The tried-and-true marketing funnels that are displayed throughout the internet include free e-books, webinars, video courses and guides on almost any and every topic you can think of.
The truth is, marketing funnel are everywhere, and they should be implemented in your business to help it grow. This article will outline what a true marketing funnel is, the components that make up a marketing funnel and the types of audience members that fit within the funnel.
What Is a Marketing Funnel?
According to Power Digital Marketing, a marketing funnel is a collection of stages that prospective customers move through in order to reach your desired outcome – this might be making a purchase on your website, signing up for a webinar or filling out a form to contact you for more information.
If the goal is for a potential customer to make a purchase on your website, then a marketing funnel would be purposely designed to help guide them through the buyer’s journey – from initially hearing about your brand for the first time up to the point of purchase (and even beyond that by becoming a repeat customer).
Stages of a Marketing Funnel
Put simply, a marketing funnel can be broken down into three distinct sections: Top of Funnel (ToF), Middle of Funnel (MoF) and Bottom of Funnel (BoF).
It is important to understand that these three sections have different types of audiences and require different content to be effective.
Not every lead is the same, and categorising them can help you understand which stage of the buyer’s cycle they’re in and how they fit into your marketing funnel.
Awareness Stage (Top of The Funnel)
The top of the funnel, commonly known as the awareness stage, is made up of people who haven’t heard of your brand, your products or your services before but fit into your main target market. They’re generally the largest group of people within your funnel and require the most information on what you offer.
Your main goal during this phase is not to sell to them, but to make them aware of a problem they’re currently facing – this way, you’re able to pitch them your product or service (which is the perfect solution to the problem they’re having) later on.
You want to focus on creating a lot of value by introducing them to blog posts, helpful videos and guides. Doing so will naturally make them want to consume more of your information and kick-start the three critical elements to converting visitors into customers: knowing, liking and trusting your brand.
Consideration Stage (Middle of the Funnel)
The consideration stage, or the middle of the funnel as it’s known, is the next step down the funnel and consists of people who are aware of the problem they’re facing and are now actively looking for a solution.
The most common trait with people in the consideration stage is that they’ve visited your website, consumed some or all of the information you’ve provided about their problem, but haven’t yet purchased anything from you.
It’s highly likely that this group of people are actively looking at 5 or more different solutions and comparing them to each other to figure out which one addresses their needs and best solves their problem.
It is critical that your brand stands out from the rest and positions itself as superior over your competitors by providing deeper content in the form of webinars, e-books, customer case studies and even FAQs.
FAQs can help answer common questions that your audience might be asking – how your product works, how it’s different to your competitors, the features and benefits and even pricing comparisons.
Decision Stage (Bottom of the Funnel)
The final stage of the funnel is the decision stage, or the bottom of the funnel, and is where your leads are most ready to purchase.
They understand the problem they face, have researched different solutions, compared features and benefits and are now ready to purchase.
The most critical assets you need to get in front of people in this stage of the funnel are customer reviews.
Customer reviews are vital as they make up one of the key pillars to purchasing a product. Your potential customers want to know if others have bought before them and what their experience was like – it comes down to minimising risk for your potential customer.
Will your product or service work for them? Will it even arrive? What were the results for others? Will I get the same result? These are all questions that your potential customer will be asking themselves.
Other key content pieces that need to be leveraged include social proof, case studies from past customers who have achieved a great outcome using your product or service, free trials and even demos of the product.
It is important to test small and continue to optimise your marketing funnel. Creating and testing lots of different content will naturally lead you to finding out what kind of content your audience responds to best at each stage in the funnel.
Leverage your email lists, video subscribers or even social media fans to see what kind of content works best. This is a great way to continue to build out and further optimise your marketing funnels in the future.
To discuss your digital marketing strategy and maximise your online presence, contact practiceedge.
