Why You Need a Digital Marketing Funnel

Without a digital marketing funnel today, your business is at a serious disadvantage.

The reason is simple:

Customers today are more in charge of the buying process than ever before.

Their journey typically goes through four stages:

Awareness, nurture, convert and delight.

These are the four basic parts of the marketing funnel. Successful marketing funnels are built on these four stages of the customer journey to a purchasing decision.

But what then is a digital marketing funnel?

Essentially, it is an online structure that turns prospects into customers one step at a time. 

By using a “getting to know you” approach. 

Let’s look into the components of a digital marketing funnel and why it works.

Awareness: Top of  Funnel (aka “TOFU”)

Before you can try to sell someone something, they need to know who you are. Think about it this way…you want to court them before you ask them to marry you.  No one will say yes without knowing a thing about you or why they should commit to your services. 

The awareness phase of the inbound marketing funnel is also known as the Top of the Funnel (TOFU). Your job in this area is to spread brand awareness through items like social media, email lists, blogging and high-quality content in the form of videos, infographics and educational articles. Top of the funnel marketing is your opportunity to attract new prospects and engage them with great content to keep them coming back. 

Nurture: The Second Stage of Your Digital Marketing Funnel

In this part of the funnel, you’ve attracted your prospects with your fantastic content, now you need to get them to take that next step in becoming a qualified lead. This is known as the Middle of the Funnel (MOFU).  

Tools used in this phase of the digital marketing funnel include email nurturing and advertising on social media and websites that your target customer uses. Now is where you show them why they need your services and how you can solve their business challenges. 

Convert: The Most Critical Stage of Your Funnel (aka “BOFU”)

In this phase of the digital marketing funnel, you’ll convince your qualified leads to take the final steps in becoming a customer. Also known as Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU), this is the final stretch of your journey. 

To help leads convert, you can use content like case studies and testimonials, remarketing activities, and video demos. 

Delight: The Secret to Successful Digital Marketing

Once your prospects become customers, that doesn’t mean your job is over. Customers are a crucial asset to any company. Not only that, but they should also be your biggest cheerleaders. Happy customers impact your bottom line directly, and you want any feedback they’re giving to be great feedback. 

So how do you keep customers happy? Keep in touch with them through your social media channels and customer newsletters. Social media is a great way to monitor what’s new with them and to share their successes with your other followers.

If you have customers who are using your product in innovative ways, you can come up with an award program that recognizes those customers. You can also use referral incentives to encourage customers to refer you to others. 

The bottom line is that you want to continue to engage with them and keep those lines of communication open long after they become a customer. 

Your First Funnel

By following the digital marketing funnel formula, you’ll have the blueprints necessary to attract your target customer, provide them with the content that they’re looking for and convert them into happy customers that continue to promote your company to others. 

Ready to learn how to create a marketing funnel for your business?

Contact us today for a consultation and see how we can help.