Eliminating Friction in the Funnel 2019
Marketers invest significant resources to build funnels that attract, nurture and qualify leads and convert prospects into customers. Yet few marketers have funnels that perform flawlessly even some of the time.
Within every organization, there is almost always some “friction” in the funnel that prohibits leads from flowing seamlessly from one section to another.
In order to better understand the current state of the marketing funnel, GetResponse and Demand Metric partnered to research how much friction occurs, where it most commonly appears and effective tactics to eliminate it from the marketing funnel.
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See you on the action-field,
Raksha Sukhia, SMB Growth Expert,
Founder BBR Network. #bbrnetwork
Key findings from our ground-breaking study with Demand Metric.
In this research report, you’ll find the secrets of creating a frictionless funnel and answers to key questions like:
What are the top performing marketing tactics?
Does integration lead to better results?
How many marketers understand Funnel ROI?
Does funnel automation improve performance?
Gain key insights that will help you optimize your lead conversion and generate more revenue.
Introduction
In most organizations, the funnel is the object of continuous efforts to manage and improve its performance, always tuning it to produce higher conversion rates. Marketers aspire to have a funnel that is a well-oiled machine, highly automated with ample leads flowing smoothly from top to bottom. The reality, however, is that few marketers have funnels that perform flawlessly even some of the time. There is almost always some “friction” in the funnel that impedes the ability of leads to flow from one section to another. For many marketing organizations, it’s common to have one section of the funnel that works well while another section is problematic. Marketers find themselves applying time, effort, technology, and resources to address “hot spots” in their funnels. Once addressed, the hot spots rarely go away completely; they just relocate to a different part of the funnel.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
To understand the current state of the marketing funnel, GetResponse and Demand Metric partnered to research how much friction is in today’s marketing funnel, and where it most commonly appears. Using a survey, the study measured, by funnel section, the tactics marketers are using, how well they are working, where friction exists and why, and the degree to which automation reduces or eliminates this friction. This report shares the research results and insights to help marketers achieve better performing funnels. Some of the key findings from this study include:
This report details the results and insights from the analysis of the study data. For more detail on the survey participants, please refer to the Appendix.
Less than 20 percent of study participants report having strong or complete integration of funnel sections.
Study participants rated the top funnel section as best performing, and the middle section as worst performing.
A minority of participants – less than 30 percent – have a precise understanding of funnel return on investment (ROI)
When funnel sections are automated, performance almost doubles as a result, with the biggest performance gains coming in the middle section
The top of the funnel is the most automated section, but less than 20 percent of study participants report most to full automation for any funnel section.
Integrating sections of the funnel has a powerful impact on performance: The top and middle sections saw a 3X improvement compared to funnels that lack integration. The bottom section saw a 2X improvement.
Today’s Marketing Funnel
The marketing funnel was the central focus of this study, so to create some context around the findings, we’ll begin by sharing some data about the state of today’s marketing funnel. We asked study participants to share how well the sections of their funnels perform relative to each other. The top section had the highest rating, followed closely by the bottom, with the mid-funnel ranking a distant third. The mid-section of the funnel is the most problematic for most participants in this study
Today’s marketing funnel is a collection of inter-related processes, often supported or driven by technology.
Friction in the funnel – defined as forces or barriers that impede the smooth flow of leads through the funnel – is a function of how integrated funnel processes are.
For example, a poor lead scoring or qualification process would create friction in the movement of leads from the top to middle section of the funnel. Lack of automation can allow leads to languish in part of the funnel.
Figure 1 shows study participants’ rating for how well their funnel sections were integrated to allow leads to flow smoothly.
With less than one in five participants reporting “strong” to “complete” integration of their funnel sections, some degree of friction in the funnel is clearly present.
Marketers are historically challenged to report a return on their efforts.
The funnel is central to generating ROI, and Figure 2 shows how well study participants understand the ROI of their funnels.
This funnel overview reveals that the mid-section is the lowest performer, and that most study participants don’t have strong integration of funnel sections, nor do they understand ROI.
A premise of this study is that automation can do much to reduce the friction in the funnel.
THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS OF THE REPORT examine that premise by exploring the tactics in use, the difficulty of executing them, how they perform, the accuracy of attributing results to them, and how automation impacts all these things.
Marketing Tactics Usage & Performance
Content marketing: e-books, reports, white papers, and similar content forms
Earned media: press coverage and news announcements
Email marketing: sending email messages en masse to lists of prospects or customers
Events marketing: conferences, webinars, tradeshows, and other events
Owned media: websites, blogs, landing pages, etc.
Paid media: online, print, and outdoor ads
Referral marketing: case studies, testimonials, peer review sites, and word-of-mouth
Search marketing: Google and Bing
Social media marketing: sharing content or advertising on social media, including leveraging influencer marketing
Video marketing: using video to promote your products or brand
The mix of marketing tactics doesn’t change much based on the section of the funnel: all tactics see use throughout the funnel. However, the frequency of their use does, and depending on the funnel section, sometimes the change is significant. The usage for all tactics decreases from the top to the bottom of the funnel, with exceptions:
1. Email sees the most consistent and heaviest use across all funnel sections.
2. Referral marketing usage remains relatively steady in all funnel sections.
3. Personal, 1-to-1 selling, as reflected in write-in comments, becomes important in the bottom funnel section.
Tactics usage tells just part of the story. Figure 4 shows how study participants rated the tactics from Figure 3 in terms of performance.
FIGURE 4: Tactics shift in effectiveness depending on the funnel section in
What stands out when comparing the usage data from Figure 1 with the tactics performance data from Figure 4 is that the best performing tactic is not the most used tactic. Logic says that the best performing tactic should see the greatest use, but that is not the case in this study.
The following table illustrates this.
The top and mid-sections of the funnel have the least overlap between best performing and most used tactics. The bottom of the funnel has the best match.
TABLE 1
A factor that may influence tactics usage is the difficulty of executing a tactic. Figure 5 shows the relative difficulty of executing the tactics from Figure 3 in each section of the funnel.
Social, email, referral marketing, and earned media become easier to execute as their usage moves down the funnel. Most other tactics become more difficult to use, particularly video marketing. Overall, these tactics are hardest to use at the top of the funnel, and easiest in the mid-section.
FIGURE 5 Tactics Rated “Easy” or “Very easy” to Use by Funnel Section
A majority of the tactics become harder to execute as you move down the funnel.
When looking at the difficulty of executing tactics, it becomes clear why the best performing tactics aren’t always the most frequently employed.
Table 2 compares tactic performance with the ease of executing them.
The overall picture this section presents is that the tactics marketers use in the funnel change in their performance and ease of execution depending on which funnel section they see use in.
Of greater interest is the finding that the most effective tactics are not the ones that see the greatest use. One reason, as Table 2 shows, is the ease of execution.
The next section of this report shares how funnel automation impacts these tactics, and other funnel performance characteristics.
Impact of Funnel Automation
Much of marketing’s investment in technology is directed at the funnel. Figure 6 summarizes the automation status of participant funnels by section.
By summing the “Moderate” and “Mostly to fully” automated responses, the the top-of-the-funnel, by a slight margin, is the most automated section. However, regardless of section, more than half report little to no funnel automation.
Does it matter? The results of this study suggest there are some significant benefits to automating the funnel
In addition to impacting marketing tactic performance and ease of execution, this study also looked at the challenge of attributing results to activity in each funnel section.
Accurate attribution has always been a challenge, despite the increasing application of technology and artificial intelligence to the task.
Baseline measurements taken during this study reveal that accurate attribution is equally challenging in all funnel sections. Automation, however, does make attribution efforts more accurate.
Figure 10 shows the average attribution accuracy for all tactics in use by funnel section.
Experienced marketers understand that accurate attribution is a puzzle with many pieces. This study shows, however, that automation is a major piece of the attribution puzzle. It is always important for marketers to understand which tactics are driving conversions in every section of the funnel.
An accurate understanding of attribution has implications for allocating budget and resources. Figure 10 confirms that automation contributes to more accurate attribution.
It’s clear that automation favorably impacts the performance of the tactics marketing uses, as well as making them easier to execute and attribute.
What marketers and the C-suite alike also wish to know is how automation – or any investment – provides a return.
Using the funnel ROI understanding data from Figure 2, Figure 11 presents only those who claim a precise understanding of ROI by contrasting levels of automation.
The ability to have a precise understanding of funnel ROI is far higher for those with more automation. The gap for this understanding widens as one moves from the top to the bottom of the funnel, with the size of the gap almost doubling.
It’s very clear that automation consistently improves the ability for an organization to have a precise understanding of the ROI it gets from its funnel, regardless of funnel section.
The Bottom Line on Funnel Friction
Marketing and sales teams understand how high the stakes are regarding funnel performance. The funnel is the mechanism for generating revenue, and when there is friction in the funnel, leads don’t flow through it as they should or could. The presence of friction makes its negative presence felt in two ways:
Friction represents inefficiency.
It slows things down and drains energy from whatever process it afflicts. In the case of the funnel, friction means that leads slow down, lengthening the revenue cycle.
It also means that leads, by virtue of the fact that their progress through the funnel is slowed, leak out of the funnel.
This leakage is a simple function of the reality that slowing leads for any reason on their journey allows them more time to escape the funneler your text here...
Friction impacts the customer experience.
Leads are more than figures and metrics; they are people. Once they enter the funnel, their experience as a customer with a brand intensifies.
They are not blind or immune to the nurturing efforts they experience.
Poorly integrated funnels that lack automation create friction that leads the experience negatively as they journey through the funnel.
For many competitive businesses, the experience is the only differentiator. It is therefore imperative to provide the best possible customer experience while leads move through the funnel.
Based on the research findings, these recommendations will help marketers reduce the friction in their funnels:
1. Tactics selection. Emphasize the use of tactics that perform best in each section of the funnel rather than selecting the ones that are easiest to execute.
2. Focus on the mid-funnel. This section of the funnel was most problematic for study participants. The way marketers can improve the performance of all funnel sections is through automation and integration, which comprise the next two recommendations.
3. Automate the funnel. Perhaps the most significant finding in this study is the impact of automation on the funnel. As Figure 7 shows, all sections realized massive performance gains from automation. The return on funnel automation investments will happen quickly because of these gains.
4. Leverage an integrated funnel. Leverage an integrated funnel: Integration is a product of automating the funnel. While marketers tend to look at the funnel by sections, the best view to have is a holistic one. Leads and prospects want a smooth, frictionless journey and a great experience to match. The best assurance of providing the preferred journey and experience is through a funnel that is seamlessly integrated. Having an integrated funnel creates powerful differentiation.
In the final analysis, achieving a fully automated funnel may deliver the most powerful competitive advantage a sales and marketing team could hope for. Automating has the effect of turbocharging its performance.
The benefits of doing so include simplifying the execution of marketing tactics, realizing better performance, and gaining more accurate attribution.
These benefits ultimately extend outside of sales and marketing to impact the entire organization.
Source: Get Response
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