Closed loop marketing is a form of marketing that uses statistics and insights from closed loop reporting. In other words, the sales team of an organization sheds light on what happened with their leads with a marketing team. It allows the marketing team to gain a better understanding of their best and lead advantageous lead sources. In this article, we’ll give a more in-depth assessment of closed loop marketing and why businesses should be using it.
It’s essential for the decision makers of any business to keep tabs on their bottom line. Since marketing and sales are such vital aspects of generating revenue, closed loop marketing offers businesses a way to improve their marketing efforts, and in turn, their sales.
What is Closed Loop Marketing?
Closed loop marketing involves the process of collecting and assessing data information about marketing in order to determine what efforts are effective – and just as importantly, what efforts are not effective – at attracting new customers. In order for this form of marketing to work, the sales team and the marketing team of a company must work together to determine how buyers landed on their website and what they did after they landed on it (whether they did or didn’t make a purchase).
How Closed Loop Marketing Works
There are four basic steps involved in closed loop marketing.
- Visitor Arrives on a Website. The first step of the loop begins when a visitor lands on your website and begins browsing through its pages. Cookies or IP tracking are used to determine what it was that lead the visitor to your site; a PPC campaign, social media, or an email, for example. It also tracks the path the visitor takes while he or she is on your website.
- Assess the Visitors Actions. This step involves analyzing the behavior of a visitor while he or she is on a website. What pages is the visitor browsing? Did he or she download any documents? Which products did the visitor purchase? Basically, this step helps a business understand which path drives the most sales. The information gathered in this step can be used to improve a visitors experience on a website. It can also be used to optimize the site in order to encourage faster sales and better conversion rates.
- Lead Generation. One of the most critical steps in closed loop marketing is turning a visitor into a lead. Ideally, people have arrived at your website via a landing page. The landing page will hopefully entice the visitor to enter important information (via a lead capture form) in return for something valuable that the landing page has offered. Once a visitor inputs information, he or she is no longer an anonymous visitor, but a lead. Important details can be used to differentiate leads that are qualified for marketing or for sales.
- Lead Becomes a Buyer. The last step of closed loop marketing involves determining how visits were turned into sales. Here, businesses can find out which marketing channels lead to the most buyers. They can also find out if there are ways to optimize the process for other sources.
Tools Needed for Closed Loop Marketing
In order for a business to set up a closed loop marketing system, the right tools are needed. The following tools will help to make closed loop marketing more effective:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software. This software synchronizes the actions of your marketing, customer support and sales teams.
- Marketing Software. This software maintains records of marketing data and makes that data actionable. It provides the information that is needed to optimize campaigns, enable lead conversions, and highlight results.
How Closed Loop Marketing Benefits Businesses
Closed loop marketing offers a number of substantial benefits for businesses.
- Simplifies the process of converting leads and attaining customers.
- Encourages the sales and marketing team to work together.
- Provides a better understanding of marketing channels.
- Improves visitors’ experiences on a business’ website.
- Reduces costs per lead.
- Allows for improved targeted paid advertising.
- Shortens the sales cycle.
- Targets and qualifies the right leads.
Closed loop marketing has been proven to successfully improve marketing efforts and boost sales for businesses.
