Attract, convert, close, delight.
Awareness, consideration, conversion.
You already know how important it is to have a funnel in place. But how much thought have you given to your post conversion funnel?
Read on to find out what exactly that is, and why not having one is costing you customers.
Watch the Video or Read the Full Article Below
What You’ll Learn:
- The importance of a post conversion funnel
- Why continuing to add value is so important, and how to go about it
- How to turn customers into brand ambassadors
Why is it Important to Consider the Post Conversion Funnel?
Two words: customer retention.
If you know anything about marketing you’ve probably heard this gem quite a few times: it’s more expensive to attract a new customer than retain an old one. There’s that oft-cited statistic from Harvard Business Review and Bain & Company that says a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profitability by up to 55%.
We’ve all heard it a thousand times before. Yet, companies fail to embrace the post conversion funnel as wholeheartedly as the acquisition process.
Chalk it up to the novelty factor or an eye toward growth, but we often don’t pay as much attention to the customers we already have, even though we know that’s where the real money comes from. Not to mention the positive reviews, shares on social media, and more.
So, instead of thinking about the funnel as a point A to point B, C, and D journey, think about what comes after they’ve arrived at the destination.
How will you continue this relationship? And down the line, how will you take things to the next level?
So, every post conversion funnel looks a little different. But, you might think of your “post-conversion funnel” like this:
- Re-engagement
- Loyalty
- Advocacy
In other words, you want to implement a marketing strategy that gets people to come back to your site and make more purchases.
After you’ve proven that you have an excellent product or service, then you’ll become that go-to source of whatever you happen to sell.
Then eventually, customers become advocates.
These are the people who tell their friends and family about you, visit your site regularly, and write glowing reviews across social media channels, Google, and elsewhere.
The idea here is that you don’t want to simply usher your customers to a thank you page and call it a day. There needs to be another step in the process that allows you to continue to provide value to your customers.
How Can You Continue to Provide Value to Customers?
One of the biggest goals for marketers is providing value to your audience at every stage in the buyer’s journey.
But again, many companies focus on attracting new customers rather than creating new valuable resources for the people that are already on board.
What Kind Of Resources Are We Talking About?
Well, valuable resources could be a number of things.
For example, if you have a software brand, you might want to follow up with your customers after they sign up for a subscription.
If it’s an e-commerce operation, you should reach out to customers with special offers, custom picks, or any time you’ve released a new collection.
Here are a few ways you can level up your post conversion funnel content stack:
Keep in Touch After Someone Subscribes Through Drip Campaigns
Create a personalized onboarding video that gives them the lay of the land.
Or, you could run a four-week drip campaign that offers the users a new lesson every week, progressing in difficulty as they learn how to use all of the features.
From there, you could connect those efforts to live chat or invite them to book a demonstration over the phone.
Post Conversion Funnel: Invite Customers to Exclusive Webinars
Webinars are typically used as a lead magnet, designed to get people in the middle of the sales funnel to move closer to making a purchasing decision.
However, they’re also a great way to reinforce your brand’s thought leadership.
Create customer success webinars or partner with another brand in an adjacent space to co-market your online event. In this case, the webinar is less about trying to sell, and more about making sure you’ve earned a permanent place in your audience’s mind.
Send Updates and Special Offers as Part of Your Post Conversion Funnel
New products? New features? Something new and improved? Let everyone know.
Send existing customers updates that are relevant to what they’ve bought in the past or fit in with their data footprint.
Offer your existing customer special discounts as part of your post conversion funnel
The thing you should remember here is that announcements work best when you connect with your audience on their preferred platforms.
If your audience is big into Facebook, encourage them to interact with your brand so that you can send sponsored messages. If they’re in the B2B space, LinkedIn or email campaigns might be a better option.
A couple more things to keep in mind:
Use Your Post Conversion Funnel to Upsell Products
For example, is there something you can offer that is a natural fit with the initial purchase? An upgraded subscription model for power users?
A post conversion funnel is also a great way to push inventory you may have overstocked. For example, if you 1000 hats for you’re trying to get rid of, sell them at a discount on a post conversion page.
That means that after a user completes their transaction, they’ll be also a follow-up discount, either on the thank you page or as an email offer. The customer will feel that they’re being rewarded, and you’ll have the opportunity to move extra inventory.
Amazon may be king of the upsell, always ready to show a complimentary product before a customer completes their purchase.
Post Conversion Funnel: Continue to Highlight Brand Benefits
Showcase real customers on social media or your website.
This works well for B2B and B2C. For example, brands that sell business tools like marketing automation software or an accounting solution will have an easy time connecting with their audience by sharing success stories.
This brings a more tangible, human element to the table, which is a real boon in “dry” industries like financial services that aren’t typically associated with great brand visuals.
If you’re in e-commerce, social media is the perfect way to show your products in action.
If you’re selling clothes or shoes, invite customers to show off how they’re styling your wares. If housewares are your game, then ask for images of that new couch or the plants they’ve added to the ceramic planters they just bought.
Use Audience Insights to Bring More Value to the Table
It also means that you’ll need to make a point of using data insights from Google Audience reports and Facebook Insights to learn as much as possible about your existing customers.
The benefits here are two-fold. Learning about your existing customer base means you can continuously come up with new ways to deliver exactly what customers want, and it also means you can get things right the first time by targeting Lookalike audiences.
So, you’re essentially dealing with acquisition and retention in one fell swoop.
Of course, both groups require different types of content/communications, but it’s worth pointing out that your persona research should guide all points in the conversion funnel—and the post conversion funnel.
Embrace Personalization in the Post Conversion Funnel
We just talked about gathering audience insights in the last section. Now, let’s talk about getting personal, using data as a starting point for nurturing customer relationships.
Using personalization to improve customer retention can have a direct impact on your company’s bottom-line.
Targeted communications that are both useful and relevant are a gift to both brand and consumer. But, you don’t want to cross the line by pestering consumers or getting the timing wrong.
To get started with a personalization strategy, identify your audience personas and make sure you’re set up to communicate with them on all channels.
This means you’ll want to highlight more interactive like your Facebook Messenger bot (and encourage opt-ins) and video.
Take a look at this example from Vidyard. They absolutely go above and beyond by not only mentioning the customer by name, but thanking him for taking part in the particular video session he viewed.
Granted, not all brands will be able to personalize on that level, but that attention to detail is what your customers are looking for.
Of course, personalization that detailed could easily come across as a little too personal if not handled correctly.
A few things to think about when as you set up a personalization strategy that makes people feel cared for, not creeped out.
Solicit Feedback and Reviews
There’s no question that customer reviews can make or break a brand’s chances at success.
Make sure you implement a process for collecting feedback after someone makes a purchase. Some companies avoid this step out of fear that the customer will give them criticism, but you miss out on valuable insights if you skip this step.
Customer feedback is essential—it’s a learning experience that can help you gauge how people feel about your business. Beyond that, you can ask for specific information regarding the checkout and sales process, and how likely they are to do business with you again. (Hint: an effective post conversion funnel has a big impact on that last point).
Pay attention to social media comments. Ask people to share their comments and thoughts. Sure, not everyone is excited to write a review on Google, Facebook, or Yelp, but they might respond to a thoughtful incentive.
Still, if you’re going to solicit feedback, you need to act on it. If someone shares a complaint, then sees that you’ve done nothing to address the problem, they’ll feel as though their opinion doesn’t matter.
Always a have a plan in place to respond to all feedback — good or bad.
Post Conversion Funnel: Turning Loyal Customers into Brand Ambassadors
The last piece of the puzzle is turning your consumers into advocates or brand ambassadors.
These folks aren’t just loyal customers or people who like the products you sell. These are your super fans.
Brand ambassadors are your ticket to attracting new customers, free of charge. They’re happy to tell their friends about your product and services, as well as promote your brand on social media, review sites, and beyond.
So, at the bottom of the post-conversion funnel, the goal is to get your loyal customers to become advocates.
Here are a few things you can use in your advocacy strategy:
Consistently Provide Great Products and Services
Okay, this seems like a no-brainer. But the truth is, you need to work hard to make customers happy enough to shop with you again, much less publicly profess their love for a brand.
As such, you need to make sure that you offer a consistently high level of service, from the reps they interact with to how your products look in real life, to your ads, your social media presence, and whatever other touch points are left.
The point is, that experience needs to be predictably top notch, no matter where your customer is interacting with you.
Initially, when your goal is to build awareness with a new audience, consistency builds trust. It’s a way to say, “hey, we do offer a high-quality product” so customers feel that even if they’ve never touched your products in person, there’s some level of pride that goes into how you present yourself as a company.
When a customer has already purchased, that means they already believe your solution is right for them.
After the initial conversion, it’s important to continue to deliver great customer service and high-quality products. Long term, that satisfaction pays off in the form of reviews, multiple purchases, and word-of-mouth recommendations.
While it might feel like providing excellent service falls into the customer service domain, it’s everyone’s responsibility to work toward customer happiness.
Offer Upgrades or Deals as Part of Your Post Conversion Funnel
When developing a brand ambassador program, you might just want to go in for the “ask.” Connect with your best customers and ask them for comments or feedback in exchange for a gift.
While it might sound like you’re paying for feedback, think of this as a scaled down influencer marketing effort. You can ask customers for a mention on social media, a tag, a review, in exchange for exclusive discounts or some other incentive.
That said, you don’t want to treat this effort as though it were some paid Amazon review racket.
Instead, review your customer data, and look for the people who comment on your pages, order often, or write positive reviews.
Connecting with them on a more personal level will make them feel as though they are more than customers, but part of a community.
Engage with Your Audience
If you’re going to encourage customers to post on social media or write a review, the least you can do is reply when they do.
Responding to Instagram comments or including a thoughtful reply to the people who review your company on platforms like Capterra or Software Advice goes a long way in showing that you do value your customers—and that a person is working behind the scenes.
Also, it’s worth pointing out that just like with friends, if you don’t respond to messages, people will eventually stop sending them.
Don’t Forget to Say, “Thanks.”
This might not seem like a big deal, but a small “thank you” can go a long way when it comes to turning happy customers into die-hard fans.
Send personal thank you notes here and there. Follow up with clients to see how they’re doing. Send a gift basket to someone who just signed on, or take the time to create personalized email campaigns that thank customers for their loyalty.
In short, show your customers that you appreciate them on a personal level. Trust me, it will go a lot further in forging an ongoing relationship then a generic thank you page.
Wrapping Up the Post Conversion Funnel
Given the fact that the lines have blurred between sales, marketing, and customer service, I think we’ll start to see more emphasis on what happens after someone makes it through the traditional sales funnel.
It makes sense that people tend to focus almost exclusively on attracting new customers and from there, working toward closing a deal.
But profitability and growth depend on your ability to make customers stick around for the long haul.
With that in mind, hopefully, you’ll consider adding a post conversion funnel aimed at re-engaging, establishing loyalty, and finally, converting the average customer into a brand ambassador.
