Matt Brown, Head of Affiliates at Greenlight, will be speaking at this year's PerformanceIN LIVE (PI LIVE) event on the 16th October, where he will be joining a panel to discuss the topic of The Changing Of The Performance Marketing Funnel. PI LIVE is the world-leading meeting point for performance marketers, which sees experts tackle the most crucial industry developments, providing a platform for industry advancement through open discussion around all facets of paid-by-performance advertising.
The Changing of the Performance Marketing Funnel
For years, digital marketers have prescribed to the notion of a marketing and sales funnel where leads enter the top and customers emerge from the bottom. We've created and optimised content and experiences for the different stages of this funnel, and tested tools and tactics to maximise it. As newer digital marketing channels and tactics emerged, the standard, linear funnel is no longer, and it doesn't just end at the initial customer sale - so, what happens after? We need to pay more attention, and support customer retention. The marketing funnel as we know it is over.
The changing of the marketing pre-purchase and post-purchase stages has meant that marketers need a complete view of the entire customer lifecycle; as such, multichannel, multi-touch, and multi-path customer journeys are the new marketing funnel.
Marketers must now own the complete journey of the customer lifecycle, and not just think about cherry-picking touchpoints along the way. The end goal is no longer to simply convert a lead into a customer, it's about maximising the lifetime value of loyal customers who will come back again and again. To do this, marketers will need to acknowledge other areas, including:
- Retention: To keep a customer beyond the initial purchase
- Expansion: To garner more sales
- Advocacy: To have customers promoting your business and bringing you more customers
The new age of customer lifecycle marketing, which no longer adheres to a one-size-fits-all funnel, journey, or customer experience, should include tactics such as:
- Gift card solutions
- Remarketing and/or overlay solutions
- Social media
- Lead generation
- Affiliate retention schemes
Takeaways
The biggest challenge for marketers in the coming year will be to deliver personalised, relevant, multichannel journeys that speak to the unique needs and desires of prospects - all while being compliant to the GDPR.
Solutions after the initial purchase are on the increase, including cross-selling, upselling, and referrals.
When it comes to customer retention, some advertisers feel returning customers are not as valuable from a commercial point - but why? They add more value long term, and with new publishers coming into the mix, this will be better supported going forward.
See Matt Brown speak on the The Changing of the Performance Marketing Funnel panel on 16th October at 12h10 on the Main Stage.
