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The secret to ongoing optimization and growth-promoting is the utilization of marketing data. This article describes how top-of-funnel activities can be improved and expenditures can be gradually decreased by using bottom-of-funnel analytics.
Feeding top-of-funnel operations with bottom-of-funnel data
I’ve written about how growth loops, which let the output of the loop be reinvested in the loop, can be more beneficial than funnels. Information travels in both directions along the growth loop, allowing marketers to leverage bottom-of-funnel data (conversions) to inform top-of-funnel actions.
- Reduce purchase or conversion expenses.
- Boost interaction with customers.
- Recognize marketing attribution.
Growth loops are an excellent tool for team building and directing marketing, but it’s crucial to understand how data is collected and moved using the funnel concept. Thus, in this case, I’ll employ top- and bottom-of-the-funnel strategies. Additionally, I’ll just make use of client data.
In order to accomplish this retrofitting, we must enhance the loop’s input by using data from its output. The result represented by bottom-of-funnel data will be used as an input for top-of-funnel operations.
Although more technical colleagues will be heavily involved, marketers benefit the most. We should have working knowledge of how this flow of data works and be involved in these conversations to better assess how this impacts both overall customer experience and their day-to-day activities.
How data travels from the output at the bottom of the funnel back into the input at the top of the funnel
Growth teams created growth loops as a means of encouraging communication and prioritizing among several teams. But we’ll also use it to demonstrate to marketers how to feed back data from “bottom-of-funnel” campaigns into “top-of-funnel” ones.
This is an illustration of a growth loop, see how consumer data moves through it:
1. New and returning clients:
The first characteristics and behavioral data points about new users that are obtained through acquisition channels—like websites, app registrations, or form submissions—are added to the central customer database.
Returning clients already have their information stored in the customer database. Additionally, this is where the UTM campaign tracking tag is used to gather the first touch data for attributional purposes.
2. Enriching customer data:
Assuring you have gathered the bare minimum of information needed for activation (email address, phone number, and agreement to receive marketing emails) is what this means for new clients. Data can begin to be enriched through activation, such as email exchanges.
In order to further personalize future messages with returning clients, this entails gathering additional information about them. Several digital platforms (email, website, social media presence, etc.) are utilized to interact with clients and gather this data.
Through UTM tracking tags, “middle-of-the-funnel” attribution data is also gathered. Every piece of information has to return to the center’s customer database.
3. Customer conversion data
Depending on factors like business models, conversion data can take many different forms. It can include form sign-ups, quality time spent on the app, qualified leads created, and sales (both online and offline). Here, non-conversion data (cart or journey abandonments) will also be gathered.
This information may originate from a variety of sources (including ones not affiliated with the channels utilized in earlier loop steps). This implies that conversion data may not update instantly. In these situations, data flows through the loop and into the subsequent phase by using a proxy at this point (until you receive the true conversion data).
Why is fueling the growth loop important?:
Reduce the cost per acquisition/action
You can use top-of-funnel activities to help you segment a new campaign. For instance, create lookalike audiences based on data of customers who have converted instead of starting with a broader, not yet qualified audience. You can also use this same data to create exclusion lists, thus avoiding spending marketing dollars with customers who have already converted.
Campaigns with a more targeted, customized top-of-funnel approach
Use different messaging for those who have already converted versus those who have started the process but have yet to convert (like shopping cart abandonment in an ecommerce use case). This makes it easier to meet the customer where they are in their purchase process, including taking action for non-conversion (such as journey or cart abandonment, disengagement, etc).
Attribution insights
This approach can help you better understand marketing attribution as the first and last touches are captured — plus everything in between. Since attribution data comes from UTM tracking tags, marketers can help in this area. Attribution data can be valuable when defining which role each of your channels plays throughout the customer journey or buying cycle and pointing out where the customer experience may be broken.