In simple terms, a digital marketing funnel is the journey or path your audience takes before, during, and after they make a purchase. Each stage of the funnel should be well-thought-out and include tailored strategies at every touch point along the way. This provides a unique experience to your ideal customer in every stage of their customer journey.
One core element that binds your funnel together is high-quality content. But where do you place each piece of content in the customer journey to generate the best results? Let’s dive in to uncover everything you need to know about a digital marketing funnel, how to create one, common mistakes to avoid, and how to measure it.
What is a digital marketing funnel?
Every consumer has gone through a digital marketing funnel at one time or another. Whether you’re aware of it or not, each link or sign-up form in an article or blog leads you down a path towards making a purchase.
Have you ever attended a webinar? Did you give your email address or business card for a chance at winning a prize? Both of these are examples of lead generation touchpoints. There are countless tactics that you can incorporate into your marketing strategy depending on your offerings.
We’ll get into the nitty gritty further down. However, your digital marketing funnel should engage and inform your audience from the very first interaction to their first purchase. Even after they buy from you, there are additional methods to engage your customers further to make them loyal lifelong fans.
Why are digital marketing funnels important?
Think of your funnel as a strategic framework that guides customer interactions and decision-making. Without this framework, your audience has no path to follow in helping them make a buying decision. So basically, you’re leaving money on the table and no business owner wants that.
Additionally, digital marketing funnels are important because they help businesses:
- Identify their target audience
- Understand their customer journey
- Develop personalized and targeted marketing campaigns
- Track and measure the results of their campaigns effectively
- Optimize their campaigns over time
The different stages of a digital marketing funnel
The traditional digital marketing funnel includes four primary stages. However, many businesses now use a more complex funnel model including two more stages that come after a consumer makes a purchase. Here’s the breakdown of each stage.
Awareness: The first time a consumer becomes aware of your brand.
First impressions are everything, which makes brand awareness a crucial part of any content marketing strategy. A few types of content that are helpful in this stage include:
- Blogs and Articles
- Educational Video Content
- Infographics
- FAQ Page
Related Article: Understanding the 5 Customer Journey Stages
Interest: The customer expresses interest in your products or services.
Once you’ve captured the attention of a consumer, the next step is to capture their interest. Also called lead generation, this is typically the process of collecting email addresses or contact information.
- Promotional sign-up tactics (an email in exchange for a discount)
- Live Events or Webinars
- Targeted landing page with downloadable guide, template, etc.
- Digital newsletter subscription
Decision: The customer considers making a purchase.
The decision stage is where the real magic starts to happen. During this phase, the consumer is researching and weighing their options. It’s important to highlight why you’re the right choice over your competitor.
- Free Demo or Product Sample
- Client Testimonials, Reviews, or Case Studies
- Personalized Video Content
- Your Story (as a business owner)
Action: The customer makes a purchase.
Even after they’ve decided to purchase from you, the fun doesn’t end there! Be sure to:
- Ask for their feedback!
- Include social share buttons to spark an online conversation.
- Request an honest review of your product or service.
Loyalty: The customer makes a repeat purchase.
One-off purchases aren’t a sustainable business model. That’s where the loyalty phase comes into play. If the customer enjoyed their first purchase, why wouldn’t they enjoy another? Here are some powerful tactics to consider at this stage.
- Develop a loyalty or reward incentive program.
- Offer recommended products/services.
- Provide exclusive offers and announcements to your customers.
- Optimize your customer support methods for a seamless customer experience (think returns, exchanges, issues, etc.)
Advocacy: The customer recommends your brand to others.
If the customer has made it this far then they must really LOVE what you have to offer. So think of ways to incentivize them to spread the word on your behalf! Word of mouth and referrals are still one of the strongest tactics to promote a brand. There’s a serious trust factor there that’s hard to beat, so consider:
- Setting up a referral program
- A brand ambassador program
- Incorporating a User Generated Content (UGC) strategy on social media
How can I create a digital marketing funnel?
Hopefully, you now have a general understanding of what your funnel should entail. Now we’ll break down the 3 critical steps to build a high-performing digital marketing funnel.
1. Define your business goals and target audience.
If you don’t outline goals, you won’t know how to measure the success of your efforts. Likewise, if you’re not clear on who you’re targeting then you aren’t creating targeted content that will speak to your audience.
2. Develop targeted marketing campaigns for each stage of the funnel.
Based on your business goals and target audience, you’ll want to create the right messaging and content for each stage of the funnel. This is key. You wouldn’t want to communicate in the same way to someone who just become aware of your brand vs someone who’s purchased from you once or twice. They’re at different phases of the customer journey so the messaging will need to be different.
3. Track, measure, and optimize the results of your campaigns.
Marketing isn’t a one-and-done thing. Sure, you can easily build a digital marketing funnel and let it be. But how do you know if it’s actually working? It’s important to track and measure the results of your campaigns on a monthly basis. Based on those results, you can tweak and optimize each stage to improve your campaigns month over month.
5 Common Digital Marketing Funnel Mistakes
It can be easy to glance over your digital marketing funnel and think “Oh, it’s fine the way it is!”. Right? Just as your business goals change, your funnel should too. Mark it on your calendar to prioritize a quarterly review of your customer journey. When you do, don’t make these 5 common mistakes.
- Not defining clear goals
- Targeting the wrong audience
- Using irrelevant or low-quality content
- Neglecting mobile optimization
- Not testing and optimizing campaigns regularly
How to measure the success of your digital marketing funnel
As we said before, you should be reviewing the success of your marketing campaigns on a regular basis. There are a number of key metrics you can choose from to help you measure the success of your digital marketing funnel, including:
- Website Traffic
- Page Views and Average Time on Page
- Bounce Rates
- Click-through rates
- Email Subscribers
- Engagement rates on social media
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
As your business and digital marketing efforts grow, so will the success of your campaigns. By taking the time to assess what’s working and what isn’t you’ll be able to make educated decisions to adjust your marketing.
In Conclusion
In theory, a lead gen funnel doesn’t seem so scary. It does require a lot of time and effort though to get it right. If you’re just getting started, be patient, and don’t be afraid to try new things! The more data you can acquire the more you can make your digital marketing funnel work for you.
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