Are marketers breaking the sales funnel?
For those of you who read DM News, you’ll know they publish a variety of opinion editorial pieces. In this week’s batch, there’s one I wrote and the topic relates to something I want you to weigh in on - it’s called “Keep sales funnel top-of-mind“. And it all ties into the Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online report for 2008 where it reports that online retailers allocate 53% of their marketing dollars to online customer acquisition - driving traffic to a web site or landing page. But when it comes to online customer retention, the marketing spend drops to 21%. This makes one wonder if any effort to engage and convert customers must come out of the remaining 26% of budget??? If that’s the case, we’ve got a big problem in my opinion.
Read the piece and share your comments and thoughts. Is this disproportionate spend and lack of respect for the sales funnel alarmingly short-sighted or is it acceptable?
PS - Speaking of shop.org, Sitebrand will be exhibiting at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Las Vegas. It’s happening Sept 15-17 and we’ll be at booth 335. If you’re planning to go, let me know as it’s always a pleasure to meet people face-to-face!
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- Thoughts from Shop.org: Marketing vs. Sales
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- Subscriber Strategies: Fighting List Shrinkage and Fatigue
Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Conversion, Customer Experience, Optimization, Personalization, Sitebrand, Web Analytics, eCommerce
2 Comments
David Bustle at 10:55 on July 31, 2008
I loved your recent article in DMNEWS. This is a topic I have been struggling with on two of my clients. Its funny that they will spend all kinds of money getting traffic there, but don’t do much to improve the experience at the site. I keep telling them, I can create the best marketing materials in the world to drive traffic there, but if the site is not ready, its worthless. Keep up the good work!
Carolyn Gardner at 12:35 on July 31, 2008
Thanks for your comment David! I’ve often used the analogy of baseball — unless you’re site is ready to greet, persuade and convert all site traffic, it’s comparable to swinging your bat half way. By using web personalization and putting some effort into the online experience, you’re able to swing the bat all the way…and hit some home-runs while you’re at it!
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