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The Custom Form That Supercharged HeyMarvin’s Inbound Funnel

For high-velocity sales teams, the lead capture process isn’t just an operational detail; it’s a competitive edge. Every minute lost in routing a lead is a minute your competitor could be winning them over.

HeyMarvin, an AI-powered user research platform, was losing that edge. Their inbound demo requests were going into a basic HubSpot form that couldn’t:

Route leads to the right rep instantly.
Adjust the experience based on who was filling it out.
Capture the attribution data marketing needed to optimize campaigns.

The sales team was stuck manually assigning leads. Marketing was flying blind on performance. And prospects weren’t having the smoothest first touch.

They brought in FunnelEnvy to change that.

The Roadblock: Bottlenecks in the Funnel

Before working with us, HeyMarvin’s process looked like this:

A prospect filled out the demo request form.
HubSpot captured the lead… but didn’t know who should own it.
A rep or manager manually reassigned the lead.
The right AE reached out hours (or days) later.

Meanwhile, the form itself wasn’t optimized for engagement. And since it didn’t push UTM data into HubSpot, there was no way to connect marketing campaigns to sales results.

The Fix: A Custom Form That Works Like a Sales Assistant

We implemented a Reform Custom Form designed specifically around HeyMarvin’s sales motion and tech stack.

Smart Routing Rules

Automatically assigned each lead to the correct AE’s HubSpot calendar based on company size and ownership rules.
Prospects could book a meeting immediately: no waiting, no handoffs.

Multi-Step Conversion Flow

Broke the form into stages, starting with low-barrier questions to increase engagement.
Collected valuable qualification data before asking for personal information.
Reduced friction, improved completion rates, and gave sales better context.

Full Attribution Tracking

Every submission carried UTM and source data into HubSpot.
Marketing could finally measure which channels and campaigns drove meetings, and scale the winners.

The Outcome: A Faster, Smarter Funnel

HeyMarvin now runs a lead capture process that:

Cuts response times from hours to seconds.
Gives prospects a frictionless booking experience.
Gives marketing and sales shared visibility into performance.

As Tim McMinn, Director of Growth & Operations at HeyMarvin, puts it:

“Now when someone fills out a form, they’re immediately routed to the correct rep, shown the right HubSpot calendar, and able to book a meeting instantly—all in one seamless flow.”

What This Means for You

If you’re capturing inbound demand but losing momentum between the form and the meeting, you’re leaving revenue on the table.

With FunnelEnvy’s Reform Custom Forms, you can:

Align your form experience with your sales process.
Instantly connect qualified leads with the right rep.
Attribute every deal back to the campaign that generated it.

Want to turn more of your inbound leads into booked meetings?
Book your FunnelEnvy Custom Forms Consult

By Hitaishi Chaudhary|2025-09-08T08:43:28-07:00September 8th, 2025|Conversion Rate Optimization, Full-Funnel Optimization, Lead Management, Marketing Automation, Revenue Funnel Optimization, Website Optimization|0 Comments

How to Build a Culture of Experimentation That Doesn’t Fall Apart When People Leave

Let’s be honest: most experiments won’t “win.”

And that’s fine—because the real goal of enterprise experimentation isn’t a single A/B test. It’s building a system that consistently delivers insights, revenue, and resilience across teams.

In Part 2 of our latest podcast episode, Arun and David dig into what separates long-term experimentation success from short-term sparks that fizzle out when a single stakeholder leaves.

Here’s what we covered:

1. Wins Are the Fuel, But Culture Is the Engine

A few successful tests aren’t enough. If your entire experimentation program lives in one person’s head—or one team’s Google Drive—it won’t survive when that person leaves.

To scale this capability, enterprise orgs need:

Cross-functional teams that can act independently
Visibility into what’s being tested and what’s been learned
A center of excellence (not a patchwork of BU experiments with zero ownership)

Make experimentation a strategic asset, not a side project.

2. Start Small. Share Loudly.

Early wins matter—but so does how you socialize them.

Even if the first tests are on small, low-friction areas (like lead forms or paid landing pages), the learnings often apply far beyond that single channel. Those insights should be shared across the org, through:

Internal newsletters
Experimentation decks
Customer insight docs
Team-wide playbooks

This is how you earn buy-in before the next budgeting cycle.

3. Build a Team That Can Ship

If your experimentation team needs to ask 10 people for permission to test a button color—you’re dead in the water.

What works better:

An agile squad with analytics, dev, QA, and strategy in-house
Empowered autonomy from slow-moving parts of the org
A governance model with lightweight approvals and tight feedback loops

Don’t overthink it. Don’t wait for perfect data. Start testing, start sharing, and build from there.

4. Avoid the Trap: Complexity ≠ Maturity

Too many teams over-complicate experimentation with heavy processes and endless planning.

Here’s the play:

Start where you’ll see quick wins and minimal stakeholder blockers.
Share those results widely and often.
Build a center of excellence that spans orgs and departments.

And most importantly—don’t wait for perfect tracking. You don’t need flawless data to ship meaningful experiments. You need trust, velocity, and a tolerance for smart, managed risk.

Watch the full conversation on building enterprise-grade experimentation programs

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Want help building your culture of experimentation?
Let’s talk. We’ve done this for orgs just like yours.
Book a Call with FunnelEnvy

By Hitaishi Chaudhary|2025-07-28T07:11:43-07:00July 28th, 2025|Conversion Rate Optimization, Full-Funnel Optimization, Lead Management, Marketing Automation, Revenue Funnel Optimization, Website Optimization|0 Comments

Enterprise A/B Testing: Why It Fails and How to Build a Culture of Experimentation

It’s not budget.
It’s not headcount.
It’s not tech.

The biggest blockers to experimentation in enterprise organizations are cultural.

When experimentation is treated like a side project—or worse, a threat to the status quo—it’s no surprise that velocity stalls and progress dies in committee.

In this episode, Arun and David unpack exactly why legacy enterprise companies struggle to build a culture of experimentation, despite having all the resources in the world. And what separates the companies who succeed from the ones who stay stuck.

Why Enterprise Velocity Gets Crushed

There are two core ingredients that make experimentation successful:
– A willingness to tolerate managed risk
– The velocity to move fast and validate ideas

Both are usually missing in large orgs. Not because leaders don’t want experimentation—but because bureaucracy, slow release cycles, and internal politics make it nearly impossible.

Layer in misaligned stakeholders, global complexity, and siloed data, and suddenly even running a basic A/B test feels like moving mountains.

How to Start Small and Build Momentum

The smartest enterprise experimentation programs don’t start with the homepage.
They start where:

There’s less internal friction
There’s measurable business impact
There’s faster time-to-learn

That’s usually deeper in the funnel—lead forms, onboarding flows, paid landing pages. These are the areas where you can move quickly, validate hypotheses, and prove value without ruffling feathers.

Wins here earn trust, budget, and buy-in to scale the program.

Risk Mitigation: The Story Execs Will Listen To

Experimentation isn’t just about growth. It’s about reducing risk.
It’s a safer, faster, more controlled way to validate what works before you commit major resources.

Frame it this way, and suddenly even the most conservative stakeholders start paying attention.

TL;DR: If You Want to Build an Experimentation Culture in Enterprise…

Start where you can win fast.
Show how you save time and reduce risk.
Use those wins to scale the program into something sustainable.

Watch the full conversation on Episode 4, Part 1

Get the full breakdown on why experimentation struggles in enterprise—and how to fix it.

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Done-For-You Custom Lead Forms

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By Hitaishi Chaudhary|2025-07-22T13:15:53-07:00July 22nd, 2025|Conversion Rate Optimization, Full-Funnel Optimization, Lead Management, Marketing Automation, Revenue Funnel Optimization, Website Optimization|0 Comments

How to Roll Out a Product-Led Growth (PLG) Strategy Without Breaking Your Funnel

Product-Led Growth (PLG) can be a revenue multiplier—but only if it’s rolled out right.

In Part 2 of this conversation, Arun Sivashankaran and David Janczyn lay out a pragmatic, experiment-led approach to launching PLG in B2B SaaS organizations. This isn’t just about free trials or surface-level A/B tests—it’s about using real signals, smarter data architecture, and practical tests to align PLG with long-term growth.

Here’s what they shared.

Why the Pricing Page Is a PLG Power Move

One of the most overlooked PLG opportunities? Your pricing page.

Every SaaS company has one, but few use it to actively segment high-intent, high-value visitors from those better served by self-service.

By running experiments that route users toward the right experiences—self-serve options for smaller customers and sales engagement for enterprise prospects—you can start gathering data that feeds your PLG motion immediately.

This isn’t about overhauling your funnel. It’s about intelligently opening new lanes.

PLG Doesn’t Work Without This One Thing

A clear hypothesis.

Fivetran’s PLG success story illustrates this well. Their team hypothesized that they were losing revenue from smaller organizations who needed the product but were being ignored by sales. They didn’t guess—they measured:

Conversion rates by path
Average contract value by segment
Payback periods across touchpoints

By identifying these metrics and rolling out with experimentation at the core, they turned PLG into 20% of their net new revenue.

The lesson? PLG works when it’s treated like a strategic experiment—not a side project.

First-Party Data > Third-Party Noise

Many B2B marketers chase intent data from third-party sources like 6sense. But the real gold often sits within your own walls.

The way your visitors engage with your site, forms, interactive demos, and onboarding flows? That’s first-party intent—and it’s faster, cleaner, and more actionable.

This is especially critical when your funnel shifts from static demand gen to interactive PLG motions.

Your Data Infrastructure Has to Evolve

Rolling out PLG without rethinking your data flow is like racing with the wrong fuel.

PLG relies heavily on product data—data that typically lives outside of your CRM and marketing automation tools. To make it actionable, you need:

A centralized data warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery, etc.)
Reverse ETL tools like Hightouch or Census to push signals back into your marketing stack
Coordination between product, marketing, and sales ops

The takeaway? Your source of truth has to evolve if you want PLG to scale.

How to Start Small with PLG

You don’t need to rearchitect your funnel overnight.

Instead:

Leverage your existing lead forms to identify PLG-ready prospects
Add interactive or on-demand demos to TOFU pages
Test routes via your pricing page that surface different options based on user behavior

These low-lift tests validate assumptions, show results, and build internal buy-in—without burning cycles.

Final Takeaways

Here are 3 key steps to a successful PLG rollout:

Map the customer journey: From website visit to in-product action. Identify where intent shows up and what signals to track.
Experiment your way forward: Never roll out without proper measurement. Every PLG element—demo, form, route—should be tested.
Invest in the right data infrastructure: PLG isn’t just a strategy shift; it’s a data shift. You need systems that unify product, marketing, and sales insights.

If you’re treating PLG like just another campaign, it won’t work.

But if you build it on experimentation, align it with buyer behavior, and ground it in real data—your sales team will thank you.

Watch Part 2 of Episode 3 of the FunnelEnvy Podcast

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By Hitaishi Chaudhary|2025-07-14T06:30:13-07:00July 14th, 2025|Conversion Rate Optimization, Full-Funnel Optimization, Lead Management, Marketing Automation, Revenue Funnel Optimization, Website Optimization|0 Comments

Product-Led Growth in B2B SaaS: How to Design a Scalable Funnel, Identify Intent Signals & Align Sales

Buyers today don’t want to talk to your sales team. At least, not until they understand what your product does—and how it will deliver value.

In this episode of the FunnelEnvy podcast, Arun Sivashankaran and David Janczyn unpack a critical but often misunderstood strategy: Product-Led Growth (PLG) in B2B SaaS. If you’re navigating enterprise complexity or trying to make your funnel more efficient, this conversation is a must-listen.

What is Product-Led Growth (PLG)?

David defines PLG as an onboarding approach that allows customers—especially lower ACV ones—to engage with your product and achieve value without requiring a sales conversation upfront. Think free trials or freemium models.

Arun expands on this, calling PLG a strategic response to changing buyer behavior. Your prospects want value before they speak with a salesperson. PLG helps you deliver that value early, using the product itself as the primary driver of acquisition and conversion.

Why PLG Isn’t a Fit for Every SaaS Company

One key takeaway: PLG doesn’t work for everyone. If you sell a complex product that requires a consultative sales cycle or implementation services, it’s unlikely you’ll get far with a self-service experience.

But if your product offers a straightforward experience that allows users to ramp quickly—PLG can shine.

The Risk & Reward of a PLG Rollout

Rolling out PLG is risky.

You’re exposing part of your product to the market without the insulation of a lead form or salesperson. That’s why Arun emphasizes the importance of iterating through experiments, measuring outcomes, and optimizing accordingly.

David adds that cross-functional alignment is critical. Sales and marketing often operate with different KPIs—and a new PLG motion will impact lead volume, rep quotas, and expectations.

PLG Rollout Strategy: Use Your Forms

FunnelEnvy’s approach? Use multi-step forms and data-driven routing to separate low-intent leads and send them to a PLG experience, while keeping high-fit leads routed to sales.

This allows you to:

Reduce sales team frustration with low-quality leads
Improve efficiency by filtering in the right buyers
Introduce PLG without disrupting your entire GTM motion

Identifying Intent Through Engagement Data

Done right, PLG is an intent engine. Whether through form interactions or in-product behaviors, you can surface buying signals that warrant higher-touch sales engagement.

That’s where Arun highlights the power of AI and machine learning. You don’t need to build static models anymore. With the right feedback loop, Machine Learning can help continuously evolve your ability to predict which behaviors correlate to revenue.

How to Measure PLG Success

The team stresses that revenue should be the north star. Even if you’re capturing incremental signups or engagement, it doesn’t matter unless those leads eventually convert.

That means:

Measuring cost vs. ROI of routing prospects into PLG
Tracking pipeline contribution and revenue impact
Validating PLG performance through real sales outcomes

Website Resources to Support PLG

To support your PLG strategy, Arun references Gartner research highlighting interactive demos as one of the most effective resources on a SaaS website. David adds that while interactive tools work, their quality matters.

Don’t launch underwhelming experiences that fail to communicate value. Consider:

Ungated demo videos
Product briefs
ROI calculators

Start with lightweight options. Validate interest. Then invest.

Final Takeaway: Optimize for Time to Value

Both Arun and David stress this: time to value is everything.

If users don’t immediately experience the value of your product, your PLG motion won’t succeed. And when users stray from the happy path, your data should alert your team to intervene.

Watch Part 1 of Episode 3 on YouTube

Relevant Resource: FunnelEnvy’s Done-for-You Custom Forms

Want to explore PLG for your team? Book a Conversion Audit

By Hitaishi Chaudhary|2025-07-07T17:46:56-07:00July 7th, 2025|Conversion Rate Optimization, Full-Funnel Optimization, Lead Management, Marketing Automation, Revenue Funnel Optimization, Website Optimization|0 Comments

How to Scale Account-Based Marketing (ABM) From Pilot to Org-Wide: What Actually Works in the Enterprise

You don’t need more leads. You need better ones.

Enterprise teams—especially in Account-Based Marketing (ABM)—can’t afford to drown in junk form fills, misrouted prospects, and manual lead sorting. Sales time is expensive. And without the right infrastructure, that time gets burned on noise instead of nurturing real opportunities.

Here’s how we helped an enterprise client build a smarter lead qualification experience, drive sales alignment, and set the stage for scalable ABM growth.

Don’t Let Unqualified Leads Into the Funnel

The biggest threat to ABM isn’t your targeting. It’s your qualification strategy—or lack thereof.

In this client’s case, a tidal wave of low-quality leads was flooding the inbound funnel. Sales had to manually vet each submission post-form—burning precious hours on leads that weren’t even in the right state or company size.

So we changed the game at the front door:

Built multi-step forms that embedded qualification questions
Used conditional logic to sort leads by tier
Redirected unqualified traffic to content, not the sales team
Implemented Reform custom forms to design high-conversion, logic-driven forms that match ABM tiers and audience segments without needing dev cycles

“There are different levels of an unqualified lead—and you need paths for all of them. Some might influence others. Some should just self-nurture. But none should clog your BDR queue.”

Fast-Track Qualified Buyers While You Have Their Attention

If a lead hits your form with the right intent and fit, don’t wait to follow up. Route them directly to a calendar booking experience with their assigned rep. The best time to book a call is while they’re still on the page—not three nurture emails later.

For this client, that meant:

Using progressive profiling to dynamically adapt form fields based on known user data
Connecting qualified leads to real-time scheduling links
Routing form data through an integrated stack—using Reform for real-time segmentation and pushing enriched data into CRM workflows.

Qualification Is Routing. But It’s Also Strategy.

Here’s what most teams miss: ABM isn’t just about who you target—it’s about what you do with the people who don’t fit.

We built three paths:

Disqualified → Send to relevant content and exit the funnel
Influencers → Enroll in a nurture sequence (word-of-mouth matters in B2B)
Qualified buyers → Book directly with sales

That’s how you create a frictionless, intelligent funnel—one that gets smarter over time.

Want to See How the Full Strategy Works?

This is just one part of a larger conversation.

Watch Part 2 of Episode 2 with Arun & David

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By Hitaishi Chaudhary|2025-06-30T09:48:57-07:00June 30th, 2025|Conversion Rate Optimization, Full-Funnel Optimization, Lead Management, Revenue Funnel Optimization|0 Comments

How to Launch an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Pilot That Scales Without Breaking Your Org

In theory, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) sounds like a no-brainer.

Personalized campaigns. Sales-marketing alignment. Focused revenue growth.

In practice, it’s usually chaos.

That’s especially true when enterprises with multiple business units and fragmented tech stacks try to roll out ABM org-wide.

In this episode, we’re breaking down a smarter playbook—one that FunnelEnvy used with a global B2B org to build alignment, improve lead quality, and prove ABM value through a tightly scoped pilot.

Don’t Start with a Rollout. Start with the Problem.

This enterprise didn’t come to us asking “how do we run ABM?”

They came asking: how do we fix the disconnect between our sales and marketing?

Sales had long been identifying and prioritizing accounts on their own, handing them off to marketing like an afterthought. The result? Reactive campaigns. Mismatched goals. Low respect for marketing-sourced leads.

ABM was just the wrapper for the real goal: better alignment and impact.

Step One: Scope Down the Chaos

Company-wide rollout? Not a chance.

Different teams used the CRM differently. No global data rules. No shared processes.

Trying to deploy ABM across the org would’ve crushed progress under politics and confusion. So we scoped it down:

A single business unit
A subset of the account list
A few willing sales reps (aka champions)

That made it possible to:

Test CRM workflows and lead routing logic
Roll out new sequences and touchpoints
Get buy-in through results, not slide decks

The Invisible ABM Experience Sales Actually Wants

You know an ABM program is working when sales doesn’t even notice it.

With the right setup, ABM should remove work from the sales team:

Pre-qualified leads
Pre-built sequences
Standardized touchpoints

The pilot was designed to give sales what they wanted: better conversations with real buyers, not more manual follow-up.

“The best ABM campaigns take work off the sales team’s plate by normalizing touch points and using data to guide the next best action.”

Run the Campaigns That Already Work

Here’s where most marketers go wrong: They default to status quo campaigns: LinkedIn ads, generic outreach, broad nurturing.

We started with what already performed: webinars.

Not because they were easy. Because they worked.

We dug through historical campaign data and found:

High-intent leads came from live events
Webinars supported complex, high-ACV sales cycles
Education-based engagement > ad impressions

So that’s what the pilot focused on: warming accounts through high-touch, educational experiences before the buying window.

Qualify Leads Through the Form, Not the BDR

Unqualified leads were a known issue.

The fix is to just add qualification into the form experience.

That meant:

Streamlined, multi-step forms
Embedded qualification questions
Logic-based routing tied to buyer fit and intent

Not only did this improve lead quality, it reduced manual sales effort. And yes—we built this with a Reform Custom Form as part of the stack.

Want to See the Full Breakdown?

This blog only scratches the surface of what we covered.

Watch Part 1 of the conversation between Arun and David to go deeper into how to:

Align cross-functional teams on ABM goals
Roll out campaigns without disrupting the org
Build a pilot that earns buy-in and scales the right way

🔗 Watch Part 1 of Episode 2 now

🔗 Run a smarter pilot with FunnelEnvy

🔗 Get Done-for-You Custom Forms here

By Hitaishi Chaudhary|2025-06-30T09:47:53-07:00June 23rd, 2025|Conversion Rate Optimization, Full-Funnel Optimization, Lead Management, Revenue Funnel Optimization|0 Comments

The MuleSoft example

Let’s look at an example of some common sense personalization ideas. We will use MuleSoft.com, a B2B provider of multiple software products, as an example.

First a disclaimer. MuleSoft is not a FunnelEnvy customer and I have no insider knowledge of their business or marketing. What I’m suggesting below are insights based on what I can determine from their website, with a healthy dose of assumptions included.

MuleSoft’s featured product, Anypoint Platform™, seems to follow a relatively standard SaaS buyer journey which includes a free trial. We can use this to put some definition around the activities that define our STDC intent clusters:

Cluster	Behavioral Criteria
See	New visitor coming to the site with no prior engagement history
Think	Visitor actively engaging with solution specific content
Do	Submitted free trial form or ask an expert form
Care	Paying customer who is having success

We can learn a lot from the technologies that MuleSoft is using on their site. They have Demandbase and Engagio, so it’s safe to say that Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a strategic priority. Since they’ve adopted ABM it’s also very likely that they have defined account tiers grouped by potential value to the business.

The navigation bar gives us clues about some of the other Account based attributes that they care about. Under the Solutions menu they list resources by initiative, integration, technology, and industry.

Digging around in MuleSoft’s training offerings helps us identify the individual roles within the accounts that they can market to as well.

With this information we can put together a contextual framework to evaluate MuleSoft’s website experience. As you can see there are a lot of variables to consider!

Rather than UX improvements or content suggestions, we’d like to personalize the entire experience – messaging, value propositions, and next best action based on an individual visitor context. Let’s look at how we might improve MuleSoft’s web experience with some of this context in mind.

The “See” Cluster

The home page is often one of the most highly trafficked pages, usually with a high volume of direct and organic (branded) search traffic. As a result, it generally has pretty generic top of the funnel content and often serves as a “traffic cop” – funnelling visitors to the sections of the site with more specific content.

What if instead of the headline, copy and CTA we could replace it with something that better reflected the visitor’s intent?

Visitor intent: Explore Government IT solutions

Visitor intent: Understand Salesforce integration possibilities

Visitor intent: Accelerate ecommerce integration

Visitor intent: Try Anypoint Platform

The three content boxes below the home page CTA could similarly be personalized based on intent. MuleSoft also has an extensive resource collection of case studies, ebooks, whitepapers and webinars. The featured content at the top of the page is prime real estate to showcase personalized content.

Accomplishing the “See” cluster

A common question that we get is how do we actually know enough about “anonymous” visitors (ones who haven’t filled out a form) to be able to personalize for them?

We’re looking for signals that could inform the right experience, and it turns out there are more than you might think. Think about how users get to the website. If you’re running ads you’re probably already segmenting based on intent and other relevant characteristics. It’s now become common for marketers to personalize landing pages, but keep in mind that visitors that hit your landing pages might browse to other areas of the site or return in subsequent sessions.

As an example MuleSoft is running search ads. Many of them provide clear signal as to the intent of the visitor who clicks through. These can be used to personalize not only the home page, but also the home page, content pages, and to take them deeper in the content journey.

Using data from incoming clicks doesn’t have to be limited to ads. Referring sites can be great indicators of customer context as well.

An article that links to MuleSoft.com. Visitors that come it are likely to be interested in MuleSoft’s Microservices offerings.

Organic search result that links to a specific MuleSoft content page. In this case the combination of referrer (Google) and landing page is a signal of customer interest.

There are third party data providers that can provide information on anonymous visitors as well. These include Demandbase (firmographic data from reverse IP lookup) and Bombora (B2B intent). If you have the budget these can also be incorporated into a model to inform personalized experiences. Even if you don’t have one of these data providers the underlying input (e.g. IP address) can be used as signal in a predictive model.

The “Think” Cluster

The requirement to be in the Think cluster is that the visitor is in the target market and has shown some commercial intent. In B2B that often means that they’ve returned to the site and engaged with more commercially oriented content, and likely filled out a gated content form. That could also mean that multiple visitors have come to the site from the same account.

We want to continue to provide these visitors with relevant content that continues to engage them, but also give them on-ramps to take the next step. In MuleSoft’s case, this “next best action” is either starting the free trial or talking to sales. Since we may also have information about the visitor’s account and role we can incorporate that into the experience and call to action. For example, we may want developers to start the trial, but IT managers at large accounts to talk to sales.

Changing the copy and CTA for a developer (end user) to encourage them to start the free trial.

If the visitor is an engaged decision maker we can present them with more specific content and a CTA that takes them directly to a Contact Sales form.

Accomplishing the “Think” cluster

As we’ve seen with behavioral data, the content that visitor engages with on site could be a strong indicator of customer intent. If a visitor has shown repeat engagement with content, and specifically engagement with content that indicates some commercial intent, they are likely to be in the “Think” cluster.

MuleSoft has a relatively large content library, and some it can be indicative of a higher intent to purchase.

A “thought leadership” ebook (left) vs an analyst report with vendor comparisons (right). The analyst report likely demonstrates higher commercial intent.

Remember that we don’t have to manually identify and evaluate each piece of content for commercial intent. We’re just looking for the machine to identify and correlate signals to outcomes. All we have to do is throw is therefore throw all of the content URLs into our model and evaluate which experiences actually convert.

Another rich set of data for the Think cluster is in our 1st party data platforms, specifically marketing automation and CRM. Most marketing automation platforms cookie every visitor which can be used to connect a website visitor to a lead record. The accounts in your CRM database can also be associated with visitors though it requires an extra step – at FunnelEnvy we usually make that connection using the marketing automation cookie or via the inferred domain from a reverse IP provider.

Website behavior as well as lead and account attributes evaluated against conversion outcomes can provide solid evidence that a customer is in the Think cluster.

The “Do” Cluster

Visitors in the “Do” cluster have shown strong commercial intent. This goes beyond filling out a form for a piece of content, they’ve demonstrated an interest in engaging in the sales process. Traditionally this is where marketing would have taken a “hands off” approach (it’s a sales problem now!) but that’s no longer sufficient.

For MuleSoft we’ve defined strong commercial intent as having submitted a Contact Us (sales) form or started the free trial. In the time between this conversion and a deal closing, the focus is often on continuing to educate the prospect, expand the champions in the account and alleviate concerns about value and cost. Effectively engaging customers in this cluster should result in higher deal velocity and overall conversion rate from qualified lead to revenue.

For a product like MuleSoft, the prospect will likely be asking certain questions depending on their role:

What support options are available relative to what I need?
What have effective implementations at similar companies looked like?
How much and what kind of training will our developers require?
What professional services or partner resources are available for implementation?

MuleSoft’s website has quite a bit of relevant content that can be both personalized and highlighted for these types of questions. All of the context that we’ve established up to this point can and should be used as well, including initiative, vertical and job function.

MuleSoft support plans can be personalized by highlight the recommended support plan and providing additional details based on the account.

MuleSoft has an opportunity to showcase partners based on what they know about the account and the specific opportunity being discussed.

Highlight training opportunities based on visitor role and surface them on higher traffic pages of the site.

Another relevant content option for customers who are considering purchasing Mulesoft might be to personalize the resources in the nav bar or replace the explainer video on the home page with recommended content related to these topics.

For prospects who have started a free trial one of the most effective strategies is to get them to engage and successfully complete certain tasks. In app engagement generally has a strong correlation to retention and in this case conversion to a paid plan. This seems to be true in MuleSoft’s case as they have a robust onboarding tutorial when a first time user logs into the trial.

Marketers often put a lot of effort into establishing intent before sign up but that doesn’t always carry over into the experience post conversion. If, for example, the visitor was interested in Salesforce integration the onboarding process could direct them towards relevant functionality once they were in the app.

Obviously not everyone is going to complete the onboarding and many will exit the app before completing a desired action. When these visitors come back to the site they could prompt visitors to sign back in and complete it.

Accomplishing the “Do” Cluster

In our example, visitors in the “Do” cluster have either filled out a contact sales form or started a free trial. These signals can be established behaviorally, but most likely you would integrate marketing automation, CRM or application data to the experience to incorporate a richer set of attributes.

For some of the examples in this cluster, an audience based approach combined with predictions can work well. A predictive model is going to show suboptimal experiences to some visitors, as in an A/B test that’s actually feature because you’re trying to explore and learn what correlates to conversion.

Sometimes you will want to restrict the range of possible “guesses” made by the predictive model, especially in the case where certain experiences clearly wouldn’t be applicable or there’s some other hard business constraint.

In situations where you have “hard constraints”, such as if a customer is in the free trial, the inherent error rate of the a purely predictive model may not be appropriate. In this case you could setup an audience for free trial users and then run a predictive decisioning model within that audience.

The “Care” Cluster

Customers in the “Care” cluster are your most loyal advocates. In SaaS solutions, not only are they paying for the solution but they’re also having demonstrable success with it. Visitors in this cluster are prime candidates for expansion and referrals, but may also need more advanced services and support.

As an organization pursuing Account-Based Marketing and Sales, MuleSoft has an opportunity to provide more value for and penetrate more deeply into their Care cluster accounts. When visitors in this cluster come to their website they could present a completely different homepage experience.

Salesforce changes the homepage experience between new visitors (left) and existing customers (right)

MuleSoft has several opportunities to deliver more value to existing customers through a personalized homepage experience. This could be in the form of:

Features that the customer are being underutilized and the customer could get more value out of.
Promoting services or partners that might be able to help the customer.
Highlighting training and certification options relevant to the visitor’s role.
Building the community by promoting location specific events.

KPIs that are relevant to the care cluster include engagement, expansions, renewals and referrals. Some of these may not be owned by the marketing team, but they’re certainly relevant to the company.

Accomplishing the “Care” Cluster

Once a customer is in the Care cluster you generally have a lot more first party data about them. This can include CRM data, but potentially also application behavior, customer support history, and success metrics. You’re trying to inform your decisions with a more holistic view of the customer, their interactions with your company and solution.

In Conclusion

If you’re struggling to understand why the same lead form and marketing automation nurture you’ve had on your website for years are not working as well as they once did take a step back because the rules of the game might have shifted underneath you.

We can’t assume the same uniformity of customer intent that we once could – and that has significant implications for experiences that we deliver across channels and particularly on the website. To deliver better outcomes it actually helps to go back to Marketing 101 – right message, right person, right time and identify the solutions and processes that will help us get there at scale.

By James Niehaus|2025-05-12T04:36:47-07:00May 11th, 2025|Conversion Rate Optimization, Revenue Funnel Optimization|0 Comments

Identifying and Fixing B2B Top-of-Funnel Weaknesses to Improve Lead Quality

The top of the funnel (TOFU) sets the foundation for successful B2B lead generation. It’s where potential customers first engage with your brand, making it a crucial stage in shaping lead quality. A strong TOFU strategy attracts the right audience, educates them, and primes them for deeper engagement.

Without a well-optimized TOFU, businesses risk wasting marketing budgets on unqualified leads, experiencing higher churn rates, and missing out on valuable opportunities to nurture prospects into long-term customers.

However, many B2B marketing teams struggle with top-of-funnel inefficiencies, leading to poor-quality leads, wasted marketing spend, and lower conversion rates. Common challenges include misaligned targeting, ineffective content, and a lack of clear intent signals from prospects. Addressing these weaknesses is essential for improving lead quality and maximizing return on investment.

Recognizing Top-of-Funnel Weaknesses

Many businesses make the mistake of focusing on TOFU lead quantity rather than quality. While high lead volume can appear promising, a lack of lead qualification early in the funnel leads to inefficiencies further down the pipeline. This is why TOFU strategies must incorporate detailed audience segmentation, educational content, and engagement-driven marketing techniques. Businesses that excel in TOFU marketing create lasting relationships with potential customers, fostering trust and positioning their brand as a valuable resource long before the sales conversation begins.

To fix TOFU inefficiencies, analyze key metrics that indicate lead quality and engagement.

Traffic sources: Identify which channels drive the most visitors and assess their conversion potential. Paid traffic might generate high volume but could be missing the right intent signals.

Bounce rates: High bounce rates suggest that content isn’t resonating with your target audience. If key pages have a bounce rate above 70%, it may indicate a disconnect between messaging and audience expectations.

Time on page and engagement metrics: Low engagement levels indicate that content may not be relevant or compelling enough. If visitors spend less than 30 seconds on a page, they likely aren’t finding value in the content.

Lead-to-Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) conversion rate: If a high percentage of leads fail to progress beyond the initial stage, your targeting or messaging may need refinement. Consider MQL improvement steps, including refining your audience segmentation and adjusting your content strategy.

Beyond analytics, conduct qualitative reviews of your audience targeting and content strategy. Are you attracting decision-makers or unqualified visitors? Does your content align with their needs and pain points? Understanding these gaps allows you to refine your TOFU approach and attract leads that are more likely to convert.

Strategies to Improve Targeting

Effective targeting is the key to enhancing TOFU lead quality. Refining buyer personas and leveraging intent data can help ensure you reach the right audience.

Optimize Buyer Personas: Reassess your ideal customer profiles by incorporating insights from sales teams and customer data. Consider firmographics, pain points, and decision-making processes to align messaging with high-value prospects. Using AI-powered audience segmentation tools can refine personas further by analyzing behavioral patterns.
Leverage Intent Data: Use behavioral data, engagement signals, and third-party intent sources to identify prospects actively researching solutions. Intent-driven targeting ensures your messaging reaches those with a higher likelihood of conversion. Platforms like Bombora, G2, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator provide insight into prospect behavior.
Refine Content Strategy: Create content that speaks directly to your target audience’s needs. Case studies, industry reports, and educational blog posts can build trust and encourage further engagement.
Use Predictive Analytics: AI-driven predictive analytics can analyze historical data and identify patterns in lead behavior. This enables more precise targeting and personalized outreach, ensuring marketing efforts focus on prospects with higher conversion potential.
Segment Audiences for Personalization: Instead of treating all leads equally, segment them based on industry, company size, and engagement levels. Personalized campaigns tailored to specific segments lead to higher engagement and improved conversion rates.
Align Sales and Marketing Efforts: Ensure both teams have a shared definition of a qualified lead and use feedback loops to refine targeting. Regular check-ins between marketing and sales teams help improve lead scoring and campaign effectiveness. When sales and marketing align, lead qualification criteria become clearer, reducing friction in the funnel and ensuring better conversion rates.
Invest in Account-Based Marketing (ABM): ABM strategies enable hyper-focused engagement with high-value accounts, increasing the likelihood of conversion. Combining ABM with intent-based targeting further enhances TOFU efficiency.

Successful TOFU campaigns often integrate these strategies. For example, SaaS companies using intent-driven advertising combined with personalized content recommendations have seen significant improvements in lead quality. Testing different targeting approaches and continuously optimizing campaigns based on performance data will ensure sustained success.

Implementing Solutions to Boost Lead Quality

Once you’ve refined targeting, optimizing engagement tactics to drive high-quality leads through the funnel is the next step. Several strategies can help enhance TOFU effectiveness.

Gated Content & Lead Magnets: Offering valuable resources, such as whitepapers or webinars, in exchange for contact details ensures that only engaged prospects enter the pipeline. Ensure the content addresses a key challenge and provides actionable insights to encourage deeper engagement.
Personalized Landing Pages: Tailoring landing pages based on industry, role, or intent increases relevance and conversion rates. Dynamic landing pages that adjust copy and visuals based on visitor behavior have been shown to increase conversions.
A/B Testing & Iteration: Experiment with different messaging, CTAs, and content formats to determine what resonates most with your audience. For example, testing a long-form landing page versus a shorter one could reveal preferences that improve conversion rates.
Data-Driven Adjustments: Regularly review analytics and adjust campaigns based on engagement patterns and conversion trends.
Retargeting and Nurturing Campaigns: Use remarketing ads and personalized email sequences to keep your brand top-of-mind. Prospects engaging with TOFU content but not immediately converting may need further nurturing before moving down the funnel.
Chatbots and Interactive Experiences: AI-powered chatbots and interactive content (like quizzes or assessments) can increase engagement and qualify leads early in the funnel, ensuring only high-intent prospects progress.

B2B marketers who implement these solutions see consistent improvements in lead quality and conversion rates. A combination of audience refinement, content optimization, and iterative testing ensures that top-of-funnel marketing efforts generate leads that align with business goals.

Addressing top-of-funnel weaknesses is essential for improving lead quality and optimizing B2B marketing efforts. Businesses can ensure their marketing spend translates into high-value leads by analyzing key metrics, refining audience targeting, and implementing data-driven strategies. A well-optimized TOFU strategy attracts the right prospects and sets the stage for stronger engagement and higher conversions.

Are You Ready to See Improved Funnel Performance?

Confused about where your funnel is leaking? To make data-driven optimizations easier, FunnelEnvy provides a Full Funnel Audit service. An optimized funnel requires technical expertise and a holistic approach. That’s where we come in. Our audit includes:

21-day delivery guarantee
Precise plans & instructions
Comprehensive end-to-end audit

Request your full funnel audit today!

By Kala P|2025-04-03T17:29:02-07:00April 14th, 2025|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Bridging the Gap: How to Align Marketing and Sales for Better Conversions

To achieve success in modern digital B2B marketing, the alignment of marketing and sales teams is no longer optional—it’s a necessity. Misalignment between these critical functions can result in wasted resources, poor lead quality, and missed revenue opportunities.

Despite the clear benefits, achieving harmony between marketing and sales remains challenging for many B2B organizations. This disconnect can stem from siloed teams, unclear roles, and conflicting priorities.

This post will guide you through what marketing and sales alignment is, why it’s essential for B2B success, and practical steps to foster collaboration for limited ROI.

What is B2B Marketing and Sales Alignment?

Marketing and sales alignment, sometimes amusingly called “smarketing,” refers to unifying the goals, tools, and strategies of” these two “departments to deliver a seamless buyer experience and maximize revenue.

When aligned, these teams work as a single unit to identify, nurture, and convert leads, significantly improving pipeline efficiency and overall performance.

Why is Marketing and Sales Alignment Crucial for B2B Conversions?

Marketing and sales alignment is the foundation for successful B2B lead generation and conversion. Without it, businesses risk losing valuable prospects due to disjointed messaging, inconsistent processes, or a lack of understanding between teams.

The benefits of alignment extend beyond just better communication—they directly impact conversion rates and revenue in a couple of critical ways:

Improved Lead Quality: Marketing can focus on generating leads that meet sales criteria, reducing wasted time on unqualified prospects.

Higher Conversion Rates: Aligned teams work together to nurture leads effectively, resulting in smoother transitions through the sales funnel.

Enhanced Customer Experience: A unified strategy ensures consistent messaging, making the buyer journey seamless and engaging.

Common Challenges in Achieving Alignment

Achieving alignment between marketing and sales is crucial for improving conversions, but it’s often easier said than done. The following challenges may prevent organizations from fully optimizing their lead generation and conversion efforts:

Miscommunication and Siloed Departments

One of the most significant obstacles to alignment is miscommunication between the marketing and sales teams. These teams often operate in silos, with limited cross-departmental interaction. As a result, each team may develop its own approach, strategies, and language.

Different Tools and Processes: Marketing teams may use automation tools and content management systems that sales teams aren’t familiar with, while sales might rely on CRMs and lead-tracking tools that marketing has little insight into.
Lack of Knowledge Sharing: When marketing and sales aren’t actively collaborating, valuable insights from one department may not reach the other. Marketing might create content based on industry trends and buyer personas that sales teams don’t utilize. On the other hand, sales teams can miss out on understanding the leads’ needs and pain points that marketing uncovers through their research and content engagement.
Inefficient Handoff Process: The disconnect can lead to bottlenecks where leads are poorly handed off between marketing and sales. Sales may struggle to engage with leads who aren’t yet sales-ready, or they may waste time on unqualified prospects, which reduces conversion efficiency.

This breakdown in communication ultimately results in lost opportunities and frustration for both teams. Regular, structured meetings and shared platforms help bridge the gap and enable more effective collaboration.

Differing Goals and Metrics

Marketing and sales teams typically operate with different sets of priorities, and this divergence can create friction.

Marketing’s Focus on Lead Volume: Management may measure the marketing department’s performance based on the number of leads it generates. This is an important metric, but it doesn’t always reflect the quality of those leads. Marketing teams may focus on casting a wide net, aiming for high lead volumes without taking into account how these leads align with the sales team’s target audience.
Sales’ Focus on Conversions: On the other hand, sales teams care most about converting leads into customers. They are typically judged on deal closures and revenue generation. If they are handed leads that aren’t well-qualified, the conversion process becomes inefficient, frustrating both the sales team and potential customers.

The solution is to set common goals aligning both teams’ efforts, such as joint KPIs that track conversion rates from lead generation to deal closure.

Inconsistent Messaging

When sales and marketing are not aligned, messaging can become fragmented, confusing prospects and weakening the brand’s overall message.

Inconsistent Content and Communication: Marketing may produce content such as blog posts, landing pages, or email campaigns with a particular message or tone, but if sales teams aren’t aware of these resources or aren’t using them consistently, the message can become inconsistent.
Brand Disconnect: In the worst-case scenario, these inconsistencies may cause a breakdown in the buyer’s trust in the company’s brand. If a prospect receives conflicting messages or feels like the sales approach doesn’t align with their previous interactions, they may lose confidence in the business altogether.

To avoid this, marketing and sales must agree on the core messaging and value propositions that should be communicated at every stage of the buyer journey.

Taking Steps to Achieve Marketing and Sales Alignment

Overcoming challenges requires a structured approach that fosters collaboration and ensures that both teams work toward shared goals. Here are vital steps to align marketing and sales for better B2B conversions:

Create a Unified Buyer Persona

Start with a shared understanding of your ideal customer. Both teams should contribute insights to develop comprehensive buyer personas, including demographics, pain points, and decision-making factors.

Set Common Goals and Metrics

Define success metrics that both teams can rally behind. For example, instead of measuring marketing by lead volume alone, focus on metrics like marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) that convert into sales-qualified leads (SQLs).

Develop a Lead Scoring System

Agree on what constitutes a qualified lead and implement a lead-scoring system to prioritize prospects. Integrated marketing automation tools with your CRM can help assign scores based on criteria like engagement, company size, or budget, ensuring sales focus on the most promising opportunities.

Align Messaging and Content

Ensure consistency in messaging across all stages of the buyer journey. Marketing should equip sales with content tailored to different touchpoints, such as case studies for prospects in the consideration stage or ROI calculators for those closer to making a decision.

Streamline Internal Processes

Leverage tools that bridge the gap between marketing and sales. CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and collaboration tools like Slack or Asana can facilitate information sharing and keep teams aligned. A funnel audit can help identify the best tools and processes for seamless collaboration.

Regular Communication and Collaboration

Schedule recurring meetings between marketing and sales to review performance, discuss challenges, and refine strategies. Incorporate feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement and adaptability to changing market dynamics.

Measuring the Success of Marketing and Sales Alignment

How do you know if your efforts to align marketing and sales are paying off? Tracking the right metrics is crucial. Here are the key metrics to monitor:

Lead Conversion Rates: Measure the percentage of MQLs that become SQLs and eventually close as customers.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Assess how alignment impacts the efficiency of your customer acquisition efforts.

Sales Cycle Length: A shorter sales cycle often indicates better collaboration and lead nurturing.

Revenue Growth: The ultimate goal—alignment should contribute to measurable increases in revenue.

FunnelEnvy’s analytics tools can help you track your results, providing actionable insights into the performance of your marketing and sales alignment initiatives.

Moving Ahead to Align B2B Marketing and Sales

Marketing and sales alignment is essential for B2B organizations looking to boost conversions, streamline processes, and drive revenue growth. Achieving alignment may seem daunting, but it’s a journey worth taking. With a structured approach and the right support, your teams can work together to achieve remarkable results.

Are you struggling to align your marketing and sales teams? FunnelEnvy’s Full Funnel Conversion Audit is designed to identify gaps in your strategy and provide actionable insights to improve alignment and maximize ROI. Schedule your audit today and start turning your leads into revenue.

By Kala P|2025-05-12T04:37:16-07:00December 9th, 2024|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments

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