Marketing funnel is a digital marketing tool essential to lead potential customers to purchase and loyalty. Let’s explore in details qualities and potential uses of the marketing funnel, and how to optimizie it effectively.
What is the marketing funnel
the funnel shape accurately represents the various stages that a customer goes through from initial awareness of a product, service or brand, till the final purchase decision. It’ called funnel because it reminds in its shape: at the beginning, there are a lot of potential customers, that decrease going further along the funnel. to the final purchase and loyalty stage.
The main stages of the funnel are: awareness, when the potential customer “meets” the brand, consideration, during which the customers evaluate the product and the alternatives, and decision, in which the customer takes the final purchase decision.
Marketing Funnel Stages
- Awareness: attracting the public’s attention
To attract the public’s attention one can use various strategies such as SEO, content marketing, social media, but also outbound marketing. In this phase, the most important KPI is the one regarding how many persons see the product / service/ brand.
- Consideration: maintaining the attention
During the conversion phase, it is paramount to keep the potential customers’ interest alive through lead nurturing, which is the process of building and maintenance of the relationships with the customers through targeted and customized communication, to lead them along the purchasing process and convert them into buying customers. Useful instruments in this stage are email marketing, webinars, case studies and other informative material that provide with useful information and keep the public engaged.
- Decision: convert leads into clients
To convert potential customers into customers, one can use various techniques such as special offers and free demos, as well as retargeting methods. This helps break down the barriers to the purchase and incentivize the customer to finalize the transaction
Tools and techniques for optimizing the funnel
there are essential strategies to optimize the marketing funnel. The first one involves using data analysis tools to monitor the customers’ behavior, evaluate the performance of the funnel and make adjustments when needed. Another technique is to automate marketing communication through specific softwares, that help manage and nurture the leads in a quicker and more effective way. The third strategy is the customization of the contents: customizing contents based on gathered data to satisfy the customers’ specific needs improve significantly the effectiveness of the marketing funnel.
Measuring the success of the marketing funnel
It is obvious that, if one wants to measure the success, one should utilize precise and objective metrics. The most important KPIs when monitoring a marketing funnel are the conversion rate, the customer acquisition cost and the lifetime value. It is also important to use A/B testing techniques to realize which variant of a campaign works best to optimize the funnel consequently.
Conclusions
In summary, the marketing funnel is an essential instrument to lead the customers through the purchase, and should be continuously evaluated and optimized so that it can produce tangible results, using detailed analysis, customization and automation. One cannot improvise a marketing funnel, and should instead study and plan it first, not to waste precious resources.