This article was first published May 27, 2008 on the Tatum Marketing blog
Here’s a fact that sometimes surprises our new clients, but it proves to be true over and over again. 75% (or more) of your best prospects are not ready to buy right now. 25% aren’t even ready to give you the time of day. Many of the people who visit your website or inquire about your product or service will eventually buy from someone, but it won’t be you unless you keep nurturing the relationship.
Marketers often use the image of a funnel with lots of traffic and prospects pouring into the wide mouth at the top and a smaller number of customers exiting the narrow opening at the bottom.
Business technology marketers tend to focus on the top of the marketing funnel – driving more traffic to the website, for example, and the bottom of the funnel – closing the sale. If prospects aren’t ready to buy right now, they are abandoned. Sometimes they’re never even identified in the first place.
But that’s where the gold is. And the purpose of this article is to remind you of that.
The typical conversion path for an ecommerce company’s prospects differs from the conversion path for a company in a complex sale situation, but the two have much in common.
You have to engage prospects at various stages of the buying process and nurture or develop them into customers. Not everyone is ready to reach for a credit card or speak to your sales team or even give you their contact information. This doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable to you.
Take a look at your marketing process. I’ll bet you know what you’re doing to generate traffic or inquiries. And you know what you’re doing to close sales. But what are you doing between the two?
This post is part of a series of articles looking at the fundamental principles of successful technology marketing. If you missed the previous articles you can catch up here:
Technology Marketing Fundamentals. Your Best Competitive Advantage.
Technology Marketing Fundamental #2: Marketing is a Process.
Technorati Tags: technology marketing, conversion, lead generation, traffic generation
Here’s a fact that sometimes surprises our new clients, but it proves to be true over and over again. 75% (or more) of your best prospects are not ready to buy right now. 25% aren’t even ready to give you the time of day. Many of the people who visit your website or inquire about your product or service will eventually buy from someone, but it won’t be you unless you keep nurturing the relationship.
Marketers often use the image of a funnel with lots of traffic and prospects pouring into the wide mouth at the top and a smaller number of customers exiting the narrow opening at the bottom.
Business technology marketers tend to focus on the top of the marketing funnel – driving more traffic to the website, for example, and the bottom of the funnel – closing the sale. If prospects aren’t ready to buy right now, they are abandoned. Sometimes they’re never even identified in the first place.
But that’s where the gold is. And the purpose of this article is to remind you of that.
The typical conversion path for an ecommerce company’s prospects differs from the conversion path for a company in a complex sale situation, but the two have much in common.
You have to engage prospects at various stages of the buying process and nurture or develop them into customers. Not everyone is ready to reach for a credit card or speak to your sales team or even give you their contact information. This doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable to you.
Take a look at your marketing process. I’ll bet you know what you’re doing to generate traffic or inquiries. And you know what you’re doing to close sales. But what are you doing between the two?
This post is part of a series of articles looking at the fundamental principles of successful technology marketing. If you missed the previous articles you can catch up here:
Technology Marketing Fundamentals. Your Best Competitive Advantage.
Tue, Nov 3, 2009
Strategy, Traffic
Written by: Susan Tatum