What is a Marketing Funnel, and why should I care?
Everyone loves a good visual representation of a complex concept — but what is a marketing funnel, and why do I keep seeing images of them? If you want a simpler step-by-step way to showcase a series of information, The marketing funnel is just that…a visual means to describe a customer’s journey to purchasing a product or service.
The basics of the marketing funnel have stayed the same since the 1900s. There are many adaptations out there, and no model is universally accepted by companies across the globe. However, there is one consistency: marketing efforts don’t involve getting a potential customer to purchase right away. A solid marketing strategy starts with capturing leads to get some of those anonymous strangers to purchase the product.
Benefits of the Marketing Funnel
A buyer’s decision process follows a logical and designated path. The consumer identifies a problem or need and starts the process of defining solutions. Then, they consider the best possible solution with the intent to purchase. Essentially, a marketing funnel is a tool that helps to represent your buyer’s journey (or path) to become familiar with your company and hopefully create a lifelong relationship through purchasing (and loyalty).
Primary Goal
The best way to generate leads and turn them into lifelong customers is to define a strategy that guides your potential customers through the “marketing funnel.” A marketing funnel is a visual representation of all the steps a potential customer (potential lead) has to go through before purchasing a product or service.
Marketing efforts don’t involve getting leads to purchase the product right away. Instead, it starts with capturing leads and taking them through the funnel to finally purchase the product. Much like an orchestrated dance, a marketing funnel has various stages of luring a lead into a purchase.
- Awareness/Discovery: your prospect learns about your brand
- Interest: generate interest in your new prospect
- Consideration/Engagement: your prospect considers taking some course of action with your product
- Intent: you (the company) highlight the impact of your product to guide the new prospect toward a purchase decision
- Evaluation: your “ideal customer” is now ready to research more before purchasing (price, value, support)
- Purchase: your prospect makes the purchase after careful research and consideration
Marketing Funnel and Beyond
Effective marketing provides visibility for the product/service but also factors in strategies to identify pain points of the customer’s journey to increase profits. There are steps that a company can take beyond the marketing funnel to create strong relationships with customers to ensure they don’t move to a competitor’s services. All business owners understand that it is vital to get a lead to take action BUT it is just as essential to creating loyal advocates for your business.
At Big Red Dog Marketing, we understand the value of a strong marketing plan that aligns with each stage of the buyer’s journey. With clients located across the country, we focus on what your business really needs and understand how to make your company competitive to deliver high-quality results. From Integrated Marketing to SEO, we tackle any marketing need to help drive quality traffic to your website, raise conversions that build results and solve those complex problems every business owner faces.
Want to learn more about our team and how we can help your business? Feel free to give us a call at 919-926-8727 or email us at hello@bigreddog.marketing.
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