Conversion Funnel Series: Action & Advocacy

Today we've made it to the final installment of our "Marketing Planning with the Conversion Funnel" series, and we are rounding towards the finish line with Action (ie Conversion!) and Advocacy (getting your customers to tell everyone how awesome you are). Review the previous posts: Intro, Awareness, Consideration & Interest, if you'd like more background.

To set the stage one last time: the core concept is that different marketing channels reach users at different stages of their decision-making process, and therefore, you need to understand the user's mindset, the Conversion Funnel, and each marketing channel's strengths and weaknesses, in order to be successful with your marketing. 

As a reminder, in the world of the Conversion Funnel, you basically reach larger, less-targeted audiences towards the top of the funnel and smaller, more-targeted audiences towards the bottom of the funnel. Each end of the funnel comes with its benefits and its drawbacks, so you need to understand where your goals and strengths lie and optimize all of your channels to work in the ways that they are designed to, together.

Here's our nifty visualization for reference:

Sealing the Deal

In the case of Action and Advocacy, at this point your users have already arrived at your conversion location (website, brick & mortar store, etc.) at least once. Your upper funnel marketing activities, including brand awareness marketing and the digital collection and cultivation of qualified users, have primed your users to want to continue the process with you, and now it's your job to escort them seamlessly through the final conversion path, straight into the land of satisfied returning and advocating customers. 

If you have done your upper funnel activities correctly, then the experience at this stage only needs to continue the positive experience that has already been initiated. As long as you don't give them a reason to distrust you or jump out of your funnel, then you've got this part covered! That said, a disruption of the user's expectations at this point can be a fatal mistake -> they have already invested time and energy in you, so if they feel betrayed in some way, that betrayal may feel personal. 

For example, if a company set unattainable price expectations at the Consideration phase on SEM (Google ads) by saying "Up to 50% off" in their ad text when almost nothing on the site is actually 50% off, they may get the CTR and the click, but the conversion will be tougher, because the user could be annoyed that they are not getting the advertised 50% off -> it makes the company seem dishonest. "What else are they misleading me about?" the user may ask. This type of tactic can immediately change a happy potential customer into a disillusioned one, and the data on whether this is happening will only show up in the on-site metrics (because CTR will generally be higher). Only by reviewing bounce rates and conversion rates will the marketer be able to tell that this type of language is alienating customers who may have otherwise converted (check out the post on the epic battle between ROI v. CTR for more examples of this conflict and how to resolve it). 

And so, before marketers rest on their laurels, counting their qualified traffic and calling it a day, there are some final steps that must be taken if the company is to achieve the maximum value from their investment in the entire funnel, and if the marketing team is to achieve their goals for revenue and ROI (after all, without the conversion, neither of these metrics will be very good, despite amazingly ingenious marketing strategy up to this point).

Enabling and motivating your users to convert to customers

1) Make sure that the landing page from all digital Interest & Consideration pathways is ideal for the user. Examples:

• Match user specificity with landing page specificity: Generic users should go to generic pages, specific users should go to the most relevant specific pages. 
• If an email advertised a certain product category, the email should go to the most relevant page. 
• If any advertising featured a specific sale, language about that sale and how to receive the discount should be very clear on the landing page and throughout the funnel. 
• Look & feel should be highly aligned with all external marketing material -> a noticeable change in tone or sentiment can jolt the user out of the process and make them question whether you are the company they thought you would be.

2) Make sure that last-minute decision-making factors are clearly addressed. Examples:

• If you have good reviews, make sure those reviews are clearly visible. 
• If you are primarily targeting sign-ups and profile creation, make it VERY clear what the value of a sign-up/profile is and what a good one looks like. 
• Make sure that the user has all of the product/service info they need right in front of them when they are making the "add to cart" decision.
• If you feel the need to charge crazy shipping prices, set some expectation before the $80 shipping price tag slips up on the final screen (consider not doing this in today's competitive landscape, you'll be hard pressed to properly compete, but of course, there are always exceptions). 
• Does your % discount have an absolute $ maximum limit (generally, it shouldn't)? Make it VERY clear before the user puts in the 25% off coupon code for their $500 purchase only to be extremely annoyed when they only get the max $100 off instead of the 25% offered. 
• Be careful using up-sells/add-ons in the final funnel. You may make money from these, but if they annoy a certain % of users enough to bounce and never return, you need to look at the opportunity cost of this strategy as it relates to immediate conversion and LTV (Lifetime value). Use real data to get a balanced understanding of whether the add-on complexity is helping or hurting you. If you are not A/B testing, it will almost always look like it's helping you, because you are not measuring the opportunity cost of the bounces. 

3) Make the conversion AS EASY AS POSSIBLE! Examples:

• The navigation on the site should make it exceptionally easy for the user to follow the path that you've initiated through to conversion, yet it should make it possible for them to jump out of that path if they have accidentally been pushed in the wrong direction (for example, making your "home" and left nav clear). 
• Does the user need to use an app or tool to customize something before they convert? Optimize the hell out of the UX of that tool. No matter how glossy it looks, if it gets in the way of conversion, it's hurting not helping. 
• Avoid negative surprises of any kind. Higher price, longer shipping time, too much personal information required, etc. While these decisions are rarely owned by the marketing team, they have a huge impact on conversion. Marketers will need to work cross-functionally to make sure that the company is aligned on the strategy around these issues, and to make sure that if the company sees value in them, that the marketing strategy and ROI goals are adjusted accordingly. 

Transitioning Action to Advocacy

When the above rules are followed, the company has a unique and valuable opportunity in today's climate -> they can enable their newly converted customers to become their direct brand advocates. This allows the conversion funnel to become more of a cycle, with the happy customers serving as a valuable (and free!) addition to the Awareness top of the funnel. Lots and lots of studies show the impact of "word of mouth" advocacy on customer decision making, and with the state of social media today, it is easy for companies to funnel their happy customers into megaphones of brand advocacy across their entire social networks. 

However, in order for this to work, customers have to be willing and able. This means that:

• The UX of the entire funnel needs to be of such high quality to the user that they are motivated to share their new love of your brand with their networks.
• The sharing UX post-conversion needs to be easy to use and comfortable for the user's sense of privacy. Don't ask them to share the exact product that they bought. Don't ask them to say anything specific. Don't automatically share on their behalf! Do ask them to follow your brand on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest -> this will both create a headline on some platforms that they have followed your brand (the first stage of advocacy) and set them up to receive your social media content in the future (which they will then be able to share and engage with on an on-going basis). 
• Never let an external entity or partner muddle your post-conversion UX, even when you get a kickback from them. The post-conversion screen is your first opportunity to make your customer feel warm and fuzzy that they converted with you, and they should feel nothing but happy and confident that their trust was well-placed. Featuring a spammy affiliate website with "great offers" or a partner whose service is not clearly relevant could make your new customer question whether their personal info (including credit card info) will be safe with you. Your partners reflect on you, so be wise and control this UX tightly. 

Hopefully you found the Conversion Funnel series useful! Stay tuned and subscribe for more posts on many other topics near and dear to the 2014 Digital Marketer's heart!

For help customized to your business needs, contact us at: www.DigiMarketeer.com!

Conversion Funnel Series: Interest & Consideration

Today we've made it to Part III of our "Marketing Planning with the Conversion Funnel" series (part 1 here and part 2 here), and we've entered the territory where digital marketing really shines -> driving user Interest and Consideration. 

To set the stage again: the core concept is that different marketing channels reach users at different stages of their decision-making process, and therefore, you need to understand the user's mindset, the Conversion Funnel, and each marketing channel's strengths and weaknesses in relation to those stages, in order to be successful with your marketing. 

As a reminder, in the world of the Conversion Funnel, you basically reach larger, less-targeted audiences towards the top of the funnel and smaller, more-targeted audiences towards the bottom of the funnel. Each end of the funnel comes with its benefits and its drawbacks, so you need to understand where your goals and strengths lie and optimize all of your channels to work in the ways that they are designed to, together.

Here's our nifty visualization for reference:

In the case of the Interest and Consideration sections, which I am combining into one discussion because they share many qualities and can sometimes blur together, your target user will likely already have some awareness of you or your product/service, and be scoping the marketplace for more information. 

The main difference between Interest and Consideration is intent, with interested users entering into the first stage of proactive action (remember, this is after they have been made aware of you or your product/service) and now they are taking the next step to become more acquainted. By the time they reach Consideration, there is a stronger intent to move forward and the question is not whether they want to take an action but how, when and where. This is the point at which you need to most actively convince them to take the action with you versus your competitors, and at which your higher-up conversion funnel activities could make or break you, unless you are clearly, consistently the lowest price competitor in a fully commoditized market (in which case, may the cheapest price win!).

For these stages, the marketer should be focused on initial relationship acquisition and user engagement for "Interest" and relationship reinforcement for "Consideration" -> this is the point when the established relationship and brand feelings feed directly into action. 

While there is a very wide range of Awareness marketing options that differ heavily based on a marketer's goals and industry, the marketing channels best suited to driving Interest and Consideration are quite consistent. 

In most cases, marketers should have all of these bases covered:

• Search -> casting the net to collect the fruits of "Awareness" and funnel the user where you want them to go. Setting the tone and the direct landing path for the actions to come.
• Social Media -> building the relationship by providing on-going value before and after a customer converts. Solidify your access to the two-way conversation with the user by motivating them to follow you, and then following through by consistently providing them content that they want to engage with and share. When successful, this will then feed back into the Awareness and Interest segments through their word-of-mouth. Note that you cannot "force" them to follow you or engage, you must provide them with an experience that motivates them to choose to take these actions, and therefore to be successful you must put their needs and wants before your brand's (and ideally your brand messaging should be solidly aligned to your target user so that there is no conflict here. If you find that your brand messaging is not resonating with your audience, then you need to dig in and re-align -> no one wants to be JC Penney...).
• Contextual Display -> reiterating your message and brand while the user is browsing related content such as articles and reviews.
• Reviews -> showing the considering/comparing user that you are objectively the best choice.
• Your website -> showing relevance and trust elements that motivate the user to sign up for your email list (another form of the long-term relationship), follow you on social media, return for purchase, and/or follow-through with purchase right now.
• Retargeting -> after the user has been on your site, reiterate your brand and message in an even more targeted way. Be careful about whether your target user will be sensitive to privacy issues. If so, avoid this option, as it will likely backfire. 

Let's use GoDaddy as an example:

I like GoDaddy as an example because they cultivate users throughout the entire conversion funnel, starting with awareness not just for their brand, but for their entire category. 

GoDaddy sells domains and a number of add-on services for people who want to have a website, especially smaller businesses and individuals. They are one of many services who do this, and in many cases they are not the most convenient or the cheapest. Yet, they have done a fantastic job of building awareness for their category among average individuals -> people who otherwise might not know how to buy a domain at all. Their Awareness outreach is notable due to their splashy Superbowl commercials and other television advertising, which are unusual for a product/service that would otherwise be considered technical. But, they know their target audience, and their target audience are people who watch and respond to TV commercials.

And so, once the user has emerged from becoming aware of 1) the fact they they can buy a domain, 2) the fact that they should buy a domain and 3) the fact that GoDaddy sells domains, now it is up to GoDaddy to coax them along, all the way to the end of the conversion funnel. They definitely understand this, because they have cast an appropriate net for users entering the Interest and Consideration stages. 

Let's take a look at the Google search results for a typical search by a user who is somewhere in the Interest/Consideration space:

You'll notice that GoDaddy is dominating both Paid and Organic search results in top positions for both. Their ad text for both SEM and SEO is highly customized for the value propositions that their newbie target audience will care about -> low price, customer service, largest domain name service. They even have a call-to-action in the headline -> "Compare us" -> which is a perfect call-out to the Consideration user. 

Also notice that GoDaddy has 74k followers on Google+ (they have another 636K on Facebook with a current 28k "engaged" which is a pretty good engagement ratio), and so they have set up all of the additional social nets to capture and cultivate potential users through social media. 

Once on their website, the primary conversion action is the first thing you see (the domain name search box at the top):

And it is followed up by trust elements:

Their social media content strategy is focused on information that is useful to their target audience, perfect for cultivating an on-going interest and a long-term relationship. Their content features information and tools for small businesses and individuals with websites, and you'll note, as is true for almost all successful social media programs, they are not aggressively upselling their own products. They are sharing useful and interesting content to their target user, and therefore, their users are choosing to follow them and share their content. 

If they were to post coupons or "buy a domain now" language every day, they would not be using their social media channel successfully - they would likely be alienating the customers that they were hoping to cultivate. Do you want to receive aggressive marketing language every day? Would you trust and love a brand that made you? Probably not, unless that's what the brand is supposed to do (like coupon affiliates). 

GoDaddy's social content is sending a message to their interested potential users that they are a trustworthy partner who goes the extra mile to help small businesses thrive. The next time that small business owner needs any sort of web service, they will be more likely to check out what GoDaddy has to offer, and they will be more likely to purchase that service from them. Maybe it won't happen today, maybe not tomorrow, but when the user's need arises, it will happen, and the social content strategy can gently cultivate that action over time. 

Also note, that the social content strategy here works for both potential customers in the interest/consideration phase as well as for CRM. The info is equally useful to users who may have already purchased from GoDaddy in the past as it is for users who are considering it in the future. Therefore, all of the budget and effort that goes into this social channel will pay off doubly, both in the acquisition front and in the retention/lifetime-value front. Given that posting this content is free, except for the cost of the team leading it, it's possibly one of the best deals in all of marketing. 

Key Takeaways:

While the GoDaddy example is only one company in one industry, they demonstrate excellent execution (and successful results), from properly using the conversion funnel and optimizing messaging for users at their point in the funnel. 

Just remember, you can't force the user down the funnel faster than they want to go! Doing so will likely nudge a sensitive user out of your funnel, because aggressive marketing can be a turn-off during the important relationship development and cultivation stages. 

That said, many users are ready to push quickly through the conversion funnel on their own, sometimes jumping in so fast that they breeze through all stages in one quick slalom. For these users, you must make the path as easy and enticing as possible. 

It is possible to address both the jumpers and the meanderers successfully at the same time, but knowing how your customers typically push through the funnel will help you prioritize your marketing channel planning and your user experience. Do they like to take a long time? Optimize more heavily to communicate with them regularly while they decide. Do they like to jump through quickly? Optimize more heavily to help them skip through to the end of the conversion on the spot. Knowing your customers will be the key to making this prioritization correctly. 

The farther down you get in the funnel, the more you need to know your user and accommodate their wants and needs. When you are successful, you can drive revenue at a great ROI, because the marketing channels at these stages are cheaper (usually CPC and/or organic/free) and more targeted than the awareness stages. But, if no one knows enough about your company or category, you may have trouble finding enough people to start the journey with you, so you need to balance that need with your ROI considerations. 

Stay tuned for the final installments of the Conversion Funnel series and many more topics near and dear to the 2014 marketers heart!

For customized advice & strategic consulting services visit us at DigiMarketeer.com.