What Is A Marketing Funnel? 

Marketing is a field in which the techniques and methods are constantly growing, changing, and adapting to consumer behaviour. As such, there is a lot of debate surrounding the marketing funnel and whether it is still relevant in the buying process today.

Marketing techniques and methods are constantly growing, changing, and adapting to consumer behaviour. As such, there is a lot of debate surrounding the marketing funnel and whether it is still relevant in the buying process today.

Before making a purchase, customers need time to evaluate their options and needs before they commit. This is where the marketing funnel comes into play, and its purpose is to convince potential customers to purchase your product or service.

Each stage of contact forms the customer’s journey with you, and it’s essential to keep them interested along the way. The marketing funnel allows you to do just that.

How Do Marketing Funnels Work?

Marketers target consumers at different stages to push them deeper down the path. As the stages go by, customers get lost along the way—resulting in fewer and fewer customers reaching the end stages. As such, it’s represented by a funnel shape.

Using one of the various marketing funnel models, you approach the consumer in different ways and with different messages as they get further down the path.

The AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) model is the most common model. Using the funnel, you can ensure customers feel that they’ve made the right purchase choice by putting your product forward as the best solution to their needs.

Marketing Vs Sales Funnel

A distinction must be made between a marketing funnel and a sales funnel. The former is more about attraction and thus focuses on a much broader audience. A marketing funnel convinces consumers that your company, brand, or product best suits their needs.

However, to ensure that you aren’t coming across as insincere, it is important to speak more broadly of the problem rather than the particular solution you offer for the most part.

On the other hand, the sales funnel begins its work after the consumer decides they need a product to fix the problem put forward. This happens after the marketing funnel performs its function, and only now do you begin talking about the specific solution you offer.

However, sales form part of the marketing funnel—it comes at the very end. As such, a marketing funnel is sometimes referred to as a marketing sales funnel.

Types Of Marketing Funnels

The standard marketing funnel used by many marketers is a four-stage process that includes attention, interest, desire, and action phases. Variations of this model include additional stages such as loyalty, consideration, conversion, and advocacy.

However, the standard funnel may not bring you the best results. If you find the traditional marketing funnel ineffective, you must consider altering or specifying the type of funnel you use.

Purchase Funnel

Most commonly used in eCommerce, this funnel includes steps of an online purchase. This includes visiting the company website, finding and viewing the product, adding the product to a cart, and finalising the purchase.

This is the basis; however, most add an up-sell feature. This directs the customer to a better version of the item they have added to their cart. During this process, you must ensure the customer feels comfortable providing their banking details. Therefore, you have to add trust builders.

Hero Funnel

This option is best for introducing the customer to your business and what it can provide them. Showing you are worth a follow at every step, you send customers from an introduction page to a newsletter and then to your social media accounts. Make sure that the tone of your messages conveys you as the “hero”.

Webinar Funnel

Webinars are an excellent way to share your knowledge and expertise. Getting people to sign up for a free webinar from your landing page is the first stage of the funnel. You can then build trust by providing valuable knowledge and guiding your audience to make a purchase.

Live Demo Funnel

A live demo is one of the best ways to show customers that your product is worth your money. This funnel is all about getting a potential customer to request a demo. It can help convince a user to purchase software after seeing its usefulness.  

Storefront Funnel

Again, most commonly used in eCommerce, the storefront funnel is a precursor to the product or purchase funnels. It works in the same way as window shopping does in real life. The beginning of the funnel sees the customer face-to-face with all of your products or categories of products on one page.

With high-quality images and a good product layout, you can optimise the purchase rate using this funnel.

Squeeze Page Funnel

A squeeze page funnel should be your go-to if you need to accumulate e-mail addresses for a mailing list or for any other reason. Their existence is purely to acquire the email address of a potential customer. For example, the top of the funnel may be an offer of a coupon in return for an email address. Then, you can up-sell people with your email marketing strategy.

Home Page Funnel

Whether they mean to or not, most companies have websites with this type of funnel. The home page directs customers to other integral funnels, such as the squeeze page or purchase funnels.

It is best to steer clear of pop-ups on this page and only add a few links to other funnels, or it looks busy, and customers get distracted.

Membership Funnel

This is the best funnel to use if your business relies on memberships. You can draw people in to sign up and become members by offering free trials. Alternatively, you can lead existing members down a conversion path in which they pay more and more as they increase their membership quality.

If you experience a high level of membership cancellations at a certain point, add a free trial at the exit page to draw some users back in.

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Benefits Of Using Marketing Funnels

IIn addition to saving time for your employees and creating efficiency in the flow of the purchasing process, marketing funnels bring quite a few other benefits.

A marketing funnel simplifies an individual’s journey from being a consumer to a customer. It is also a marketing strategy that can be applied to thousands of people simultaneously instead of one by one, increasing efficiency.

Most importantly, they’re measurable. You can locate where you lose customers by using a marketing funnel. Having this knowledge means you can reassess and change your strategy at that stage to something better.

Optimise Your Marketing Funnel Today

Marketers can adapt marketing funnels to various customer bases, which means they can help you no matter your business type. They’re easy for marketing teams to set up and bring several benefits. A well-planned marketing funnel can do wonders for your sales.

Need help to optimise your marketing funnel? Contact the team at PWD today to optimise your marketing strategy in 2024.