Recently a friend of mine ended up in the national news. She didn’t plan on it. It wasn’t some PR stunt. She simply stood up for her convictions and the media got wind of it.
It got me thinking about how hard many businesses work for that kind of attention. They pay for advertising, they hire PR reps and they spend a fortune on branding. But they are so focused on getting attention that they often neglect the most important thing: the next step.
What do you expect the audience to do when they see your company’s CEO on Good Morning America?
First, the audience is going to want to learn more about the company.
So you’d better have a good website set up, as well as some social media efforts running.
Then what? Do you want this fresh new audience to call for more information about your services? Click a buy button? Download a free trial of your software? Sign up for your mailing list?
That whole system had better be in place, with calls to action all over your website and content marketing materials, before the media blitz begins.
Too many businesses do this backward. They focus on getting attention, then throw the rest of that stuff into place in a hurry once the attention begins. In other words, they give all their energy to top-of-the-sales-funnel activities – but there is no sales funnel to send all that attention down.
Not only is this incredibly stressful for the business, but without a tried-and-tested sales funnel in place, much of the attention is completely wasted.
If you’re going to start focusing your energy anywhere, start at the bottom of the sales funnel. This is where revenue happens – and for the success of your company, this is the most important part of the funnel.
Work your way upward from there.
Content and activities to consider for the bottom, middle and top of the funnel include…
Bottom:
- Free trials
- Demos
- Sales consultations
- Coupons and offers
- In-depth blog posts or articles
Middle:
- Email marketing and newsletters
- Buying guides
- Videos of the product in action
- Case studies and testimonials
- Product comparison guides
- Blog posts
- FAQ pages
Top:
- E-books
- Tip sheets, guides, and other downloadable media
- White papers
- How-to videos
- How-to blog posts
- Guest posts on other business websites
- Infographics
- Social media
You never know when attention is going to come your way. Some of your PR efforts might pay off, or, like my friend, you might end up in a media storm for something completely unexpected. If you own a business, though, you always need to be prepared for it — so make sure your sales funnel is solid before the media frenzy begins.