
If you want more customers then you need a marketing funnel.
What is a digital marketing sales funnel?
A digital marketing sales funnel is simply the process that a prospective customer goes through from the time they first become aware of your brand until they make a purchase from you.
What is the big deal about marketing sales funnels anyway?
The big deal about marketing sales funnels is that your strategy needs to change as your prospective customer moves through your funnel.
What are the stages of the marketing sales funnel?
There are 3 basic stages of the marketing sales funnel.
1. Awareness Stage
The awareness stage is targeted to a cold audience. They may not even be aware they need whatever your business offers! Your goals at this stage may include:
- increase the awareness of your products or services
- grow retargeting lists for advertising (building segments of your audience)
- increase engagement (i.e. on social media, blog engagement)
- grow website traffic
The types of content that marketers use at the awareness stage might include:
- a blog
- social media updates
- Infographics
- photographs
- digital ezines
- book
- audio podcast
- videos
- video podcast
- microsite
- print magazines
- primary research
In order to know how effective your content is at the awareness stage, you should measure:
visitors
- retargeting list growth
- site engagement rates
- number of inbound links
- traffic by channel (where were the visitors right before they came to your site or landing page)
2. Evaluation Stage
The evaluation stage is targeted to a warm audience. Your audience is aware you exist – they may have seen you on social media, visited your website or blog, or perhaps they have visited a landing page. At this stage, your prospective customer wants to learn more about your products or services.
Your goals at this stage may include:
- growing your email subscriber list
- growing your retargeting lists (bring visitors back to the offer)
- increase leads
- initial customer acquisition
The types of content marketers use at this stage might include:
- educational resources
- useful resources (how-to)
- software downloads
- discounts/coupons
- quiz/surveys
- webinars/events
The benchmarks that marketers want to track and analyze at this stage would include:
- #of leads
- growth of your email list
- newsletter email open / click-through rates
3. Conversion
The conversion stage is targeted to a hot audience. Your audience knows who you are and, ideally, likes and trusts you. They are almost ready to make a purchase but they want more detailed information that they can use to compare your products or services with your competitors, they want answers to their questions and objections, and they often need an incentive to take the step of making the purchase.
Your goals at this stage are:
- nurture your leads
- grow retargeting lists
- maximize immediate customer value
- increase retention
- increase buyer frequency
- negate objections
The types of content marketers use at this stage might include:
- demo/free trial
- customer story
- comparison/spec sheet
- webinar/event
- mini-class
The benchmarks that marketers want to track and analyze at this stage would include:
- Number of sales qualified leads
- Offer conversion rate
- Promo email open/click-through rate
- Retargeting list growth
- Average customer value
- Retention rate
- Buyer Recency/Frequency
Ready to start building a marketing sales funnel for your business? Contact us today to get started!
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