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Aligning Your Digital Marketing with the Equipment Sales Funnel

By Parker Hutchins Jun 18th 2020

In this article

Equipment

1. Bring qualified, low-funnel traffic to your website with digital advertising & SEO

Search volume for equipment keywords is increasing, meaning there’s more opportunity to reach interested customers in your market. Use targeted search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts to capture and convert as many of these relevant searches as possible.

Businesses who rank in both the paid and organic positions receive 92% of total clicks. Aim to naturally rank for key content, plus show ads for your most valuable and competitive search terms. Use a coordinated SEO and SEM approach to ensure your bases are covered and you fully expand your reach.

2. Use website updates and SEO tactics to keep users engaged on-site

Once users arrive on your website, how are you engaging them? Start by auditing the responsiveness, mobile-friendliness, and overall user-experience of your website. Regardless of the device or browser you’re using, your website should be easy to use and navigate. Spend time interacting with your online inventory to make sure your feeds are working correctly and your search and filtering capabilities are intuitive.

On an ongoing basis, produce relevant content and continue to update your website features and functionality. Use SEO tactics to ensure your website is easily understood by search engines as well as humans, including managing your off-site listings.

3. Generate conversions with strong CTAs

To nudge visitors on your website to convert, make sure your website has strong, prominent calls-to-action (CTAs) on each landing page. Do another audit of your site with conversions in mind—test forms, click-to-call functionality, and other CTAs on your website.

In our experience with equipment dealers, we see that roughly 80-85% of qualified leads come through phone calls. Take the time to test your phone numbers and make sure leads are able to contact you. Call each location and ask for service, then call and ask for sales. Audit the process as if you’re a customer to ensure the lead experience is smooth and not preventing leads from entering your pipeline.

4. Qualify conversions into leads with digital sales tools

Once you’re sure that calls and forms are being appropriately routed and there are no gaps in your lead handling process, leverage a customer relationship management (CRM) platform or organize your internal processes to pre-qualify and follow-up with each lead.

Use website analytics and user-level tracking software to better understand your leads and get more from this follow-up. Sales intelligence tools can help you understand who is in-market, where they came from, and what they’re interested in. Use these insights to improve the effectiveness of your sales conversations.

5. Convert leads into customers & continue to nurture post-sale

With a full pipeline and visibility into the online shopping activity of each lead, salespeople can now focus their efforts on turning more leads into sales. At this stage in the funnel, provide additional information, product demonstrations, and walkthroughs one-on-one.

Once your prospect becomes a customer, don’t neglect the post-sale and retention process. Continue to nurture and engage your customers to generate service, rental, and repeat sales opportunities.

Get More from Your Digital Marketing

Aligning your digital marketing strategy with the complete sales funnel will help ensure you’re converting more of the traffic you’re generating. If you’d like help creating an end-to-end marketing strategy, give us a call. As a Google Certified Partner with more than 10 years of experience in the heavy equipment industry, we can work with you to customize a marketing strategy focused on sales and conversions, not just clicks.