The marketing funnel is a visual representation of your customers’ journey, from the moment they first become aware of your brand to the point of purchase and beyond. Think of it as a metaphorical funnel:
- Broad at the top, where potential customers who are unaware of your brand get attracted through various marketing efforts
- Narrow at the bottom, where only a small percentage of those prospects become loyal customers.
The funnel consists of five stages: awareness, interest/consideration, intent, purchase, and retention. It’s an essential marketing tool for understanding and improving your customer engagement strategy.
In today’s article, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about how to build a sales funnel to effectively engage your customers.
The 5 stages of the sales funnel
Before diving in, it helps to know the five stages of the sales funnel in more detail:
1. Awareness
The “awareness” stage is where customers enter the sales funnel. Also called the top of the funnel (TOFU), potential customers first become aware of your brand here. This stage is all about making a good first impression and getting noticed by people who may be interested in what you have to offer. Marketing efforts such as social media ads, content marketing, and SEO can help increase awareness.
2. Interest/Consideration
Once someone becomes aware of your brand, they move on to the interest/consideration stage. This is where you want to capture their attention and make them interested in what you have to offer. This can be done through lead magnets, educational content, and personalized messaging.
3. Intent
At this stage, potential customers have shown a strong interest in your brand and are considering making a purchase. It’s crucial to keep them engaged and motivated to take the next step. This can be done through product demos, free trials, or discounts.
4. Purchase
The purchase stage is where a potential customer becomes a paying customer. This is the ultimate goal of any sales funnel, and it’s essential to make this process as smooth and seamless as possible. Offer multiple payment options, provide excellent customer service, and offer upsells or cross-sells.
5. Retention
Retention is often an overlooked stage of the sales funnel because it’s ongoing and takes place after the sale has already happened. But it’s just as important as all the others.
This is where you focus on keeping your customers satisfied and engaged to encourage repeat purchases and long-term loyalty. Personalized communication, rewards programs, and excellent customer service can help with retention.
Building your sales funnel
Now that you understand the stages of the sales funnel, it’s time to build one for your business. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
Step 1: Define your target audience.
The first step in building a successful sales funnel is understanding who you’re trying to reach. Identify your target audience’s…
- demographics
- interests
- pain points
…so you can tailor your messaging and marketing efforts.
Step 2: Plan compelling content for each stage of the funnel.
Remember, different stages of the funnel require different types of content. For example:
- Awareness stage: Social media ads, top-of-funnel blog posts, SEO, and other demand-generation strategies
- Interest/Consideration stage: Lead magnets, product comparisons, and email drip campaigns
- Intent stage: Product demos, free trials, a freemium version of your product, and informational content (e.g., how-tos and user-generated content)
- Purchase stage: Pricing comparison pages, retargeting ads, and shopping cart abandonment emails
- Retention stage: Personalized emails, loyalty programs, product suggestions, and social media engagement
Step 3: Implement conversion optimization tactics.
Your sales funnel is only effective if it’s converting potential customers into paying customers. Here are a few tips to optimize your conversions:
- Use clear and compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your funnel
- A/B test different elements of your funnel, such as landing pages and emails, to see what resonates best with your audience
- Utilize lead scoring to identify the most engaged and qualified leads
You’ll want to optimize your site for conversions before launching your campaign. Otherwise, you’ll end up routing customers to a site they won’t purchase or complete the desired action on.
Step 3: Use lead magnets to capture contact information.
It’s a lot easier to sell to someone once you have their email address. Unless you want them to think you’re spamming them, you’ll have to get them to give that to you voluntarily. To do that, you’ll need a lead magnet — something of value your target audience receives in exchange for their email address.
Lead magnets come in many forms. Some examples include:
- Ebooks
- Webinars
- Case studies
- Free trials or demos
When creating a lead magnet, make sure it’s something your target audience will find valuable and relevant to their interests.
Step 4: Nurture your leads through email campaigns and content marketing.
Once you have your target audience’s contact information, it’s time to nurture those leads through targeted email campaigns. The key here is to provide them with valuable content and solutions to their pain points while building trust in your brand. Use segmentation and personalization to tailor your emails to specific groups and individuals for a more personalized experience.
Step 5: Remove unnecessary friction.
Throughout the sales process (and especially at the purchase stage), you want to make it as easy as possible for someone to buy from you.
In B2B sales, this means cutting out unnecessary steps in the approval and decision-making process and providing all the information and resources a potential customer may need to make an informed purchase.
In B2C, it means offering multiple payment options, streamlining the checkout process, eliminating unnecessary forms on your website, allowing guest checkouts, and using chatbots to help customers find items they’re looking for.
Step 6: Prioritize retention.
New customer acquisition should always be a part of your strategy. But it’s less resource-intensive to target customers who are already happy with your products.
Retaining customers means you can turn them into:
- Repeat buyers
- Long-term advocates
- Referral sources
To prioritize retention, make sure to follow up with customers after a purchase, provide excellent customer service, and offer rewards or loyalty programs. And, of course, deliver great products that solve their problems and meet their needs.
Final thoughts
Building a sales funnel takes time, effort, and continuous optimization. But once you have one in place and understand how your target audience moves through it, you’ll see an increase in conversions and customer retention. Keep monitoring your funnel’s performance, make adjustments as needed, and always prioritize providing value to your customers at every stage of the journey.
