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Marketing to prospective customers in the middle of the sales funnel is all about encouraging folks to engage with you a little more, to move them closer to conversion.   In a previous blog , we discussed key approaches to encourage this engagement, a process called demand generation. In this phase, you’ve been making available to your prospects useful, unbiased content for free, chatting with commentators on your blog or social channels, and in other ways feeding pertinent stuff to those who seem interested.   But think about it. That’s just you reaching out to them. So far it’s just a one-way street. Your next, necessary step is to encourage these prospects to reach out to you. If you can do that, it will identify warmer leads, and really empower this next stage of your marketing efforts.   Let’s examine “calls to action,” which we’ll shorten here to just CTA. If you can get your prospects to actually reach out to you (instead of the other way around), you’ll now have a live …

In previous blogs in this marketing series, we’ve focused on the “top of the sales funnel,” deploying those tactics that attract new visitors to your website. These are folks who perhaps have searched for some particular product or need, or maybe viewed one of your blogs, but are brand-new to what you have to offer.   Now it’s time to move these first-time visitors who have just become aware of your existence a bit further down the sales funnel, to what is known as the middle of the sales funnel, where you’ll nurture them and turn their awareness into interest.   One key component of mid-funnel marketing is demand generation. It identifies prospects who are first-time site visitors, perhaps who have commented on your blog or social posts, or even downloaded a piece of content, and guides them toward further engagement with your messages.   Key Approaches to Demand Gen   Let’s consider a few tactics to create demand for your products and services in the middle of the sales funnel, to …

What’s the one simple trick you need to know in order to grab someone’s attention? It’s a tool you can use right before you bring in your main message…and it will help your clients focus more on what you’re saying. First take a minute to think about what you pay attention to and what you don’t give time towards. You’ll come to see, we’re more apt to pay attention when we feel we’re learning information that will matter to us.  Imagine you’re watching TV news, and the Anchor says “Coming up next…a story about visiting your Doctor.” Would you listen?  What if the Anchor said “Coming up next…the number one thing you need to know before your next Doctor’s visit.” Does that intrigue you more? The difference is now there’s wording to suggest you’re missing out on key information if you don’t listen to what’s coming next. And therein lies the simple trick! It’s called Flagging.  A Flag is a verbal cue that signals you to pay attention. Almost like planting a flag in the ground to alert you …

To close out our series on marketing to the “top of the sales funnel”—that is, generating awareness among prospective customers who may never have heard of you, by demonstrating your expertise and securing their interest—we’ll take a look at a couple of excellent ways to raise your profile among your target audiences: public relations and social influencers The critical element of marketing to the top of the sales funnel is your content—blogs, articles, helpful comments on social media, e-newsletters, and the like. While you can do a lot yourself using social media as a way to broadcast your thought leadership to key targets, why not let other folks do the same on your behalf? Let’s take a look at two marketing channels, PR and social influencers, to see what you can do here. Speaking Through Others PR is an old marketing channel, but these days it’s driven by online content, which makes all the difference to you. Unlike the old days when you had to beg publishers to print (yes, …

In order to find a profitable inkjet print application, you needn’t look any further than your driveway. Every day, potential opportunity is lying there waiting for you to wake up and go get it. It’s scent permeates the air just like morning coffee. It also has another name: The Wall Street Journal In 2007, the financial world was rocked. No, it wasn’t the housing crisis. That stew was still boiling but had not yet exploded. Rupert Murdoch purchased The Wall Street Journal and faithful readers were between concerned and terrified over the changes he was certain to make. Would it now take a more scandalous, attention-seeking journalistic approach? Fast-forward today. You will be relieved to know he’s done something far more surprising: He’s made it more readable. Found within its pages are stories that go beyond the financial world. There is a column written by one of the best sportswriters in the country, Jason Gay. Another column deals with issues regarding airlines, but instead of …