3 reasons why your business needs closed-loop marketing

The Celts are well-known for their intricate and decorative knot work. Though individual Celtic knots have a variety of meanings, their symbolism often relates to closing the loop -- the idea that the beginning of a topic, experience, or story is connected to the end, and vice versa.

While the ancient Celts probably didn't envision a future where the entire world would be connected by an invisible digital network, the idea of closing the loop remains relevant. In closed-loop marketing, you're tying together your marketing and sales force so they can use data and strategies based on each other's results.

Closed-loop marketing connects the beginning of a campaign, the sales process, and the results. 

Turning the buying cycle into a loop

Examine the ways in which visitors first engage with your business, then follow them through the buying cycle to the point of purchase. In most cases, you'll see a version of what HubSpot describes in terms of the buying cycle.

The prospect visits your website and consumes your content. The site uses a cookie to "tag" the prospect and follow his or her activity. The user types his or her contact information into an online form, which is sent to your automated system. When that user makes a purchase, you know exactly how the lead was originally captured.

Essentially, you're tracking your customers through the loop. Your marketing team contributes to your sales team, and vice versa.

So what can closed-loop marketing help your business do?

1. Understand your audience

If you know how your audience behaves after landing on your site, you can better understand each prospect's traits. From there, you can tweak your content and lead-nurturing strategy to suit your audience instead of guessing.

For instance, you might notice that your prospects often leave your website after visiting a specific page. Your internet marketing agency can help you identify the problem with that part of your website so you don't continue to lose prospects.

>> For more insight on how to how you can better understand your audience and tailor content to meet your customers' needs, check out our article "Understanding the buyer's journey: Why timing really is everything."

2. Forecast accurate goals

Forecasting and goal-setting are essential parts of the marketing and sales process. However, if your numbers are too far off the mark, you've lost the full benefit they might have imparted.

Knowing how your prospects, leads, and customers behave throughout the buying cycle allows you to more accurately predict their future behaviors. Since anticipating consumer behavior is a complex and often misunderstood process, you need a powerful software program to help you do so effectively.

Better forecasts can benefit all departments of your business. For instance, your accounting department can allocate funds more accurately, which helps your firm remain solvent.

Just like a weather forecast can help you prepare for changing conditions, forecasting
accurate marketing goals can deliver more successful campaigns. 

3. Improve lead management and lead nurturing

Attracting leads to your website is only the start of the loop. You have to usher your prospects through the other stages if you want to make the sale. The data supplied by closed loop reporting will help you track your leads and nurture them more effectively.

For example, if you work with an online marketing agency, its expertise might help might discover during data analysis that certain landing pages increase conversion rates by X percent. You can use that information to revise your other landing pages to more closely resemble the one that performs best.

Closed-loop marketing and reporting are an essential part of aligning marketing campaigns, sales tactics, and overall results. To learn more about building well-rounded and successful business-to-business campaigns, get you free copy our B2B Guide to Inbound Marketing.

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