Marketing 101: What is bottom of funnel?

The bottom of the funnel is where you want leads to be, and you’ve spent a fair amount of effort to get them there. This is when leads are making the final decision to buy from you or a competitor. 

Long story short, the bottom of the funnel is where you convert leads into customers. 

It’s a two-part process. Leads are making a decision and taking action. This is where you have to be very strategic with your messaging to give leads that final nudge. 

The goal at this stage is simple – get leads to convert into customers. To do this the sales team needs to solidify their relationship with leads, and you’ve got to show why you are better than the competitors. 

At this stage, leads are reviewing their options. By now leads know who you are and they have researched enough to trust your business. They want to make sure the decision they are about to make is a good one. Leads at the bottom of the funnel are looking for qualifiers and logistical information that give them confidence in their decision. 

Positioning your product or service as the best is what’s most important at the bottom of the funnel. Leads are digging into the details to compare providers on every level.

By now leads know what problem they have and what’s needed to solve it. The leads who make it to the bottom of the funnel are ready to convert, it’s just a matter of deciding who will get their business. 

Leads at the bottom of the funnel are highly motivated and ready to take action. They are tying up the loose ends and clearing up any lingering questions they may have. These are the type of leads that want detailed information that is specific to their situation. Leads at the bottom are also beginning to imagine what things will be like once they implement a solution. 

It’s worth noting that for B2B sales this is the point when the lead may bring in other stakeholders that need to give their okay.

After getting leads all the way to the bottom of the sales funnel the last thing you want is to lose them, especially if strategic messaging or special incentives like the ones below could have converted them into a customer. 

Be More Direct

The bottom of the funnel is where content should be most direct about the benefits of your product or service. You’ll want to clearly connect the dots between their problem and your solution. 

Stand Out From the Competition

Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn when leads are at the bottom of the funnel. Leads are reviewing their options so comparing yourself to the competition and pointing out how your product or service is superior can help you win their business. You may even want to create a side-by-side comparison chart to clearly lay out the advantages of your product.

Get Really Persuasive

The power of persuasion is needed to get leads to pull the trigger. That could mean highlighting your customer testimonials, mentioning awards and recognitions, using scarcity to prompt action or a combination of tactics. 

Make Your Best Offer

Make your best offer at the bottom of the funnel. The goal is to make your offer hard to resist. If a lead is on the fence between you and another equally good competitor, your offer could be the deciding factor. 

Make Customer Relationship Management a Top Priority

Getting leads across the conversion line usually takes careful customer relationship management at this stage. The sales team needs to make every touch personal and offer interactions like a private demo or webinar. 

Give Leads Information They Can Easily Share

If more than one person is involved in the purchasing decision this is when others enter the equation. Once your lead has narrowed the selection down to a few options they will begin sharing what they’ve found with the other decision-makers. Aid them in their efforts by giving them highly sharable content pieces that clearly highlight benefit points. You may even want to send the lead these pieces directly through email or social media so they are easy to download or forward. 

Link the Trust You’ve Built to Your Product or Service

Along the way, you’ve built trust with the lead. At the bottom of the funnel, you can capitalize on that trust by linking it to your product or service. Sharing customer-created content is a great strategy. Leads tend to put even more trust in what other customers have to say so a few testimonials, video reviews, etc. can build confidence in your product or service.

Provide Information on Implementation

Talk to your leads as if they are already customers that are in the next stage – implementation. Show them how easy the solution is to start using. This is critical for B2B purchases that will be used by an entire organization. You can also create content pieces that highlight how to use the product or service for a specific purpose. An implementation FAQ is another option for all leads. 

Create Unique Messages for Each User Cohort

The more specific the pitch is to a particular lead and their needs the more likely you are to convince them your solution is best. You’ll give yourself an edge by personalizing the marketing messages and content to each user cohort. For example, you can send an email that contains a case study about a similarly situated business to show how well the product or service worked. 

Directly Address Obstacles

Leads that are at the bottom of the funnel are bound to have one or two sticking points that are preventing them from moving into the customer category. Rather than avoiding it, address any known obstacle head-on. Get someone on the sales team to answer their questions and provide viable solutions that iron out any friction.   

At the bottom of the funnel, data can be a very powerful marketing tool. If you’ve been tracking lead behavior and past results that information can be used to make compelling content that improves your conversion rate.

Turn Product Usage Into Talking Points

Instead of using analytics strictly to analyze user behavior within the funnel, you can leverage product usage analytics to show value. Use the most impressive product usage data points to create an infographic, white paper or case study. 

Product usage data that highlights how others have found success using the product or service helps leads visualize their own success. This is particularly true if you tailor the information to the user cohort and their problems/needs/interests. Case studies are an excellent way to use product usage data to show leads the type of results that are possible.  

Use Behavior Analytics for Retargeting

As leads work their way down the funnel their actions reveal their intentions and mindset. Behaviors that suggest the lead is losing interest can be used to launch a retargeting initiative. For example, if user behavior analytics has told you the majority of leads that look at the pricing page but don’t purchase within 24 hours are lost you may want to have a member of the sales team reach out immediately to touch base and offer a discount. 

Make a Special Offer Based on the Data

Analytics can tell you what’s most important to a lead. Using a combination of personal/company data that’s been collected and user behavior, the sales team can make a special offer that’s particularly appealing for a lead. For example, if the company has 22 employees and is considering a software plan that provides access to 20 users you can offer to let them add two more users for free. 

The audience at the bottom of the funnel is much smaller, which means you have to narrow your focus and get specific. In order to convert leads into customers, you need to help them envision what it’s like to have the product or service at their disposal. If you can convince leads your solution is superior to the competition and can solve their unique problems they’ll take action. 

Want to know more about the stages of a sales funnel? Learn about lead generation at the top of the funnel.