Something—maybe a reminiscence about his narrowing down your main marketing message to six words (try it)—led me to Matt Bailey’s excellent blog last week, Endless Coffee Cup. The subject was the sales funnel. Apparently there has been some doubts raised about it.
“I can’t imagine why someone would say the sales funnel is dying,” he told his equally lively co-host Ashley Schweigert. “Maybe we’ve seen a flattening—the places people are coming into the funnel—[but if anything] it’s getting greater.
“The reason we’ve had the funnel to begin with is that we need a visual representation of what’s happening. Just looking at numbers alone is not an understandable way about where are people in our sales process. How are we acquiring? Where are they? What stage do they go to next?”
That made me want to call Bailey—an accomplished speaker, trainer, author, marketer and founder of Site Logic—and ask him a few of my own questions. It was good to see him, even if it was just in his man-caved office on the Zoom window.
“It’s funny because Ashley had been asking for that podcast for months,” he told me. “I’m not sure,” he mimicked himself weakly saying to her. “’I’m being a little evasive. Sell me on it, Ashley, sell me on it.’ When she started by saying that ‘Hubspot says it’s dead,’ [I said,] ‘okay, let’s go.’”Here’s more of the Q&A between Bailey and I:
RONN LEVINE: I love your podcast—44 episodes, that’s impressive.
MATT BAILEY: Thanks. It’s been great to get feedback from it. Which shows people listen to, what’s downloaded the most. Themes definitely start emerging.
MATT BAILEY: Thanks. It’s been great to get feedback from it. Which shows people listen to, what’s downloaded the most. Themes definitely start emerging.
RL: I’m sure anything about revenue diversification plays well now, given the state of in-person events.
MB: Yes, in-person event revenue is obviously down. But there are so many ways to make money on the Internet. Look and see how others make money. Before COVID, 80-90% of my business was in-person events. Training, conferences, then all this hit. It’s definitely the longest I’ve been home. What enabled me to make the transition is that I look at 5, 7, 10 years ago, developing additional streams of revenue—training products, classes, exercises—that can now be on Zoom.
MB: Yes, in-person event revenue is obviously down. But there are so many ways to make money on the Internet. Look and see how others make money. Before COVID, 80-90% of my business was in-person events. Training, conferences, then all this hit. It’s definitely the longest I’ve been home. What enabled me to make the transition is that I look at 5, 7, 10 years ago, developing additional streams of revenue—training products, classes, exercises—that can now be on Zoom.
RL: How have you adapted to doing everything on Zoom?
MB: It’s been good but I’m more exhausted by the end of day, working from home, than all the traveling I was doing. [He spends an average of 4-5 hours a day on Zoom.] I’m constantly thinking, ‘how do I make this more exciting, more entertaining, and communicate more efficiently, more effectively.’ As Marshall McLuhan famously said, ‘the medium is the message,’ and that’s Zoom right now.
MB: It’s been good but I’m more exhausted by the end of day, working from home, than all the traveling I was doing. [He spends an average of 4-5 hours a day on Zoom.] I’m constantly thinking, ‘how do I make this more exciting, more entertaining, and communicate more efficiently, more effectively.’ As Marshall McLuhan famously said, ‘the medium is the message,’ and that’s Zoom right now.
RL: How has it changed how you do your training?
MB: Some of the training that we’re doing, we try to make fun. We have an active chat channel, and then there’s also a Whats App back channel, and I find the most engaging sessions we have is where people respond by voice. They have their cameras on, they’re talking that way, but at the same time there’s an active chat going on. So it’s demanding that you are paying attention to questions, you’re answering questions, you’re also watching the chat, you’re also managing the discussion, and so it’s truly demanding this multitasking approach to presentations.
MB: Some of the training that we’re doing, we try to make fun. We have an active chat channel, and then there’s also a Whats App back channel, and I find the most engaging sessions we have is where people respond by voice. They have their cameras on, they’re talking that way, but at the same time there’s an active chat going on. So it’s demanding that you are paying attention to questions, you’re answering questions, you’re also watching the chat, you’re also managing the discussion, and so it’s truly demanding this multitasking approach to presentations.
RL: On the good ones I’ve been on, that chat takes on a life of its own. Another theme I’d like to get into is websites. Are websites still as important as they’ve always been?
MB: Absolutely. It’s a core of content for inbound marketing. In the analytics that I look at for different companies, search is still your number one source for visitors—very rarely do I see a social channel. Honestly, the only social channel I see compete with Google is Pinterest. I’ve never seen another social channel peak at the level or even near the level of search. So it tells me that content marketing, inbound marketing is more than alive and well and because of that you’ve to have a system to filter those people through, answer their questions, present your company, get the lead, move through there.
MB: Absolutely. It’s a core of content for inbound marketing. In the analytics that I look at for different companies, search is still your number one source for visitors—very rarely do I see a social channel. Honestly, the only social channel I see compete with Google is Pinterest. I’ve never seen another social channel peak at the level or even near the level of search. So it tells me that content marketing, inbound marketing is more than alive and well and because of that you’ve to have a system to filter those people through, answer their questions, present your company, get the lead, move through there.
RL: So is it still about the landing page or is the homepage still important?
MB: The landing page, it’s one of those things, it can become its own science. The landing page is the critical part that a lot of people forget about in this type of lead marketing or content marketing or even dealing with the funnel. I just saw something the other day that showed up in my email about landing pages. [Reading.] “At Dell, every new landing page is a multi-faceted project that requires several handoffs taking 6-8 weeks to customize and globalize for testing. Contact form completions rise 50% and increases as high as 300% on dedicated landing pages.”
MB: The landing page, it’s one of those things, it can become its own science. The landing page is the critical part that a lot of people forget about in this type of lead marketing or content marketing or even dealing with the funnel. I just saw something the other day that showed up in my email about landing pages. [Reading.] “At Dell, every new landing page is a multi-faceted project that requires several handoffs taking 6-8 weeks to customize and globalize for testing. Contact form completions rise 50% and increases as high as 300% on dedicated landing pages.”
RL: Wow, 6-8 weeks. That does say a lot.
MB: I deal with so many companies, very focused on being at the top of the funnel. Let’s get people there with our content, let’s answer their questions, let’s give them great content. And then they forget about their landing page, throw up the same one they used last year, change a few words and I’m done, not realizing that landing page is just as important as the content you used to get them there. And now you have to convert them. Testing your landing page, testing your call to action, testing your offer. All of these things are just as vital as the content you use.RL: You do get the feeling that companies focus more on home pages.
MB: Yes, and I think most people don’t even view the home page. They get into the content or they get to that landing page. They may go to the homepage after they finish a conversion or exchange.
MB: I deal with so many companies, very focused on being at the top of the funnel. Let’s get people there with our content, let’s answer their questions, let’s give them great content. And then they forget about their landing page, throw up the same one they used last year, change a few words and I’m done, not realizing that landing page is just as important as the content you used to get them there. And now you have to convert them. Testing your landing page, testing your call to action, testing your offer. All of these things are just as vital as the content you use.RL: You do get the feeling that companies focus more on home pages.
MB: Yes, and I think most people don’t even view the home page. They get into the content or they get to that landing page. They may go to the homepage after they finish a conversion or exchange.
Again, check out Endless Coffee Cup at this link.
