Today, the most admired brands are built on social. From heritage to emerging DTC brands, they break through the endless scroll of the feed, moving culture forward, connecting on an emotional level and getting consumers to engage and share. Those same brands invest millions in nurturing relationships with customers, prospects and lapsed users, convincing them to spend more and buy more frequently.
But over the years, a divide has emerged. Marketers have come to view social as the top of the funnel, measured on vanity metrics or brand studies—miles away from customer relationship management (CRM), which lives at the bottom of the funnel and is measured by incrementality and transactions. This outdated framework is holding us back, and disjointed organizational structures seep into the customer experience.
That’s why the traditional marketing funnel needs a rewrite. Marketers must invest in the mid-funnel journey and closing the mid-funnel gap, building relationships by connecting social, commerce and CRM. Otherwise, their disjointed org charts reap inefficiencies, tarnishing consumer relations and thwarting business outcomes.
While closing the mid-funnel gap to ensure your org structure isn’t “showing” is easier said than done, here are some ways to get started.
Explore the power of social commerce
The social-CRM divide must evolve to account for how online shopping and social media have changed consumer behavior. With the collapse of the funnel, consumers can go from discovery to purchase all with the tap of a finger. No longer are consumers on a linear journey. And no longer can marketers create an artificial divide between social and CRM, throwing consumers over the proverbial fence.
For an example of how the divide can rear its ugly head, a company could have duplicate profiles for the same person, one generated from social and the other from past sales, with customer information split between the accounts. Without breaking down the funnel, the brand can’t address that error, and the customer will experience friction, maybe even driving them away.
And without breaking down organizational divides, brands can’t step into the full potential of social commerce, a sweeping trend expected to reach $80 billion by 2025 that’s quickly grabbing consumer attention. In fact, 61% of U.S. consumers under the age of 25 completed a purchase entirely on social in 2021, and this number grows to 64% when we look at all social media users globally.
