Get Better Results from your Marketing and Sales Funnels

You can use different strategies and tactics throughout your sales and marketing funnel. Of course, you will want to vary it depending on your business model/industry and other attributes. The suggestions below are example tactics and we would always recommend strategic dialogue to determine appropriate measures for your business industry, goals and challenges.
Capture more leads (Top of funnel)
At the top of the funnel, prospective clients often do not know anything about your business or services. The goal in this stage is to capture as many prospective clients as possible and begin categorising, prioritising and nurturing them. Autus Consulting suggests implementing the following for your business to improve conversions at this stage.

Personas and Lead Scoring
- Build buyer personas that will be used to prioritise prospective clients, dynamic lists for segmentation and targeting, and in dynamic content in emails and landing pages to improve conversions.
- Establish rules to score prospective clients based on how well they align with your target audience (e.g. custom attributes and personas) and their level of engagement with your emails, website, social posts, etc.
Audience Segmentation
- Create dynamic lists that automatically update when prospects meet criteria for advanced targeting. Examples for this funnel stage include lists by service interest, location, or client attributes.
Paid Search
- Ads focused on your offerings by service and location
- Targeted landing pages with lead-capture forms and custom auto-responder emails
- Google Ads integration and campaign setup to capture end-to-end ROI
Paid Social
- Speciality-specific ads via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Targeted landing pages with lead-capture forms and custom auto-responder emails
- Campaign setup to capture end-to-end ROI
Blog / Expertise Marketing
- SEO-optimised blog posts that highlight your subject matter expertise with lead-capture forms to acquire subscribers
- Automated RSS emails that deliver published content daily, weekly or monthly to keep subscribers engaged
Organic Content
- Gated content pieces by speciality service (e.g. client education, testimonials, etc.)
- SEO-optimised pages on your website with lead-capture forms and custom auto-responder emails
Organic Social
- Connect social media accounts to your CRM, Sales and Marketing Automation Platform and set up listening feeds to monitor industry, competitors, and how people are interacting with your business
- Build lead scoring rules and automations based on social interactions
- Create a library of Media Center assets with trackable links that trigger automations
Nurture and prioritise qualified leads (Middle of funnel)
In the middle of the funnel, the goal is to convert prospective clients into scheduled appointments through nurturing. Every touchpoint is designed to further segment and prioritise them based on their attributes, interests and behaviours, and to deliver a highly-personalised experience based on their unique needs. Autus Consulting recommends implementing the suggestions below to improve conversions.

Audience Segmentation
- Segmentation tactics in this stage will use dynamic lists focused on important prospective client activity and additional information collected using progressive-profiling forms. Examples include lists by service interest, lead score, and important page visits.
Lead Scoring
- Establish lead score thresholds that indicate which leads need additional nurturing or are candidates for more personalised follow-up.
Appointment / Consultation Booking Campaigns
- Series of emails dynamically display relevant speciality services that link to a landing page where clients can schedule an appointment
- Notifications to appointment staff confirming a client has booked
- Series of pre- and post-appointment emails to the client, providing a reminder of the appointment, directions/video meeting, and a post-appointment satisfaction survey
Pre-Appointment Email Drips
- Series of emails that prompts clients who book an appointment to complete “new client” documentation prior to their appointment
- Create Media Center assets with trackable links that trigger reminder emails if clients have not clicked through to access that documentation
- Notifications to appointment staff to make reminder calls and automated reminders to clients
Low Lead Score Nurture Drips
- Series of emails per speciality service that dynamically display content that changes based on the persona or other client attributes
- Dynamic landing pages with progressive-profiling forms to capture incremental client information for advanced segmentation/lead scoring
Traditional Outbound Email
- Individual emails with broader appeal, such as newsletters, company announcements, special offers, etc., to keep your company top of mind.
Convert more leads to sales (Bottom of funnel)
At the bottom of the funnel, the goal is to convert prospective clients into paying customers. Autus Consulting recommends the following to improve conversions at this stage of the funnel.

Audience Segmentation
- Segmentation tactics in this stage will use dynamic lists to help manage and prioritise prospective clients. Examples include lists by service interest, account size/revenue potential, and client type.
Post Appointment Campaigns By Service
- Email drips that dynamically display supplemental information based on prospect’s service interest
- Sales collateral by service (e.g. customer testimonials, service options sheets)
- Trackable Media Center links and automations to notify client reps when prospects engage with content
Follow-up Appointment Drips
- Email drips that encourage leads to schedule follow-up appointments as needed
- Notification to client rep when clients have booked
- Automated meeting confirmation and reminder emails to improve attendance
Long-Term Nurture Drips
- Series of emails designed to keep prospective clients with longer-tailed decision timelines engaged with your business
- Trackable Media Center links and automations to notify client reps when prospects engage with content
- Automated reminders to reach out by phone periodically
Re-engagement With Former Clients
- Email campaigns designed to re-engage your former clients based on new or improved service offerings.
Client Activity Notifications
Notifications via text or email when clients take (or fail to take) action, such as:
- Booking an appointment
- Opening/not opening important emails
- Viewing/not viewing important content, such as quotes/proposals
Retain and Expand (Build customers for life after the Sale)
The goal of these after-the-sale tactics is to increase the overall value of clients through upselling and cross-selling, by reducing attrition, and by turning existing clients into advocates for your company. Autus Consulting will recommend the following to improve conversions at this stage of the funnel.

Audience Segmentation
- Segmentation tactics in this stage will use dynamic lists to keep clients engaged and expand their relationship with your business. Examples include lists for related services, upcoming appointments, and client advocates.
Welcome Drips
- Series of emails introducing new clients to your company, services, benefits, etc
Client Satisfaction Campaigns
- Series of emails with feedback surveys to periodically measure client satisfaction
- Automatic segmentation of clients who are advocates or at-risk of attriting with notifications to internal team members for follow-up
Client Advocacy & Referral Campaigns
- Automatic assignment of clients with high lead scores and/or satisfaction scores to “brand advocates” lists
- Series of emails to encourage them to write a review, refer a friend, etc.
- A landing page with referral form will automatically create a new client record, then trigger a thank you email to referring client and intro email to prospective client
Cross-Sell Campaigns Per Service
- Automatic assignment of clients to dynamic lists of complementary services
- Series of emails that highlight the benefits of those offerings
- Trackable Media Center links and automations to notify when clients engage with content
Due For Service Campaign
- Series of emails based on the date of clients’ last appointment or service provision, reminding them to schedule their next appointment or some sort of service is now due or recurring agreement has been renewed…
- Automated notifications to client reps/appointment staff to follow up by phone
Birthday / Holiday Emails
- Series of emails based on client birthdays or seasonal holidays with special offers.
Here’s the kicker…
To implement the recommended funnel optimisation tactics above and others like it, Autus Consulting recommends using a Marketing Automation Platform that’s fit for purpose. We work with our clients to implement suitable CRM, Sales and Marketing Automation technology and provide a range of Digital Marketing Services to ensure you realise a significant return on your investment….you can drive the Marketing machine yourself (Do It Yourself – just buy a license and get on with it or we will provide some support to implement/train etc), or we can work with you on-going and be part of your team and take on joint responsibilities to get you results (Done With You Service), and finally, our (Done For You Service) pretty much lets you get on with running the business.
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About Autus
Autus provide Revenue Growth Platforms, Marketing & Sales Automation and Digital Marketing services to help sales and marketing personnel and teams build efficient and effective sales and marketing best practices and automate their marketing and sales processes by leveraging personalised content, various digital marketing tactics, segmentation and behaviour of their prospects and customers.
Autus recommend various products for automation, such as Active Campaign, Hubspot, Mailchimp and SharpSpring…it will vary on your requirements and budget the best option for your business.
Find out more here.
Our founder, Tom Berry, also provides selective fractional CMO services and is a member of some client boards.
Let’s keep in touch!
If our team at Autus can help advise further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our founder, Tom Berry.
