The Marketing funnel is optimized for a purpose. The moving leads through the marketing funnel have to be nurtured starting from the first brand awareness through to purchasing and finally post-sales evangelism.
The article has discussed the definition of a marketing funnel and the subsequent five stages for optimizing the digital marketing funnel, along with the real-life marketing funnel templates as well as examples for each stage.
The Definition of Marketing Funnel
Before describing “what is a Marketing Funnel?”, it is worth mentioning that it is a vital part of Internet Marketing and so the online marketers of the Perth based digital marketing agencies make sure to closely follow the metrics and stages.
Marketing funnel or marketing sales funnel is defined as the process of the visitor or lead conversion to a loyal, long-lasting potential customer.
The marketing funnel is even regarded as the sales funnel or the digital marketing funnel. The specific marketing activities are involved in the sales funnel, like content marketing, SEO, email marketing, social media marketing and engagement, marketing automation, and more. All these scopes are included in the Internet marketing strategy for providing answers to the customers which they are looking for, as well as the experience they will enjoy for moving to the next step of their buyer journey.
To find out the lead generating opportunities, the business owner has to understand the sales marketing funnel. Through clear understanding, more visitors can be converted from the leads and the gaps will be filled so that the potential customers do not drop out of the funnel.
The Five Stages of the Marketing Sales Funnel
1. Stage One – “Awareness”
The prospects are made aware of the business’ products and services for the first time. It could be through the shared social post, or they have searched on Google and came across it in your blog page or on the beautifully created ad. Through this stage, the business owners can inform the customers about their existence and understand their issues, and even have a solution to them.
The first approach to market to the customers is understanding their needs and challenges and framing ways to solve them. The buyers’ personas are created to delve deep and find solutions to the problems. By formulating an awareness-stage marketing strategy along with creating high-value content, reaching out to them will be easier to reach the target customers on time and solve their problems.
2. Stage Two – “ Interest”
After the consumers reach the Interest phase, the research to compare the available options and thus search for different solutions. This is the exact time to build up trust and establish various connections with the prospects. Now the business owners can over them focusing on targeted content marketing and necessary information.
The best examples for this section where a range of options and solutions on the particular products and services can put up are the blogs and articles.
One example of the content suitable for this phase is a blog showing a comparison between multiple product solutions and options. If a business specializes in pest control, then for which options will your potential customers look for. This can be done clearly by writing a blog, creating video content along with the social media posts defining the comparisons between the other options. The target here is being informative. Hard selling is likely to scare off the customers.
To be successful in this marketing phase, a blog consisting of the targeted keywords usually searched by potential customers is a brilliant idea. SEO marketing efforts pay off in this section and improves the website’s ranking. The blog posts ensure the keywords are always on the very first page when the customers are looking for them.
3. Stage Three – “Consideration”
The third stage is the crucial one to take up effective steps. Your prospects are aware of their needs and did build up a relationship ideally with your business. You could have some basic information about your prospects along with their email address. Now, this is the time to start selling to your prospects.
Re-marketing is a favourable tool to be used here. In every possibility, your customers have come to know about your products and services from your website, and at this phase, you have to remind them about it. You can reach your potential customers by using remarketing ads through Google Ads and Facebook ads display network. You have to create the ads explaining why should they buy your products and services and then target them.
Ebooks, white papers are ideal for the B2B brans which provide better answers to certain questions and prove to the potential customers they have the needed answers ready.
4. Stage Four – “Decision”
Now the customers have to purchase. In the fourth stage, they decide to purchase. You could use more re-marketing techniques if they have not yet purchased anything from you. At this phase, you have to mainly target the customers who have kept the items added to carts and did not proceed. You can start using Mailchimp, Google Ads, and Facebook Ads to make the offers available over the web. To make the customers purchase, free shipping is a welcoming option and even a discount coupon with a time-bound code.
Another vital element to be considered is checking-out process optimization. A smooth process with no issues is something enjoyed by the customers. A live chat option eases out the customer service process. The secured and trustworthy payment options and email confirmations for the placed orders help in building up confidence. Availability of refund policy also helps the customers to develop trust.
5. Stage Five – Satisfaction After Purchase and Repeat Purchases
Once the customers have purchased the products you are selling or have signed up for the services of your company, your work goes up. Now definitely, you will want them to buy more from you. For every business, customer retention is extremely important. Customers who have taken your services and have encountered a satisfactory experience are often among the economical to market to. In fact, winning over them is easier compared to first-time buyers. In fact, they benefit your business with referrals, which in fact boosts your business income dramatically. To begin with customer retention capacity rate, a few steps are much helpful.
- Always thank them for the purchase they have made
- Send them an invitation to provide feedback based on their experience.
- Google reviews are ideal to build up trust.
- Provide them with easy ways so they can contact your support team.
Further, you can keep in touch with your customers through loyalty programs, special offers for referrals, email campaigns, and discounts for repeat purchases. Platforms like MailChimp benefit from email blasts for sending promotions and related useful information about the products and services being offered. Since they trust you, you shall be happy to know selling to them again is not hard.
Remembering the customer’s journey, the marketing strategy should be optimized. Customer experiences highly impact the present and future results of Internet marketing campaigns. The Internet marketing sales funnel and its five stages define the suitable option to be presented to the customers, attract them as leads, and get them converted for improving conversion rate. Sometimes, the business owners consider one Internet marketing form since they have to get more customers, however, the multi-channel Internet marketing approaches target the customers’ journey and leaves behind a superior impact.