The Minimum Viable Funnel (MVF)

Why Do So Many of Us Struggle with Online Marketing to Drive Growth?

I’ve been in the online marketing growth space for over 15 years.  One question I hear a lot is, “What is the one thing I can do to improve my online marketing?”

The irony is that online marketing is a process customized to specific situations…

It’s not “one thing” but a series of steps without any specific guidance, which can lead to other conflicts.

The following stats highlight this last issue well:

• 97% of marketers use content marketing as part of their marketing strategy but only 40% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy

So… what sort of strategy are they following when they market?

Is it spray and pray? (NOT a viable strategy!)

• 73% of viewers admit to skimming blog posts, while 27% consume them thoroughly.  Now compare that with 44% who say they typically consume three to five pieces of content before engaging with a vendor.

So… how does the marketer effectively connect with their buyer’s journey if there is no strategy to follow?

Where is their buyer in their buyer’s journey?

How is the marketer both messaging and bonding with their buyer if they don’t know what information the buyer is seeking?

• The majority of B2B content marketers expect their budget to increase yet over half of B2B marketers (55%) confess to being uncertain about what effective content marketing really entails.

So… if they don’t know what their activities yield, how do they know whether to increase or decrease their spending? 

How do they justify this increase? FOMO?

Let’s focus this week on building a simple and effective way to address this question and refine this entire process.

First, let’s define a strategic process, which we will call the “Minimum Viable Funnel (MVF).”

What are the minimum viable elements needed for an effective content marketing funnel?

1. Online traffic

2. A place for the traffic to land

3. Content that connects with the traffic

4. The ability to follow-up with the traffic

Second, let’s ensure we have tools that can track the flow of traffic within this funnel.

The simplest is GA4.  If you are using ad platforms, simply combine the insight from those reporting platforms and correlate it with your GA4 data.

If we want to add complexity, we can leverage CRM tracking of leads on our key pages.

A very good (but somewhat expensive tool) is Hubspot.  We’ll be able to see how our audience; a) becomes a lead, b) engages with specific pieces of content and c) we can set triggers to immediately follow up at specific activity points

Let’s assume we now have the analytics wrapped around our minimum viable funnel.

Lastly, we need someone with the skill set to interpret the data and generate actionable insights that align to guiding us to our desired outcome (which tends to be B2B sales revenue).

The MVF is a tried-and-true process. 

Most of us have gaps in our online marketing and many times, these remain hidden, decaying our ability to drive sustained growth.  However, the MVF provides clarity, minimizes the overwhelm which leads to generating the insights that drive refinement and growth.

Here are some key tactics to consider in your MVF

• Traffic – after working with numerous B2B clients, given the inherent time and resource constraints in a campaign, paid traffic, most specifically working with a lead gen company that spends time educating the lead ahead of time, provides the most effective awareness.

• Landing Page – Gated B2B content demand is strong.  In fact, demand for it has increased 77% since 2019.

• Content that Bonds – according to Convince and Convert, content formats like Playbooks, Case Studies, and Trend Reports are strongly linked with immediate buying decisions.  Conversely, formats like Tips & Tricks Guides, Courses, and e-Kits signal less immediate intent.

• Follow up – While I don’t have a specific stat to share, I can speak anecdotally about the value of follow up.  I would suggest, from experience, that upwards of 80% of the desired outcome comes from a value-driven follow up process… and that means more than 1 outreach!

I’ll leave off with this… while I can dig deeper into this process, the key takeaway should be this, implementing a strategic "Minimum Viable Funnel" (MVF) can bridge the gaps in our online marketing efforts, driving sustainable growth through targeted traffic, engaging content and a robust, value-driven follow up process.

And if a minimum viable product is good enough for him, then it’s good enough for us.