The marketing automation strategy session.

An incomplete marketing process is a revenue leak. Every gap in the funnel is a place where a real buyer who could have purchased instead disappears, usually quietly, with no visible error.

• A multi-channel top of funnel that does the actual attracting.
• Database segmentation that holds up under real traffic.
• Downloadable content the right person actually wants.
• Email programs that nurture the middle and bottom of funnel.
• A defined Marketing Qualified Lead criterion that sales believes.
• A clean handoff from marketing to sales.
• A welcome sequence for new customers.
• Upsell and cross-sell programs for existing customers.

The funnel is a useful drawing. It is not a description of how a buyer moves. Buyers go fast, they go slow, they regress, they go silent for a quarter and then arrive ready to sign. A program built for the drawing fails the moment the buyer behaves like a person.

Misaligned marketing creates leaky funnels in three predictable ways. A real problem creates a real need. The right person is attracted by the marketing. Poor nurturing loses their attention. And a premature push to sales results in a disqualification that did not have to happen.

The decision-making model that matters here is not invented marketing language. It is human psychology. Every individual is on their own journey. They are at different stages of making a decision. The job of the program is to meet them where they actually are.

• Status Quo. Everything is good. Nothing is moving.
• Disruption. Something is not good. A reason to look up appears.
• Research. What could make me feel good again. Comparing options begins.
• Deliberation. Which option should I pick. The shortlist forms.
• Decision. This option will make me feel okay. Commitment lands.

Three role types matter and they are different audiences inside the same account. The Decision Maker is usually executive level and is reading the strategic frame. The Influencer is usually a manager or director and is reading the operational fit. The User is the person doing the work and is reading the day-to-day experience. A program that addresses only one of those audiences is a program that gets caught by the other two.

For each of them the question is the same. Who is the person. What matters to them. What would cause them to need us. How will we help them. Why are we better than the other options.

There are two things happening at the same time and they are not the same thing. There is what we are marketing, which is the program we built. And there is the buyer's individual journey, which is the experience they actually had. Aligned, the two produce ROI. Misaligned, the two produce a revenue leak. The job of the program is to keep them aligned in a population of buyers who are individually unpredictable.

With Act-On the audience is always being tracked, anonymous and known. A form submit or an email click is the moment the anonymous record becomes a person with a history. Attract with content. Capture with forms and clicks. Then read the behavioral signal that follows.

Lead scoring is how the platform translates behavior into a usable signal. The exact point values matter less than the discipline of distinguishing engagement from noise. The rough shape we use as a starting point, evaluated over the last ninety days, looks like the table below. Tune it to the program. Then leave it alone long enough to actually read the result.

• Sent a message: 0.
• Opened a message: 1.
• Clicked on a message: 5.
• Submitted a form: 10.
• Downloaded media: 5 to 20.
• Visited a landing page: 2.
• Visited a web page: 8.
• Registered for a webinar: 5.
• Attended a webinar: 35.
• Clicked on an organic search listing: 5 to 10.
• Clicked on a paid search ad: 25.

A lead score of zero to ten is a lookup. Eleven to twenty-nine is awareness. Thirty to thirty-nine is consideration. Forty and above is a Marketing Qualified Lead. The score is not a vanity number. It is the rule that controls what the buyer hears next, because the next message has to match where they actually are.

Top of funnel programs disrupt, attract, and capture. The messaging is problem oriented. The channel mix is multi-channel: email, social, blogs, paid. Start with three to five messages on a one to two week cadence. Grow to twelve to twenty-four messages over a three to six month program. The content is the kind of material that earns the click of someone who has just realized they have a problem. Ten tips. Five ways to improve. Statistics that name a pattern they recognize.

Middle of funnel programs nurture the research stage. The messaging is solution oriented. Start with three to five messages and grow toward twelve to twenty-four messages on a one to two week cadence. The content is solutions to pain and problems, infographics, statistics, and social proof. The frame is "you have ABC problem and we have XYZ solution," delivered with enough specificity that the reader believes you understand their situation.

Bottom of funnel programs convert deliberation into decision. The messaging is sales oriented. Start with three to five messages, grow to six to eight, on a one to two week cadence. The content answers "why choose us." Customer references. Product offering. Demo request. Appointment request. The discount, when it appears, appears here.

A Marketing Qualified Lead at forty plus has to be acted on. Source list equals MQL. Use it to create alerts. Target individual reps. Send to a specific person. If the platform is integrated with a CRM, create a task for the assigned record owner. Train the sales team to respond to behavioral information. The platform can produce the signal all day. If the receiving end does not respond, the program is decorative.

Marketing owns awareness, interest, and consideration. Sales owns the moment of decision. The buyer owns the whole journey. The platform exists to keep the three in step. That is the work. Everything else is mechanics.