Your marketing bucket, funnel and taps

Your marketing bucket, funnel and taps

Whilst tidying up the study and organising the many books, I rediscovered Bryony Thomas’ ‘Watertight Marketing – Delivering long-term sales results’.  I read this for the first time back in 2013 and have dipped back in frequently over the years. With the current pandemic causing havoc for many businesses, this book offers solace, with an easy to understand concept and practical solutions to help you get your marketing watertight.

It’s much more powerful to visualise your marketing operation as being made of three parts:

  1. your Bucket: those things that come together to keep your customers your customers.
  2. your Funnels: the tools and techniques you use to channel that interest and move people through the process to try you out.
  3. your Taps: ways of generating interest in your offer.

Only when you have these three things in place and lined up is it possible to secure ongoing, profitable sales for your business.

Traditional sales funnels are misleading; they imply that if you pour water in from the top, then every drop comes out at the bottom. Bryony’s concept gets you to change your thinking – stop thinking about pouring more into the top and instead look from the bottom up and identify and then fix any leaks! With less leaks you won’t be needing to pour so much in the top to get the same, or better results.

Identifying your leaks

  1. Forgotten customers
  2. Poor on-boarding
  3. No emotional connection
  4. No gateway
  5. No critical approval
  6. No proof
  7. Information overload
  8. Not representing your business for how they’re looking
  9. Not representing where they’re looking
  10. Not there when they’re looking
  11. Not known by who they ask
  12. Not known for what you do
  13. No emotional impact

There are also four foundation leaks: 

  1. The wrong kind of work
  2. Unused marketing muscle
  3. No familiarity to work from
  4. Expensive exhaustion

    Bryony has recently brought out an updated version of the book and I whole-heartedly recommend you read it. Regardless of what business you’re in, this book will help you take control of your business growth.  It will inspire you and provide clear, practical guidance to deliver long-term sales results.

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