As a business owner, you’re constantly being told that you need to market, market, market. But have you ever felt like your marketing efforts just aren’t paying off the way you hoped? You’re putting in the work on social media, ads, events, and more…yet the results seem lackluster.
If this sounds familiar, today’s post is for you. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Kristi Mitchell, a marketing strategist who believes the #1 reason many businesses struggle to see returns from marketing is due to a lack of an overarching strategy.
During our conversation, Kristi broke down her brilliant 4-step marketing funnel framework. More importantly, she explained how each stage of the funnel directly relates back to the centerpiece of your online presence: your website.
The 4 Stages of Kristi’s Marketing Funnel Framework
At its core, Kristi’s framework categorizes all of your marketing efforts into four distinct “buckets”: Attract, Convert, Nurture, and Close. Let’s dive into each one and how it ties back to your website’s role.
Stage 1: Attract – Optimize for Search to Draw Your Ideal Audience
The attract stage focuses on getting in front of new eyeballs and making people aware of your brand, products or services. While social media outreach plays a part here, Kristi emphasizes the importance of using your website as a powerful attractant tool. Specifically, she recommends optimizing your website for search engine traffic through strategic keyword usage and SEO best practices. When done well, it allows ideal prospects to find you when searching online for solutions you offer.
Stage 2: Convert – Irresistible Lead Magnets Grow Your Email List
The next stage aims to convert those new visitors into leads by getting them to supply their contact information, usually an email address. According to Kristi, one of the most effective ways to drive conversions through your website is by offering an irresistible free opt-in incentive, also known as a lead magnet. Having each lead magnet live on its own dedicated landing page makes it easy to share and drive traffic directly to those pages from various marketing channels.
Stage 3: Nurture – Blogs & Email Marketing Build the “Know, Like & Trust” Factor
Now that someone’s a new lead, the nurture stage focuses on continuing to share value and deepen the relationship over time. Kristi says this is where your website’s blog and email marketing systems become invaluable. The website is critical for getting people onto your email list so you can nurture them through consistent, helpful emails that establish your trusted expertise. A blog feeds into these efforts by giving you a constant stream of fresh content to share while reinforcing your authority.
Stage 4: Close – Testimonials & Case Studies Help Seal the Deal
At the bottom of the funnel, the close stage aims to turn that lead into a paying customer or client. While Kristi admits she’s not a sales coach, she does emphasize the power of using your website to make the final conversion easier. Testimonials and case studies scattered throughout relevant pages help people envision the potential success they could experience. This reinforces the essential trust factor that nudges someone over the finish line.
The Costly Mistake of Neglecting Your Website’s Role
As you can see, no matter which stage of the marketing funnel you’re focused on, your website plays an integral part. Yet Kristi finds that far too many business owners severely neglect and underutilize their website. Some seem to think that because people don’t find them directly through the website initially, that it’s unimportant. However, this outdated thinking is flawed. Your website is the central hub for your marketing – it absolutely must stay current with updated information about your offers.
The hard truth? If your website is out-of-date and lacking key elements, it’s effectively sabotaging your entire marketing funnel and ability to convert visitors into customers. Kristi is blunt that it makes no sense to waste money driving traffic to an outdated, ineffective website.
The Simple Solution: Make Incremental Website Updates
The good news is that Kristi has an easy, actionable tip for ensuring your website works in harmony with your marketing efforts: commit to making incremental updates over time. Websites can feel really big, overwhelming and expensive, which contributes to people neglecting them. But if you break it down into smaller tasks and chip away little by little, it’s manageable.
Kristi’s advice is to make a list of all the mini website projects you need to tackle, such as updating services/pricing, refreshing photos/graphics, adding new testimonials/case studies, or revising copy. Even doing these tweaks once a quarter can go a long way for improving your website’s effectiveness as a marketing asset. Small updates over time also help from an SEO perspective.
The bottom line? If you’re serious about wanting better marketing results and ROI, you must treat your website as the vital hub for all your promotional efforts. Don’t fall into the trap of putting it perpetually on the back-burner until you can afford a full redesign. Start making those smaller, consistent updates today.
By continually optimizing your website to attract the right visitors, capture leads, nurture relationships and reinforce your credibility, it will become the powerful marketing force it’s meant to be. And those marketing wins you’ve been chasing will finally be in reach.
Ready to see Kristi’s full 4-stage framework in action? Listen to our full podcast interview!
That’s a wrap for this post! Let me know in the comments: What’s one mini website update you can make this week to uplevel your marketing engine?
