The end of the funnel is easily the most crucial stage in every lead generation campaign. This is where leads will make their final decision on whether to convert. You’ve put in the work to get them to this point and once they get there, you will need to seal the deal. In theory, it should not be too hard to convert leads at this point. In reality, the final purchasing decision does not always result in a sale.
In this guide, we share some of the biggest mistakes to avoid when it comes to end-of-funnel lead generation to show you where you might be going wrong.
Avoid These End-of-Funnel Lead Generation Mistakes
As leads progress through the lead funnel, they learn more about your brand and have more interaction with our brand in the process. The end-of-funnel stage is typically the stage when leads will be handed over to sales. To complete the funnel and convert, both sales and marketing need to be able to show leads that purchasing is the best move. There are a few end-of-funnel mistakes that can undo all of your lead generation campaigns, including the following:
No sales and marketing cohesion
A very common issue is a lack of cohesion between marketing and sales. You have carefully nurtured leads through the sales cycle, starting from the very top and moving down to the end of the funnel. You have helped leads through the awareness, education and decision-making stage. Hopefully, you have used personalisation and other strategies that speak to leads in the right way. If your sales team is unable to continue treating leads the same way, that process will suddenly become stilted and out of sync. Leads need to be nurtured, even in the final purchase stage. Make sure that all teams are on board with your final stage strategy so that there is no loss of cohesion.
Lost trust or negative brand perception
Trust is difficult to earn and easy to lose. Although the entire lead nurturing process is about building trust (especially key middle-of-the-funnel stages), trust is especially important when leads reach the point of conversion. This is the point where they are ready to hand over their proverbial credit cards and complete that sale. If trust is broken at this point or leads have even a slightly bad perception of your brand at this point, you will lose the sale, and possibly your reputation in the process. Things that can lose trust include hidden clauses or catches, sudden price changes, unfulfilled promises, lack of customer support, and anything else that leads are not expecting at this point.
Poor customer experience
Customer experience goes far beyond support. Seamless customer experience is essential to take leads through the home stretch. This ties in with the sales/marketing cohesion as well as trust. You will need to ensure that leads flow through the overall sales funnel easily, with no obstacles, bottlenecks or stumbling blocks. Once leads reach the final stage of the funnel, you need to make it as easy as possible to convert. Complicated check-outs, difficult onboarding, no clear information or help on making purchases, broken links, and anything else that frustrates leads will result in lost sales.
Fine-Tune Your End-of-Funnel Lead Generation Process
Now that you know what not to do, it should be far easier to fine-tune your end-of-funnel process. A smooth and streamlined lead funnel is vital to bring in new customers the right way. Once they are just about ready to move from leads to customers, you will be able to complete your lead generation process knowing that you will get better results.
