A Quick Guide to the Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel is a simple diagram representing the purchase cycle of consumers when selecting a new product. Marketers will use this funnel as a starting point in constructing the type of marketing materials and advertisements depending on what stage of the funnel they are targeting. A marketing campaign focusing on the upper section of the marketing funnel will differ from one focused on the lower end. Such as using a different call to action, blog content, advertising posters, or their chosen platforms on which they will push their marketing materials. It's also worth remembering that the marketing funnel approach is used differently depending on whether you are working in a business-to-consumer marketing (B2C) or a business-to-business marketing (B2B) team. But for this article, we'll focus on the marketing funnel for a typical B2C strategy to keep things simple.

What does a typical marketing funnel look like?

The marketing funnel is split into five stages or three sections, and it typically follows your target audience as they travel through each stage in the purchase cycle. The purchase cycle starts at the upper end of the funnel, where the audience will first learn or discover your product or service. Then travel down towards the lower end of the funnel, where the consumers love your brand so much that they tell others about your company. As the audience moves from each stage of the funnel, it usually gets narrower as people fall off by move on to other companies or losing interest in purchasing altogether. Fewer consumers will get targeted ads or view your campaign efforts further down the funnel. With the first stage of the funnel reaching a wider audience, meaning more will see your marketing campaigns as you typically focus on building brand awareness.

The typical stages of the marketing are:

1. Awareness

2. Consideration

3. Conversion

4. Loyalty

5. Advocacy

Or these can be broken down into three sections, such as:

1. Top — contains awareness and consideration stages

2. Middle — contains the conversion stage

3. Bottom — contains loyalty and advocacy stages

How to harness each stage of the marketing funnel

Each stage of the marketing funnel will mean reaching a different audience, and with each stage, there will be better marketing tactics than others. The overall goal of the marketing funnel is to move your consumer through each level and end up with advocates for the brand. But to do this, you'd change your marketing approach. To help you get to grips with what each stage is and what tactics are to implement into your marketing strategy, I have gone into detail in the following section.

Stage One — Awareness

During the first stage of the marketing funnel, the awareness stage. This is when a company's target audience first encounters its brand, such as seeing the brand through influencers, TV commercials, blog posts, billboard advertising, event sponsorship, etc. One of the best forms of building brand awareness and generating buzz is Guerilla marketing. This marketing tactic can be highly engaging, creative, and low-cost. A great example could be a food production company giving out free samples to commuters outside a train station with leaflets informing the audience of your business with QR codes to your website. This tactic would reach a large audience, with only a few individuals being your dream customer. But remember, the higher-level funnel expects people to drop off before moving to the next stage. And the few customers that pick up your leaflet to scan your QR code and find your website, moving them into your stage two marketing tactics.

Stage Two — Consideration

The consideration stage is when your target audience has become aware of your brand and is starting to think about purchasing. They go to your website to learn about your product or service and why they should choose you. It's wise to implement a content strategy at this point, posting blogs that your audience will find engaging during their purchasing cycle. Influencers and bloggers can become incredibly powerful at this marketing stage. For example, you sell camera lenses, and a potential client is searching for a nifty 50 camera lens. They have discovered your products. So start watching YouTube videos of photographers reviewing your lenses or reading blog posts to learn more. Marketers can pay content creators to write or vlog about their products to help consumers learn more during this consideration stage. Plus, marketers can get influencers to tell the audience of your discount codes and website to help funnel them into the next stage.

Stage Three — Conversion

During the conversion stage, your target audience is set out to take the plunge and finally purchase your product. But this doesn't mean marketers should become complacent, as consumers still drop out of the funnel at the last minute. A method to push them from learning about your product to finally purchasing is through targeted advertising and offers. A classic example of this is targeted social media ads. Thanks to cookies tracking their online searches. Marketers already know who is in the previous stage of the marketing funnel. So will start targeting sales ads on their social media feeds or through affiliate marketing banners, which will take you to their website with discounted offers only available to you. Also, as mentioned previously they will pay influencers, podcasters, and bloggers to give exclusive codes to their audience in a final attempt to get people to buy.

Stage Four — Loyalty

This is the stage in which marketers want first-time consumers to become repeat customers. The most common method of achieving this is through loyalty schemes such as simple coffee shop stamps offering a free drink after their tenth purchase. To more complex loyalty schemes like Expedia Rewards where repeat customers get points that move them into exclusive tiers such as silver or gold tier. Where those in gold get better rewards, free hotel room upgrades, and higher discounts than those in silver. This is also why a lot of websites try to entice people to join email mailing lists. Once signed up marketers can build email strategies around what you last purchased, viewed, or how often you open emails in an attempt to get you to buy again. Even offering discounts only exclusive to individuals that meet their email marketing criteria. For consumers who buy often, emails can even be created to offer discounts or money if they refer friends to their company. Moving swiftly from this stage to the bottom of the marketing funnel.

Stage Five — Advocacy

The final stage of the marketing funnel is when consumers reach the advocacy level of the purchase cycle. Think influencers that tell you about products, which they aren't sponsored by but would love to be. Or your friend who praises their amazing iPhone. Advocacy marketing is often out of a company's control with word-of-mouth marketing often being the goal. The same individuals who praise a company and help increase sales can be the same people to boycott if a company ever does something that leads to negative publicity. But there are a few things marketers do to get loyal customers to become their brand advocates. The most common method is referral schemes where consumers get incentives for getting their friends to buy or join. Monzo did this early on in their marketing efforts offering both the customer and their friend £5 each setting up a bank account. Marketers also encourage consumers to leave reviews on sites like TrustPilot. Or get people to share content online with company hashtags. Often leading to a new target audience, bringing about brand awareness, and starting the purchasing cycle all over again.

Overview of the marketing funnel

The marketing funnel can become a useful guide in what type of marketing campaigns to focus on, how to budget your money, and what content or information is best for your audience at their point in the journey. It can help designers to know what is important in the visuals they create. It helps influencers understand what your goal of their paid sponsorship is. Can help in developing your marketing strategies whether you're trying to get the first wave of customers through, or you have long-term clients that you feel could help increase your sales. It's worth remembering, that losing people during the purchasing cycle is expected and that doesn't mean your efforts failed. The person who drops out of the funnel today could rejoin the cycle during your next brand awareness campaign leading to a loyal customer in the years to come. Marketing is often about taking risks, reviewing the results, and adjusting as you go.

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