Picture this: your business is soaring to new heights, but with no direction. You want to find a way to pave your path to success without any guesswork. So you hire a custom marketing agency for help.
In comes the Marketing Funnel.
A funnel-focused approach is the foundation of successful marketing. It’s a game-changer for business; a way to make proven, data-driven decisions so you can reach your goals. The funnel drives an audience from brand awareness all the way to advocacy using different kinds of tactics. Things like branding, social media, SEO, advertising, websites, and email marketing, among other things, are leveraged in creative strategies to increase your leads, and ultimately, help you reach your goals.
Many marketing agencies are service-based, meaning that they provide blanket services for their clients based on budget. Custom marketing agencies, however, approach their work a little differently. Before any services are even performed, we do intensive discovery and analysis to see how to best utilize a clients’ budget to reach their goals. Using the Marketing Funnel gives us a framework for this analysis, ensuring that we create a customized solution.
Every business is different, so why would we keep our marketing strategies the same?
How the Marketing Funnel Works
The Marketing Funnel is shaped just as you would imagine: a larger top in which the sides taper down. The funnel represents how marketing efforts affect your audience.
The top of the funnel covers awareness. These tactics aim to make your audience aware of your brand. Think branding work, advertisements, or social media campaigns. This will be your largest potential audience.
We then move to the next phase, consideration. Here, we invite comparison and drive your audience to seek out more information. Think visiting a website landing page and SEO. You are bound to lose some of your audience when moving from awareness to consideration.
Next lives conversion, where we ultimately aim to optimize the number of people who choose to take action. Think clicking on a link, filling out a form, or following a call to action. This will be a smaller audience, as not everyone considering your business will become a user. The users who make it to the conversion stage are then considered leads, and this is where your sales process can begin.
At the bottom of the funnel are loyalty and advocacy. In the loyalty stage, the goal is to foster community and gain returning customers. This can be done through rewards programs or account perks. Advocacy will be the smallest audience in the funnel, where your customers will support and promote your offerings to their community themselves.
Why is the Marketing Funnel Important?
Implementing a marketing strategy using a funnel-focused approach allows for tailored solutions. Marketing efforts can be more targeted, as the analysis performed allows for a more thorough understanding of the user journey.
Using the Marketing Funnel as a framework helps businesses reach the goal of improving overall CRO. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) refers to the practice of increasing the amount of users performing desired actions. We look at the data of multiple areas of a business’ funnel to see where exactly conversions are dwindling.
By analyzing different KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) such as traffic, engagement, click-through rates, and more, we are able to make data-driven decisions to see where on the Marketing Funnel your business needs help, forming a marketing strategy. Each client will have different KPIs to measure based on their industry or business model.
At Topsite, we diagnose blocks in the funnel and focus our efforts around this data. This will result in your business gaining a competitive advantage, as there will be a better understanding of how to optimize conversions and connect with your audience.
Understanding User Journeys
The funnel-focused approach includes understanding your audience. Most likely, you’ll have multiple types of users to consider when marketing your brand. It’s important to consider how each user will interact with your funnel. Some may need more of an awareness strategy (e.g. social media), and others may require conversion tactics (e.g. tailored website landing pages). We can help you build out user personas to better understand your target audience, and see what journeys are most important for them to optimize conversions.
Gaining Competitive Advantage
Using data to diagnose issues or blocks in your Marketing Funnel gives more insight into how to better market your brand. We can provide you with a detailed, tailored solution rather than a band-aid service. Our goal is to increase conversions within your funnel, and once we figure out a formula that works for your business, you’ll be set up for long-term success.
Developing a Holistic Marketing Strategy
The Marketing Funnel is a tried and tested framework. That’s why we love to use it. As a custom marketing agency, continually analyzing your funnel data allows us to develop a strategy for your growth. We understand that the world is ever-changing, and so can your user needs. We are experts at creating solutions and adjusting our strategies to drive real results. A holistic marketing strategy is our goal so that your business can reach your goals.
Become An Expert of Your Funnel
Overall, the Marketing Funnel serves as a crucial framework for guiding businesses through various marketing stages, from brand awareness to loyalty and advocacy. Custom marketing agencies utilize this approach to tailor strategies based on individual client goals and budgets. By analyzing different stages of the funnel, businesses can improve their Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), understand user journeys, and develop holistic marketing strategies for long-term success.
Ready to see results, not just reports? With the help of a creative agency, analyzing your Marketing Funnel can help you find a tailored solution so you can reach your goals and feel better about your business.
Ready to start your next project?