Funnel marketing is a visual representation of a customer’s journey that can completely transform the reach, impact, and revenue of a business. It is a strategy to help marketers get customers and drive growth. Almost all businesses have a marketing funnel, but the nuances differ by industry and type of business. If you’re new to this concept and are looking to grow your business, here is a guide to know the basics of funnel marketing.

What is funnel marketing?
Funnel marketing helps businesses attract customers by converting the visitors into leads or prospects and convincing them to buy your services or products. Funnel marketing is also referred to as sales funnels, leads funnels, buying funnels, conversion funnels, and other similar terms. It is called a funnel because the customers’ journey is exactly like its shape, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Since not every lead will follow the path to conversion, you are likely to lose some audience at each step. Hence it starts with a wide approach but eventually gets narrower. The end goal here is to retain the customers and garner brand loyalty.

Types of funnel marketing
Funnel marketing is a broad term that covers many cases. Depending on the type of your industry and business, you may come across various types of marketing funnels such as lead magnet funnels, list building funnels, webinar funnels, social media marketing funnels, video sales funnel, email funnels, and so on. The type of funnel marketing used depends on your business goal. For instance, if you wish to build contacts for an event, you may use list-building funnels, or if you want to sell a product or service you may use social media, video sales, or email funnels.

Stages of funnel marketing
Marketing funnels are based on four factors: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA model), but it is simplified into three stages consisting of top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU). TOFU is the “awareness” stage where customers engage with the brand for the first time. In MOFU, customers have subscribed to your emailing list or followed you on social media, thereby creating the “consideration” stage. Here the businesses should earn the customer’s trust and build engagement. This brings us to the BOFU stage wherein brands “convert” the customers to prospects. All this is a traditional marketing funnel that begins from the top and ends at the bottom but that is not how it works in the real world. Sometimes customers bounce in and out of the funnel before they convert. Or they make it to the bottom stage and never convert. Therefore it is vital to understand a customer’s journey from the moment of awareness to conversion.

How to create a marketing funnel?
Creating a marketing funnel is not a one-day job. It takes time and lots of trials. You can start by identifying your target audience and focusing only on one particular segment. Create a landing page, infographic, or social media post that makes new customers aware of your brand. Highlight your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) in this. Additionally, you can even run paid ads. Before you do this, make sure you have optimized all your communication modes like mobile websites and emails. Once you have leads, don’t ask them to commit right away. Encourage engagement through surveys, share case studies, or product comparisons. Lastly, offer a demo or trial of your product. Share customer reviews, highlight your brand’s features, and start segmented campaigns for conversions. Experiment with a few techniques and find out what works best for your business.