Decisions, decisions, decisions. We all have to make them.

So does your potential customer when it comes to picking a brand.

New audiences don't just come across your website and instantaneously choose you. There is a whole process of consideration on their part, and an entire marketing strategy of the gentlest prodding from your side.

This cycle of gentle prods through each stage of the customer journey make up what is called a marketing funnel. A marketing funnel works your prospective customers through different stages of their customer journey; from meeting about your brand, learning more about it, and finally becoming a customer.

Leads flow through the funnel depending on how your digital marketing experience appeals to them at each stage of the funnel. Like with stories, a marketing funnel stages are a beginning, middle, and end. Your content marketing strategy should be constructed keeping these three portions of the marketing funnel in mind.

Top of the Funnel 

Any brand information directed at your target audience puts people at the top of the digital marketing funnel. Top of funnel information could be the landing page of your website, a social media post, or paid ads. This portion of the funnel is the awareness stage at which people are coming across your brand for the first time.  

This is the widest portion of your funnel, and it gets narrower from here on out. You need to note that you don’t have to catch them all. This isn't Pokémon. This is why marketers cast a wide net at their top of funnel marketing; while you can't convert everyone at the top of funnel, you can at least try to gather as many leads as possible.

What you don’t want to be doing at this stage is urging people to buy from you. And neither should you regard the top of funnel visits or engagement numbers as the direct number of potential sales. Not everyone who interacts with your brand at this awareness stage will convert into customers. Only those leads who want to know more about your brand will move on to the next stage of the funnel. 

What you should be doing here is building trust in your brand to drive awareness.

Tip: If your website is the marketing channel that's bringing in top of the funnel traffic, ensure your above the fold content on your landing page is impressive.

People appreciate brands that are confident to let the consumer decide when they want to interact with the brand again. Wearing your pushy salesman hat won't help at this stage of the funnel.

Middle of the funnel

When qualified leads move into the middle of the funnel, think of them as potential customers who've learned about your brand and are now shopping around in your physical store. You still don’t know if they will make a purchase with you, but again, you’re not gonna push them but only nurture prospects of them buying from you. You ensure their browsing experience is pleasant while they're in this consideration stage. 

In digital marketing terms, this means making sure the product/ pricing pages on your website are seamless and easy to navigate. Another content marketing strategy you can employ is feeding the audience content that showcases your brand's unique selling points. Create content such as a blog post that talks about what exact pain point your product solves. The content should nourish and build the impression you gave them at the earlier awareness stage. 

Like with most instances in marketing, there isn't a 'one size fits all' content solution. The people whom you’re catering to in the middle of the funnel may be mixed: they’re either people who made it past the top of the funnel and are considering your brand, or they are repeat customers whom you’re convincing to make an additional purchase.

So the marketing campaigns you’re pushing out at this 'interest stage' should be tailored to how they entered the funnel.  For instance, if they’ve signed up to an email list from purchasing their first product with you, ensure the content they receive will make them a repeat customer.

Bottom of the Funnel

At this particular stage of the marketing funnel, you have a narrow audience of potential customers or qualified leads. The content strategy at this stage should be data-driven around things like product FAQs, case studies, or other metrics—anything that gives these almost-new customers confidence to choose your brand.

Without funnel marketing, your marketing efforts could be scattered. You'd be giving your prospective customer top of the funnel content, and letting them drift off. Or, you could lose customers at the interest stage by not backing up the trust-themed content with helpful information. Insightful marketing campaigns give qualified leads at each stage of their customer journey the information they need to move to the next funnel stage.

Other tips to make marketing funnels work for you

• Every customer experiences your marketing funnel differently. You might create content for the top of the funnel, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that customers can only access it at that stage. For example, someone might jump directly to the middle or bottom of the funnel because they’re already aware of their problem and your solution, and are ready to purchase.

• You want to pay attention to your website analytics to understand if your marketing funnel works. Look at your website's analytics and quantitative data to determine the funnel's success. What is your conversion rate like? How many conversions do you get for each of your marketing channels? What's the open rate for your email marketing campaigns? If you see a high drop-off rate at the middle and bottom stages of the funnel, you may have what's called a 'leaky funnel'.

• Use qualitative data like surveys from your leads at the middle and bottom funnel stages to get feedback on the customer experience. What's stopping them from converting? Was the purchase transaction effortless? People want different things at different stages of their buying process. Knowing the general consensus can help you match their intent with a certain expected experience and fix your funnel's leaks.

Building a funnel can be more layered than it sounds. Sometimes you may need different approaches to the middle stage of the funnel, or it may be a small web design flaw that stops people from converting.

To build a funnel that takes your brand to the next level of converting online users to customers, book a web project with me here.