Not all consumers decide to impulse buy often. Consumers go through a buying journey before they decide to make a purchase decision. This journey includes numerous touchpoints and various paths consumers take to reach a decision. A marketing funnel allows businesses to influence their target audience through various stages in their buyer’s journey. It is a process that will convert quality leads into customers. Which is why having a marketing funnel is important for businesses.
Analyzing your marketing funnel can help you understand what you can do to influence the decisions of your customers. This evaluation can help you improve your marketing efforts and drive more sales for your business.
What is a marketing funnel?
Marketing funnel includes the different stages of customer journey from the time they discover your brand to the final purchase.
Here are the three stages in the marketing funnel:
Top of the Funnel – The “Awareness” stage is where your potential customers are looking for solutions to their problems. They are looking for informative and educational resources.
Middle of the Funnel – In the “Evaluation” stage people are researching about the products or services they want to invest in.
Bottom of the Funnel – Finally, in the “Purchase” stage they make a decision and become customers.
Marketing funnels look different for every business. It depends on the type of business, pricing, target market etc. For example, B2C customers spend little time making their final decision. But a B2B customer would take longer to evaluate and need more nurturing.
How to Build Your Marketing Funnel?
Set goals for each stage
Start off by setting goals for each stage in the marketing funnel. Goals are important to set the foundation for all your marketing activities. This can help you move forward in the right direction. Each stage in the funnel will have separate goals. The goals for the top of the funnel would be to create brand awareness or generate new leads. The middle of the funnel focuses on providing leads with the relevant information they need about the products or services to help them make their decisions. Various lead nurturing goals like email CTR or open rate can be set for this stage. For the final stage goals like conversion rate can be tracked.
Goals also make it easier for you to measure results. You can track various metrics based on your goals to see the successful performance of your marketing activities. Hence, it is a good practice to spend time coming up with goals for your marketing funnel.
Building a content marketing strategy
Content marketing strategy plays a key role in your marketing funnel. Through a content plan you can attract, engage and convert your customers. The content you use should be personalized according to each stage in the buyer’s journey. Every stage will have different content that can help achieve your goals in each stage. Content that you provide to your target customers should be free, relevant and educational. It should be extremely valuable to your audience so that they are willing to engage and share their personal details with you. Quality content can help your audience trust you and based on this they will be more likely to invest in your brand.
Top of the funnel content
The goal of the content created for this funnel is to attract quality leads to your website. You need to have relevant content that answers your customer’s queries. Doing keyword research can help you see what your target customers are searching for online. Using these search queries can help you build your content that can help you attract new visitors to your website. Blogs are a great way to drive traffic to your website. By using various SEO techniques, you can optimize your blogs, so they are more visible. Quality and informative blog content can help you build a good reputation in the industry. This can also help you build trust and credibility with your audience.
At this stage you also need to create brand awareness. You can leverage various social media platforms to gain more followers and share your content with them. Through social media you can reach like-minded people who would be interested in the type of products or services you offer. To reach a wide range of audiences you can also use paid ads on social media or Google ads. This can help you drive more traffic to your website. Other formats of content you can use are whitepapers, videos, eBooks, webinars and more. Ensure that you are answering the queries of your target audience so that they are further encouraged to engage with your content.
Middle of the funnel content
In this stage, your leads are evaluating their options to invest in the products or services you offer. This is a chance where you can influence their buying decision. For this stage you need to provide them with content that highlights the benefits of your products or services. You can build product comparison guides that provide your leads with in-depth information about your products or services. You can talk about your product features, benefits, price-points and also compare it with your competitors. This can make it clear why they should pick you over your competitors.
Case studies are also a great way to inspire your target customers. They can help you show your leads how you provided solutions to your client’s problems. This gives your leads a proof that your products or services have provided great value to others. A good case study can convince your potential customers that investing in your business is worthwhile. Reviews and testimonials on your website can also help motivate their decision to invest in your business.
Bottom of the funnel content
The end of the funnel is where the leads purchase your products and convert to customers. In this stage you can provide leads with a free trial or a demo of your products or services. This offer is often appealing to consumers since they get a chance to get familiar with your products or services. It can help them see the value and benefit associated with your products. Also offering free consultations can give leads a better idea about your products or services. With consultation they can get in touch with your business and find out how you can help them with their problems.
Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing campaigns can be used in all the three stages of the funnel to reach and communicate with your customers. You can create workflows specific to each stage. These emails can include informative, educating and valuable content for your potential customers. Many people prefer emails over intrusive advertisements. If they have agreed to receive emails from your business, there are more chances of engagement with your content.
Through emails you can send leads and customers content like newsletters, launch updates, promotions and offers. This can help you maintain communication with your audience. Email marketing campaigns are also useful after the customers have purchased. This can help with customer retention and you can build long-term relationships.
Do you want to leverage email marketing for your business? Click here to learn more about you can build your email marketing strategy.
Paid Ad Campaigns
Pay-per-click or PPC ad campaigns can help you reach a wide range of target audiences on Google’s network. This is useful at the top of the funnel where you need to attract leads and drive them to your website. Online ads are a great way to increase brand awareness. With the help of these ads, you can target the right demographics and ensure that your ads are being shown to the right people. Based on your keywords you can reach your target customers. Your ads can provide them with the products or services they are looking for.
Along with Google you can also run paid ad campaigns on your social media platforms. With various segmenting options you can reach your potential customers and lead them to your website. This is a good strategy to increase brand awareness
Remarketing
Remarketing is a strategy that can be used to gain back those leads who have engaged with your brand but have left without making a purchase. This strategy can be used at the bottom of the funnel. It can help you target the people who were very close to making a purchase but did not. With remarketing ads, you can continue to target these potential customers and help them convert. This form of advertising can help you improve your conversion rate and ROI.
Measure the metrics
Measurement is important for any marketing strategies. Carefully analyzing all the metrics relevant to each stage in the funnel can help you gauge the performance. It can show you which type of content is helping you complete the goals. Track metrics based on the goals you have set at the beginning of your marketing funnel.
Setting up a Google Analytics account can help you track your marketing efforts. You can set your goals using this platform and then track their performance. Measuring your results can also allow you to make improvements that are required.
Marketing funnels make it easy for you to follow the entire journey of your potential buyer as they interact with your brand. Based on the stages in the funnel you can customize your marketing and content strategies for your buyers. You can plan each stage and provide relevant solutions to your target audience as they go through this funnel. Having a marketing funnel makes it easier for you to track your results. You can find out at which stage you have lost leads and make further improvements to ensure better engagement. This funnel helps you keep a track of the potential customers you attract, engage and convert.
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