What Is a Digital Marketing Funnel and How It Can Benefit Consultancy Firms Like Yours?

Quick Navigation:

• What Is a Digital Marketing Funnel
• Which Consultancy Firms Would Benefit from a Digital Marketing Sales Funnel
• The Process of Building Marketing Funnels for Consultancy Businesses Explained
  • Step 1: SWOT
  • Step 2: Initial Optimisation Strategy
  • Step 3: Funnel Mapping
  • Step 4: Technical Stuff
  • Step 5: Testing
  • Step 6: Traffic
  • Step 7: Evaluation of Results
• How Marketing Funnels Work
• Building Your Marketing Sales Funnel Strategy
• Types of Marketing Funnels for Consultants
  • The Webinar Funnel
  • The Tripwire Funnel
  • The Lead Magnet
  • The Quiz Funnel
  • The Free Consultation Offer
• Conclusion

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If you are in business, and you are trying to market your services online, you might have heard about a digital marketing funnel. It is a term used by many and understood by only a few. This post will cover the definition and the different benefits of having a marketing sales funnel for consultancy firms. 

What Is a Digital Marketing Funnel

There’s a lot of confusion about what a digital marketing funnel is. It is not a one-page website or a Facebook page. And no, it is not cold emailing, either. In fact, it is a system that does the following: 

• Targets the right audience 
• Offers something of a high perceived value
• Focuses on micro commitments that build a two-way rela
• Displays an irresistible offer
• Focuses on conversions 
• Is built for continuous improvement. 

Which Consultancy Firms Would Benefit from a Digital Marketing Sales Funnel

Consultants are busy delivering their service and taking time to get to know their clients. They don’t have time for networking, lead generation, and closing sales. A digital marketing funnel can take care of it all. So consultancy firms can focus on building their brand, reputation management, and creating digital assets, as described by Daniel Priestley.

Companies providing coaching and consulting services can also benefit from having a marketing sales funnel built by scaling their business faster. Following up with prospects, building a relationship without spending a lot of hours a week on the phone is the dream of every consultancy firm. Thanks to advanced technology, such as ActiveCampaign and other marketing automation tools, you can create interactive customer journeys that will be able to improve your profile, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and generate a lot of inbound leads instead of spending the day prospecting. 

Streaming your consultancy business is another great benefit of automating your digital marketing and your processes. As an example; how good would it be if you could automatically follow up with everyone who submitted a contact form or subscribed to your blog? It is possible if you have a digital marketing funnel in place. After all, standalone marketing strategies might work once in a while, but connecting the different dots can multiply your results. And that’s what a sales funnel agency can help you with. 

In short, companies with the following goals would be able to benefit from marketing funnels:

1. Lead generation 
2. Nurturing prospects
3. Partnership building and reputation management
4. Following up with existing clients
5. Getting referrals from clients

Of course, the above list is not exhaustive, but you can see the picture: if you love helping other businesses and hate admin and following up, getting a digital marketing funnel designed is a good option for you.

The Process of Building Marketing Funnels for Consultancy Businesses Explained

At LMnts Marketing, a full service social media, content, and sales funnel agency we love finding out which jigsaw piece is missing from your strategy. We follow the below steps to ensure that your funnel is tailored to your goals and your business model. We aim to provide the maximum benefits at the lowest cost, so you get the best possible return on investment. 

Step 1: SWOT

The first step is to have a discovery meeting when we find out more about your business. We get most of the information from our Sales Funnel Quiz and you can get an idea of the cost beforehand by using our Sales Funnel Calculator. However, we build every marketing automation system with the end result in mind. We complete a marketing SWOT that is for you to keep if you decide to improve your systems yourself. The findings of the marketing SWOT will reveal which jigsaw piece is missing from your strategy, so we can give you recommendations. 

Step 2: Initial Optimisation Strategy

Once we have a full picture of what you are looking to achieve and how we can improve your existing systems, we will create a full proposal that details every step we will take, every system we will build, and the reason behind our chosen marketing strategy. We will create a timeline, ad budget, and strategy and start working. We will request more information from your business and maybe access to your accounts to optimise your profiles before we start working. 

We are likely to ask for more information from you, as we might be good at what we do, but you know your customers much more than we do. 

Step 3: Digital Marketing Funnel Mapping 

Once we have the proposal accepted, we will create our famous “funnel map”. It is a great way of visualising the process and helping you understand where your new prospects and customers will be coming from. That’s all you have to do; you can leave the rest to us. After all, we can build funnels from scratch with our eyes closed.

Step 4: Technical Stuff

Once we have the funnel map created and approved by you, we will be able to set up the technology background. We have partnered up with a few software companies in recent years, so we can build custom digital marketing funnels for our clients instead of the subscription services, such as ClickFunnels and LeadPages. So there’s a lot of technical work involved, but – at the end of the day – a funnel is for life, not just for an event or book launch. 

Step 5: Testing

Once the technical side of the marketing automation project is complete, we tie everything together and test the system. This is where we ask for your input and find out how the market is reacting to your offer. More often than not we will create an AB test of each landing page, so we can measure the conversions and understand the market’s behaviour. At the testing phase, we aim to catch all the bugs and try to find new connections to further improve your conversion rates. 

Step 6: Traffic

Once the testing is over, and we are happy with the results, we will create a new campaign and drive traffic to your funnel. We will also put measurements and goals in place, so we can report back to you on what is going well and what needs improvement. We will also identify the areas of the marketing sales funnel that need improvement. 

Step 7: Evaluation of Results 

Once the campaign has launched and been optimised, you will be able to find out how much money you made and how we can further improve your conversions. You should be able to see in black and white what your ROI was and how much more business you can pull in by continuing the campaign. We will give you recommendations and create an ongoing funnel management plan should you choose to carry on working with us (why wouldn’t you?).

How Marketing Funnels Work

Marketing automation systems can take on the job of an entire sales team, if they are built well. They can take care of the beginning, middle, and the end of the funnel. They can create awareness, interest, demand, and even close the deal by getting people to take action. 

The landing page of the beginning of the funnel takes care of getting you on the map. If nobody knows that you exist and you have a great service, book, course, or programme, you can’t expect sales. It is the first thing a digital marketing funnel takes care of. By marketing your brand and generating leads to follow up with, the email marketing automation system will take care of getting people to initially “buy into you”. 

The follow-up or lead nurturing part of the funnel is designed to build trust and reciprocity. Nobody is going to buy from you until they know, trust, and like you. We create the “like me moment” by providing educational and useful content to your audience and staying in front of them, so they remember the brand and offering. Then we will create interest by hinting about your great service and showcasing your reputation and results. This stage is important if you would like to achieve above-the-average conversions.

Once we have warmed up the potential clients, we simply go for the sales. Without sales you don’t have a business, and without conversions you don’t get sales. It sounds simple, but many people forget about this important principle. You are not in business to win a popularity contest; you are running a consultancy business to make money. Conversion optimisation is  an advanced task for marketing agencies, and the upshot is that you can’t improve what you don’t measure. That’s why we set up conversion tracking infrastructure at the beginning of the funnel building process.

Building Your Marketing Sales Funnel Strategy

You can – by all means – get a freelancer to build your funnel. However, they will have limited time to understand your business and your goals. They will simply complete processes. Another reason why you might want to work with a marketing agency near you is to have regular updates and consultations. Finally, a sales funnel agency will have all the technical skills and resources to make your marketing automation evergreen; the systems you build can generate leads five years from now. 

Before you start thinking about what type of funnel you should build, you need to do the market research and budgeting. If your brand is new and nobody knows about what your consultancy business is offering, you will have your work cut out. We also need to break it to you; free traffic is not really free. You will need to invest countless hours into building a following and creating content. So you will first need to make a decision whether or not to use investment traffic or earned traffic. The first one is going to get you results faster, while the second one will take much longer and more effort. 

Next, you have to determine your ideal client and understand their pain points and buying triggers. If you choose to work with us, you don’t have to worry about this step, as our SWOT service will take care of your ideal client persona. Targeting the right niche and segment will help you get a more unique message out there; one that your audience can resonate with. Without knowing who you are targeting with the messages, there’s no point investing into a digital marketing funnel. You might as well set fire to your money. 

Once you know your audience, you will have to identify your USP. This is something that we are extremely good at. Your USP or unique selling proposition will tell your potential clients why they should use your services instead of an alternative one. Your USP should be displayed on every landing page, social media profile, and sales page. 

When you have the USP message, it is time to do some copywriting. Not an expert? Check out our content marketing services if you need any help. The sales copy, the landing page for the lead magnet for your funnel.

Finally, once you have every piece of the puzzle taken care of, it is time for integrating it into all your platforms. Ideally, you want to capture as many leads as possible, and for this you will need to connect your autoresponder to multiple pages, accounts, and forms. This is where most of our clients get stuck, and that is why they often see zero results from their campaigns set up on third party websites, such as ClickFunnels, LeadPages, and Kartra. A funnel map can help you build a system for maximum conversions. 

Types of Marketing Funnels for Consultants

Consultants can benefit from any digital marketing sales funnel that focuses on building trust and brand value. Your personal brand is one of your main assets, so you have to put it to good use. Here are a few examples of digital marketing automation systems that do just that. 

The Webinar Funnel

If you are a speaker and love presenting to groups, you can do so without leaving your office or study. You can easily integrate webinar software into your automation. Whether you create free events or just use on-demand replays, you can gain subscribers’ attention for an hour or so; plenty of time to build trust and make them want more from you. 

The Tripwire Funnel

A tripwire funnel can work for consultants, but if you don’t have an existing following and brand, it should not be placed at the beginning of the campaign. You will have to build trust before you can close the sale. 

The Lead Magnet 

A lead magnet is a great way of building a list. If you don’t have people who get regular communication from you, who will you sell to? A lead magnet can be anything from a free download, a video, or even a series of training modules you are willing to give away for free. Remember that whatever you are giving away has to have a high perceived value for your visitors. 

The Quiz Funnel

Quiz funnels are great if you would like to qualify your leads and segment your prospects. In fact, our own sales funnel quizzes are a part of our funnel. We qualify the leads (more like let them qualify themselves) and segment them on our list based on their answers and level of interest. You also use quiz funnels to research your target market. 

The Free Consultation Offer

This is the most commonly used lead generation method among consultants. Generally speaking, it works, but you need to make sure that the prospect sees the value of what you are giving away. With so many business coaches offering free consultation, this sounds a little bit like a broken record, unless you add a twist to it. 

Of course, there are many different types of processes, and there’s no “one size fits all” solution. However, they can be a good starting point for your research. For example, if you are good at writing, you are better off with a written sales page, but if you are confident on camera, a webinar can be a great sales tool for you. 

Conclusion

As you can see, building a digital marketing funnel is a complex process and it involves more than just adding a few pages to your website. Several skills are required, such as copywriting, strategy planning, social media, SEO, and market research. At LMNts Marketing we only work with a select group of customers who have a potential to get a high ROI from a funnel. Are you one of them? Find out from our Big Sales Funnel Quiz.