Fill the funnel. As marketers, business owners, brand managers, etc., it’s how we’re trained to think about driving business – talk to a lot of people about our offering (effectively, hopefully), turn prospects into customers, and customers into loyalists. But a funnel implies customers dropping out of the bottom, clearly undesirable after all the work done to get them through it.
It’s all metaphorical, but I’ve started thinking about it differently. Unless I think of a better name (and I don’t think I will), I’m going to call it the Happy Hurricane. Think of it like this:
Your business is the hurricane and the eye is your HQ. From there, decisions are made about what happens in the action outside, where your customers, team members, vendors, tech, etc., are all interacting. You’ve already planned things so well that everything is spinning in the same direction – a well-orchestrated cycle and customer journey.
Now, it’s time to add more customers to the mix.
As your happy hurricane passes over the right prospects, they get pulled up into the cycle and move through the customer journey on repeat (i.e., become loyal to your brand). In this way your hurricane gets bigger as your base of customers grows, instead of spitting them out the bottom of the funnel and starting over.
I know it’s never that simple, but sometimes starting with the small stuff – like adjusting the metaphors you use to describe your business processes – results in bigger changes in how your brand approaches customer strategy and drives results.
I’ll leave you with a few easy actions you can implement to ensure your cycle is working as effectively as possible.
Build the right strategy and roadmap for your customers: From prospect to loyal advocate, know the path, moments of engagement, right message and call to action. This ensures timely and relevant interactions instead of wasted moments.
Create content that sticks: This doesn’t need to be a TV ad or full-blown campaign. It can be consistent graphical elements for social posts or useful (not just self-promoting) content for newsletters and blogs. This comes together as a cohesive message that ties your customer experience together.
Track and monitor success: Implement the right tracking and reporting for your campaigns. If it’s email, get a good CRM. If it’s social, use a platform to bring all channels into one dashboard. If it’s a paid digital campaign, work with a smart partner that has the resources and tools to provide you with informed reporting and optimization recommendations.
As always, we hope everyone is doing well and we are here to chat virtually or safely in person.
Clay