What is the Marketing Funnel?
What is the Marketing Funnel?
The marketing funnel is used to visualize the steps that a customer goes through, from the initial awareness phase to the final conversion phase, (in wich they purchase a product/service).
This process is visualized through a funnel because the number of people that advances through each stage becomes smaller and smaller.
Why is it important to build a marketing funnel?
A criation of a marketingfunnel is useful for outlining a strategy for lead generation.
By breaking down in different stepas the path that consumer must follow, we can see which aspects of our marketing plan need improvement.
It’s very rare that a customer hears about a brand brand for the 1st time and decides right away to buy its product/service. This process is even rarer when considering a product/service with a high price tag.
Therefore, it is necessary to create a relationship with the prospect (potential customer) and nurture it, even after he or she becomes a client.
The stages of the marketing funnel
There is no marketing funnel model that is globally accepted among professionals. Thereare simpler models and complex ones, that are adjusted to the type of business in question (B2B or B2C).
The 3-Step Model
The simplest and perhaps the best known model is the 3-step model:
1. TOFU - top of the funnel
It encompasses the awareness phase, in which the prospect has the 1st contact with the brand, whether through social networks, website or from other medium.
As such, here the objective is to gain notoriety and begin to create a relationship with thepublic.
For this purpose, the use of social networks and a website optimized for SEO is ideal.The use of Google Ads campaigns or social media ads can also be used to speed up this process.
As mentioned previously, we have to look at this stage as the beginning of a relationship – we are not going to start selling right away; here the objective to spark interest and gain the trust of potential customers.
2. MOFU - middle of the funnel
As soon as the prospect interacts with the brand (for example, by commenting on social networks or by subscribing to a newsletter) he moves into the middle of the funnel.
This stage is known as the consideration phase, in which theprospect has an interest in the product/service and evaluates other alternatives.
At this stage we continue to interact through the channelsreferred in the1st stage and beyond.
If we have the potential customer’s e-mail already, we can create personalized e-mail marketing campaigns.
Here the focus of the communication are the benefits of theproduct/service and the USP (“unique selling point of the brand.
3. BOFU - bottom of the funnel
Finally, we reach the conversionstage – the last step before the prospect becomes a customer.
Here, oheprospect already trusts the brand and values the product/service.Therefore, the use of personalized communication with a focus on the benefitsis even more important.
The 5-step model
This model adds 2 newsteps to the previous model:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Loyalty
- Advocacy
4. Loyalty
At this phase, the customers already feel satisfied with the product/service and see the brand as a reference.
Therefore, it is important to continue nurturing the relationship between the brand and the customers, since it’s likely they will acquire more products/services.
5. Advocacy
From the moment a brand is able to create a community which trusts in it and promotes it spontaneously, its sales tend to increase exponentially.
This happens because consumers place a lot of importance on testimonials.
Some sites where we can find product/service reviews are: trustpilot, yelp, the social networks themselves (mainly Facebook and Youtube) and Google (for companies registered in Google My Business).
Not all leads will follow these stages in order. Some may not reachthe final stage, others may enter in the middle of funnel and convert, and others may not even make it past the first phase.
The important thing is to know how to distinguish these stages in order to to be able to communicate effectively and get more conversions.
