What is Marketing funnel and how to create it?
As a digital marketing consultant, one of the most important concepts I make sure my clients understand is the marketing funnel. It's basically a way to visualize the journey that potential customers take before they make a purchase from you.
Imagine a real funnel - it's wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, right? A marketing funnel works the same way. At the top, there's a large pool of potential customers that you want to make aware of your product or service. As they move through the different stages, that pool gets smaller and smaller until only a portion of those potentials actually convert into paying customers at the very bottom.
The typical stages in a marketing funnel look like this:
Awareness: This is where people first find out about what you have to offer through things like social media ads, Google searches, word-of-mouth, etc.
Interest: Some of those people will get interested by engaging more with your marketing content like visiting your website, signing up for your email list, etc.
Desire: Of that interested group, a percentage will actually want what you're selling and start seriously considering buying from you.
Action: Finally, a portion of those desiring customers will take action and make an actual purchase.
Let me give you an example to make this more clear:
Let's say you're a local bakery that sells custom cakes. At the top of your marketing funnel, you run some Instagram and Facebook ads promoting your beautiful cake designs to get awareness from people planning parties or events in your city.
From those awareness ads, some people click through to your website or send you a DM to inquire about pricing and flavors - those are your interested prospects in the next stage.
A percentage of those interested prospects will really love what they see and start fantasizing about that perfect cake for their special event. Those are the desire stage leads.
Finally, a portion of those desiring leads will decide to hire you and place an order for their custom cake. Bingo - a successfully converted customer!
The key for a business is having a clear, optimized marketing funnel funnel that guides the right potential buyers smoothly through each of those stages. From raising initial awareness, to building interest, to stoking desire, to closing the sale.
An effective funnel needs the right marketing activities and messaging dialed in for each specific stage. It's not a one-size-fits-all approach. Does this example help explain what a marketing funnel is and how it works? Let me know if any part could use more clarification!