All companies desire more customers! Unfortunately, most businesses are losing their potential buyers somewhere along the way – not because their product isn’t quite right, but because their funnel is broken. A good digital marketing funnel will get them from not knowing you to becoming a customer, and then a repeat customer. If done correctly, your marketing begins compounding. Make a mistake and you continue to waste money on dead traffic. From start to finish, this guide will show you each stage of the funnel, your focus for each stage, and how to optimize the funnel for maximum conversions.

What is a digital marketing funnel?

A digital marketing funnel is the journey that potential customers go on when they first discover your brand and become a customer, and then after they buy, they become a loyal customer. It visualizes the buyer’s journey and reveals to you what your audience must see, hear and feel at every stage prior to buying.

The funnel is usually divided into three main stages:

• Top of funnel (TOFU) awareness and discovery
• Middle of funnel (MOFU) consideration and evaluation
• Bottom of funnel (BOFU) decision and conversion

Message, format and goal are different for each level. Treating all three the same is one of the most common and costly mistakes in digital marketing.

How to Make Your Funnel Work

It’s important to know the places where funnels tend to leak before you construct one. Most frequent issues are:

Lack of obvious entry point. Businesses build a homepage and take a wish for the best. Most of the visitors are not taken to any landing page or lead magnet for a specific audience and they leave without taking any action.

Weak lead nurturing. One person signs up and receives an email. Then silence. Lead nurturing is about being relevant and useful to a prospect until they’re in a buying mindset, where most businesses simply aren’t doing enough of it.

Mismatched messaging. Promises made in the ad are not met on the landing page, and the follow-up emails are sent from another company. Trust and momentum is created through consistency at every touch-point.

No funnel optimisation. Once a funnel is constructed, then it won’t work for long if it’s not reviewed. The ones that win are the ones that are continuously testing, measuring and improving.

The Stages of a High Converting Marketing Funnel

Stage 1 Awareness (Top of Funnel)

It’s here where your customer journey starts. At this point, your audience is oblivious to your existence, or they know of you but have no motivation to listen to you. Your task is to reach the right people with content or messaging that gets their attention.

What’s effective at this phase:

• SEO blog content that is optimized for keywords that your readers are already searching for
• Short-form content that informs, entertains or questions a widely held opinion
• Social ads targeting cold audiences by demographics and interests.
• Content on YouTube or podcasts which creates familiarity over time.

The purpose that sits at the top of the funnel isn’t to sell. It is to be noticed, to be of use, and to be trusted. They’ll leave before the relationship even begins if you push too hard here.

Stage 2 Interest and consideration (Middle of Funnel)

The Middle of the Funnel is where you nurture a relationship when someone knows you. This is the consideration phase – they’re checking to see if you’re the right person for their issue. Your task is to give them all the reasons they must keep going.

Things that work at this stage:

• Lead magnets are valuable, free guides, checklists, templates or webinars that people receive in return for providing their email address.
• Sequences on email to educate, build credibility, and respond to questions.
• Case studies and testimonials with real results and real people.
• Recapturing visitors to your website who expressed interest previously, but didn’t convert
• Comparative information that provides consumers with accurate information about their choices

How to Build Your Funnel Step by Step

Step 1 Define Your Ideal Customer

Before you build anything, get crystal clear on who you’re building it for. What problem are they trying to solve? Where do they spend time online? What objections do they have? What does a successful outcome look like for them? Every decision you make about your funnel, the content, the offer, the messaging, the platform should flow from a deep understanding of this person.

Step 2 Choose Your Traffic Source

You need people entering the funnel. Decide whether you’re leading with organic search, paid social, email, content marketing, or a combination. Each has different timelines and costs. SEO builds slowly but compounds. Paid traffic is fast but stops when the budget stops.

Step 3 Measure and Optimise

After you’ve launched your funnel, monitor each step. What are people dropping off at? What percentage of clicks do the emails receive? How much is your cost per lead and cost per customer? Funnel optimizing is a continuous process, not a single task.

There are several key funnel metrics to monitor:

Where marketers fall short are marketers who guess, and a way to tell is by understanding your numbers. The metrics to keep an eye on in the funnel:

• Click-through rate (CTR) are there clicks on your content and ads?
• Opt-in percentage the percentage of visitors who are turning into leads.
• Email open and click rates – is your nurture sequence working?
• The percentage of leads who are converting to customers is called conversion rate.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) – What is the cost of acquiring an individual customer?
• Customer lifetime value (CLV) – what is the lifetime value of each customer?

The numbers indicate where you should concentrate your efforts. If they’re not clicking on your lead magnet, it’s time for the changes. If your conversion rate is low, there’s a problem with your offer or landing page. Follow the data.

All set to construct an actual funnel that converts?

One of the best investments that a business can make is a well-constructed digital marketing funnel. It is available 24/7, qualifies leads automatically, and establishes a repeatable sales funnel that grows over time. Still not sure where to begin your funnel or you’ve tried one and it hasn’t been working for you? The Marketing Manic is here to help. We create conversion funnels from scratch – strategy, copy, automation, optimisation – and ensure that every stage of your customer’s journey is doing its job optimally.

Contact The Marketing Manic today and let’s create something that converts. 

FAQS

What’s the optimal length of a nurture sequence?

 For most businesses, 5 to 7 emails is a good number to start with. Establish trust and value first and then make an offer. In some industries, longer sequences will be helpful; it depends on how complex the purchase decision is.

So what’s the difference between a sales funnel and a marketing funnel?

 A marketing funnel encompasses the entire buying process, from the initial awareness up to loyalty. The term sales funnel is usually used to describe specific stages of the sales funnel, from lead to closed sale. In practice they are sometimes used synonymously.

Do you have to pay ads to run a funnel?

 Yes, SEO and content marketing can be used to feed a funnel effectively, but it may take longer to establish a good rhythm. While paid ads can speed it up, there’s no need to do so, particularly if you have a small budget.

What are the indicators of a working funnel?

 Monitor funnel activity throughout the funnel. When leads are flowing in, nurture is creating clicks and a healthy percentage are converting to customers, your funnel is working. Look to optimise that stage if it’s underperforming.