The Hour Glass Funnel is an advanced stage of the sales funnel. Just to recap, the sales funnel strategically manages key touch points, ie points at which marketers respond to a customer's level of buying readiness with stage-appropriate motivators. Since previous posts did not delve beyond earlier touch points, this post covers a more complete list of customer touch points which are awareness, engagement, conversion and retention. In short, the purpose of the hour glass funnel deals with retention marketing, ie to retain and convert your main product customer into a loyal / repeat customer and sales generating fan / sales ambassador. Essentially, retention marketing aims to extend the customer life value (CLV), aka life time value of customers.
Unlike the work of a paid sales team, marketing evangelism involves the promotion of a brand not for the promoting person's self interest but for a third party, the brand. Evangelists have a genuine believers in your brand (as opposed to going through the motions in a lack lustre transaction of sales pitch for remuneration). These very valuable customers contribute to the customer acquisition efforts of your business. Naturally, the product must add real value to convert someone into a marketing evangelist. The value should extend beyond the single benefit narrowly associated with the product. For instance, your customer becomes an evangelist when his experience is holistic because, not only was the product very valuable on many levels but so too were the different aspects of his experience like customer support. Furthermore, the passion can be developed by the product's ability to help people to accomplish something that supports larger dreams, political or social will and so on. For instance, kitchen gardening products may be associated with empowering people with healthier lifestyle (something they dream of within the context of genetically modified food and the associate health risks). Marketing evangelists essentially widen your sales funnel in that they reach more leads. They offer social proof which is highly persuasive. In fact, it is more persuasive and therefore more effective in converting prospects into customers than your self praise. See case studies of how companies encouraged evangelism by implementing ambitious referral programs.
Goal 1: loyalty or repeat sales
Remember, it is many times cheaper to convert an existing satisfied customer. In fact, loyal customers are highly likely (roughly to 70%) to refer your business to friends. Furthermore, loyal customers are 10 times more valuable than new ones as it relates to revenue. Remember then 80-20 rule? It applies. Stats suggest that loyal customers can account for as much as 80% of a company's revenue. Businesses use many techniques that include loyalty programs. Imagine, you may even include a loyalty pipeline in your CRM.
--
--
Goal 2: evangelismUnlike the work of a paid sales team, marketing evangelism involves the promotion of a brand not for the promoting person's self interest but for a third party, the brand. Evangelists have a genuine believers in your brand (as opposed to going through the motions in a lack lustre transaction of sales pitch for remuneration). These very valuable customers contribute to the customer acquisition efforts of your business. Naturally, the product must add real value to convert someone into a marketing evangelist. The value should extend beyond the single benefit narrowly associated with the product. For instance, your customer becomes an evangelist when his experience is holistic because, not only was the product very valuable on many levels but so too were the different aspects of his experience like customer support. Furthermore, the passion can be developed by the product's ability to help people to accomplish something that supports larger dreams, political or social will and so on. For instance, kitchen gardening products may be associated with empowering people with healthier lifestyle (something they dream of within the context of genetically modified food and the associate health risks). Marketing evangelists essentially widen your sales funnel in that they reach more leads. They offer social proof which is highly persuasive. In fact, it is more persuasive and therefore more effective in converting prospects into customers than your self praise. See case studies of how companies encouraged evangelism by implementing ambitious referral programs.
Summary of the major stages of the sales funnel
- awareness (make prospects aware you exist)
- engagement (educate the researching lead)
- conversion (make a sale by promoting product value to leads on the verge of buying)
- retention / referral (encourages customers to be loyal, ie to buy again and or evangelize your products and business to others)
Retention Marketing DOs (for loyalty)
- consistently deliver quality goods and service
- be responsive to their (changing) needs
- respond to understanding and resolving problems of dis-satisfied customers. Use what you have learnt as a new FAQ item
- create value like useful content
Retention Marketing DOs (for referrals to others / widening the sales funnel)
- use loyalty programs that encourage customers to engage with your brand in exchange for rewards. (It is also useful to implement that simultaneously increases customer acquisition through referral programs that are designed for loyalty. See the FreeAgent case study.)
- encourage the customer to interact with your community
- use social media
- for forums, give clear instructions / calls to action regarding where and how to start.
- Example: encourage members to create a member profile
- encourage the customer to evangelize your products and business via
- product reviews. This involves videos and images. In fact, the latter is useful for lookbooks
- company reviews
- encourage the customer to recommend your products
- using your affiliate program
Retention Marketing Tools
- Facebook groups (not Facebook pages). Allow prospects and customers to be members. Encourage the customers, especially the satisfied and successful ones who can showcase the success they enjoy as a result of your products and or services, example they could post some record of earnings / savings per month. Company reviews and video interviews can also be posted when customers have positive things to say. Additionally, your prospects can ask questions to the more experienced buyers.
- Wedding registries
Other Retention Marketing DOs
The process is not necessarily linear in that a customer may skip past stages within this and even the basic sales funnel. You must therefore be mindful of their path through the stages and communicate appropriately. For instance, someone using your wedding registry jumps from the top of the basic sales funnel all the way to the bottom of the hour glass funnel and is not necessarily ready for your webinar sales funnel communication.CONTENT RELATED TO RETENTION MARKETING WITH THE HOUR GLASS SALES FUNNEL
- Brand awareness & brand awareness srategy 101
- Loyalty programs are still relevant that use forms of emotional marketing are more likely to succeed with modern consumers than 'earn & burn' programs.
- Tiered loyalty programs
- A sure way of converting customers into evangelism is customer experience that not only meets customer needs holistically but exceed expectations. This encourage customers to tell a story which essentially translates into building your brand awareness & brand awareness srategy 101
- After deciding on this new funnel, create the tasks in a retention / renewal sales pipeline and or evangelism pipeline in your CRM program for your sales representatives. For instance, the renewal pipeline can include elements like loyalty cards.
- Sales funnels. There are several types of sale funnel. Here is a great introduction
- Using brand storytelling for evangelism
- Broadcast email campaigns: an Amazon case study
- Facebook groups for retention marketing
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.