A marketing funnel in which specifications like customer experience, product, customer service, marketing & sales are arranged in a way that helps the customers to relate with the brand and the idea, is called a buyer-centric funnel. It revolves around the customers’ psychology. Everything will be accustomed to the buyer’s persona. You have to relate with customers because it is the real way that prospects think & believe. Hence, you will get a long-lasting relationship with customers.
Reasons to design a buyer centric funnel
How would you feel when a salesperson is forcing you to buy something you don’t even need when you visit the store. What happens when you are looking for leather jackets & you don’t find any salesman around. Frustrated? That’s what happens when you design a seller centric funnel. Everything will be accustomed to the seller’s mentality and it’s not what the customer wants. Here comes the need of the hour, designing the buyer-centric funnel. You have to find something that triggers the customer to buy the product in the right way. Suppose if someone makes a judgement for your work which is dancing and gives you a 4/10. You’ll be working hard on your dance to perform better because that judgment triggered you to do better. Here are few important steps to create the buyer-centric funnel:-
Aware the prospect
Approaching the prospect directly is the biggest mistake one can make these days. It will lead to a waste of time and money with spreading bad mouth in the market about the brand. Firstly, you need to make the prospect aware of the problems. Educate the prospect by posting videos, articles & running ads on social media. You have to market the problem, not the product in this phase.
Set up a lead magnet
Offer free stuff like pdfs, eBooks or video trainings to your prospects to build trust. You can ask for an email & phone number from the prospect. Now, you are ready to build a personal connection with your potential clients.
Nurturing the prospect
Connect with them with email marketing and send useful content such as solutions to their daily life problems or useful newsletters. Show the testimonials and win the trust. Portrait the ROI and ensure the victory of prospects.
Come up with a paid program
Pitch your product to the prospects. You can put forth two offers, one with a small amount and the other with a big amount. Pitch the small amount offer as “affordable” not “cheaper”. It will increase the chances of sales. There is also a great probability of people choosing the big amount offer/ product. It would be a win-win situation for you.
After having your customer onboard, now you should be looking to retain them for longer periods of time. Always remember that you can bring new clients through a buyer centric funnel, but to retain them, you would need to flip the funnel.
How to flip a funnel
Here are the 4 ways to flip a funnel
• Study the stats of your business/ sales. Track results of your efforts. You should know the amount you are making with your existing & new customers. You should know what the customer wants from you.
• Meet the expectations of the customers by updating your customer service. Stand by them in their problems & provide a solution. Always keep an eye on social media and make sure that you are reaching out & helping people. Make the customers feel special because they like to be noticed.
• Find a social media influencer who is putting relevant content which matches your brand/ product. Market your specifications through his/her content. Identify the right influencer and share the brand values so that they can convey the message that you want to convey.
• Always come up with new rewards for the customers. Keep in touch with them. Sending occasional rewards will spread a good word about the brand in the market.
That’s how you can design buyer-centric funnels and get magical results through it. It makes the prospect choose the brand according to their buyer’s journey. Just when you match the buyer’s journey with your funnel, you just made the “ideal funnel”. Making a seller centric funnel is not a bad option but not better than making a buyer-centric funnel. And then you can flip the funnel to increase customer retention. Flipping the funnel will increase brand recognition & sales because “a satisfied customer is the biggest advertiser”.