eLearning Marketing Funnels For Beginners: How To Generate More Leads
Have you heard the saying "There are plenty of fish in the sea?" This isn't referring only to your dating life but also to your lead generation techniques. Setting up effective eLearning marketing funnels allows you to attract only the right type of audiences that have a genuine interest in your solutions. Everyone on your team must understand your funnel and the different stages so they can meet people's needs at the right moment. Starting with the awareness stage, your marketing team tries to appeal to your industry, expanding your reach, and letting people know who you are. At the next stage, that of consideration, high-quality business leads take an interest in your services and explore their options.
Lastly, in the conversion stage, customers have decided which solution they'll purchase after carefully reviewing your social proof and comparing your product features to your competition.
The 4 Stages Of eLearning Marketing Funnels
1. Awareness
The basics for how marketing funnels work are that prospects become aware of the product or service, then get to know your brand. It all starts with discovery, and here's when top-of-funnel (ToFu) content comes into play. This may include Search Engine Optimized articles and eBooks to show them your niche expertise. At this point, they’re still learning about the topic and determining if it’s the best course of action. For example, can this software or type of online training content benefit their bottom line?
Finding the right keywords should be your focus, especially when it comes to ToFu content. The best tip I can share here is that you have to think like your prospects would when they start searching for something on Google. It sounds simple, but it is not. You'll need to spend a considerable amount of time to identify the best keywords out of a pile of options. Remember, step number one is always to make your content discoverable in the SERPs.
If you don't have the knowledge or resources, you can take your time to figure things out. Or, you can always ask an SEO expert for some insights.
2. Consideration
Customers have already done their homework, now they’re ready to zero-in on the right solution. At this stage of the sales funnel, they’re vetting vendors and weighing all the options. They visit your landing page or even check on directory listings and reviews to familiarize themselves with your brand. Plus, they might be looking for content on specific use cases on your website.
You must be able to show them why your product or service stands apart from the competition. If they’ve already learned about your organization in the discovery phase, this is your chance to strengthen the rapport. So, what should you do? The answer is obvious: Create even more content. But this time, you should focus on MoFu (middle of the funnel) and BoFu (bottom of the funnel) content.
3. Conversion
This is when decisions are made and leads become customers. It’s crucial to maintain the eLearning content marketing momentum and bring them to the next step of the purchase funnel. For instance, customers looking for content providers submit RFPs for custom estimates. Or software buyers looking for eLearning solutions take test drives to ensure the tool is a good fit as well as attend eLearning webinars to address their main buying concerns.
You can still lose qualified leads if they don’t get enough information or a competitor increases their marketing efforts. In this case, you should focus on creating BoFu (bottom of the funnel) content.
4. Retention / Advocacy
Marketing funnel stages don’t stop at purchase. Not only do you need to retain loyal customers to expand your base, but continue lead generation funnels to reach those at the discovery phase. What's more, you should also focus on lead nurturing. By doing so, prospects or customers will also keep visiting your website to read your valuable content.
This is why it’s crucial to build industry authority and use inbound marketing strategies to draw in specific eLearning buyer personas.
3 Tips To Create A Successful Digital Marketing Funnel
1. Offer Value-Added Content
How do you generate leads? One of the most cost-effective ways to promote your product and reach your audience is eLearning content marketing. This involves eBooks, articles, and directory listings. Lead generation marketing funnels are fueled by value-added content.
This approach allows you to attract the ideal corporate training buyer by targeting their pain points. For example, content for LMS buyers might cover the essential features or reporting capabilities.
When done right, these lead generation tactics reach every level of the funnel because you can custom tailor content, provided that you research your target audience and their buying needs, of course.
2. Improve Your SEO Approach
A crucial component of eLearning marketing funnels is SEO. It allows you to draw in corporate training buyers that are still new to the topic, or those who already understand the basics and need to find the best solution for their budget.
Successful SEO centers on eLearning competitor analysis and determining which keywords to target in the eLearning niche based on search intent. However, it is not just about SEO, you need to sharpen your content writing skills as well.
After all, the quality of the content you publish will define the success of your content strategy. Good content manages to get better rankings in the SERPs, so please, make it worth reading.
3. Host Webinars To Move Them Along The Funnel
eLearning webinars are ideal for leads that are further down the funnel and just need to fill in the blanks. You’re already on their shortlist and they just need a bit more info to make their final decision. This versatile content marketing tool also works for leads just entering the funnel who are on fact-finding missions.
For instance, they might attend live marketing events to decide if cloud-based LMS solutions are the right option, or discover the perks of outsourcing compliance online training.
Why Is Lead Generation Important?
What is a lead generation process and why is it so crucial to your business’s success? An effective lead generation campaign is about more than just drawing qualified prospects. It also helps you expand your reach, edge out the competition, and nurture customer relationships.
With the right lead generation tactics, you even improve your SERP rankings and identify new buyer personas. For example, marketing metrics reveal that certain demographics or customer types read your articles, yet these are demographics you currently overlook in your content marketing strategy. You've got to thank your Google Analytics for all the extra insights.
In short, lead generation is the only way to expand your business and venture into new markets.
How The 360 Inbound Marketing Approach Generates Leads
How do you draw in corporate training buyers with eLearning content and an expert digital marketing funnel? Well, here at eLearning Industry, we've mastered the 360 Inbound Marketing Approach. Our proven strategy attracts leads at every stage of the customer journey.
It all starts with in-depth SEO research and strategic planning to choose the best topics and streamline your content strategy. Then, it segues into articles and a results-driven eLearning eBook to build awareness for your brand. This content is distributed through highly targeted channels to give you maximum exposure. Travel further down the funnel with webinars that tie into your eBook topic for ongoing lead generation.
So, SEO research is the number one factor that helps identify the best industry-related keywords for your business, based on search intent. By following such a strategy, you will then be able to create a 360 Inbound Marketing approach that includes eBooks, articles, and webinars.
All of the above steps have one main goal: To guide corporate training buyers down the funnel.
Key Takeaway
To create great funnels and generate targeted leads, you should start by setting up clear goals. Maybe you want to increase email open rates or offer more free trials to prospects. Whatever your goal is, keep track of your leads. Where are they in your sales funnel? Depending on the stage, you should create email drip campaigns to instigate specific actions. Listen to people's feedback and act on it swiftly. Customers want to feel heard and respected. However, no matter what you do, some leads will abandon you. Let them go, but ask them what triggered their decision. Their feedback will help you improve your practices.
