When was the last time you purchased something online? Odds are you have probably done so pretty recently, which means like the rest of us, you have been sucked in and spit out of someone else’s digital marketing funnel. This also means their funnel worked on you… so wouldn’t you like to have your own magical funnel?
A digital marketing funnel is the path marketers create for their customers to venture through and eventually become customers.
It is important for all marketers to understand and tweak theirs regularly to be sure it is always performing at its peak level. Looking at your funnel can help you to figure out exactly where your customers might be getting stuck and how you can usher them along or influence them to do something.
Levels of a Digital Marketing Funnel
It is important to remember that every company’s funnel may look slightly different and will most likely have a wide range of tools included.
Generally, your funnel can be split up into 3 distinct sections: top, middle, and bottom- or TOFU, MOFU, AND BOFU. Your ultimate goal when creating your funnel is to move visitors down the funnel, eventually bagging them as a customer. This process is called lead marketing.
The Top of the Marketing Funnel (TOFU):
This is where your visitors first encounter your brand or product. They are presented with some sort of a problem and offered the solution, and this is often what sets their initial interest in your product.
This generally happens nowadays through social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. It is also possible to do this through blog posts, infographics, photos, podcasts, videos, or even SEO marketing.
At this level, you probably won’t include the specific sale, but you may present a CTA to push the potential customer further down the funnel. Your superficial job here is to entertain, educate, and inspire your audience. In other words, just try to grab their attention.
The Middle of the Marketing Funnel (MOFU):
By this point, your viewers are much more invested in your service or product. In fact, they may even go so far as to opt-in by providing you their contact information. When this happens, the customers will sometimes receive some sort of reward for their subscription- something like an ebook, a template, or a webinar. You could also provide free educational resources, software, or discounts and coupons.
Your main goal here is to build a strong and cohesive community of customers that want to subscribe and hear more from you, and subsequently generate leads for your business.
The Bottom of the Marketing Funnel (BOFU):
This is the ultimate point of sale. It is at this point that you would include a “buy now” button and make that sale! It’s that simple!
But it’s not over! Making a one time sale will do little to nothing for you. Your overall focus when creating your marketing funnel is to establish a relationship with your audience that keeps them coming back for more. It is your job to maintain this connection with them and provide them with an awesome customer experience. This joy that you bring customers may even lead them to become word of mouth advocates. This will be carried out almost exclusively on social media nowadays.
So you created and implemented your digital marketing funnel. Now what?
Here comes the most important part: You need to track, measure, and improve your marketing strategy now. The work has only just begun!
At the top of the funnel there are a few specific things you can measure. Remember that your tools at this point were things like social media, blog posts, and videos. You can try tracking and comparing their views and likes or even the number of visitors to a page on your website.
In the middle of the funnel you could track the length users stay on a specific page or even the number of users that choose to provide their contact information to you.
At the bottom of the funnel there are a number of things you could try to collect and learn from. Record the number of people that subscribed to your newsletter and even the number of people that interacted with the newsletter. You could count the number of customers or even repeat customers that you have. Lastly, you could take note of the number of advocates you have for your brand.
After reflecting on each of these numbers you will have a pretty solid idea of your strengths and weaknesses. You can then use that information to implement new practices.
Understanding your marketing strategy and how it helps or hurts you can give you the ability to expand and improve your business further than ever before. Like our businesses, each digital marketing funnel will be different, so it is important to find out what works for your business specifically. There might be some trial and error, but in the end, you are sure to find success.
For more information on Digital Marketing Funnels and how you can improve your own, check out the following websites:
http://coolerinsights.com/2016/09/how-to-optimize-your-digital-marketing-funnel/
https://www.digitalmarketer.com/digital-marketing/content-marketing-strategy/
https://medium.com/pilcro/how-to-find-and-solve-glitches-in-your-marketing-funnel-bfe84a6ac5bb
