If you are not getting as many leads as your target, or your Cost Per Lead (CPL), it is time to review your B2B marketing strategy and sales funnel.

Do you not have a funnel? You need one!

There is a difference between B2B and C Funnels

When creating a B2B marketing or sales funnel, a common error is to use the B2C funnel outline.

B2B marketing and sales funnels are different from other types of business because the price of the product/service tends to be more expensive.

Even when the cost is low there will still need to be stakeholder buy-in.

This means that the B2B customer journey is lengthy; account-based marketing and the sales funnel must account for this.

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B2B Marketing Funnel Stages

We must start with the foundation when building a B2B marketing or sales funnel.

This is why it is important to decide which funnel stages you want to include. Also, what customer journey analytics and KPIs should be looked at to see if the stage is performing its task correctly?

Stage 1: Awareness

The Awareness stage is a B2B digital marketing agency in Miami’s effort to bring new members to your website.

Once people have visited your site, they need to be introduced to your high-level value proposition to generate leads to fill your sales pipeline.

We know that B2B purchases don’t happen on a whim. Therefore, it is important to have a content funnel in place to encourage potential customers to ask for more information while they are visiting your site.

These are the key actions you should take in this phase:

1. A potential customer enters your website
2. Your pre-recorded demo is recorded and viewed
3. Follows at least one social media platform
4. Register for a webinar, or download content (eBooks, guides, etc.).
5. Receives an automatic addition to an email nurturing campaign

These KPIs will help you determine if there are any gaps in your awareness stage.

• Site visits by new visitors
• Social media channels are growing
• The number of email subscribers added
• The conversion rate of gated content (webinars, downloadable)

These KPIs will allow you to quickly identify underperformers in your marketing efforts.

Once you have identified the metrics that are performing poorly, you can begin to test new ideas for improving them.

If you don’t get many visitors to your website, it is possible to improve your marketing channels or run more ads.

Similar to the above, if your website is receiving a lot of traffic but your conversion rate for gated marketing pieces is low, you will need to create an offer that resonates with your visitors.

It is crucial to get your awareness stage functioning properly for the rest of the funnel to produce great results.

You can’t expect to have many paying customers if you don’t drive enough people to your top funnel.

Stage 2: Consideration

When you have a steady stream of potential customers who fit your buyer persona, they will move on to the consideration phase.

Here, the B2B buyer evaluates the pros and disadvantages of using your product or servicing it over the other products.

These are the key actions you should take in this phase:

1. Automated emails are now available to potential customers
2. To learn more about benefits and features, open emails
3. Click emails to view more information about the site
   1. Comparison of products
   2. Pricing information
   3. Register for a trial or demo to get a free offer
4. Optional – Answers to a feedback survey on why he/she did not sign up for a trial or demo, if applicable.

These KPIs will help you determine if there are any gaps in your awareness stage.

• Email open rate
• Click-through rates for emails
• Engage with informative content on your website
• The conversion rate for a free trial or demo sign-up

Your email list should be growing well if you are seeing many people through your awareness stage.

Your content marketing pieces should help the buyer to better understand your product and services once they have signed up for your email list.

You should evaluate your messaging if the potential buyer doesn’t respond to your emails.

If your open rate is low you may need to try different subject lines. Conversely, if you have a low click-through rate, you should test stronger calls to action and/or offers.

You need to determine why your potential buyers don’t sign up for your trial or demo if they click through to your site.

You can do this by sending a brief feedback survey to someone who has gone through your entire email drip campaign but didn’t convert.

One question could have multiple answers.

Why didn’t you move forward?

• Pricing is not within a budget right now
• Decided that a new company would be best for me.
• Still interested but need more information
• Need help getting stakeholder buy-in
• Other- Fill in the Blank

Start collecting data to understand why people don’t convert. Then you can address these concerns in your messaging and improve your conversion rate.

If people aren’t responding to your feedback request, you can try different messaging to see what gets people to respond.

If you feel that pricing is an issue, you might offer a discount to the company if it closes during the current quarter.

You can also create content marketing pieces, such as blog posts or landing pages, to help stakeholders buy in if that is the case.

Stage 3: Evaluation

It is crucial to evaluate your B2B marketing funnel and sales funnel. The marketing team is responsible for the first two phases, but here you need to coordinate with the product and sales teams.

These are the key actions you should take in this phase:

• Get a free software trial, or visit the demo.

• Register/Install trial software

• Automated nurture emails are sent to help you get on the path to purchase

• Click emails to get more information
  • Current sales promotions
  • Competitive advantages
  • Key benefits

• Hot leads for the surface sales team

• Optional: Respond to a feedback survey about what you like and don’t like about the software/service.

These KPIs will help you determine if there are any gaps in your awareness stage.

• The conversion rate to install trial software or attend the demo

• The conversion rate to complete setup and use of software

• Engage with a sales rep

Your marketing efforts have brought your leads to the point where they are willing to try your product. Now the sales process begins.

It all depends on whether the lead buys or not.

If you notice that many leads sign up for your trial, but they don’t use it (abandon the trial), it is time to meet with your product team and find out why.

This can be done by asking your leads why they haven’t used the free trial. However, only a small percentage of people will respond.

You and your product team should look at your product statistics to see where most people are falling off. You might find a feature or interface that isn’t as user-friendly as you thought. This needs to be addressed.

Similar to the previous example, if your sales team can get many people to sign up for a demo, they should ask for feedback.

What do you like most about the software/service? Are there any things you feel we should do or remove? Is there anything confusing? _

You’ve now taken the lead and are close to the finish. Your product and sales team will be your reinforcements.

You must ensure that the offer is attractive enough to convince people to buy the product.

Stage 4: Action

We’re now at the fun part, the action stage. This is where hot leads should convert into new customers.

These are the key actions you should take in this phase:

• Purchase
• Onboarding
• Start a new customer nurturing campaign
• Get involved in an up-sell/cross-sell campaign
• Contract renewal / Increase
• Survey customers about satisfaction

These KPIs will help you determine if there are any gaps in your awareness stage of the content B2B marketing funnel.

• The conversion rate applicable to the initial purchase
• Customer satisfaction during onboarding
• Engage with a new customer nurture campaign
• The conversion rate of upsell/cross-sell campaign
• The contract renewal conversion rate

Your account service team will most likely handle the onboarding phase. However, marketing isn’t done when the sale is over.

Although the acquisition marketing phase is complete, account-based marketing is still in its infancy. Your marketing efforts should be focused on customer analysis to support your accounts team.

Your marketing automation tool should be used to send emails with tips, advice, and how-tos.

Timed emails should be prepared to go to assist your account management and sales team with upselling and cross-selling once an existing customer has been onboarded.

You will also need a marketing campaign for the renewal part of your sales cycle.

You can use social media to remind customers of the many ways your software has helped them achieve better results. Be sure to discuss any upcoming features.

Stage 5: Re-Engagement

Do you remember those leads who claimed they did not have the budget or were unable to get stakeholder buy-in?

These leads are still interested in your services and will need to be contacted so they can become customers.

A re-engagement campaign is crucial for lead nurturing. Don’t forget about these potential customers!

These are the key actions you should take in this phase:

• Get automated re-engagement emails

• Emails with an irresistible deal are opened

• To learn more about our offers, click the email

• CTA can be reached to discuss an offer with a sales representative

• Register for an offer
  • Or, he/she doesn’t sign up but reengages with others and is moved to nurture the email flow

These KPIs will help you determine if there are any gaps in your awareness stage.

• Email open rate
• Click-through rates for emails
• A tempting offer requires a conversion rate
• Engage with nurture content

You will need to offer a compelling offer to the lead to make your re-engagement campaign work.

These leads are worth the effort. They are already interested in you and you can make them a deal if you wow them.

Keep trying different offers if you don’t get any engagement from this campaign. These leads are eager to be closed and need some encouragement.

It’s your job as a B2B marketing professional to convert hot leads into customers, and warm leads into a hot lead. Don’t overlook this crucial step.

How to Create a B2B Marketing funnel

Now that you have a good understanding of the stages of a B2B sales funnel and what KPIs you should track, it is time to create your funnel.

An Excel or Google Spreadsheet is a great way to create your traditional funnel content outline.

Here’s an example of a marketing and sales funnel that I created for a B2B company selling software.

I can see quickly all my key metrics, and the actions I need buyers to take.

The Buyer Journey actions outline the marketing tasks that I must complete.

In the Consideration Phase of my B2B funnel, potential buyers need to be contacted with informational emails. I, therefore, know that I must create these emails and set up an email workflow.

This outline will help you create your B2B marketing and sales channel in just an hour. The real work begins when you launch your funnel marketing efforts!