How to Transform Your Prospects from Leads to Members

Most marketers are familiar with the sales funnel (or they should be). It’s been at the heart of marketing for ages.

What’s important to understand, however, is there are different types of sales funnels, depending on the nature of a particular industry. For example, inbound marketing sales funnels for nonprofits are very different from B2C or B2B sales funnels.

Before exploring the inbound marketing sales funnel, it’s helpful to understand what inbound marketing is. Think of it as the opposite of traditional outbound marketing, whereby marketers come to leads via advertising, telemarketing, direct mail, etc. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, uses digital techniques and messaging to bring leads to you.

There are four stages of the inbound marketing sales funnel.    

Attract

This is the phase in which various online strategies and techniques are used to acquire unknown leads.

Convert

Once leads are acquired, the next step is to convert them into known prospects.

Close

The next step is to get the prospects to become members of your organization, or donors, whatever the case may be.

Delight

The job is not over after known prospects become members or donors. In fact, the relationship has to intensify so members will renew and donors will continue donating. 

A closer look

Those are the bare bones of inbound marketing for nonprofits. Let’s drill down deeper to see how you can make the inbound marketing sales funnel work for your nonprofit.

Attract

Before implementing any technique, your website has to be SEO optimized, because if it isn’t, people will have difficulty finding you in search results.

Additional techniques

• If you haven’t already, start blogging. Blogs are the fuel that make your inbound marketing engine go. Research by HubSpot shows that organizations that blog get 55% more website traffic than those that do not.
• Make sure your blogs are SEO optimized.
• Use social media platforms—be they Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.—because it’s yet one more way for people to find your organization. It also increases engagement.
• Promote your blogs via social media and always include your social media links somewhere in each blog post.

Convert

Now that people have found you, you want to get their contact information. This can be accomplished by having them fill out a form requiring them to submit their contact information in exchange for something, for example newsletters.

Additional techniques

• Entice people to fill out a user information form in exchange for free access to an e-Book or some other type of content that appeals to your audience. For example, a zoo could offer a downloadable e-book about each of its animals. The e-book could include professional-level, hi-res photos of animals, as well as insider facts.
• A compelling testimonial can lure visitors to register for one of your organization’s events so they, too, can have a similar positive experience.
• Push people to register online for your events.

Remember: Know your audience. The more you know about their wants and needs, the better you’ll be able to develop creative ways to snag their contact information.

Close

Once you have visitors in your database, the stage is set for future automated emails tailored to a visitor’s particular interests. For example, let’s say a visitor clicked on a link to join a certain club, such as a volunteer group. Whenever new volunteer opportunities arise, an email can be sent alerting that person. This helps create a personal connection and keeps your organization top of mind.

Moreover, in getting involved with your organization—as a volunteer, attending lectures, going to fundraising events, etc.—a person is more likely to become a member. Also, get creative. Give volunteers an opportunity to receive a reduced-cost membership in exchange for volunteering for X number of events.

Important: At this stage of the funnel, review your checkout process. According to a 2016 study, an average of 68.81% of people abandon their online shopping carts. Read our blog post about how to optimize your check out process to learn more.

Delight

Now that you’ve obtained new members, do not rest on your laurels. In fact, this is the time to go into overdrive, to give them information they love and to add value to their membership so that they will renew and/or donate.

Make sure members receive things of value, like exclusive publications, reduced cost for events, behind-the-scenes tours, etc. Keep social media interesting and get them engaged. If you know your audience, you’ll know what they value, and then you can cater to their interests. The more value they receive, the more likely they are to renew their membership, or to donate. 

Conclusion

Some of these strategies and tactics you can implement on your own. But others require technical knowhow. Ally 360 has helped many clients achieve higher SEO ranking, automate their email marketing and more.