Moving Your Prospects Along The Buyer's Journey

I want to start today's episode of the podcast with a bit of a rant. So why is it that so few agencies, and to be honest, businesses in general, think that they can do a bit of marketing to generate some leads and then get frustrated when they don't convert those leads into customers fairly quickly. So in today's episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast, I want to talk all about understanding your buyer's journey and consequently being able to more effectively connect your sales, sales and your marketing functions together. I'm Rob DeCosta and this is the Agency Accelerator Podcast. As someone who has stood in your shoes, having started, grown and sold my own agency, I know just how it feels during the ups and the downs of agency life. So this podcast aims to ease your journey just a little by sharing mine and my guests experiences and advice as you navigate your way to growing a profitable, sustainable and enjoyable business. Now this episode is sponsored by my brand new free masterclass how to Build, Nurture and Convert an Engaged Email list. In this 45 minute value pack training, you're going to learn the seven simple strategies to attract new email subscribers, grow your list and convert them into loyal customers. Growing your email list should be a crucial part of your marketing strategy and you can learn how to sign up for this free 45 minute masterclass by checking out the links or the notes below. So on with today's show. Recently I was talking to a prospect who runs an SEO agency, let's call her Jane. She told me that no matter what they change on their website, they still don't get that many leads from it. Which I know is ironic given that they are an SEO agency and she said that most of their business still comes from word of mouth and referrals. So she wasn't really sure what what her website was for or what she could do to change it. So I checked out their website and it has some decent info on it, but it only has two ways for the reader to take the next steps. Once they've landed on the website and read a bit, they either sign up for their newsletter or they fill in one of those contact forms that are kind of vague about why you would fill it in. And obviously you realize you're going to get a phone call from the client. And the thing about that is that both of those actions are not the next step along the buyer's journey, but rather a massive leap and one that very few people are going to take. Unless you are super lucky that is they landed on your website because they've got a specific problem they need solving now and they've looked at your content and you can solve it now. And so they are happy for you to contact them. But that's probably only one in a hundred. So what's she doing about the rest? And of course she's super disappointed that she's not getting more leads, but, but she's not really doing anything to provide value to those other 99 people who've landed on our website that day. It's kind of like walking into a show home and immediately the rep pounces on you and says, come on, let's buy the house. Well, you're not going to be ready to buy the house because there's a number of things that you need to do. First of all, you need to have a look around the house, you need to understand the local area, you need to understand the quality of the building, you need to learn more about the builder, and so on and so on and so on. And it's only when you've done your due diligence and that you're going to be ready to buy. And it's kind of the same with the buyer's journey for people who are getting to know you to the point when they are ready to buy. And this SEO agency is really similar to many agencies that I come in contact with and they seem to be not very good at connecting their marketing to their sales function. In other words, making sure that marketing is generating and nurturing leads up until the point that they become really warm prospects. And that's the point when the sales process kicks in. So she definitely needs my help. So let's examine what I believe her and many other agencies are getting wrong. And in order to do this, we need to take a step back to basics and discuss the concepts of the buyer's journey. So when someone visits your website or when they first engage with you, they're on step one of their buyer's journey. In other words, the journey towards buying from you. And to keep things simple, let's just imagine that there are seven steps, with seven being the point that the prospect is ready to buy from you. So issue number one is that most websites try to get the buyer to leap from step one. I've just discovered who you are to step five, which would be something like fill in the contact us form. Now, without being a mind reader, I reckon that if you've got that form on your website or even a sign up to one newsletter, I bet you can get very few inquiries from it. So am I right? I suspect I Probably am. And I'm not trying to be a smart ass here, it's just I've seen this time and time again and that is because few people are going to go from step one of the buyer's journey to step five before they've gone through steps two, three and four. And this is where the disconnect between marketing and sales happens. Marketing's responsibility is steps 1, 2, 3 and 4, for example. And then sales takeover at step 5. And step 5 might be the fact find, step 6 might be the prospect meeting and then step 7 is the proposal and closing the deal. So the question is, what do steps two, three and four look like in my example of a seven step buyer's journey? This is the million dollar question and this is the piece that so many get wrong because they just don't think about this. So these are the steps where your contact is getting to know like and trust you. And the buyer's journey you can map over get to know me in the middle piece, get to like me, and then towards the end piece, get to trust me. And that only then will people buy. So you've initially built awareness which drives people to your website, for example. Now you need to show empathy, that you understand your contacts or the reader's challenges and pains and then build credibility that you've done it before and that you can help them. And then only at that stage should they be handed over to the sales function to to close the deal. So steps two, three and four look like nurturing your leads with more value added content. And value added is the super important part there. I call this status middle of the sales funnel. Education based marketing. This is where you demonstrate your credibility. You show that you understand your clients while imparting some genuine value and some quick wins for your clients. And if you think about this podcast or this video, however you're watching it, that's exactly what I am trying to do with when I'm building a relationship with you, my reader or my listener, to impart some value so that I'm building know, like and trust with you and that you begin to think Rob knows what he's talking about and he could probably help me. Now, once you get them to take that initial action, that step two, you've now got them into your email list because you're going to offer them, for example, a guide or a template or a video lesson or even a quiz. And you're going to get them to give you their email address in exchange. That's a transaction. In an exchange for that and once you've got them in your email list, you can continue nurturing them along the buyer's journey. Now don't forget, if you want some help with this, then make sure you sign up for my free brand new email marketing class. And as I said, the links are in the show notes. So let's just discuss for a moment some of the things that you could put on your website that would move people along that buyer's journey. It might be a guide that they can download, it might be a free video lesson, it might be a quiz, it might be a template that they can use. Your key goal with this is to demonstrate you know what you're talking about, demonstrate you understand them and their challenges, and most importantly, give them some quick wins so that they think, blimey, if this is what I'm giving away for free, imagine what it will be like working with Rob. Then you're going to deliver this guide, for example, via your email system. And the following emails that come after that will be the ones that can encourage them to move down the buyer's journey to the point in time where they've got to step five, where you can say, hey, why don't we jump on a call? And that would be step six. So if Jane, the owner of that SEO agency, wants to convert more visitors from her website, then she really needs to think about what step two looks like, not what step five looks like. And step two is a chance to start building relationship with the website visitor. And as I said, she's going to do that by offering some kind of freebie that genuinely imparts some value or a lesson or quiz and so on. So what I'd encourage you to do is really think about your prospect's buyer's journey. So step one might be that they've come to your website, as with my Jane example, or it might be that you've met them at a networking event or they've come into your world some other way. That's the very first step. What is step two? So in my world it would be invite them to download something. Step three would be nurturing them through the email list. Step four would be getting them to make the next micro commitment so the next thing that they can commit to you. So it might just be simply being rather than reading a three page template. Now I want you to watch a ten minute video and then I might invite you to a 50 minute workshop. And then finally I'm going to invite you onto a strategy call. So each of these steps along the buyer's journey are like micro commitments that you're getting your buyer to make that shows that they're interested and it moves them through the buyer's journey. Don't make that mistake that so many make of trying to go from step one to step five by putting a contact us form on your website. I'm not saying don't have one. I'm saying don't make that the major way that someone is going to contact you once they've first visited your website. Because as I said, without being a mind reader, I'm sure that you get very few contacts that way. Indeed, as I don't get many contacts that way. You probably get a lot of spam but not a lot of genuine prospects. So you need to find some other ways. And the stuff that I'm teaching you today and the whole concept of the buyer's journey is super important. I can't tell you how well that works for me and for my private clients as well. So I know that what I'm teaching you today will work for you if you can just stop and say, let me just map out the buyer's journey. Let me map out which parts of that are marketing's responsibility and which parts are sales. Now, you may not have a separate sales and marketing function, but you still need to think about which part of this is marketing and which part is sales. Because if we jump into sales too quickly, you haven't built a know, like and trust and people will quickly leave. So I hope you found that useful today. Quick episode, lots of food for thought. As I say, make sure you jump into my free email marketing masterclass because that is majorly about moving people along the middle of this buyer's journey to get them to the point where you can start engaging them or directly building a one to one relationship and then hopefully converting them into clients. So as ever, if you found today's episode useful, please do consider leaving a review. Leaving a comment, hit subscribe button, hit the thumbs up. If you watch on YouTube or if you're watching listening rather on the podcast, please do think about leaving a review, especially if you listen on Apple, because it really helps the algorithm get the podcast and the YouTube videos out to more people just like you. So I can help more people. But other than that, I hope you have a fantastic rest of the week. Go and map out your buyer's journey and I will see you next week on the next episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast.