What is a Marketing Funnel?

MARKETING FUNNEL

A marketing funnel is a visual representation of the process through which people go from first learning about a brand to becoming loyal customers. The funnel is wide at the top and narrows toward the bottom because a lot of potential customers will enter the top of the funnel, but only some of them will reach the bottom to become loyal customers. Right now, I’m going to introduce you to a simple version of the funnel that has four stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty.

AWARENESS

At the top of the funnel is the awareness stage. This is when a potential customer encounters a brand for the first time, maybe from an ad or a recommendation. At this stage, the customer probably doesn’t know enough about that company to form an opinion. They’re just aware it exists. Awareness is the widest tier because even though a lot of people might know about a company, only some of them will think about doing business with them. That’s why it’s important to raise as much awareness as possible among target audiences. A target audience is the group of people most likely to purchase a company’s products. They’re the ones whose attention your digital marketing efforts should capture. Things start to narrow at the next stage: consideration.

CONSIDERATION

This is when some potential customers from the awareness stage start to think about doing business with a company. At this point, they could be actively browsing the website or comparing different brands, so making a good impression is key. Those who move beyond consideration go to the conversion stage.

CONVERSION

Conversion is when someone decides to make  a purchase and become a customer. To increase the chances of conversion, businesses should demonstrate their value and provide a user-friendly experience.

LOYALTY

The last stage is loyalty. It takes a huge amount of effort to move potential customers from awareness to conversion. Once a customer completes a purchase, you want to give them reasons to return. Making current customers happy can increase trust and keep them coming back for years to come. Read more