Marketing Funnel Cheatsheet

Have you ever wondered whether your conversion strategies are optimal for your business? After all, understanding the psyche of prospects is crucial to the growth of every business. Using a marketing funnel is a go-to way for many businesses to tap into the psyche of their potential buyers. In this article, we will briefly discuss the basic framework of a marketing funnel. 

To put it briefly, a marketing funnel is a beneficial consumer-focused marketing model that aims to visualize the process of converting prospects into dedicated buyers. This funnel is typically divided into stages. The goal is to convert as many prospects into customers as possible by the end of the funnel. 

Now let’s look at the different stages of a marketing funnel:

Stages of A Marketing Funnel

It's helpful to keep in mind that there's no agreed-upon method to divide the marketing funnel. While some marketers and sellers have very few stages, others will have quite many. This section presents the most popular funnel stages in inbound marketing that are known to work for both b2b and b2b businesses.

Awareness Stage

Awareness is the basic building block of any marketing funnel. In this stage, businesses make their presence known to prospects by running social media campaigns, blog posts, advertisements, direct mails, and other strategies. The goal of such brand awareness strategies is to reach prospects that have problems that your brand aims to solve. 

This process results in lead generation, and the leads are directed further down the funnel. 

Interest Stage in a Marketing Funnel

Once your brand has generated leads, the lead management system guides them towards the second phase, where they learn more about the brand, its products, services, and values. Interest is nurtured in prospects by considering their pain points and providing them solutions to their problems. 

This can be done through direct mails, ebooks, and any methods discussed in the first stage.

Consideration Stage

In this stage, leads are converted into potential customers as the prospect considers your brand a viable option for solving his problems and pain points. Leads can be guided towards this stage in many ways. The most common ways of doing this are automated emails, personalized messages, targeted content, product offers, and free trials.   

Keep in mind that you will still be competing with other brands on price, speed, and support at this stage. 

Decision Stage

This is the funnel stage where your strategies finally convince the prospect that your brand’s products and services will be the best solution to his problems. He is willing to invest his money in your brand and has made purchase decisions. 

Although everything will be taken care of by the sales, you need to make sure that the customer receives last-minute assurance just in case they have any doubts in mind. Moreover, you need to make sure that the customer receives a guarantee as it helps them in making the final decision. 

A positive customer experience will help cultivate long-term, loyal customers. 

Building a Marketing Funnel:

A marketing funnel is quite an intuitive model that can do wonders for your brand. The best way to utilize this funnel is not to overcomplicate the procedure and instead pay attention to each crucial stage. It's also necessary to research what your prospects want and what their pain points are. This will allow you to build an optimal marketing funnel.