First, a potential customer has the first contact with your brand, then makes a purchase to eventually recommend you to their friends and Internet users. The path such a customer must take is called the marketing funnel. It consists of several levels and customers can stop at any of them. Our goal, however, is to get them to the end.
From potential to satisfied customers
The marketing funnel vividly presents the customer's journey from first contact with the brand to purchase. It makes it easier to tailor specific marketing activities to a group of customers from a given level of the funnel. As the name suggests, at the top, the funnel is wide, and this area has the most potential customers. It narrows towards the bottom so that only loyal customers remain at the very bottom.
What stages of the marketing funnel do we distinguish?
- Potential customers with whom we build awareness of their needs and the specific problem that we can solve.
- Potential customers who are considering the option of using our offer. They are the ones who compare the available solutions and look for more detailed information about them.
- Customers who make a purchase. They make a specific decision and negotiate an offer.
- Loyal and satisfied customers, using our offerings more often and recommending our brand to others.
Why create a marketing funnel?
It makes it easier to work out specific types of customers and understand their needs. This allows us to plan our sales strategy with greater efficiency. We tailor marketing activities to each stage of the funnel, which allows us to more successfully turn prospects into customers and then into loyal customers.
The marketing funnel is thus a tool that organizes the types of customers, their behavior, preferences and level of engagement.
Funnel level vs. message form
At each level of the funnel, there are other forms of communication that the user will be interested in and that will really produce the desired results.
For potential customers, we focus on product and service knowledge. Blog articles, tutorials, social media posts and podcasts work very well. Slightly lower down, among customers considering a purchase, focus on statistics and reports, webinars and emailing. At the purchase decision stage, the customer's focus is already on pricing, reviews from other customers, and case studies. At the loyal customer level, customer forums, knowledge base and all kinds of discount information already appear.
A well-designed marketing funnel and matching tools to its various stages helps to "move" customers downward. We need to interest the potential customer, convince the considering one, keep the determined one for a long time, and reward and support the loyal one.
