What is the marketing funnel? Understanding your customers to get more conversions!

When creating your marketing plan, you should consider what stages your marketing ideas are tended for. Are they to increase brand awareness? Are they used to increase conversions?

That’s where understanding what is the marketing funnel!

In short, the marketing funnel is the journey your customer goes through! From learning about your brand to making a purchase.

We’ll explain more in detail what the marketing funnel is the different stages of the funnel:

• Top of the funnel (Awareness)
• Middle of the funnel (Consideration)
• Bottom of the funnel (purchase/conversion)

So let’s get into it!

Marketing funnel explained

In quick explanation, the marketing funnel refers to your customer’s journey to make a purchase from your company. It starts at the top of the funnel (awareness), then goes to the middle of the funnel (consideration), then to the bottom (purchase).

Your goal is to get as many customers that are in your target market into the funnel. As they move down the funnel, the customer will get smaller and smaller to the customer that convert.

At each stage, you should consider different marketing strategies to help them move along the marketing funnel.

Ie. You can use PPC and Content Marketing strategies for the top of your marketing funnel, then you can use an email campaign or remarketing campaigns for the consideration stage!

Once you figure out what marketing ideas you should have at each stage, you can efficiently and effectively increase your conversion rate and grow your business!

Now let’s explain what each customer is doing at each stage and some ideas you can use!

Top of the Marketing funnel (awareness)

The first stage of the marketing funnel that customers will enter is the top of the funnel. This is where customers will first interact or learn about your business.

At this stage, the main purpose of the business is to increase its brand awareness. Potentially generate new leads/ customers. Advertising, tradeshows, SEO are great ways to get new customers into the funnel!

Customers at this stage are unfamiliar with your products and services. In order for them to move down the funnel, you need to make sure to show the value of your business. Once they see the potential value of your business, they’ll move down to the middle of the funnel.

Middle of the Marketing funnel (consideration)

This is the consideration stage. Your customers know about your brand but are still deciding if they want to purchase your product or services. Customers at this stage are learning more about business.

At this stage, you want to make sure that your product or service is the best choice! While customers are considering your business, they’re also considering your competitors as well. A study finds that 88 percent of consumers will pre-research before making a purchase either online or in-store.

To ensure that your customers move down your marketing funnel instead of your competitors, we recommend the following:

• Offer a discount or limited time offer
• Make sure your product or service is the best choice for your customers needs
• Have an email list to convert them later
• Have a social media presence

Just because they don’t purchase from you now, doesn’t mean they won’t purchase from you later!

Bottom of the Marketing funnel (conversion)

This is where customers purchase from your business! They have decided that your business is the best choice out of your competitors.

But once they’ve made a purchase, you’ll want to make sure that they keep purchasing from you. Remember, it’s always more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep one.

You can also use this opportunity to get new customers into the marketing funnel by having a referral program and getting more testimonials and reviews.

Closing thoughts

Now that you know what exactly is the marketing funnel and the different stages, you should take the time to plan your marketing ideas for each stage.

You can use SEO, advertising, and influencer marketing to spread the awareness of your brand.

Have a social media presence, email campaign, discounts and promos for your consideration stage.

Then have a referral and rewards program to get more customers into your funnel after they’ve made a purchase from you!