Managing Your Small Business Marketing Funnel

With the over whelming success of the Digital Marketing Age, you may think that the concept of a marketing funnel is now defunct. And, yes, what used to be a fairly direct route from drawing in leads to converting them into clients has now exploded into a multitude of micro processes.

However, the concept of a Marketing Funnel is still a good way to create a marketing plan that needs multiple levels of engagement to convert leads into clients. Today, in this era of social media and smart phones, we are definitely in a (sometimes) brave new world of marketing plans.  Even when we’re ready to run screaming from our computers after trying to make sense of all the rapid changes that have evolved.

If you use a marketing funnel plan for your small business, there are probably some adjustments that could be made to your process that will help you see even better results in lead generation and subsequently converting those leads into paying customers. Here are a few procedures to improve your marketing funnel and provide even more successful results quickly.

Carefully Research and Develop the Stages of Your Buying Process

Grab these three FREE Ebooks to Kick Start your Business Success

For all small business owners, sales are the key factor to your growth and success. If you are not achieving the sales you want, then you are at risk of losing your business.

Here are three Ebooks that focus on getting the sales success that you need. They are ready for you to download, just CLICK HERE to access then right away and kick start your sales success.

How To Future-Proof Your Small Business

According to Richard Branson CEO and Founder of Virgin "A business's long history is meaningless if it doesn't provide the best-designed, most reliable products or services at competitive prices and back up those offerings with the finest customer service". In these fast-moving times, longevity is more the exception than the rule. According to a 2012 study by Richard N. Foster of Yale University, the average lifespan of a company listed in the Standard & Poor's 500 index has decreased to just 18 years, from 61 years in 1958.

Are you becoming complacent?

Almost no products are so good that they cannot be constantly improved on. In the UK they have a great saying:  “like painting the Forth Bridge in Britain" which is an unending task. This is because the painters of this massive bridge in Edinburgh were never done - once they had finished painting it, they then were needed to immediately start again. The task came to an end in 2011, because workers had switched to a new kind of paint. This is a great example how your businesses product development should be a similarly endless quest for improvement.

According to Bluecorona Small Business Statistics for 2016/2017

• 66% of small business owners say that finding new customers is a top concern.
• 40% of small business owners say that retaining customers is a priority.
• 43% of SMBs says that improving customer experience and retention is their top strategy to improve revenue growth.
• 30% say that keeping up with technology advances is a major concern of small business owners.

What is Future Proofing?

11 Things You Should Do to Build an Awesome Local Presence

Local is all the rage these days as more and more businesses realise the importance of nearby audiences for more opportunities. Here are some steps you can take to make sure that your website is taking advantage of the best options for local prospects.

1. Optimise your website content

To attract a local audience, you need to look trustworthy and professional. Start by making sure that your website content is fully optimised. Include concise and relevant information, such as your locations, contact numbers and email, as well as an interactive map showing where you can be found. Showcase customer stories, FAQs and a blog to have a more personal approach.

2. Go mobile

According to Google and Nielsen, 75% of mobile searches for local stores and services lead to a store visit, a purchase, more research, or a call. This undeniable opportunity cannot be missed by local SME's. Make sure to incorporate mobile response into your game.

3. Get found in listings and directories

10 Best Small Biz Tips Sites To Follow

Do you need help on how to run your small business? Are you looking to bring in more clients or customers? Or do you need advice on how to start a business because that has been a desire of yours for years? If you answered yes to any of these questions then this small biz tips article is for you.

I have put together a list in no special order for you of the best 10 business sites to follow in 2016. As I am writing this article it is almost the end of 2016 so I would say that these 10 biz sites also apply to 2017 too.

1. Succeed As Your Own Boss - by Melinda Emerson. This small business site is all about starting a business and becoming your own boss. Melinda talks about how to start a business, how to grow a business, leveraging social media. Marketing your business, finance and accounting and small biz chat. This site is geared towards anyone just starting a business to anyone who is already in business and needs help.

How To Create a Highly Profitable Niche Market For Your Small Business

Have you been in situations where you were wondering what to do to differentiate yourself from your competitors? You want to stand out from your competitors, but you don't know how?

To compete and win in the market place nowadays, you need to do something unique that nobody else is doing, and that uniqueness is to create a niche for your business. A niche is something that makes your business different from your competitors.

Recently, I was having a chat with someone at a networking event, and I asked him, what makes him different from his competitors, and he said "our price"- meaning his company offers cheaper, lower price than his competitors. From experience consulting with small business owners, I have discovered that if you are the cheapest in town, people will perceive you as not good enough.

You may want to ask me why do you need a niche? Here is my answer- "The eagle that chases two rabbits catches neither". Having a niche help you dominate the portion of the market.

It is better not to be jack of all trade and master of none. Selecting a niche group of people who you are going to concentrate on will give you much more chance of domination within specific area. You can become the known expert in that niche. It concentrates both your marketing efforts and your expertise.

Here are two recommendations for creating a profitable market niche for your business:

How to Make Sure Your Business Survives in 2017

According to RSA, the commercial insurance company, 71 percent of the UK's small and mid-sized businesses expect their revenues to either fall or be flat in 2017. The health of any business is not guaranteed forever. At some point, virtually every small and mid-sized business hits troubled waters so this could be a difficult 12 months if you own a small business.

It's not easy spotting the early signs of trouble. Turning around the fortunes of a distressed business is a formidable task, but if you are concerned, you need to jump on it right away. Treat it like a crisis because without that kind of mindset it's hard to bring yourself to take significant action straightaway But the good news is that if you act swiftly and decisively, it is possible to recover and bounce back stronger than before.

You need to start 2017 by taking a cold, hard look at your business. Get some outside help because it's always useful to have an outsider's perspective. An experienced business consultant can help you to see what needs to be done, make the tough decisions and execute a plan.

Here are the 7 areas that you should be looking at

5 Tips for Small Business Success

As a small business, we face certain challenges that can add stress and anxiety to our daily lives. It is not always easy meeting payroll, hiring, figuring out what platform to market on and managing the finances. But, millions of small business owners do these things every day and their businesses thrive.

Here are 5 Tips for Small Business Success

Write Down Why You Started

As a small business owner, you may find yourself living on a roller coaster. Some days you feel like you are going to take over the entire universe while other days you fire yourself and walk off the job. And, early on in the small business process, you have more firing and walking off the job kind of days. It is in these days that you must remember your "why." Why are you doing this? Why are you so passionate?

7 Uncommon Success Strategies for Your Small Business to Consistently Grow

In these difficult economic times, it's understandable if a small business owner may want to focus primarily on survival. But the most likely success strategies that can help your small business isn't just concerned about keeping your head above water; they're all about helping you reach bigger goals.

Here are the 7 small business tips that can transform your modest company into a blockbuster success:

• Focus On Providing Value

Too often, many entrepreneurs tend to concentrate on how to make a profit on their small business, and sometimes that kind of thinking can be detrimental to the long-term success of your company. So instead, try to focus on providing goods and services first to your customers.