How To Build a Great Lead Generation Funnel

What is a lead generation funnel?

A lead generation funnel, also known as a lead funnel, is a series of steps you create to move leads from the awareness stage through to becoming customers.

It basically exists for you to be able to look after your lead and nurture them from the moment they enter your website and start learning more about what you have to offer.

Your funnel can be as straightforward or as complex as you want, but the key is to make it as user-friendly and effective as possible.

It should be optimized for a great customer experience, making it easy for users to find what they need and move through the steps seamlessly.

There are three levels to every lead generation funnel:

1. Top Of The Funnel (TOFU):

The TOFU -not the food- is the very beginning of your lead gen funnel. It’s where your leads first become aware of your business and start to learn more about what your business is about.

So, this first stage is reserved for awareness-building.

At this stage, make sure leads find the information they need quickly and easily so that they can learn more about what you offer and how it will help them.

Here, you’ll need to create content that will help them learn about your product or service and give them a better understanding of how it can benefit them.

2. Middle Of The Funnel (MOFU):

The middle of the funnel is where you’ll focus on generating leads.

At this stage, you’ll need to create content and offers that will help you acquire those leads.

This could include providing downloadable content such as ebooks, whitepapers or webinars, or offering discounts on products or services.

3. Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU):

The bottom of the funnel is all about converting your leads into paying customers.

At this stage, you’ll need to create offers that will help you close the deal and get those leads to become customers.

This could be a discounted offer on your product or service or a free trial period of your product or service.

It’s all about incentivizing them to make the purchase.

You should also make sure you’re providing the best customer service and support possible to help encourage those leads to convert.

Here’s an infographic exemplifying what you can include in each stage of your funnel.

A lot of people have this misguided idea that the funnel ends when a sale is made.

No, no, no!

Once you have a customer, your job is to make sure they stay a customer by providing them with the best customer experience and creating a sense of brand loyalty.

Create good relationships with your customers, build up a proper follow-up strategy for them, and reward them for their loyalty.

This will go a long way in ensuring that your customers keep coming back for more and become repeat customers.

Why do you need to create a lead generation funnel?

Because the customer lifecycle is significantly higher in B2B marketing than it is in B2C, you will need to establish an excellent funnel to keep your leads engaged with you.

By doing this, you’re more likely to convert leads into customers and retain them in the long run.

And that’s the main and ultimate goal of a lead generation funnel.

But is that it? No, the fun doesn’t stop there.

Here are other benefits of a proper lead generation funnel:

• Increased chances of converting leads into customers: By having an optimized lead gen funnel, you can be sure that your leads are getting the information they need quickly and easily, allowing them to make a decision faster.
• A better understanding of your leads: By tracking what content and offers a lead has interacted with, you can gain insight into their interests and needs. This can help you create targeted content and offers that will better suit their needs and increase the chances of conversion.
• Improved customer loyalty: By establishing excellent customer relationships, you’re more likely to build strong connections with your customers and encourage them to come back for more.
• More efficient use of resources: By understanding the customer journey, you can focus on creating content and offers that will generate more leads in the most efficient way.

If you’re in B2B sales, the idea is to create a lead generation funnel that is tailored to your target audience.

This is made much easier when you invest in one hell of a tool such as LaGrowthMachine.

With our solution, you can send thousands of messages through your usual channels (LinkedIn – Email – Twitter) with a high degree of customization!

We also provide you with a 360-view analytics dashboard so you can drive great insights to build a successful lead gen funnel. 🚀

So, as we said if you want to take your B2B lead generation to the next level, creating an effective funnel is a must!

But, what does that mean exactly?

How to create a great lead generation funnel?

Whether you’re a freelancer, an agency, or an enterprise, creating a great lead generation funnel is essential to your success.

We talked about the process and stages of the lead generation funnel a little bit at the beginning, and now we’ll go into more detail.

Here are 6 easy-ish steps to help you create an effective funnel:

Step 1: Identify and understand your target audience:

Before you rush head-first into creating a funnel, you need to clearly identify who your target audience is and what their needs are.

This will help you create better content that resonates with them throughout the funnel and increases your chances of converting leads into customers.

Keep in mind that if you’re trying to sell to everyone, you’re selling to nobody. This is rule number one in marketing.

Ask yourself (or your team) questions such as:

• Who do we want to target?
• What are their pain points?
• Where can we find them online?

All these questions require data about your customers to even remotely start to answer them correctly.

So make sure you utilize LaGrowthMachine and our stellar enrichment feature. If you’re a customer of ours and -for some reason- you don’t know how it works, here’s a quick rundown:

• Import your audience or create a new one and switch on the “Enrich Leads” button.
• Each lead that enters your sequence will now be automatically enriched.
• And that’s it!

Data Enrichment takes time, so we automated everything in order for you to focus on what you deem important.

Once you got a clear picture of who you should be targeting, you can then start worrying about how to get them from point A to point B.

Step 2: Map out your customer journey:

This is an important step to understanding what content and offers will be included in your funnel.

Creating a customer journey map will help you visualize how a lead progresses from becoming aware of your brand all the way to converting into a paying customer.

It’s also great to have this map regularly updated so you can track any changes or improvements in the customer journey.

You can use a tool such as Canva which is just great when it comes to all things design.

Whimsical is also quite impressive when it comes to creating all sorts of visuals such as customer journey maps!

Step 3: Create content that resonates with your audience:

You have an idea of who your target audience is, what their needs and pain points are, and how they progress through the funnel.

It’s now time to start creating content tailored to them and based on your understanding from above.

The lead generation funnel outlines the journey you want your prospects to take toward a sale.

But how do you guide them along this path?

The answer lies in using effective bait – in this case, a lead magnet.

Lead magnets provide value to your target audience through guides, offers, informative or entertaining media, etc. in exchange for their contact information.

These “bait” pieces should be highly targeted and tailored to the interests of your target audience.

That way, on the one hand, this value entices them to get to know you and your product better.

On the other hand, it gives you the opportunity to capture their information (usually at least their names and email addresses), which allows you to continue nurturing the relationship.

For instance, a SaaS company might offer a free trial or a demo of its product to showcase its features and benefits.

That’s exactly what we do at LaGrowthMachine with our multichannel selling software! We offer a free trial and allow prospects to see first-hand how our tool can help them automate their sales prospecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, and email, and generate 3.5x more responses on their prospecting efforts!

Content is a cost-effective and powerful way to create lead magnets that attract prospects.

Whatever content you decide to create has to answer the needs of your audience and provide them with valuable information that will help them move further down the funnel.

If you’re using LaGrowthMachine, you know that we’re always here for you!

It’s up to you to adapt the message to optimize your upsell. If you have any doubts, you can always have us review your lead generation campaign!

Step 4: Nurture your leads:

We won’t dwell on this too much since if you got to this point, chances are you already know the importance of lead nurturing.

But let’s just quickly reiterate why it’s so important:

Lead nurturing helps move leads further down the funnel by providing them with personalized content that speaks to their needs.

It also helps build trust and improves brand recognition, which is key in turning a potential customer into an actual paying one.

Step 5: Analyze, optimize, and reiterate:

We’re almost there! You can’t go through a processed list of ours without having analytics and optimization.

Analytics are essential to understanding how your funnel is performing so you can make the necessary tweaks and improvements in order to increase conversions.

You need to be constantly monitoring each step of the funnel, from click-through rates, open rates, and opt-in forms completion rate -all these metrics will help you determine which parts of the funnel need improvement.

These are only some examples of metrics you can follow. Of course, every business, every product, and even every department within a company has different definitions of success.

By focusing on the right metrics, you can optimize your funnel accordingly and achieve your desired results

Once you’ve identified what’s to be tweaked, it’s time to start testing different variations in order to optimize your funnel and get more conversions.

This is an iterative process as you’ll never really find the perfect solution, but by continually testing and optimizing your funnel, you can get closer to the results you desire.

Step 6: Retain your customers:

You’ve reached the finish line! If all goes well, you should have a healthy influx of new customers so now it’s time to retain them.

Customer retention is key in any business and the same applies here:

Send out relevant offers to your customers according to their needs and ensure that you keep providing value for as long as possible.

Remember, just because you got them to convert doesn’t mean the job is done. You need to continue providing value and stay top-of-mind to keep them coming back.

5 tips to optimize your lead generation funnel

Congratulations! You now have created a wonderful lead generation funnel for your business.

But, what if you already have one? One that you like and don’t want to change? What if you just want to make it better?

No worries, here are 5 tips to optimize your existing lead generation funnel:

• Establish clear goals and track them:

Know what your funnel should be achieving and track the metrics to ensure that it’s doing so. This will help you determine what needs to be improved and optimized.

• Focus on quality over quantity:

Quality content should always take precedence over quantity when it comes to creating lead magnets. Make sure that you’re providing true value to your audience instead of just trying to fill up a page with words or images.

• Simplify and streamline:

Make sure that your funnel is as simple and straightforward as possible. Too many steps or confusing navigation can drive potential leads away.

• Focus on customer experience:

Customer experience should always be a priority in any business activity, especially when it comes to lead generation funnels. Get feedback from your customers and use it to further refine your funnel so that it’s giving them the best possible experience every time they interact with it.

• Use A/B testing:

A/B testing is great for finding out which elements of your funnel are working and which need to be tweaked in order to get the best results.

Create different content that you think appeals to your ideal customers, and then monitor their engagement. From there, adjust your marketing, landing pages, and sales strategies as necessary.

And there you have it! By following these 5 tips, you can optimize your lead generation funnel and create a more effective marketing strategy for your business.

Funnel your leads to success!

With a well-thought and optimized lead generation funnel in place, you’re now on the fast track to success.

We’ve covered the basics of what a funnel is, how they work, how to set one up yourself, and even how to optimize the one you’ve already created.

So, what are you waiting for? Put your lead generation funnel to work and watch the leads come rolling in! Good luck! 🚀🔥🎉

Happy funneling!😉