How effective are your marketing efforts? You might be getting lots of leads and customers, but it can be hard to know which of your marketing strategies is attracting those visitors to your site. And, without the full picture, you don’t know what you need to focus on improving. That’s why one of the most crucial marketing strategies is something called closed-loop marketing – it can help you figure out exactly what to optimize.
Basically, closed-loop marketing is just communication between the marketing and sales departments. As you move visitors and leads down the sales funnel, the sales team reports back on which of those leads closed deals and became customers. But, as simple as it sounds, closed-loop marketing is an essential piece of the marketing puzzle.
To begin using closed-loop marketing, you need to simply follow these 4 steps:
1. Track referral sources of visitors to your site (such as social media, organic traffic, and others).
2. Track the visitors’ actions on your site before they become leads (and make sure you can connect these anonymous visitors to their personal information once they become leads).
3. Set up landing pages to convert visitors into leads.
4. Convert your leads into customers, and be sure that you still have all the previously gathered information on each customer.
Implementing this strategy does require software. Combining customer relationship management (CRM) software with marketing software (such as HubSpot’s platform) is generally considered the best method.
Once you’ve gotten the software and completed the 4 steps, you have a wealth of information regarding your customers – and your leads who failed to become customers – that can help you attract even more clients in the future. You know which of your referral sources is the strongest, which means you know where to focus your efforts to gain the most traffic, as well as where you need some improvement.
You also know your website’s best conversion assists, or the pages that visitors looked at before they became leads. This can help you determine what your most compelling content is, so that you can discover the best methods to convert more leads and even the best ways to nurture the leads you already have.
Remember that marketing isn’t over after getting a lead. If you continue to monitor your leads as they convert into customers, you’ll learn valuable information about your top marketing strategies. And, closed-loop marketing is the best and easiest way for you to accomplish these tasks and improve your conversion rates!
If you want more marketing tips, check out this free guide to get the lowdown on inbound marketing!
