New prospect conversion funnel

As we discussed previously, a digital funnel can be used to co-ordinate online marketing efforts towards a single campaign goal with analytics for tracking and consistent messaging throughout the process. This improves the user experience which in turn promotes further consideration and engagement.

In this brief example we highlight an example for Kings and Marina Premier Health clubs, the primary goal of which was to generate qualified prospects in the form of a contact.

At the top of the funnel, the core communication is a social media campaign through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (accounts for each club), run over 3 weeks and utilising video to promote the key benefits of each club* in an easily accessible and engaging format. Video tracks well on social media, can include several points in a short clip and is easily shared.  The campaign was supported offline with radio and through a direct communication to existing members.

* Whilst the clubs are similar, they operate in different physical locations with Marina focussed on employed singles / executives in St Peter Port and Kings inclusive of family and a wider audience across the island.

To incentivise engagement, an offer was included - 'Try before you buy ' (existing members - 'bring a friend for free') - essentially a day at either club accessing the facilities free of charge and without obligation.

The social media posts were boosted to drive delivery to a wider SM audience, fenced within certain parameters, for example, restricted to Guernsey (as the clubs are not accessible beyond the island).

Having created awareness, driven consideration with the video/offer and engaged through a (next) link, prospects were delivered to a website landing page tailored to the campaign, rather than the home page. Whilst an existing web page can be deployed, engagement will be lost if the user is handed off clumsily from social media without an obvious continuation of the offer and storyline.

At this point the page content remains brief, with a confirmation paragraph, a brief re-enforcement of the USP / benefit of the club and a CTA (call to action), in this case contact submission, for completion of the process. This is obligatory to register for the offer. This crucial final step needs to be handled sympathetically and the desire to collect personal data (for customer profiling) should be balanced against the need for a short and simple submission that wont put prospects off completing the contact drop.

Cross selling links and re-enforcement can be included on the page as in the example above, although they should not be obtrusive or interfere with the funnel flow.

No campaign is perfect and should be viewed as an ongoing learning process in terms of positioning your offer, incentives, target customer touch points and the market itself which is constantly moving.  Real world awareness (such as calendar events), research, social media insights (statistics) and web analytics should be part of your digital marketing framework as these will inform future decisions.  For example, tracking during a campaign will clearly indicate drop off points in your funnel which you can potentially improve (by investigating the question why).

The digital marketing funnel should be viewed as an investment in your business, one which will help you to qualify campaigns against cost / return and manage internal (leadership) expectation.  For example, research suggests that the take up in for gym membership (general population) is approx' 12% on average. If the SM boost hits 5000 people, then 600 first engagements could be considered an excellent result - in reality it will be less because some will already have a gym membership and others will be window browsing. 

With this framework in place, you can narrow down to a 'cost per prospect' indicating ROI which will inform future budget requirements and potentially product pricing. In many respects this is much more reliable than off-line marketing, such as a print advert, where the feedback is blunt at best, and ROI grey. 

Links
Kings Premier Health Club website:  www.kings.gg
Kings Facebook: www.facebook.com/KingsGuernsey