Creating marketing qualified leads that are ready to buy

Content is key when it comes to securing potential leads.

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a prospective customer interested in your proposition. They occupy the lowest stage of the sales funnel, having already been engaged by your business, spent time evaluating your solution, and are now at the decision-making phase.

At every stage of your marketing process the content you provide should emphasise the strengths of your company, and this is particularly important when it comes to securing those MQLs as buyers. By familiarising yourself with the sales funnel, and understanding the thought process of your MQLs, your brand will be in the best position to produce content that helps you win those deals.

Why use the sales funnel? 

The sales funnel is a visualisation of the journey potential customers go through on the way to purchase. That understanding informs the tactics you employ to move your prospective customers from one step to the next. If you begin with a hundred potential leads that you’ve targeted, by moving through the sales funnel you will whittle down this number until you eventually get a smaller group that are interested in purchasing your product or service.

There are several steps to the sales funnel, and they tend to be split as follows:

• Top of funnel – awareness and engagement
• Middle of funnel – interest and consideration
• Bottom of funnel – decision and purchase

Who makes up the sales funnel? 

It makes sense to define your prospective customers according to where they are in the marketing and sales process (funnel). Those at the top of the funnel are ‘prospects’. They are aware of the problem they have but are strangers to your brand. Your job as a business it to target them and make them aware of what you’re about. This targeting can range from knowing the exact individuals you want to engage, to throwing open your reach to millions of potential leads. The aim of this stage is to engage each prospect.

Those in the middle stage are your leads. They are not only aware of the problem they have, but they are now aware of the solution that you offer. People at this point in the sales funnel are at the evaluation stage. Your marketing activities will nurture them in the hope the lead becomes an opportunity.

The last stage of the funnel is where your MQLs are. They understand the services you provide and have read some of your material. These are the prospective customers that have been established and will transition into sales qualified leads (SQLs). This transition is based on whether the lead has identified the solution they need and are ready with their budget. The sales colleague can then engage in a consultative sales process with the potential customer to fully understand their needs and scope out the right solution. Ideally, the potential customer then decides to buy the solution that has been created to meet their needs.

So, how do you secure MQLs? 

MQLs are curious and are considering your business. However they haven’t taken the step to choose your product or service yet. This is where your company’s content is particularly important. It should give  MQLs confidence that your business will be able to solve their problem. The key focus is on understanding the customer’s potential challenges and questions. By pre-empting what these might be, and creating content that answers the question, your business is already positioning itself as a problem-solving organisation.

What content should you produce? 

At every stage in the sales funnel, different channels and messages are needed to encourage prospective customers to progress to the next step. For example, at the middle stage of the funnel – where the customer is considering your business – the focus should be on providing more information about your services.  Ongoing content such as blogs and downloadable resources can help to answer questions and explain more about your solution. You also want to maintain engagement, so events, webinars, surveys and polls, social engagement via platforms such as LinkedIn and FAQs facilitate interaction. Whitepapers and brochures provide in-depth insight for genuinely engaged and interested leads. Depending on your proposition, you could consider promotions and offers or loyalty schemes to maintain and enhance engagement.

At the bottom stage of the sales funnel – where your leads are interested in purchasing and engaging with the consultative sales process – you want to ensure your content encourages MQLs to become SQLs. As well as continuing with the content you generated in the middle stage of the sales funnel, this audience will also respond to more direct content. This could include personalised CTAs that focus on the subject they’re enquiring about, as well as increased outreach via email to supply them with specified content.

If you would like help designing your unique marketing and sales process, or are looking for assistance developing your content strategy, contact us today. We’re always happy to meet face-to-face or virtually.

If you need support to write engaging, audience-driven content for your B2B brand or agency, contact Copestone today.