I’m going to show you the easiest method IN THE WORLD to increase your marketing funnel project proposal conversion rates.
When we submit a marketing funnel project proposal to a customer, it’s in their hands whether they buy. That’s it, that’s all you can do.
It’s like walking out of an exam. You’ve submitted your answers. Nothing else you can do but wait and pray (and in my case disappear for a few months and pick them up late after coming home from travelling).
So how can we increase the likelihood that someone will sign up to a marketing funnel project?
Well, in this 5 part series, we’re going to explore the key attributes of increasing a marketing funnel project, proposal conversion.
We’re going to increase the chance that someone buys a marketing funnel project, after reading your proposals. The 5 key steps are:
- Case study
- Cover letter
- Presentation
- Solutions
- Closing
So with that. Let’s get to our FIRST key proposal piece, case studies.
Case studies aren’t long
The biggest roadblock people see when thinking about creating case studies, is how lengthy they are.
We’re used to seeing huge, long reams of paper reports called “case study”.
Source. Part 1 of 15
Case studies aren’t long or even complex. They’re just designed to tell a story about someone who experienced the same thing as your customers.
If you want to sell more marketing funnels, get a few case studies under your belt.
Isn’t a case study basically a portfolio piece?
Not exactly. Case studies can be written about your customers and projects of course. But you can do case studies on other businesses.
As long as you are crystal clear that it’s a report and not a portfolio piece, you can write up how another business achieved a goal with similar results.
Pro tip: whip out your proposal from previous projects to write SUPER FAST case studies. You’ll see why in a bit.
You can either write these up as individual web pages or as a document to include with your proposals. You’re only going to write a few at a time and you’ll keep them. So stack a few up and keep them handy.
This is how…
Case studies start like any other piece of content. Headlines.
This is how…is one of the most powerful and popular headlines for B2B content according to BuzzSumo.
This is what [customer name] did to [get result]
This is what APAC did to keep more course members.
This is what Corkscrew did to sell courses online.
This is what WPE did to increase revenue from their email list.
We want to use the same results and language that your new customer wants.
Problem faced
What was the problem that your previous customer faced? What was it about their business that another business will recognise?
We recognise aspirational phrases (this is how…) and then we recognise our own situation through a problem.
[customer name] suffered from [problem].
They wanted to [reach goal] and [have result]. But their [problem] meant it was hard to [repeat result].
APAC had no online sales or platform to deliver online courses.
They wanted to have 50% of revenue come from online course sales. But having no online platform meant it was impossible to generate revenue online from selling courses.
Repeating results and problems looks a little weird on paper, when written down. But as long as you make it sound like a human wrote it, it’s a very powerful tactic.
Change faced
So why are they addressing this now? Why is this important or worth looking at today?
There are threats and there are opportunities in the world. We have to show why our previous customer worked to move NOW and what they faced.
It’s also good if you can use the same threats/opportunities that your current customers are facing.
When [technology change] it meant that [change in result].
We can use any kind of chance. Technological, economic or sociological. Something within those areas that changes and presents a threat or opportunity.
When their courses became so popular, it meant that they had to turn down customers and lost focus on finding new customers, because they were delivering in person.
Show what’s happening that they need to address. Not just the problems, but things are are changing outside of their control.
Knife twist
After the “change faced” section. I like to top that with a knife twist. We basically finish the sentence – And on top of all that…
I’ll research another problem or roadblock which is preventing them from achieving their goals.
On top of that, APAC needed to give time back to the owners and management (who were delivering the courses) so they could focus on running the business.
This finishes the problem section (notice how short it is) and we can move onto the solution part.
What they had
These sections are bullet points. We’ll introduce what the previous customer had before working with us. Where they started.
Traffic, leads, customers, revenue etc.
We just list out the top 3 items, which are relevant to the marketing funnel proposal. Usually leads, sales, traffic.
When we first met APAC they had
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A list of over 5000 who had never bought online
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No online delivery method
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No recurring sales from online revenue
What they have
Then we explore what they’ve got now. What we helped them get. Sames process of introducing the bullet points and using the top 3 results they now have.
Pro tip: Use the same bullet points from above and do a before/after comparrison for extra impact.
Now APAC has
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Over 2000 monthly subscribers to their online course
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Fully functioning LMS system with online course delivery and payment systems
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$20 000 a month revenue from recurring online sales
Solution built
We’re going to show the solution that we built for the previous customer. Again, it’s not massively detailed. But it’s a highlight of what they’re getting.
If you can use the exact same language as your new customer i.e. LMS or funnel etc. you’ll score well.
We built our LMS funnel for them which included
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Sales automation to increase conversions
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Easy content management for new courses
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Online reporting for delivery and consumption
Benefits
We’re starting to wrap up the case study and to finish, we’re going to show how our customer’s life is better.
Benefits are how your LIFE is better. Results are measurable differences. Features, believe it or not are vital to a proposal too. That’s the solution.
Don’t listen to what people say about features vs. benefits. Features are vital to the sales process. Don’t try to get too clever, features are important which is why we include them in the solution section.
APAC now has/sees
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More people buying with lower expenses
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Time back to management and not on delivery
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Increased online revenue with higher margins
Social proof
Finally, we like to wrap up the proposal with social proof. This will either be a testimonial quote or a screenshot of a result.
For example, a traffic increase or increase in email subscribers would be worth showing a screenshot of.
Increase marketing funnel project sales
So there we have it.
If you want to increase your marketing funnel proposal close rates, use case studies.
Include a headline introducing what you’re going to show them. Then move on to the problems faced and changes happening that they need to address.
Work through what they had and what you did to solve it. Show what they have now and present this to your customers.
Include case studies in your proposals and see how they improve conversion rates. They’re also awesome to send over to customers as a talking point.
Are you going to include a case study in your next proposal? Is there anything I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments below.
