How To Design and Create Marketing Funnels

Marketing experts all over the world now understand that to effectively sell a product or service,they need to put themselves in the buyer’s shoes first. Anticipating your customer’s needs and then meeting them is what a successful business is all about!

One of the best ways to do this is to create digital marketing funnels. These funnels help you understand the buyer’s mindset from the moment they find out about your product to the moment they decide to make a purchase, and sometimes even what they do after that. When You understand a buyer’s journey, you can tailor content to meet their needs and position it to help them further along in the journey. Marketing departments in all kinds of organizations cansave a significant sum by following this approach instead of opting for a blind one.

In this article, we’ll talk about what marketing funnels are, how to create one, and answer most of your questions, so keep reading!

What Are Marketing Funnels?

Marketing funnels are basically a flow chart of the buyer’s journey, from the moment they find out about your product to the moment they decide to purchase it. These funnels help marketers understand what buyers at different stages of their buying decision need, and how to best meet these needs. They even involve post-purchase follow-ups that can help you retain buyers.

Companies and organizations that understand and effectively utilize this strategy are significantly more successful in their business endeavors, and get a higher ROI on marketing campaigns, than those who don’t.

Stages in a Marketing Funnel

There are mainly five stages in the marketing funnel, but these general stages need to be taken as a guideline for your own specific funnel, instead of the actual funnel. The reason for this is that for different industries, buyer journeys are different, and they all follow different steps.

Stage 1: Problem/Need Identification

The first stage of your marketing journey, or even your journey to creating a product or service in the first place, is to identify the problem you need to solve, or a need you want to meet. It Could be anything from meeting a client’s need for quality Indian food to providing marketing solutions to bigger organizations.

Stage 2: The Information Search

Once a buyer themself identifies this need, they’ll turn to online sources to look for more information on the topic. You can attract customers at this stage your way by writing informative content that they’ll most likely be looking for, and establishing your authority in the industry space. You can provide recipes for Indian food on your website, or tips and tricks to avoid the most common kitchen fails. At the end, you can position a CTA for your own services as well.

Stage 3: Considering Alternatives

At this point, once a buyer knows what they want, they’ll start looking for the right place to meet those needs. You’re most likely not the only player in the market, and all the other providers of the same service, too, will try to get your customer’s attention.

At this stage, someone looking for something to eat can simply decide they’re feeling more likeChinese food tonight than Indian, but for other industries like marketing or IT, this stage would be prolonged and very detailed. Buyers could want trials of your products, look at training videos to understand how the product would work, and much more.

It’s your job as the marketer to anticipate what prospective customers would need to make the final decision, and give it to them.

Stage 4: The Actual Purchase

Once the customer has made the decision to buy, you need to maximize their exposure to all the things that encourage them and convince them that they’ve made the right decision. This can be done with the help of customer success stories, positive reviews, testimonials, and more.

Keep in mind, however, that all these reviews and information need to be truthful and accurate.Lying about your brand and product not only goes against various laws and regulations but also severely hurts your brand image.

Step 5: Post-Purchase Behaviour

Once your customers are happy with the purchase, you can encourage them to keep coming back to you again and to leave a review of their experience on your website. This will help other people find your product and drive more sales and should be an essential part of your marketing strategy.

Make Your Own Marketing Funnel

Keeping the above marketing funnel stages in mind, you can consider what the thought process of your buyers will be at each stage, and keep them engaged. Sometimes buyers will decide against spending money on your products or services, and your marketing funnel should include ways to bring them back, as well.

Abandoned carts, for example, are a big problem in the world of online shopping, where many customers abandon their shopping cart right before making a payment for the items. This is usually the very last stage of an online store’s funnel, and they use something called an“abandoned cart email” to bring at least a fraction of those customers back.

In the same way, your marketing funnel will take some refining and some tweaking at the start,but soon you’ll start seeing results.

Advantages of Marketing Funnels

Marketing funnels give you a solid framework to tailor your marketing efforts around, and they stop you from investing in resources and content that wouldn’t be beneficial for your organization. If we revisit the example of an Indian restaurant, there’s no need for them to invest in content that’s convincing people to eat spicy food, because people either have a taste forIndian food or they don’t. They shouldn’t attempt to create a demand that isn’t there and most likely won’t be, instead they need to focus on customers that love a little kick in their food.

Higher ROIs, a higher conversion rate for your marketing team, more sales for your company,and word of your services reaching exactly the kind of people who are interested in the information and value your content... What’s not to like about marketing funnels?