Consumer life cycle
The consumer lifecycle is the different stages which consumers go through before, during and after they make a purchase, the stages of the consumer lifecycle are awareness, engagement, purchase, retention/loyalty, growth and advocacy. The consumer lifecycle can affect the conversion rates of the sales funnel, this is because once a consumer becomes a customer by making a purchase, if the customer is not satisfied with the product or service afterwards, then they will likely not become a repeat and loyal customer, therefore they will likely also not be an advocate for the product or service.
However, if the opposite is true and the customer is happy with the product or service after purchase, then they’re more likely to keep coming back and be a loyal customer which will improve conversion rates, additionally the customer is also more likely to purchase other products and services from the brand as well as be an advocate through ways such as positive reviews, which can also help improve sales funnel conversion rates.
Quality of marketing activity
The quality of marketing activity is very important in improving the conversion rates of the sales funnel, from the beginning of the sales funnel, a good quality marketing activity is needed in order to generate enough awareness of the brand and its offerings as well as educate the potential customers.
Good quality marketing activity is also required in order to generate the leads through ways such as email campaigns, forms on the website, social networking engagements and paid search ad campaigns. Once the leads are generated, good quality marketing activities are required in order to generate enough interest in the leads to turn them into prospects and then customers, which improves the conversion rates of the sales funnel.
However, if the marketing activities are of poor quality, then less awareness is generated about the brand and its product offerings, less leads are generated, less prospects are converted to customers, therefore a low sales funnel conversion rate.
Quantity of marketing activity
Similar to the quality of marketing, during the sales funnel process, there will need to be a lot of on-going marketing activities in order success move through the different stages of the sales funnel. For instance, in order to generate enough awareness in the beginning of the sales funnel, lots of marketing activity will be needed in different areas, you can have paid search campaigns, social media promotion, website promotion, blogs posts and public relation campaigns all on going at the same time. As the leads are generated, various marketing activities will be required in order to turn the leads into prospects and then customers.
For instance, when a prospect is at the consideration stage of the sales funnel, having things such as positive reviews and feedback on brands website, paid search ad campaigns, social media as well as blogs can increase persuade the prospect to become a customer by making a purchase.
