How exactly do we acquire potential customers, turn them into opportunities and convince them to stay? Through your digital marketing process!
Today we are going to examine the functioning of a marketing funnel, the different stages, and the content that you must create for each step.
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What is a marketing funnel?
A marketing funnel is a process that allows you to visualize the client route and understand how prospects turn into paying customers. In addition to the four main stages – awareness, interest, consideration, conversion – the funnel has expanded to include additional steps such as the retention and advocacy stage.
Compared to a sales funnel, where the objective is to lead your prospects to action, a marketing funnel focuses on generating brand awareness and promoting your product/service to your potential client.
The stages of the marketing funnel
Speaking of which, now is the perfect time to see the steps your prospects should take. Here is a representation of the stages by Ahrefs :
Let’s break them down now :
Awareness step
At this stage of the marketing funnel, you need to find a way to attract your target audience. Here, companies will try to increase the awareness of their brand through publications on social networks, YouTube videos, results of search engines, influence campaigns, Facebook advertisements, etc.
Objectives of the scene :
- Approach your audience with interesting messages.
- Address their weaknesses and refer to potential solutions.
Interest step
Take the interest step. Here, your audience is finally aware of your product/service and wants to know more about you. To take them to the next step, you need to show them how your product/service can solve their problems.
Objectives of the scene :
- Target keywords specific to a niche (both short and long drag).
- Refine your content using SEO practices to rank higher in SERP (Search Engine Page Results).
- Run marketing campaigns on social networks to transform them into subscribers.
Consideration step
At the reflection stage, your audience knows their weaknesses and what they need to resolve them. However, they still haven’t chosen the right product/service to do it. As a result, they will conduct their own research to compare different options.
Objectives of the scene :
- Refine their options by presenting your advantages.
- Convince your target audience that you have the best possible solution for them.
- Create valuable newsletters to feed your subscribers.
Conversion stage
You are now one more step towards converting your audience! In this stage of the marketing funnel, your potential customers will look for a good reason to join you. By offering excellent user experiences and by facilitating the purchasing process, your prospects will finally take precedence.
Objectives of the scene :
- Create conversion pages with an irresistible destination page copy.
- Offer free demos to give them a taste of your product/service.
- Send convincing e-mail marketing campaigns (incentive sales, cross-selling, etc.).
- Take advantage of social evidence (testimonies and opinions).
Post-purchase stage
After converting them, you can bring your new buyers to the last stage of the funnel, where we have customer loyalty and defense. In addition, according to statistics, having regular customers costs 5 times less than acquiring new ones. While you have an e-commerce store, agency or SaaS company, make sure you retain your buyers!
Objectives of the scene :
- Offer loyalty awards to your customers.
- Encourage them to bring references.
- Create unique offers for VIP buyers
To keep your marketing funnel operational, make sure to create marketing campaigns by conversion email with urgent messages. Just register for a free Moosend account and watch magic!
Example of a successful marketing funnel
But wait! How do you know if a funnel really works? For that, let’s say that you own a small SaaS company
Awareness: To capture your target audience, you decide to participate in different podcasts, by addressing the weaknesses of your potential client.
Interest: Intrigued by your presentation, your prospects try to learn more about yourself, thus landing on your website. There they discover the contents of your blog and start reading.
Consideration: Since your potential buyers do not know whether your service is good or not, they will seek customer testimony to see if you are the right business for them.
Conversion: to make sure you are worth it, your prospects will also require a live demonstration of your product. If your salespeople are sufficiently helpful and convincing, they will close the deal and make a purchase.
This is a simple example of how a marketing funnel can help you attract more customers through content and tools such as your destination pages and social network profiles!
Differences between the B2C and B2B funnels
With a successful funnel in place, you can deal with and solve your customers’ problems more effectively. However, to do it right, you must take into account your sector of activity.
B2C and B2B have very different marketing approaches. Below, you can see the steps and marketing processes between a B2C funnel and a B2B funnel:
Source
In summary, the B2C marketing funnels focus on:
- Increase brand awareness with emotional messages.
- Build transactional links with new subscribers.
The B2B funnels, on the other hand, aim to:
- Showing your target audience your expertise in the field.
- Establish personal links with clients.
Now let’s move on to something that many novice traders often confuse.
Marketing funnel vs. Sales funnel
The short answer is no. The long answer is that their difference lies in their goals.
A marketing funnel focuses on the successful promotion of a product/service to visitors. Your sales funnel (or conversion funnel in terms of electronic commerce), however, aims to take the prospects generated by your marketing funnel and transform them into new customers.
What is interesting is that the two processes have undergone certain changes:
As you can see, marketing specialists were only involved in the awareness and interest stages. The new model includes everything from awareness to the interim evaluation stage, leaving sales representatives with the rest.
This change is truly a sign of our digital age, the amount of products/services that customers have at their disposal, as well as the plethora of marketing messages trying to convince them to buy.
Now that we have seen the difference between your marketing funnel and your sales funnel, let’s not forget your prospects!
Qualified tracks for marketing (MQL) compared to qualified tracks for sales (SQL)
When they find out about your case, the prospects will start looking for information. If you meet their criteria, they will gradually turn into warm prospects. Otherwise, they will become what we call cold lead.
As they go down into your marketing funnel, hot prospects can become qualified prospects for marketing. MQLs are likely to convert because they usually check all of your buyer personality boxes. In addition, since they correspond to the reflection stage, they are aware of their weaknesses and the solution, but they have still not found the perfect product/service.
On the other hand, the prospects qualified for sales are those who have been sufficiently nourished and are now open to a sales pitch. SQLs must be immediately handed over to your salespeople to make it an irresistible offer that will eventually turn them into opportunities and paying customers.
But how to influence the journey of your customers and involve them? With the right kind of content, of course! Let’s see.
Content types for each step of the marketing funnel
To plan the perfect content marketing strategy that will energize your marketing efforts, you must provide content depending on the stage your prospect is at. To simplify things, we will divide your marketing funnel into three stages:
Top of the funnel (ToFu)
At the top of your funnel are your visitors and prospects. To hire them, you need content that will increase the notoriety of your brand and will include your prospects in your funnel:
- Blog articles
- Web pages
- Publications on social networks and content of influencers
- Podcasts and videos
- Infography
- white papers
In the middle of the funnel (MoFu)
As your potential customers descend your funnel, they turn into MQL and SQL. To hire them, create content with empathy to attract them. You can do it with:
- Webinars
- Investigations
- Lead magnets
- Promotional emails
Bottom of the funnel (BoFu)
Prospects reaching the bottom of the funnel have become new opportunities. To convert them completely, you must create personalized messages and show them the benefits of investing in your product/service. Here is what you need to close the deal:
- Demos and free tests
- Tutorials
- Case studies
- Online/offline events
- Sales / walking calls
With the right type of content, you will succeed in bringing your prospects down into your marketing funnel and, finally, in converting them into loyal defenders.
Marketing funnel model
Are you more of a visual type? Here is a simple model that you can use to keep your content and steps in one place:
6 simple strategies to create your marketing funnel
Now that you know what a marketing funnel is, how it works, and the types of content you need to broadcast, let’s see some simple strategies to create yours:
1. Discover your target audience
Did you know that most digital marketing strategies fail because business owners market their products to the wrong audience ? Don’t do like them! Instead, take your time to find out who is interested in your product/service.
You can do this by creating your persona buyers, that is, a representation of your ideal client and their characteristics. Second, don’t forget to immerse yourself in consumer behavior to determine how people make a purchasing decision. This will help you create an effective marketing funnel for a good audience!
2. Create irresistible lead magnets
After identifying your audience, you must find a way to present it to your brand. The easiest way to do this is to educate people through social media. However, a social post is not enough to bring them down a little further. For this, you need a strong incentive that will lead your audience to the middle of your funnel. Come in, lead magnets !
A main magnet is a “free item” that you offer to your audience in exchange for their contact details. It can be an e-book, a white paper or even a subscription to a newsletter.
Here is an example of Just Creative :
A powerful prospect magnet will capture the attention of your new prospects, add them to your mailing list, and provide you with a way to communicate with them. This brings us to the next step …
3. Send personalized emails
You have added your potential customers to your mailing list. Now what? If you have enough information about them, you can segment them into groups with similar interests. Keep in mind that segmenting mailing lists is one of the most important tactics for disseminating more personalized messages. So don’t forget to equip yourself with effective tools to get there !
Here is an example of marketing by e-mail B2B that works :
Object:
Zendesk’s above email is a great example of using plain text emails in your marketing funnel to engage your prospects with personalized messages.
Need the perfect tool to segment your email subscribers and customize your messages? Create a Moosend account and strengthen your email marketing strategy like a pro!
4. Use the AIDA model
To successfully convert your prospects, you must determine where they are during the purchasing process. To do this, you can use the AIDA model
AIDA, which means Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action, will help you identify the stage at which your potential client finds himself. Then you can use the information to provide the correct content to engage it. Keep in mind that the more you know about them, the more effective your efforts will be !
5. Use social media and influencers
Of course, don’t forget the marketing of social media and its enormous potential! Whether you create content engaging or invest in paid advertising, social networks are your best ally to generate more leads and increase the awareness of your brand.
To take full advantage of their power, make sure to:
- Share precious content with your subscribers.
- Create conversion destination pages for your paid announcements.
- Collaborate with influencers in your niche.
- Promote the content of your blog on social networks.
- Watch for reactions from your subscribers.
Below, you can see an excellent example of an increase in brand awareness thanks to a LinkedIn publication by Moosend:
6. Use remarketing
Remarketing is a proven practice that allows you to reach visitors to disengaged websites with advertisements. In this way, you can create targeted messages to capture these website abandoners and bring them back to your funnel.
For your announcements to work, you can use the power of urgency and rarity. As you already know, consumers are more likely to buy something when it comes out in limited quantities. So use it to your advantage! Apart from that, do not forget to take advantage of your positive comments and testimonies from your customers to increase the credibility of your brand and generate more MQL!
Key indicators of the marketing funnel to follow
To improve your audience’s digital experience, you need to monitor your marketing funnel to fill potential gaps.
To be one step ahead, be sure to follow the following marketing measures as they will help you optimize the conversion funnel:
- Prospect entry points: the channels from which your visitors entered your funnel.
- Duration of the cycle: how long your prospects have passed on each stage.
- Enrollment rate by email: how many visitors have registered for your newsletter.
- Clicking rate (CTR): percentage of commitment with your content.
- Conversion rate: how many prospects have turned into paying customers.
If you want to monitor the performance of your campaigns by e-mail, be sure to create a free Moosend account. Advanced analysis and reporting tools will provide you with valuable information to improve your e-mail marketing efforts and reinvent your marketing strategy!
Create the marketing funnel for your dreams!
Knowing what a marketing funnel is and the different stages a customer goes through is essential to creating an effective marketing strategy.
Before creating your funnel, be sure to identify your target audience and create content that will address their problems. Of course, make it as precious as possible because that’s how you will win them at first glance!
And … don’t forget the tools! From your social media accounts to your email marketing platform, choosing the right allies will strengthen your efforts! If you need access to an email service now, create a Systeme.io account to capture, feed, and convert your audience.
