Getting strategic with your marketing funnel
When it comes to marketing, I know that there is a whole host of weird and wonderful terms that you are going to hear used. One term that you might not instantly be aware of is the marketing funnel, however, this is definitely something that it is worthwhile learning about and I’m going to talk you through it.
What is a marketing funnel?
Depending on what stage of the buying process your customer is at, there is a different approach that you can take to marketing to them. As they progress, so will your marketing efforts and this steadily ramps up until they make a purchase.
Buyers go through a journey when they are looking to purchase and the marketing funnel helps to map out this journey in a logical way for you, as a business. It’s about being empathetic with your customer and knowing what messages and content will help them make the decision to buy.
The funnel analogy comes from having a broad audience at the start of your marketing campaign and as you work through the different stages of the funnel you will have a smaller number of engaged customers ready to buy at the end. Hence the term, marketing funnel.
So how do we market through the stages?
The first thing that you are going to need to get to grips with the actual stages of marketing themselves.
Stage 1- Awareness
In order for people to buy your product/service they need to be aware of it! Nowadays a lot of people jump online to find the solution to their problem. They will look to see what is out there and what can help them.
At this stage, you really need to make sure that your web presence is spot on. Have you done the relevant SEO work to make sure your website ranks highly in Google? Are you running a PPC campaign to make sure you are at the top of the listings? Have you got a clear positioning statement? Either way having a website isn’t enough you need to make sure people can find and are aware of you.
Stage 2- Consideration
When new clients go through the consideration process, they are comparing your product and service against others. Would it be clear to them how you are different from your competitors and what you offer? Important content for you to have at this stage on your website or in your marketing collateral are things like testimonials and case studies. These are such an important form of social proof and help to sway people to make a decision.
Stage 3- Decisions in the marketing funnel
When people are at making the decision stage it is important to help them make that decision – what can you offer them to help buy? They may have abandoned their shopping cart on an online purchase – could you remind them it’s still there? Could you give them a free trial or if you offer a service a free taster session? It’s worth thinking about what you can offer as an enticement to help them make the decision to buy.
The trick with all these things is that when someone lands on your website you won’t know what stage they are at in the buying process. Which can be annoying! However, you should always try and make sure that you have content and marketing activities in place that help guide people through the funnel.
If you are interested in find out more then check out some of my other blogs
