Why every business needs a marketing funnel strategy

A marketing funnel is the journey your customer goes through until they decide to make a purchase. Plainly put, a marketing funnel is a series of steps or stages that guide your audience through the customer journey.

The funnel helps your marketing goals to attract, engage and convert and it lets you know what needs to be optimised in order to influence customers in different stages. By creating and evaluating a marketing funnel you can potentially drive more leads, create a stronger brand awareness and increase the number of loyal customers.

As you continuously engage with your audience and potential customers by direct communication and marketing activities, they move down the funnel until they either leave the funnel or purchase your product or service.

Whilst there are different marketing funnel strategies that fit different business models and goals, there is only one universal model every marketer gets their strategy inspiration from. There are distinct stages in the marketing funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty and advocacy.

The marketing funnel works well when all stages of the funnel compliment each other. To fully understand the marketing funnel, let’s explain what each of the stages mean:

1. Awareness:

Prospects become aware of your brand and they engage with it for the first time. They might not know a lot about you, your products or services so in this stage the focus is on branded content and marketing materials that increase brand awareness.

1. Consideration:

This is the middle of the funnel, where prospective customers have engaged with your brand in a meaningful way. They might have signed up for a webinar, subscribed to the newsletter, or followed the brand on social media.

1. Conversion:

This stage focuses on the end result, meaning the prospect has changed its status to customer and has made a purchase.

1. Loyalty:

Through methodical and frequent communication you build a relationship with your audience and create a sense of loyalty through special marketing efforts. You send them weekly newsletters with valuable and educational content and offer them special discounts for your products or services.

1. Advocacy:

Receptive individuals from the customer base in your loyalty program support your future marketing efforts and start to advocate for your brand, products or services.

But why do businesses need marketing funnels? Well, they encourage more meaningful growth. The funnels give you a clear picture of what marketing tactics work for each stage. You’ll double down on what works and pull back on what doesn’t.

You develop better customer relationships. You get more insights on whom you're directing your marketing efforts, you can better understand your target audience and what drives them to make a purchase from you.

Your marketing funnel will evolve over time as a result of cultural trends, the products you sell, and the stage of your business. The ease with which your company can attract new customers is determined by its level of brand awareness. If your brand is well-known, you will spend less money on the acquisition and awareness part of the funnel and more on consideration and conversion. Lower brand awareness means you'll need to generate buzz and spread the word earlier, which means you'll need to devote more time and resources to getting new eyes on your products.

A marketing funnel can be used to describe almost any customer interaction. A marketing funnel is necessary whether you want to increase online sales, drive traffic to your physical store, or collect clicks as an affiliate.

Are you ready to implement your marketing funnel strategy for your business? At Social Media Boutique Agency we are thinking of creative ways on how to best apply the most effective strategy. Book your FREE discovery call and let’s explore the best solutions for you:

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