What is it?

The marketing funnel, also known as a sales or conversion funnel, represents the customer journey from initial awareness to becoming a loyal advocate. As the name suggests, the funnel widens at the top where awareness is generated and narrows towards the bottom as  leads progress through various stages, ultimately becoming loyal customers. Each stage presents opportunities and challenges that businesses must address to maximise conversion rates and foster long-term customer relationships. 

Sounds great, but how can this system help you?

The beauty of the funnel is that it allows you to effectively categorise your marketing activities so you can more efficiently generate leads, get repeat business and take your business to the next level.

Understanding the Funnel

There are 4 main stages; Awareness, Consideration, Conversion and Loyalty.

Awareness – The top of the funnel, this is the point where the customer first learns about the brand, likely from an ad or recommendation Even though consumers are aware of a brand, only a few will actually consider purchasing,

-Knowing this, Brands must maximise awareness within their target market to increase the likelihood of potential customers moving along their funnel. Digital,email and social media campaigns as well as newsletters are such ways of increasing brand awareness.

Consideration– At this stage leads will start thinking about purchasing from the brand. This looks like comparing prices with competitors, making inquiries, reading reviews or browsing the brands social media/website.

– It’s important here to make a good impression by prioritising customer experience and offering purchase incentives such as coupons, special offers, personalised emails.etc.

Conversion Stage– This is the what many entrepreneurs view as the first and only stage – here a lead makes a purchase and becomes a customer, to increase your rate of conversion you must communicate value to your customers through your content, packaging,and promotions etc

Loyalty – This is where a customer begins to make repeat purchases and even recommends the brand to friends & family. This stage of customer retention and loyalty  takes the most amount of time and effort to archive. 

• Initiatives such as loyalty programs are ways of achieving this, rewarding returning customers for their repeat business, increases sales and increases customer loyalty. Targeted email alerts are another ways of keeping customers engaged over time.

Conclusion 

The marketing funnel is a powerful  tool for understanding your customers journey to becoming loyal customers. This knowledge will be vital in building, refining and growing your marketing strategy to achieve consistent results, business growth and sales