in their field can sometimes be enough to shed new light on a problem that helps you take steps towards solving it.

At FunnelEnvy, our team has many collective years of helping clients in all kinds of industries address challenges related to their marketing funnels, whether it involves paid ads, landing page optimization, or making forms more efficient for visitors. We use this background to give each client personalized attention to help them meet their goals. Whether that’s ensuring they spend less on advertising in favor of other methods or optimizing their current expenses to ensure they get as much return as possible from their ad campaigns, we can help.

If you’re interested in learning more about FunnelEnvy and how we work with our clients, click here to fill out a brief quiz that will allow us to learn more about your business and determine if we’d be a good fit to help with your funnel optimization needs.

By |2025-05-12T04:37:05-07:00April 3rd, 2023|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

Optimizing Your Funnel With Video Content

If you aren’t already taking advantage of the power of video content, you’re missing out on one of the most important channels for any type of marketing – especially B2B. Research shows that video makes for some of the most engaging content. Over 9 in 10 marketers already use video in their funnels to help capture the right audience and serve them relevant, helpful content that allows them to accomplish their business goals. Moreover, nearly the same number of consumers report that watching a brand video has convinced them to buy a product.

At this point, it’s far from groundbreaking to say that video should be a key element of any organization’s marketing funnel. Clients often experience difficulty with the specifics of video content and understanding the optimization process. How exactly should you use video in your funnel? What kinds of videos should you make? And how will you know if your videos are effective?

Clients often experience difficulty with the specifics of video content and understanding the optimization process. Share on X

Though it’s tough to definitively answer these questions for any company without specific knowledge of their campaigns, we can offer some advice based on the trends we’ve seen working with clients to help them wisely incorporate video into their existing strategies. Let’s jump in.

Select the Right Kind of Videos

There are dozens of different kinds of video types and endless variations or tweaks you can put on those types to make them even more unique. Just spend a few minutes on YouTube, and you’ll see exactly how diverse video content can be! 

In a business marketing context, we can generally group videos into one of three buckets:

  • Quick snippets are meant to explain one specific concept or express a single idea. Software companies often create these using a screenshare that shows off a particular feature.
  • Medium-length videos are longer and go more in-depth on a broader area. These videos are anywhere from five to 20 minutes in length. For example, one type of feature video could be a medical research company showing off different parts of its facility.
  • Feature videos are anything longer than about 20 minutes. These are often pre-recorded speeches or conference sessions shared with the audience.

Again, these categories aren’t perfect, and you can probably come up with endless video types. Don’t get caught up in the specific traits of one type or another – instead, use them as a springboard to think about which type of video may be best for your business. As you go through the process of creating, promoting, and analyzing your video content, be sure to sort them by type so you can get more data on the effectiveness of each kind.

Let Your Prospects See Themselves

Think about some of the best movies, books, or television shows you’ve consumed over the last few years. For many people, the stories in these mediums are much more effective when they feel a connection to the characters in them. That could mean their job, geographic location, family status, etc.

The best marketers have figured out that this concept doesn’t just apply at the box office or the bookstore – it also works in a B2B marketing funnel. Whether you’re planning to create half-hour explainer videos with multiple scenes and people speaking, or you simply want to run a 45-second screenshare showing a single feature, do what you can to ensure your prospects connect with something. You could use language they recognize, name a process they frequently use in their business, or something completely different.

A case study or testimonial-style video is the best video to achieve this connection. Just be aware that many viewers are naturally skeptical of testimonial videos, so you should strive to include an authentic, balanced evaluation of your company and its offering. 

Connect Performance, Budget, and Analytics

Even after you’ve decided on a particular type of video to use, planned its production, and included it in the right channels, your job is still unfinished. The time after you’ve placed your videos into your funnel and published them on social media, your newsletter, etc., is one of the most critical periods for determining the overall success of your video efforts.

That’s because this is when you can get honest feedback from prospects about how effective your videos are at helping you achieve business goals. This feedback comes in the form of data – views, conversions, form abandonments, meetings booked, and so on. Ideally, you can compare this data with a preexisting, deep data set. 

Once you’ve analyzed the numbers and determined which kinds of videos are performing best for you, double down on them by redirecting more of your budget toward making them. Unless you have a specific reason, there’s no point continuing to spend money on content that doesn’t maximize the return.

An easy way to think of video is a virtuous cycle with three parts: budget, analytics, and performance. The cycle starts when you invest marketing dollars into creating a video (budget), continues when you dive into the numbers and metrics behind the video (analytics), and finishes with an ultimate evaluation of the video’s effectiveness in helping you achieve business goals (performance).

From there, the cycle starts over with the budgetary phase. As each part of the cycle becomes more and more optimized, it carries over to the other parts of the video cycle, helping them improve. 

Final Thoughts on How to Optimize a Funnel With Video

In 2023, it’s essential to get beyond just “doing video” and into optimizing your video for maximum funnel success. Barriers for video have dropped so much that you should already be incorporating them into your funnels.

To reach the next level of success with video, you need to know which types of videos your prospects respond to, how to include a hook that connects them to the content of the video, and what steps are necessary to iterate on videos to attain continued success. After all – you probably already spend time analyzing other elements of your conversion rate, so why not devote some of the same attention to the specific performance of your video?

While it’s possible to handle all of these steps within your organization, many companies find it easier to get them taken care of with the help of an outside specialist. A well-qualified B2B marketing expert will be able to give you a broader, more strategic perspective on the way you incorporate video into your funnel. They’ll assist you in identifying which kinds of videos to produce and how to track their metrics so that you end up getting the most out of the investment you make into a video for your funnel.

FunnelEnvy has helped many clients in various industries attain greater efficiency with video production and a better grasp of whether or not their content is moving the needle. To learn more about our pricing and determine if we are a good match for your needs, click here to complete a short questionnaire.

By |2025-05-12T04:37:04-07:00March 6th, 2023|Full-Funnel Optimization|0 Comments
Read More

Company

About Us

Why FunnelEnvy

Customers

Pricing

Services

Overview

Website Audit

Full Funnel Audit

Custom Forms

GA4 Audit

AI Website Audit

Resources

Overview

Blog

Contact Us

Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Security & Compliance | DMCA Policy | Contact Us | Conversational Lead Forms

© 2025 Celerius Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Go to Top