Whether you know it or not, your business has a marketing funnel. It’s a useful tool for breaking down the decision-making process that leads go through before purchasing, thereby allowing you to market to them more efficiently.
If you’re interested in optimising yours and bringing in more customers, you’ll want to get familiar with the funnel and the various stages people go through before they convert into a sale.
The Marketing Funnel
A wide audience of potential leads enter at the top of the funnel, and as they progress through the intermediary stages, the number of people interacting with your business decreases. Finally, at the bottom, you have a smaller set of people that turn into paying customers.
In a perfect world, your funnel would look like a cylinder – no one lost, and every lead converted. Of course, it never works this way, but as a marketer, what you’re trying to do is streamline your funnel so that each stage retains as many customers as possible and reduce areas where the flow bottlenecks or is lost.
The Stages
The funnel has gone through a few different formulations since the different stages were first defined over one hundred years ago. Right now, there is no definitive standard set of terms, but the concepts behind what is going on in each section of the funnel are quite similar. We’ve tried to draw on the most commonly used language and ideas for this breakdown.
So, without further adieu:
The Top-of-the-Funnel (Awareness and Lead Generation)
At the top of the funnel, you generate your leads. This is the widest part and what unifies everyone here is that they are aware of your brand.
Your objective is to bring in as many leads as possible. This doesn’t mean cold-call campaigns – the days of running through the phone book calling people at random are long gone. In today’s world, this is where you clearly define the problem your product or service solves and target potential customers who want what you have to offer via social media, google ads, or word of mouth, as well as by 21st-century marketings best friend: search engine optimisation.
If you utilise keywords in your website content that match your target audience’s Google search terms, you can start drawing them in and building relationships with them through organic traffic.
Middle (Lead Nurture):
Once your leads know who you are and recognise which of their problems you might be able to solve, they start to get curious. The middle of the funnel is all about information gathering. Content marketing is going to come in handy here too.
- Interest/Information: Your customers have a sense of the problem your business can solve for them, now they start to seek out more details. Offer them quality content with further details about their problem and the potential solutions you can provide.
- Consideration: Your leads that have made it this far are on board are starting to get serious. They’ll likely compare the alternative products or services that could help them, and they’ll be looking at you and your competitors in more detail.
Depending on what you sell, deals and offers may give you a leg up here, but from a marketing perspective, you’ll want to focus on continuing to nurture your relationship. Free trials can be a great option here, as can continuing to produce targeted content.
- Intent: This is the gateway to the bottom of the funnel. Intent means your prospective customers have taken actions to demonstrate they intend to buy your product or service, e.g. placing an item in their shopping cart or filling out an online booking form. As a marketer, when your customers reach this point, it’s a great opportunity to drive home the message that your product or service is best.
Bottom (Sales):
- Evaluation/Commitment: As your buyers pass through the final stage, cost comes into sharper focus. Before clicking ‘purchase’, they generally pause to weigh up their alternatives one last time. At this point, make sure they understand why your offer is excellent and nurture your customers’ positive impression in the final moments of their purchasing journey. The design of your purchase page can include reviews, visuals, or a sprinkling of content to help with this before they finally buy.
- Purchase: They made it; but there’s still more you can do, and your post-purchase behaviour may still grow customer loyalty and get repeat business or have them recommending your services to a friend. Follow up with customers and get their thoughts on their experience with you, provide content that helps them make the best use of your product or service, and make your support team available. Aim to make them brand ambassadors, so they bring others to the top of the funnel.
Knowing what your audience is looking for at each stage in their purchasing journey is crucial if you’re going to market to them effectively. The marketing funnel offers a grounded understanding of the different considerations your leads are making as they traverse the path towards conversion.
