Business is art. There is no magic formula for making a business successful.
Indeed, there are some principles that must be adhered to. Like for example, precise calculations and instinct in seeing trends. The rest, there are no rules. How the business runs or the dynamics of the business itself is an art.
However, how about we leak a concept that will help your business? This concept will improve business as a process-oriented art. Then, turn it into a result-oriented business.
With this concept, you can maximize promotions and see the results in the form of income. Not jor-rod promotions that only burn money.
So, what concept do we mean? Yes, it is a marketing funnel. What is the marketing funnel and how can you apply it to your business? That question will be answered in a moment.
What are Marketing Funnels?
The marketing funnel is another form of the customer journey. The marketing funnel and customer journey both describe the process of someone from not knowing the brand, getting to know, considering, making a purchase, evaluating the product, to becoming a loyal customer.
Then, what is the difference between a marketing funnel and a customer journey?
The marketing funnel has a visualization like a funnel. This funnel shows the number of people involved in each stage of marketing. In the early stages of the marketing funnel, the audience to reach is large. The further back, the number will be less and less.
For example, in the early stages of promotion. You can reach very many people. At least, the people you target can know the brand name and the products you sell.
However, of those many, how many are interested in knowing more about the brand? How many want to buy it? How many people actually bought? Then, how many people will eventually become loyal customers?
The answer is predictable. Definitely less. Therefore, visualizing the marketing funnel in the form of a funnel is the right thing.
So, that part of the amount is not covered in the customer journey. The customer journey focuses on describing the process that potential customers go through in getting to know, finding out more, buying products, and finally becoming regular customers.
The customer journey documents which channels the audience accesses in that process. Do they know the business from Google Ads ads, friend recommendations, or social media? Are potential customers looking for products from websites, product reviews on YouTube, or customer testimonials?
So, you could say the scope of the marketing funnel are two important things in a customer journey. First, the marketing funnel can explain aspects of quantity or the number of target markets. Second, the marketing funnel also explains the customer journey descriptively.
Why Are Marketing Funnels Important?
The answer is simple. Through the marketing funnel, you can truly understand how potential customers know about a brand and ultimately decide to buy a product.
When you understand all the processes, you can identify which steps of the marketing funnel are optimal. Even so, the steps in the marketing funnel are not maximized. Then, you can refine your marketing strategy at a less than optimal stage.
In essence, you are trying to increase the likelihood of conversion at each stage of the customer journey. So, in the process of getting to know the brand, potential customers can be more confident and then steady buying your product.
With a funnel marketing approach, you will most likely be able to run your marketing strategy more effectively. You know exactly which channels to use, which ones to leave behind.
Through the concept of funnel marketing too, you can avoid wasting money on useless promotional efforts. So you are more interested in learning the marketing funnel, right? In the next section, we’ll cover the detailed steps in the marketing funnel.
Steps in the Marketing Funnel
In fact, every business has different stages of the marketing funnel. There are long stages. However, there are also short marketing funnel stages.
It all depends on the type of product or service, the channel used, the desired data analytics, to the sales platform used.
Instead of going over all types and variations of marketing funnels, we’ll cover the five essential steps in the marketing funnel. No matter what type of industry, product or service, platform, and data you are looking for ━ you can definitely find these five steps:
1. Awareness
The stage of the marketing funnel where the consumer is aware of what goods he wants or needs. For example, Adi watches a lot of exercise guides at the gym and is influenced by his friends to join the gym. Only then did he realize that he needed new shoes before paying for a gym membership.
2. Consideration
At this stage of the marketing funnel, consumers are looking for more information about the desired product. Included in this stage is comparing one brand with another. The same goes for Adi. Maybe he surveyed different types of shoes and brands. Look at the advantages and disadvantages, materials, and the price of shoes.
3. Purchase
Consumers decide the best product to buy.
4. Retention (Buy Back)
Consumers are satisfied with the first purchase. Furthermore, consumers decide to re-purchase the product.
5. Advocacy (Testimony)
Because they are always satisfied, consumers become loyal. They give good testimonials and recommend products or services to those closest to them.
Those are the steps of the marketing funnel that you need to know. Don’t stop scrolling just yet… In the next section we’ll give you funnel marketing optimization tips for your business. Listen again, come on!
Marketing Funnel Optimization Tips for Your Business
Just knowing the marketing funnel is not enough. After all, how do you maximize your business just by knowing the stages of people getting to know your business?
Well, this is where the new interesting part begins. In this section, we will share the results of our analysis regarding the right marketing channels in the marketing funnel.
By recognizing the marketing channels in each part of the marketing funnel, you know which stages are “leaky” and need to be “patched”.
Below, you can find marketing strategies that are suitable for each stage of the customer journey. When you succeed in maximizing presence at each stage, you can be sure that potential customers will not glance at competitors.
1. Awareness
Awareness is the most crucial stage of the marketing funnel in business promotion. This early stage of the marketing funnel allows you to reach as many potential customers as possible. The more targeted audience, the more likely you are to make a profit.
So it’s not strange that many new players in the business devote large budgets to promotions in the early stages. Unfortunately, if you are not smart enough, the budget can be wasted.
For that, you have to remember two things. First, whatever promotional efforts you make, make sure it increases brand awareness.
Then, secondly, make sure you already have a specific target market. Without a specific target, it means you are not targeting anyone.
Well, the best way to build Awareness:
– Content marketing
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that involves creating and distributing content. Through content created by businesses, the target market has more information and can educate themselves.
Apart from knowing more about the products offered, the target market gets added value from your content. They really understand what they need. Then, they also get tips and considerations before buying those needs.
– Traditional public relations
Another way that can be applied at the awareness stage in the marketing funnel is traditional public relations.
You should be more familiar with this type of promotion. Starting from advertisements on television, in print media, radio, billboards, even reaching out to social media. Included in this method is creating events and sponsorship partnerships.
2. Consideration
Let’s say you’ve successfully captured the attention of your target market early in the marketing funnel. The next stage in the marketing funnel is consideration or consideration.
For this stage of the marketing funnel, you may show off a little with the features and advantages of the product. Because, you are not the only one who is being ogled by potential customers. At this stage of the marketing funnel, consumers are comparing your product with competitors.
Therefore, underlining the advantages and features of the product is non-negotiable. In order to make it not too aggressive, try to practice customer oriented values.
Instead of saying, “My product is the best because of A, B, C, D.” Change the pitch to, “You will get an A because this product can offer B, C, D.”
In fact, you can convince your target by selling your imagination or dreams about your product. For example, you could sell a picture of a clean house and a happy home owner. Instead of talking about the content of floor cleaners and their efficacy.
Below, you can find the marketing channels for the consideration stage. Plus, other factors influence potential customers at this stage.
– Blogs
Blogs are a powerful marketing medium for businesses. Having a business blog can increase website traffic by up to 55 percent. Business blog pages are also four times more likely to be indexed by Google. This means, there are up to four times the possibility of your business being met by potential customers.
– Social media
Social media marketing is the most popular promotion method. To promote through this medium is actually quite simple.
All you have to do is create relevant content, publish it consistently, and keep in touch with your followers on social media. When you hold these three methods, you can be sure that the popularity of your business will increase.
– Websites
The decision to buy is not only based on the product. Often times, potential customers also consider how the service and user experience are when exploring the product. That’s why, the website is also important for you to pay attention to.
– Email Marketing
By applying email marketing to one of your promotional strategies.
This method can reach potential customers in the long term. In fact, when they no longer have time to touch the content you create on social media. So, it’s no wonder that 69 percent of businesses focus on gathering these potential customers and working on them to convert.
3. Purchase
The third stage of the marketing funnel is purchasing. Your focus is only to ensure that the transaction process runs quickly and smoothly. For that, you don’t need to provide too many options or buttons on the check-out page. There is no need to connect the page to content that is less relevant.
Because, at this stage of the marketing funnel, you are in a race against time. When the buying process takes too long, you run the risk of losing customers. They can change their minds halfway when they want to complete the transaction.
Apart from display, design, and user interface issues, there are a number of other things you can try to expedite the customer journey at this stage of the marketing funnel.
The things we talk about are promos, upselling, reminders, and live chat.
4. Retention (Buy Back)
It’s easier to get money from old customers than to find new customers. It’s not just a figment. A survey revealed that 80 percent of business profits come from 20 percent of existing customers. Isn’t it interesting?
To invite old customers to buy again, usually a business depends on the quality of products and services. Yes, that’s something that can’t be contested. So, here we provide a few technical tips that can lure old customers to shop again:
– Rewards/Points
Collecting spending points is the most commonly used strategy in the marketing funnel retention stage. For every purchase of a certain nominal value and multiples, consumers get a number of points. Later these points can be exchanged for certain products or prizes.
– Product recommendations
Another way to attract existing customers is to send product recommendations. Not just any recommendations are offered, but recommendations based on products that have been purchased. This kind of strategy feels more personal to the recipient of the recommendation.
– Help center
This one tip is an extension function of the live chat feature on the web. Live chat should also double as a help center for customers. When there are difficulties, questions or even complaints ━ customers can easily reach you.
Having a help center will reduce complaints on social media. Something you should avoid as it risks ruining your reputation.
5. Advocacy (Testimony)
The final stage of the marketing funnel is the advocacy stage. However, at the same time, it also opens up opportunities for new funnels. Even better, this new marketing funnel was created because of customers. What could be more powerful than a satisfied customer recommendation?
Steps you can take:
– Reviews
Reviews, word of mouth, testimonials, whatever it’s called ━ have proven to be effective in bringing in new customers.
You really can’t control the content of the review or people’s response to the review, but you can provide a place for the review to be seen by web visitors or potential customers.
– Referrals
Another way to start a marketing funnel is to implement a referral program. In contrast to organic reviews, the referral system provides incentives to customers who share referral codes.
This strategy can be said to please everyone. You, as a business owner, get new customers. Also, so do the referrers who get a commission from product sales.
– Resellers
Similar but not the same. Resellers are also a win-win for business owners as well as “promoters” of your business.
The difference is, the promoter does not get a commission. It instead gets the right to resell your product. It can be with a brand that he made himself, it can also be with a brand that you have. That’s up to your agreement with the promoter.
So, What is a Marketing Funnel?
Marketing funnel is a way to make it easier for you to understand how potential customers know about the brand and finally decide to buy the product.
Not only learning about what the marketing funnel is. Through this article, you will also know the difference between the marketing funnel and the customer journey and various strategies that can be applied to each stage of the marketing funnel.
[hurrytimer id=”247″]
