When you put in your best efforts to reach your target clients but receive no results, it can be extremely frustrating. One of the reasons could be a lack of organization or planning in your marketing efforts. A structure is exactly what marketing funnels can provide.
We’ll go over the importance of marketing funnels in this piece, as well as a step-by-step explanation of how to make one. This can be used as a guide for designing marketing funnels for your company.
Table Of Contents
- Marketing Funnel: Basic Concept
- What Does a Marketing Funnel Look Like?
- What Is the Purpose of a Marketing Funnel?
- Marketing Funnel: How Does It Work?
- Stage 1 – Problem/Need Recognition (TOFU)
- Stage 2 – Information Search (MOFU)
- Stage 3 – Evaluation of Alternatives (MOFU)
- Stage 4 – Purchase Decision (BOFU)
- Stage 5 – Post-Purchase Behavior
- Frequently Asked Questions
Marketing Funnel: Basic Concept
A marketing funnel, also known as a purchase funnel, is a company’s blueprint for guiding potential customers from their initial contact with the brand to becoming paying customers.
Paid commercials, social media, SEO, content marketing, and a variety of other channels are frequently included in this roadmap. While the concept is straightforward, marketing funnels can be difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, including:
Your consumers may have a variety of problems (a doctor who wants a survey tool may have different needs from a teacher who needs a survey tool).
Each customer has a different level of awareness (some have heard of your brand and are looking for alternatives, while others are unaware that alternatives exist). With so many variables to consider, it’s easy to see how creating a marketing funnel can quickly become overwhelming.
Even if you’ve never sat down to properly build a marketing funnel, you very certainly already have one. Most businesses, on the other hand, have many funnels. A business may acquire prospects through paid ads, influencer marketing, or another channel in addition to blog postings.
What Does a Marketing Funnel Look Like?
Someone who goes through the following steps in the buying process is an example of a marketing funnel or purchase funnel:
Blog Post > Email List > Conversion
Podcast Ad > Blog Post > Conversion
Facebook Ad > Landing Page > Conversion
Influencer Social Post > Landing Page > Conversion
Whether you realize it or not, you have a marketing funnel if people are buying your product or service online. It’s crucial to remember the following: Although your marketing plan may appear to be straightforward and straightforward on paper, it is not necessarily so in practice. As customers progress through your marketing funnel, regressions and jumps are common.
What Is the Purpose of a Marketing Funnel?
Marketing funnels assist you in segmenting a buyer’s journey into stages. Then you may design marketing tactics for each stage of the buying process.
This allows you to structure your marketing efforts in a far more focused manner, resulting in better outcomes. This allows you to contact the appropriate people at the right time with the right marketing methods.
By making your endeavors more focused and targeted, marketing funnels can help you save time, money, and effort. As a result, using funnels to boost your marketing ROI is an excellent idea.
Another advantage of employing a marketing funnel is that they are effective. Marketers all over the world can attest to the power of leveraging marketing funnels to increase conversions. By directing suitable leads down the funnel, they can help you attract and convert more clients.
Now we understand the significance of marketing funnels and how they can assist you in achieving the best marketing ROI. The only thing left to do now is building a funnel and observe the outcomes firsthand.
Marketing Funnel: How Does It Work?
If you’ve ever used a paper funnel at the gas station to pour oil into your car’s oil reservoir instead of all over the engine, you have a basic understanding of how a funnel works.
A marketing funnel works in stages, from the widest area at the top (Top of Funnel) that attracts a large number of individuals, to the smaller section in the center (Middle of Funnel), and finally to the even narrower section at the bottom (Bottom of Funnel) that attracts serious purchasers.
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That’s why, when it comes to creating a marketing or sales funnel, the most important thing to remember is to think about it from the customer’s perspective. This will save you a lot of time and aggravation. Let’s take a look at the different stages of the marketing funnel that clients go through.
Stage 1 – Problem/Need Recognition (TOFU)
The first step in the buying process is to recognize that you have a problem. Why would you buy a remedy for a problem you don’t even realize you have? You could have gum disease, but if you don’t notice or feel anything unusual in your mouth, it’s unlikely that you’ll go online to look for it.
If, on the other hand, your furnace breaks down in the dead of winter, you’ll immediately recognize a problem and go on to the next step in the purchase process (information search). You might do some research, but because your problem is so urgent, you won’t waste much time.
Other items or services will necessitate a greater level of education. Purchasing pharmaceutical medicine is an example. A person may detect a bodily symptom (“issue”) in this scenario, but it may take some time for them to act and seek a solution.
Stage 2 – Information Search (MOFU)
Recognizing a problem or need is the first step in the funnel, which leads to a search for further information and leads to the second stage. Depending on the magnitude and scope of the transaction, different tactics are utilized to obtain information. Recognizing that you’re hungry, for example, may prompt you to conduct a quick Yelp search for nearby restaurants.
On the other hand, deciding which supplier to engage to install a new in-ground pool at your property will require some web research, phone calls, reading customer reviews, visiting showrooms, and speaking with salespeople.
According to Trust Radius, over 33% of consumers spend more time researching products before buying in 2022 than they did the previous year, indicating that this stage of the funnel is growing more in-depth. People aren’t searching for commercial content at this point; they want to learn more about possible solutions to their problems.
Stage 3 – Evaluation of Alternatives (MOFU)
Customers will compare the choices discussed in your article or ad once they are aware of a solution. The amount of time invested in this stage varies depending on the type of purchase being considered. Choosing a restaurant may be as simple as deciding, “Well, I’m in the mood for Chinese food tonight, not Mexican.”
Assume, however, that the customer is looking into marketing automation systems to help them optimize the sales funnel they’ve built. Because these programs can cost up to $1,500 per month, they’ll almost certainly be subjected to a far more rigorous review.
They may request free trials of the various systems they’re considering, participate in online demonstrations with personnel from each company, or watch training videos to get a sense of how each system will function.
If you manage an accounting firm, your customers are probably comparing multiple service providers at this point. They may require tools such as pricing guides (to determine ballpark charges), how to assess the landscape of accounting services (e.g., whether to engage a single accountant, an agency, etc.), or how to select an accountant.
If you manage a marketing services company, you might develop content on the following topics:
- how to pick a marketing firm
- Price recommendations for agencies
- if a business should outsource or recruit in-house
We’ve established non-promotional, instructive material tools for our readers who are considering employing digital marketing services. It’s worth noting that prospects who have reached this stage are more committed to completing a purchase than those who are only performing preliminary research.
As a result, if your resources are limited, you don’t have to start at the top of the funnel. Instead, you can start by focusing on bottom-of-the-funnel prospects to obtain the most conversions with the least amount of work.
Stage 4 – Purchase Decision (BOFU)
The buying decision follows logically from the previous three stages. The potential consumer has identified a problem, researched their options, and chosen which is best for them… They’re getting ready to take out their wallets right now.
Optimizing your website for conversions (CRO) is a great approach to boost sales at this point. You can also provide risk-free trials, money-back guarantees, and other similar incentives to entice customers to buy your product or service.
Stage 5 – Post-Purchase Behavior
There is one more thing. Just because a customer makes a purchase doesn’t mean the journey is ended. It’s just as essential as what occurs after the sale.
If your new customers are welcomed with a thoughtful onboarding process, personalized attention, and all of the resources they need to successfully utilize your product, they are more likely to become loyal customers who suggest you to friends and colleagues. They’re also more willing to share their happiness with others through suggestions and product endorsements when they’re confident.
If your new consumers are dissatisfied with their purchase, they are more likely to ask for refunds, leave unfavorable reviews, and recommend that others in their social circles buy from your competitors.
Apart from delivering a fantastic product, there isn’t much information you can create to help promote a nice post-purchase experience. Post-purchase behavior will take care of itself if you have an excellent product that answers a problem.
There are also some steps you may do to encourage better post-purchase behavior. You may, for example, provide FAQ content, make customer service more accessible, or ask for feedback on the purchasing process.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Bottom Line
For a lot of marketers, marketing funnels end with turning a lead into paying customers. However, experienced marketers know the fallacy in that line of thought.
Anyone who has been in the industry long enough can tell you how customer retention is more important than customer acquisition. Repeat customers are much more profitable in the long run and, therefore, your funnel should include a stage after purchase as well.
A lot of marketers are now redefining marketing funnels and extending theirs to include one or more post-purchase stages. Follow in their footsteps and have a customer retention strategy in place, apart from your regular marketing funnel.