Beyond the Obvious – Drilling Down on B2B Buyer Personas

From the time of Don Draper in the hit show Mad Men to mega Super Bowl ad spends in the 1980s, marketers traditionally relied on demographics and social trends to target and segment broad audiences. In the 2000s, digital marketing revolutionized marketers’ ability to reach more specific segments. 

One risk of data is losing sight of the real people behind the numbers. Without analytics, we know nothing about the prospects behind the clicks. In 1985, a software designer named Alan Cooper invented a user persona named Kathy to add human context to the development process. 

Over the years, marketers built on that idea to develop buyer personas – profiles of fictional people that embody several ideal client characteristics. Creating buyer personas is a subjective and analytical process based on data and actual customers or prospects.

The idea is to translate the raw traffic like this:

AI and ABM are driving the evolution of buyer personas

Into information to help you fill out a buyer persona template, like this:

AI and ABM are driving the evolution of buyer personas

Source: Hubspot

Why Buyer Personas Work

The buyer persona helps craft tailor-made experiences for every buyer category. In a time when empathy and personalization are more crucial than ever for funnel performance, teams must develop a granular view of the buyer’s points and journey through touchpoints to a sale.

A well-defined buyer persona can improve demand gen by filtering traffic for top-quality leads exhibiting strong buyer intent. While companies should tailor their personas to their industry and other factors, here are some basics all personas should include:

  • Demographics: Age, gender, location, income, etc.
  • Psychographics: Interests, values, lifestyle, personality traits.
  • Goals: What they want to achieve using your product or service. What are their motivations for considering your product or service? 
  • Challenges: Pain points and obstacles they face in reaching their goals.
  • Buying Behavior: Is this a B2B or B2C customer? How do they make purchasing decisions?
  • Preferred Channels: Where they gather information and engage online.
A well-defined buyer persona can improve demand gen by filtering traffic for top-quality leads exhibiting strong buyer intent. Click To Tweet

Behavioral Analysis and Intent Data for Buyer Personas

Effective buyer personas use quantitative and qualitative data to segment data about existing customers, website visitors, and leads. This data may include information from website analytics tools, interviews, social media insights, and customer interactions. 

Customer surveys are also helpful in fine-tuning segments and gauging customer intent. Human nature means people don’t always do what they say they might. Analytics data combined with surveys help marketers see how well what people say correlates with the actual behavior of the website traffic. 

Analyze data for visitor browsing behavior patterns, content consumption, engagement levels, and purchasing history. This analysis will help you understand their preferences, pain points, and motivations.

Buyer intent refers to prospects’ actions or expected behaviors before purchasing. Analyze the keywords they use in searches, the content they engage with, and their actions on your website. Are they looking for information, comparing products, or ready to purchase? Intent analysis identifies which actions signal intent to buy as they move through the funnel. 

AI-Driven Personalization Engines for Buyer Personas

AI-powered personalization is providing new tools to elevate customer experiences. By harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, enterprises can delve deep into extensive customer datasets about online behaviors, transaction history, social media engagements, and demographic insights.

Implementing AI personalization includes:

  • Data collection and integration into customer data platform (CDP).
  • Using AI algorithms to segment customers.
  • Automating marketing messages and content tailored to each customer persona, such as personalized email campaigns.

AI algorithms enable the personalization of the customer journey in real-time, detecting shifts in customer behavior and updating personas. Dynamic content generation can match snippets of content that resonate with specific personas, offering responsive options and recommendations that adjust for buyer personas.

Keeping up with prospects across channels has long been a challenge for marketers. AI can help synchronize personalization efforts and create more of an omnichannel user experience.

AI is rapidly evolving and still very early. Companies need to watch for bias in AI that could have unintended results. Consumers are more sensitive about their data than in the past. Governments are stepping in with privacy and data protection regulations. Companies that adopt transparency and ethical guidelines around the use of data and AI will maintain customer trust. 

Account-Based Marketing Personas 

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B model that adapts the persona concept to create personalized experiences for entire target accounts rather than individual prospects. 

While regular customer personas offer valuable insights into your customer base as a whole, account-based customer personas are laser-focused on a select few high-priority accounts. 

This approach aims to develop hyper-personalized strategies that lead to more effective engagement and conversion within these critical accounts. 

ABM marketing typically targets large accounts where a buying group decides over an extended period. Account-based customer personas dive into the specific organizational structure, key decision-makers, pain points, objectives, challenges, and opportunities within the target account. 

The goal is to gather in-depth insights that you can use to create personalized and highly relevant strategies. For a deep dive into ABM personalization in action, check out our video, The Secret to Making Your ABM Personalization Campaign a Success. 

In crafting ABM buyer personas, sales teams should realize that B2B prospects want a DIY discovery process. More than that, 33% would rather not talk to another human to complete the sale. (source: Gartner Sales)

Increasingly, sales will be won or lost by depending on getting the right content at the right time to the prospect via dynamic content generation and B2C UX. B2B prospects also appreciate experiences that “feel” more B2C, such as virtual tours or shopping cart-like check-out processes. 

Moving Ahead

Every innovation disrupts the status quo, but eventually, the entire sector smooths into the next level. The 1990s transition from analog marketing to digital is a great example. Today, AI and other innovations are revolutionizing marketing with more personalization and precise buyer persona targeting.

All of these changes may improve results, but they also increase complexity. If you need help figuring out where to start, we can help. Our FunnelEnvy customer data platform enables you to create a personalized experience that responds to your website visitors within milliseconds. Reach out today to get the conversation started.

By |2023-09-08T11:10:03-07:00September 18th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments

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. Click To Tweet

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 |2023-08-24T03:21:34-07:00September 4th, 2023|General B2B Funnel Advice|0 Comments

3 Keys to Optimizing Software Services Landing Pages

B2B SaaS companies compete in crowded industry sectors, selling intangible services that often address complex problems. Landing pages play a crucial competitive role in attracting interested leads and converting them to the next step in the sales funnel. 

And it turns out that less is not more regarding landing pages, especially for B2B. HubSpot reports that companies with 40 or more landing pages see a 55% increase in leads.

Optimizing Software Services Landing Pages

Source: Hubspot

Your landing pages are a significant stop for your buyers’ journey. From design to testing, optimizing a landing page can be costly. That’s why even though there are dozens of variables to test, we suggest you start with optimizing three main areas that function as performance levers for landing pages. Landing pages with video testimonials, excellent sales copy, and a friction-free user experience will put you ahead of the game.

Landing pages with video testimonials, excellent sales copy, and a friction-free user experience will put you ahead of the game. Click To Tweet

Video Testimonials to Optimize SaaS Landing Pages

Video testimonials on your landing page are a powerful way to build trust and credibility with potential customers. People are more likely to trust the experiences and opinions of actual clients and customers than any marketing jargon. 

Get Specific With Your Testimonials

To make the most impact, create specific testimonials. Ask for statements about how your solution solved a particular problem for the customer. Interview formats work well because the viewer can see themselves in the dynamic as long as you ask the kinds of questions that your ideal client would ask. This approach also builds trust by positioning your brand in the context of authentic conversations.

Production Value Still Matters in B2B Videos

We are in an era where casual video is the norm, and in many cases, that’s acceptable. For testimonials, though, you want to take some extra time to make the recording as polished as possible. Most SaaS companies will benefit from videos that have decent production value. 

Smartphone cameras are fairly good; just be sure you use a tripod, have good lighting, clear audio, and a well-framed shot. You want the viewer to focus on the speakers, not be distracted by issues with the video itself. 

You can save time and money by batching your production and creating shorter videos from longer interview footage when creating multiple videos for testing. 

Straightforward Copy

While online marketing has been around since the 1990s, sales pages predate the internet with direct copy marketers from the 1950s and even earlier. Today’s B2B prospects are busier and more skeptical than ever. While testing will help you identify what’s resonating with your audience, here are some tips for landing page copy that converts:

  • Build your copy around a single conversion goal: While giving people choices may seem like a good idea, research shows that the more options you offer people, the more they delay the decision. With landing pages, this translates into a higher bounce rate.
  • Lead with benefits: Describe your services’ benefits before presenting a laundry list of features.
  • Be specific: Focus on specific pain points and how your solution helps them achieve their goals.
  • Be succinct: While longer landing pages perform better in some cases, longer doesn’t mean rambling with filler copy. Wandering copy causes busy people to lose interest and click away. Grammarly is your friend not only for correctness but for flagging wordiness. Prospects who can easily follow the structure of the content flow stay on the page longer.
  • Personalize the experience: Don’t show the same offer repeatedly to a returning visitor that you deliver to a first-time visitor. 

Unfortunately, even the perfect landing page copy can’t fix bounce rates from poor user experience. Let’s look at how to improve your visitor’s experience on the landing page. 

User Experience Keys for B2B Landing Pages

B2B prospects are busy. Most expect an almost seamless user experience from the sites they visit. From a page design perspective, the book “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug is an excellent resource for improving user experience and conversions. 

In addition, check the tech behind the page performance by testing for the following:

Compatibility Across Devices

People use various devices and operating systems to browse the internet. They expect a uniform experience across all devices. The same viewer may start looking at your landing page on their laptop, then leave the office and pull it up on their phone while waiting for a friend at a coffee shop. 

Ensuring that your SaaS landing page is compatible with various devices and browsers is crucial for conversions. A responsive design that automatically adjusts the page layout to fit different screen sizes and devices ensures a seamless user experience across devices.

Loading Speed and Performance

Slow-loading pages are deadly to your landing page results. Engaging visual design is essential, yet it should never come at the cost of loading speed and performance. Studies have shown that even a one-second delay in loading time can significantly impact bounce rates. 

If your landing page takes too long to load, potential customers might abandon it before seeing your offerings.

Optimize your landing page by compressing images, leveraging browser caching, and using efficient coding practices. Prioritize performance to ensure your prospects have a smooth and satisfying experience, regardless of their internet connection or device.

Moving Ahead with SaaS B2B Landing Page Strategies

At the core, landing pages are an opportunity to build trust and credibility with potential customers. Delivering an excellent user experience and clear value proposition will go a long way in converting visitors into loyal users.

If you think dozens of well-crafted, longer landing pages will lead to more leads, you’re not wrong – but there is a catch. The caveat is that the more complex your outreach, the more essential testing is to be sure you are making the right choices. 

And testing is where our expert team at FunnelEnvy can assist. We work with clients in many industries, from consumer healthcare to industrial equipment. We provide customized assistance to our clients with all elements of their landing page design, from technical aspects like page speed and caching to form fields and CTA design.

Are you interested in finding out more? Just click here to complete a short quiz that we’ve created to help us learn more about your needs and how we may be able to help.

By |2023-08-09T00:31:45-07:00August 21st, 2023|Landing Pages|0 Comments

How SaaS companies should approach pricing pages

Pricing can be controversial in many sectors of the business community, partly due to the general human attitude towards money. According to research by Wells Fargo, 44% of Americans find talking about money more difficult than other serious topics, including politics, religion, and even death. And while it’s easier to talk money in a business context, you’d be surprised how many people are still somewhat sensitive to budget discussions in the B2B realm.

That’s why it can be challenging for startups to address pricing pages properly. Your pricing page is like an online version of a conversation about cost with a sales rep. When done correctly, it can add value to the buyer’s journey and nurture clients toward choosing the most profitable options. Or it could repel prospects if the pricing page poorly conveys value.

Your pricing page is like an online version of a conversation about cost with a sales rep. Click To Tweet

Software pricing can be particularly complex because of its nature. There is no physical product or anything to put in a client’s hand. They don’t receive a box or envelope in the mail. Yet the right business software can be exponentially more valuable than any physical package or equipment.

If you’re a software company or similar startup looking to nail your pricing page, this post will provide some general strategies you can apply to your funnel, no matter what kind of service or product you offer.

Presentation is Key

The way you present different pricing options greatly influences how site visitors perceive your pricing. Consider how a restaurant might have prices on its drive-thru menu or a movie theater would set concession prices. These examples are consumer-based, but the lesson is the same: juxtaposing the cost of your desired option with more and less expensive options can help nudge prospects down the desired path.

Consider the movie theater example. You might be offered a small popcorn for $4.00, medium for $5.75, and large for $6.50. Even if you originally wanted a medium, looking at the relatively small cost difference between the large and medium, you’re more likely to spring for the large.

This hypothetical is just one example: we frequently see strategies involving color, shape, and page placement. Think about the many pricing or subscription pages you’ve viewed over time, and you’ll probably be able to come up with a few ideas or devices that worked exceptionally well. 

Another significant concern with the presentation on your pricing page is how you’ll discuss the particular features and benefits mentioned. Typically, this is where software companies might tout their most crucial features or ones that differentiate them from competitors in the field. You may also consider offering a different pricing structure for those companies willing to pay a larger percentage upfront using something like a quarterly payment plan. Remember the old marketing adage here: benefits are more important than features. It’s nice to say what something does, but it’s even better to say what kind of result it will create for the buyer or their organization.

Experiment With CTAs

Calls to action (or CTAs) are vital because they represent the bridge from your pricing page to a prospect converting into a client. You can change many different options here, including these:

  • Copy. The specific words you use for your CTA can have an impact on how well you’re able to convert page visitors into clients. Use specific action verbs whenever possible, but don’t make them too long.
  • CTA shapes. The classic option is a rectangular button – you’ve probably seen the type frequently. Some brands might incorporate ovals, squares, or a more uncommon shape to stand out and catch a visitor’s eye.
  • Colors. The colors you choose for the background, CTA elements, and text will always influence a visitor’s decision to convert. We’ve used color psychology for decades in pricing strategies for all different kinds of companies, both B2B and B2C. For example, blue is associated with trust and safety, while orange is considered aggressive and active.

Make sure that you track pricing page data as you experiment with different CTAs so that it’s clear which ones are moving the needle regarding conversions.

Lean Towards Simplicity

Many software startups provide a relatively complex digital tool for clients, whether because of regulatory concerns or industrial standards. For example, healthcare software companies may have to include an extra layer of security or encryption for HIPAA-related concerns. Manufacturing software providers might need to ensure their clients meet ISO or ANSI standards created for their field.

Even if your software falls into this category, distilling it into the simplest possible terms on your pricing page is meaningful. Whenever possible, have a bias towards fewer options and elements. This idea holds if you want to optimize your existing pricing page or alter your pricing strategy to include a new tier. Whatever new elements you are thinking about adding, be sure they are necessary to add more context to your page visitor or help get them closer to making the best decision for business purposes.

White space is a common design tool startups use in anything from pricing pages to content assets to landing pages. White space can help your pricing page maintain a smooth, clean look and contribute to improved readability – an important element to help visitors learn about your offering and understand why it’s worth the asking price.

Final Thoughts on Pricing Pages

You don’t want to take an “old school” approach to pricing where it’s hard to access or requires a visitor to offer their email address or phone number. Today’s buyer – especially in the B2B software field – is looking for valuable information as quickly as possible. 

On the other hand, you don’t want to provide pricing for your product or service immediately on your website before you can add sufficient context. Doing this may be just as off-putting to a visitor as excessively guarding your pricing tiers and strategies. 

Instead, your pricing page needs to land somewhere in the middle: you have to offer enough details to give visitors the information they need and allow them to determine whether or not their budget fits your asking price, but not so many details that it causes questions about the worth of what you’re offering.

Finding this balance between informative and simplistic can be tricky if you’ve never created one before. It will take a fair amount of trial and error to determine how exactly to seek this balance for your business, your specific offering, and the kind of people you want as clients.

One of the best ways to help speed up optimizing your pricing page is to seek help from experts who’ve done it before. Our team at FunnelEnvy has years of experience working with clients with all types of pricing pages, from complex tiered subscription models to straightforward lifetime license plans. We can help ensure your pricing page has all the elements needed to maximize conversions without any wasted space. Just fill out this quick form to make sure we are a good fit and learn more about what we offer.

By |2023-07-26T04:06:14-07:00August 7th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments

Pipeline acceleration: Why it matters and how to get started

When many people hear “pipeline acceleration,” they might initially think it’s strictly a sales term. We typically speak of pipelines as a sales concept. But pipeline acceleration is a critical business area requiring collaboration across departments for success. 

From Meta to Google to Coca-Cola, the most successful companies worldwide have a long history of creating disparate teams and putting them together to achieve important goals. In 2012, Google even conducted an internal study codenamed “Project Aristotle” to study the dynamics of groups within a larger company. Some of its most important inventions have come from unexpected teams or individuals working on something outside their main responsibility.

Pipeline acceleration is one of the most important collaborative projects any organization can take on. When done properly, it can help a business achieve its revenue goals more efficiently and help marketing and sales team members work together to create less waste and redundant work. 

What is Pipeline Acceleration?

To summarize, pipeline acceleration means moving prospects through the sales funnel more quickly. It’s sometimes called “sales acceleration” or “closing speed,” but the central idea is the same: getting a prospect from a qualified lead to a paying client faster. 

As we mentioned above, pipeline acceleration isn’t just something for your sales reps to be thinking about. Research firm Forrester says the intent is to improve lead management “from cold to close,” but also that it “demands full joint and sales and marketing involvement, commitment, alignment and participation from beginning to end.” That means your marketing team has to take ownership of pipeline acceleration, too, even if many elements are ultimately under the domain of the sales team. For example, the sales team is typically the only part of the company that holds direct meetings with prospects, even though many other people may be involved in helping to set the agenda for that meeting or creating assets for the salesperson to use at the meeting.

Should you even bother with pipeline acceleration? Yes – for several reasons.

The Benefits of Pipeline Acceleration

You don’t have to look hard to see the obvious benefits of moving prospects through a sales pipeline more quickly – when you start experiencing greater revenue and more satisfied customers, the advantages make themselves swiftly known! 

Beyond the obvious benefits of closing more deals faster, pipeline acceleration also helps create shared goals and outcomes for different team members at your company. Working towards the same goals builds a sense of unity in the organization, even if your team operates on different projects with various tasks.

Pipeline accelerations also create a deeper understanding of your ideal buyer persona. When you have people from diverse backgrounds and job functions looking to help a prospect reach a decision more quickly, it tends to create a deeper, more well-rounded understanding.

Finally, successful pipeline acceleration will increase communication in general among your firm. Since the process requires such a high degree of collaboration between departments and job functions, your team members will develop a natural rapport and working cadence with one another that will be easy to carry over to other projects. Understanding how coworkers collaborate is important for organizations of every size, even a small startup with only a few people. 

You might think communication is better at smaller companies, but counterintuitively there are many examples of large organizations communicating better than smaller ones. Bigger companies tend to have more streamlined processes and workflows that can naturally guide a team into successful collaboration.

Understanding how coworkers collaborate is important for organizations of every size, even a small startup with only a few people. Click To Tweet

These are just a few of the many reasons to implement pipeline acceleration. If you’re convinced it’s important but unfamiliar with how to get started, the next section is for you.

Implementing or Developing Your Pipeline Acceleration Program

Like any other initiative, the first step is taking inventory of where you are currently. What steps have your sales and marketing team taken to move prospects down the funnel faster? What about other departments? In this stage, try not to judge progress or worry about where you are. You want to get a sense of previous measures and their results.

If your audit has determined you are fairly early in the process of pipeline acceleration, that’s okay – it just means you may have to start with a more simplistic approach. Consider steps like holding joint meetings between departments, creating a few shared goals, or even producing an activity you can complete together. 

If you’re a bit further along your journey to implement pipeline acceleration at your company, consider the tips below:

  • Create a living set of guidelines shared across the appropriate departments. Doing this is relatively easy nowadays with the several collaborative team platforms available, from Notion to Slack to Sharepoint. This compilation of guidelines and processes can serve as an internal wiki, helping your team document the pipeline acceleration processes but also allowing them to improve their written communication skills.
  • Pay close attention to metrics before and after implementing various initiatives to help promote pipeline acceleration. The numbers and data you gather should come from the same places so you can understand how it has changed based on the steps you took. This clues you into the results of your pipeline acceleration so you can better understand what is and isn’t working.
  •  It’s about the client first. Much of the advice in this article has been about what to do from an internal perspective. In analyzing these ideas, it can be easy to lose the forest for the trees can be easy. You must always consider your understanding and communication with prospects and clients. All of the pipeline acceleration work you do should focus on learning how to better meet prospects’ needs, thereby getting them to a sales decision more quickly.

Final Thoughts on Pipeline Acceleration for Companies

It’s easy to come across an idea like “pipeline acceleration” and assume that it’s too complicated for your organization to implement or something that you’ll get to eventually but don’t have the time to focus on. 

But even if you’re a relatively small company in the earliest stages of your growth journey, closing deals more quickly is critical. It will help your business get closer to meeting tangible business goals and establish a culture of communication and collaboration. That’s a worthy goal to pursue, even if your business is only a handful of people – small companies often lack the formal guidelines around communication and business initiatives that are present at larger organizations.

Looking to learn more about pipeline acceleration or get some expert help with incorporating it into your business? Our team at FunnelEnvy is ready to help. We’ve got many years of combined experience with funnel optimization, CRO, and other important elements of pipeline acceleration across several industries, from tech to healthcare to manufacturing.

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

By |2023-07-13T06:39:58-07:00July 24th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments

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. Click To Tweet

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 |2023-06-29T11:18:34-07:00July 10th, 2023|General B2B Funnel Advice|0 Comments

4 Strategies for Upgrading Your Content Marketing in 2023

In the middle of 2023, it’s safe to say content marketing is no longer the innovative, groundbreaking strategy it was ten or even five years ago. According to recent research, nearly 70% of companies plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year.

And while it’s likely too late to win the first-mover advantage in content marketing (unless your industry is very niche or specialized), producing higher-quality content is arguably more lucrative than ever. 

That’s because the massive increase in spending and strategy on content marketing has come partially as a response to the jump in buyers consuming content to help them along the buyer’s journey. From blog posts to industry publications and media properties, business buyers in almost every field are using content to help them evaluate options and better understand their needs.

The secret to success for marketers is to focus on the needs of your audience. Too many businesses treat content marketing like an obligation, churning out four blog posts a month because they have to. If you want to make your content better resonate with the right people, start with the steps below.

Too many businesses treat content marketing like an obligation, churning out four blog posts a month because they have to. Click To Tweet

Assess Platform Choices

Most companies that engage with content marketing follow a similar pattern: they choose one or two platforms to create and publish content, then never think about them again. It’s easy to get caught into this day-to-day routine, but it’s vital to continually think about the places your company is leveraging content marketing.

New social media platforms and communication tools release every day. And while not all of them will be worth the time and effort, some might be. For example: when TikTok first launched, many companies doubted whether or not short-form videos featuring lots of music and dancing would be effective for marketing – especially those in B2B industries. But years later, TikTok is a popular place for all kinds of content, from the consumer ads you might expect to advice for CPAs and accounting firms.

We’re not suggesting you add new platforms to your marketing once a month or once a quarter. We recommend you keep an ear to the ground so you know about new media that might fit your content marketing well before your competitors.

Consider the Human Element

We’ve used people, emotions, and other parts of the human experience in marketing for centuries – remember the famous carousel scene from the TV show “Mad Men”? In it, a team of executives from Kodak suggests naming their new slide projector “the wheel” because of its shape. But Don Draper looks deeper to understand that consumers don’t care about the product’s shape; they care about the nostalgia it creates upon viewing old photos.

We often get objections from clients and prospects that sell to other businesses: “Nostalgia is great, but I’m selling software for specialized manufacturers. What does that have to do with humans?” Remember that no matter how dry or industrial your product seems, there’s always a way to connect to humans because they’re the ones ultimately making the buying decision.

One of the best ways to help you incorporate more of a human touch into your content marketing is to interview previous clients and ask them how their situation changed. Your product or service likely had a quantifiable impact on their business, affecting the people working there. Depending on your relationship with the clients you speak with and the nature of the conversation, you could publish the conversation as a case study in audio or video format.

Plan a Pivot Away From Personal Data Marketing

Over the last decade or so, the world of digital advertising has followed a relatively straightforward model. Advertising platforms like Google and Facebook collect data about the people using their platforms, then sell companies on the ability to use that data to maximize profits. While this model raked in billions of dollars in advertising money, it also created an unpleasant situation where companies needed to lean on an intimate knowledge of search and social media users to sell to them more effectively.

In the last three or four years, signs have emerged that this model is starting to disappear. In late 2021, Facebook (now Meta) announced they would no longer offer “sensitive” ad targeting categories like race, health conditions, and specific political ideas. Similarly, in a major iOS update from 2021, Apple required apps to ask permission to track user data, a request many users denied.

The writing is on the wall: in the coming years, third-party personal data collected by advertisers will no longer be the gold mine of advertising it might have been in the early 2010s. If you’ve been relying a lot on advertising data or a similar source, you need to consider how to pivot your strategy away from this resource. User data will always be available, and this shift won’t happen overnight, but it’s still critical to prepare now so you aren’t caught off-guard by something accelerating this trend.

Think About User Intent

One trend in the current era of content marketing is optimizing for user intent. In 2023, there’s so much content out there for almost every industry that the biggest challenge for both B2B and B2C buyers is finding out which kinds of content will help them meet their professional needs. It’s fantastic if your site has a great content library, but it isn’t living up to its potential if you don’t organize it well.

In a recent article for the Content Marketing Institute, strategy chief Robert Rose points out that organizing content by “e-books, white papers, videos, etc.” asks them to choose the kind of experience they want before knowing the topic. Instead of this traditional method of organization that often results in challenges for first-time users, take a deeper approach to your content’s organization and accessibility by grouping it by customer intent.

And if you’re unsure where to start when grouping content by intent, try applying the pillar strategy to content you create for two or three of your most common buyer scenarios – copy them exactly from an existing client, if you need. Start with the buyer’s situation as your pillar foundation, and expand from there.

Last Word on Updating Your Content Marketing Plans 

Even in the buttoned-up industrial sector, today’s internet is noisier than ever. Your content marketing strategy of producing a set number of monthly posts is a great start, but it’s not enough to help you reach the top of your field regarding content. To truly reach your intended audience, your content has to focus on their needs and meet them on the platforms they’re already comfortable with.

Are you interested in expert advice on improving your content marketing plan or developing a new one? Our team at FunnelEnvy is ready to help. Just click here to fill out a short quiz so we can learn more about how we might be able to help take your content game – and other elements of your digital marketing – to the next level.

By |2023-06-14T07:58:04-07:00June 26th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments

The best landing page design tests to boost conversions

With many elements of your marketing and funnels, there’s a degree of guesswork involved. Even companies who’ve been in their industry for many years and have deep knowledge of their audiences have to rely on their predictions based on the trends they’ve observed in the past.

But when it comes to designing your landing page, there’s a rare path to certainty: testing different options with real traffic to see which page visitors prefer. You might never be 100% accurate at giving every visitor what they’re looking for on your landing page, but with different tests on page elements, you can likely please most users.

The accuracy of your testing will determine how helpful your landing page data is for achieving business goals. Below are some of our favorite tests that will help you improve your landing page with quantifiable data. Our focus is on the specific elements of the page, and which style of test you want to use.

Headlines 

By their nature, headlines are typically one of the first page elements that draw a visitor’s eye. That’s why ensuring your headlines are effective is essential for any industry-targeting audience. The famous advertising executive David Ogilvy said: “When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” He was talking about newspapers and flyers, but the principle still holds on modern landing pages decades later.

A good headline should always do the following:

  • Use action words related to the benefit of your product or service, not its features. For example, if you offer a software platform for manufacturing companies, your headline might use attention-grabbing verbs like “simplify,” “streamline,” and “organize.”
  • Incorporate jargon without overdoing it. Using the words and phrases that professionals in your audience understand is particularly important for B2B landing pages. These buyers are more discerning about the technical abilities of their vendors.
  • Address the visitor directly. Another key to good writing from the advertising world: the best copy speaks directly to the reader as an individual. This applies to your landing page headlines as well.

Form Field Labels

Most landing pages use at least one form for conversion, whether signing up for a newsletter or scheduling a demo with a sales representative. But to persuade people that it’s worth filling out the form and converting, they must first understand what the form means.

We recognize that form fields aren’t traditionally considered part of a page’s design – sometimes, they aren’t even part of the page, depending on the software stack you’re using. Many marketers simply fill out the form fields as an afterthought. 

The problem with this approach is it neglects one of the most critical conversion elements on your landing page. Different people have different ways of recognizing the same things. No matter how well you know your audience, you’ll never be able to predict precisely what they think about a form title or a label. That’s why it’s critical to test as many of your form labels as possible, from the title of the broader form to the labels on each field.

No matter how well you know your audience, you’ll never be able to predict precisely what they think about a form title or a label. Click To Tweet

Calls-to-action (CTAs)

The CTAs on your page are the last element before a page visitor becomes a conversion. Although your landing page has many vital components, the CTA element is arguably the most crucial leverage point to improve conversions. Even if the rest of your page is well-optimized for conversions and technically sound, a poorly-designed CTA will throw people off and significantly restrict your results.

There’s a massive array of different types of CTA designs, but these are three of the most popular:

  • Colored shape. This is typically a diamond, rectangle, or oval in a color that stands out on the page – often a bright color like red, orange, or light blue. Within the shape, you’ll see a simple text-based CTA like “Book your meeting” or “Download the guide.”
  • Plain text. Plain text CTAs are simple calls to action embedded directly in the text. Some marketers will add a paragraph of text at the end of the page, while others will simply include it as a line at the end. A word or phrase in the text will sometimes be hyperlinked to allow the user to submit the form or convert in another way.
  • Image. An image-based CTA is excellent because it allows the most flexibility and customization, which means it has the best chance of standing out on the page and grabbing attention. Conversely, an image-based CTA also provides more technical risks than other kinds – not all platforms and browsing devices load images well, especially if they are large and complex. 

Which kind of CTA design is best for your landing page? It’s impossible to offer a one-size-fits-all recommendation. Each landing page has its own layout and design theme that a CTA should fit into (while also standing apart). Also, remember to consider your audience. Are you trying to provide a product or service for a more buttoned-up industry like law or accounting? Or does your audience have a more laid-back vibe like the hospitality or travel industry? These factors should all weigh into your CTA decision – and the nice thing about them is they are all so distinct that it’s relatively easy to perform a test to decide which ones are most effective.

Our Final Thoughts on the Landing Page  

As is the case with many of the suggestions we provide on different topics related to funnels and conversion rate optimization, the advice given in this article should be viewed only as a starting point. Everything we’ve discussed is based on what has worked best for companies we’ve worked with during our many years of experience – you may find that another idea you have for landing page design works better or that something suggested here doesn’t move the needle as you’d hoped.

And that’s completely fine! The key to success is backing up everything you do with testing and data. Without any empirical evidence to support your landing page design decisions, it’s impossible to know whether or not they are the right choices. 

But if you’re relatively new on this journey or recently started using a much different landing page, you might be struggling to find answers for design optimization. This is where our expert team at FunnelEnvy can assist. We have experience working with companies in various industries – from consumer healthcare to industrial equipment. Our focus has been helping them build a better-converting landing page in each instance. We can meet you where you are and provide customized assistance with all elements of your landing page design, from technical aspects like page speed and caching to form fields and CTA design.

Are you interested in finding out more? Just click here to complete a short quiz that we’ve created to help us learn more about your needs and how we may be able to help.

By |2023-06-01T03:07:35-07:00June 12th, 2023|Analytics, A/B Testing|0 Comments

How will Google Analytics 4 affect your funnel?

For most B2B marketers, Google Analytics (GA) is a foundational part of their stack. Google’s long-running web analytics platform emphasizes universal compatibility, meaning it often serves as the connective tissue between different elements and software applications you use in your marketing. Most business and marketing tools incorporate Google Analytics. With the continued implementation of Google Analytics 4, the platform has leaped forward in critical areas.

Announced in late 2020, Google Analytics 4 is one of the most significant upgrades the platform has seen since its launch over 15 years ago. You might have already migrated your data to this new version, but if you haven’t, the deadline is coming up quickly. On July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics properties used by older versions of GA will stop processing new data. Depending on your settings, Google may automatically create a new instance of your old profile into the new GA4 platform. If possible, try to get ahead of this deadline and migrate your profiles before Google does it for you.

This article will help you understand some of the most important new features in Google Analytics 4, how they differ from previous versions, and how this could impact how you use GA throughout your funnels.

What Are the Biggest Changes in Google Analytics 4?

The overall mission of GA hasn’t changed: it’s designed to help website owners and marketers better understand the way visitors interact with digital properties. Google has changed the way that its platform understands and measures these interactions in a few key ways:

  •  More flexible events. The system for gathering data (or “hits,” as Google calls it) is much broader in GA4. It’s derived from the Firebase Analytics platform, which Google developed for mobile devices and apps. In the updated version, you can set custom events based on almost any action or event you want instead of limiting yourself to Google’s predetermined event categories.
  • Support for apps and other websites. The new version of Google Analytics can track user data on external apps and social media platforms. It’s especially beneficial to apps built with Firebase SDK, Google’s suite of app development tools and platforms to help developers and engineers streamline products.
  • New visual dashboard. Google has streamlined the main GA dashboard’s interface and visual aesthetic, offering a more concise set of options and a cleaner main page. There are fewer options on the left-hand navigation menu and a less boxy design. Google has also implemented a tab-based navigation system that many users will find more intuitive.

New Reporting Tools

As most experienced marketers know, the data you gather is only valuable if you can measure and understand it. This is typically done by taking it from the platform on which it was collected and contextualizing it into a report or similar document. Google Analytics always had powerful reporting tools, but GA4 ups the ante by adding a few new features.

Besides the new cross-platform reporting tools mentioned above, GA4 offers more sophisticated attribution models than the last version. That means deeper insights into where leads come from and which sources provide the most qualified prospects. Better attribution can lead to better marketing and less wasteful spending on channels that don’t produce the same results.

Google Analytics always had powerful reporting tools, but GA4 ups the ante by adding a few new features. Click To Tweet

Finally, Google’s upgraded platform also incorporates machine learning, the fundamental principle behind the vast artificial intelligence trend that seems to be sweeping every industry. This can be used for predictive recommendations about optimizing your site or app and protection from spam or bots that may be generating a high level of suspicious traffic. Machine learning can also track the habits and patterns of specific users and help you develop protocols for serving preferred content to the groups that want to see them.

These tools are great for both business administrators and marketers responsible for explaining their work results to clients. Better reporting means more efficient use of the data you create and access in Google Analytics.

Cross-Platform Support

Google understands that the internet is a much different place than it was in the late-2000s when Google Analytics first rose to prominence. Today’s web is fragmented – people use several different apps or social media networks to find what they’re after, whether information, entertainment, or connection with others.

That’s why one of the key hallmarks of GA4 is expanding the places where Google lets you track user data. With GA4, you can gather data from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to help you measure significant trends and patterns related to your business and its presence on third-party websites. You can imagine how helpful it might be to include social media data and information about your funnel’s different websites.

Compatibility with social media is also powerful because of GA4’s attribution technology. You can attribute leads from specific social media networks, which can be used to tweak your campaign and investment. You can also include GA4 attribution as a component of a larger lead-scoring formula to grade new opportunities across the company.

Best of all, if you’re already using a tool for attribution – perhaps a CRM like Salesforce or a marketing automation platform like HubSpot – you can still connect your Google Analytics account to the most popular types of lead tracking and marketing analytics software.

Final Thoughts on How Google Analytics 4 Impacts Your Funnels

Most marketers who have been on the job for a considerable time have some experience working with Google Analytics or at least have worked alongside others who know the platform well. For the better part of two decades, it’s been a pivotal arrow in the quiver of marketers and website administrators looking to get a sense of where their traffic is coming from, how people interact with their pages, and what the ideal prospect looks like.

With their new update that will sunset older versions this upcoming July 1, Google has widened the scope of data available to users and increased the number of ways to measure user interactions on their websites. From a business perspective, these updates will lead to marketers and businesses getting an even firmer grasp of their ideal clients, letting them develop more customized solutions that address their most pressing problems.

You may still have time before the deadline, but it’s always better to be prepared well. If you haven’t already made the jump and are looking for help converting your Universal Analytics account to Google Analytics 4, want to set up a new campaign, or are simply struggling to gain meaningful business insights from Google Analytics or any other platform for gathering data about user interactions with your web presence, we may be able to help.

The team at FunnelEnvy has many years of collective experience working with consumer and business software companies across all kinds of industries, from healthcare to real estate. To find out more about whether or not we can help and get additional details about our pricing, fill out this short quiz.

By |2023-05-22T08:32:12-07:00May 29th, 2023|Analytics|0 Comments

The 4 Top CRO Tips For 2023

It may have taken a couple of decades to perfect the modern internet, but nowadays, technology is getting more advanced by the day. Recently, we’ve been hearing a lot about how AI and blockchain will revolutionize how we do business. It’s critical to stay current on these developments as they relate to your business.

But at the same time, many of the strategies doled out on how to respond to advancing technology look surprisingly similar to “the old way.” Often, tech just asks us to use existing principles of sales, marketing, and business with a new platform or tool.

In this article, we’re diving into four ways to think about conversion rate optimization (CRO) given everything we know about how technology is advancing this year – and beyond.

Revisit Your SEO Practices

We don’t always associate search engine optimization (SEO) with conversion rate optimization. The premise of SEO is getting new traffic to your site, after all. Smart marketers know they should consider user intent long before someone even lands on their page.

Smart marketers know they should consider user intent long before someone even lands on their page. Click To Tweet

That’s because the more people who get to your page, the better – as long as they have the right intentions. Having good enough SEO to attract visitors who aren’t interested in your offering might produce some good vanity metrics but ultimately won’t help you drive business goals. To rectify this issue, you need to consider SEO to attract the right traffic.

You can assess the way you incorporate keywords on different kinds of pages to see if it still makes sense for your intended audience. Don’t forget to examine your fundamental keyword strategy, too. Since most SEO success often comes from going for longtail keywords, if your target audience has changed, your longtail keywords may also change.

Audit the Forms in Your Funnel

Form optimization is a long, dynamic subject matter that could fill up its own blog post (or a whole series). But the foundation of it is the same as it’s always been: go through all appropriate forms and make sure there are no obstacles, distractions, or errors that arise. Ideally, you can break this down into two parts: first, audit your forms internally from a technical perspective, making sure they work with the right software and functions in your business – like a CRM or marketing automation tool.

The second part of the audit is about your users’ perspective. If possible, try to get a person outside your internal marketing team, preferably a prospective customer or someone with similar characteristics. You’ll typically get more cooperation with this form testing when you offer to compensate participants, even if it’s a simple thing like a small discount or virtual gift card.

Here are a few questions to keep in mind as you go through the testing process:

  • Are people completing your forms in the amount of time you expected?
  • Is relevant information on form pages easy enough to find?
  • Are any parts of the form unclear or confusing?
  • Does the form’s language resonate with users?

Test Load Times and Technical Elements 

Load time is a significant factor in getting people to visit your site and convincing them to convert. According to statistics by Google, an increase in load time from 1 second to 5 seconds can increase a page’s bounce rate by 90%. If a critical page of your funnel is loading slowly, it can hinder your marketing efforts.

There are plenty of tools available that can help marketers improve load speed and related technical slowdowns. Google’s PageSpeed test is a good starting point – based on your results there, you’ll either want to develop a plan to cut down on elements slowing down your page or ensure protocols are in place to keep the page loading at optimal speed. 

Depending on the nature of the technical challenges you’re running into, you may require outside help. Certain changes to your domain settings may need to be handled by your hosting provider, while more advanced changes to the site itself could require specialized help from a developer.

Diversify Funnel Media Types

Are you using  only long-form content and headers on every page throughout your funnel? Does your main landing page use the same video you’ve had for years? Unless your forms and funnel elements are already converting at a very high level, it’s always valuable to improve your content by diversifying its delivery. While prospects in certain industries may be more predisposed to specific kinds of content, no rule says you can’t switch it up. 

Video content is becoming increasingly popular in many industries, particularly with the rise in popularity of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. There are also infographics, audio presentations, photos, etc. You might even want to consider the presentation of your content with elements like parallax scrolling and carousels. Even if you aren’t drastically changing the information you include when you make these adjustments, you’ll find it could still add a significant bump to your conversion rate – especially on pages and funnel elements that may have been struggling previously.

As you look to add new kinds of media to your mix, remember that you’ll need to track everything in some way. If you’re adding a new kind of video, for example, be sure you have the right software tools to track important metrics and incorporate them into the rest of your analytics.

Last Thoughts on CRO for 2023 and Beyond

The tools we use to conduct business have come a long way from the pen, paper, and snail mail days. Startups can access a wealth of information about people they’ve never met or interacted with. Technology is capable of helping a company achieve some truly inspiring things today.

Yet despite all the advancements, many of the fundamentals about selling remain strong; possibly even strongerr than in the pre-internet days. When you receive messages, emails, and notifications at every turn, the fundamentals stand out as even more important now. The core tenet of conversion rate optimization is getting more people to raise their hands and signify interest in your product or service. To do that, you need to attract more of the right people, remove technical blocks that prevent them from converting, and experiment with different types of content that can better educate them on why they need your offering.

Looking for some help implementing these or other CRO tips into your existing marketing campaigns? At FunnelEnvy, our optimization specialists have spent years studying what it takes to get people interested in our clients’ products and services. We’ll bring an objective eye to your digital marketing efforts while using our decades of combined experience to help you overcome any challenges you may be facing.

To get started, just click here to fill out a short quiz that will help us learn more about your organization and how we may be able to help you meet your marketing goals.

By |2023-05-03T22:23:27-07:00May 15th, 2023|Conversion Rate Optimization|0 Comments
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