Retargeting ads, particularly via Facebook, give you the opportunity to recapture some of those already warmed leads. You already know that they’re interested, so why not capitalize?
You Only Advertise on One Search Engine
This is a problem, and a big one. Google is great — for a start. But if you’re only on Google with AdWords or just keyword optimization, you’re leaving a lot of the market untapped. In September 2014, comScore released statistics that Google controlled 83.3 percent of the market share. That’s a big chunk, but 16.3 percent is still a sizable minority. What’s more, Apple is predicted not to renew Google as the default search engine for Safari, which means those figures have a shelf life about as long as it takes Apple to make a decision. All in all, the minority is set to grow, and if you think that it’s not worth targeting other search engines at the top of your funnel, you’re sorely missing out.
You Don’t Use Live Chat
Your goal should be to communicate and engage with your customers every step of the way, across many different channels. And live chat is a great channel that I think is worthy of special mention. For starters, ReachLocal reported that a live chat function on a website was rated as “extremely helpful†by 90 percent of survey participants. Live chat is so effective because it lets you draw browsing traffic further into your sales funnel, it positions you as a credible authority, and it demonstrates your focus on amazing customer service.
For example, imagine that I was buying a bike rack for a car. It’s a pretty technical product (fit, size, variation) that I don’t know that much about, so I visit an auto accessories website to learn a bit more about what I need. Live chat will give me this precise information super easily, and will probably quote a price as well. I might find that information somewhere else, but it’s a lot easier when someone just hands it to you. Even if I look around at competitors, who do you think I’m going to go buy from? The people who streamlined my experience on their site extremely well, and left me with an awesome experience.
You’re Not “Dripping†Your Leads
The middle of the funnel is a precarious time for your leads. It’s when a lot of leads will leak out since they’re not ready to buy yet, but they’re also more invested than prospects. One fix to this particular problem is a drip campaign with email automation. It works like this: The marketing team creates compelling content that generally focuses on pain points your lukewarm lead has, and then pushes it to them in a timely manner over the long term. It might be a once a week email blast profiling how your product has helped them. It might be a personalized email using information about their path through your sales funnel to address their specific problem.
You can automate emails in this way with some fairly simple software like MailChimp to build up your leads and keep them engaged while they take their time through the buying cycle.
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