Have you created your marketing funnel?

Businesses with effective marketing channels will help customers move through the funnel to achieve their desired result.

To create your marketing funnel, you need four key elements to recognise your customers journey: Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. Your customer’s journey through your marketing funnel will be aided by your chosen marketing strategies, which might include offers, discounts, calls to actions etc.

Awareness 

This is at the top of the funnel – the widest part. This is the stage you are making potential customers aware of your business, products or services. The key part of this stage is your messaging and your brand voice. At this moment in time, you don’t know who they are or what their needs are. It’s the stage to really create the ‘need’ from your potential customer and don’t let them go without finding out more. This is the stage to use your ‘call-to-action’ – it maybe to direct them to your website or get them to opt in to your email marketing. Whatever it is, you need to give them the hook at this stage.

Interest 

Your potential customer is now more familiar with who you are. They are taking a genuine interest in what you have to offer but haven’t yet committed. This stage needs you to spend longer with these customers and to give them further information about your products/services. You now know more about them, so you can tailor the information you give them to be specific to what they want. It’s a good way to build on the customer relationship and show them you responsive to their needs.

Desire

 Your potential customers are now in the narrow, ‘neck’ part of the funnel. They have been in contact with you and have all the information they need but just haven’t yet advanced to ‘GO’! They have chosen the product/service that appeals to them and you have given them the information they have asked for. What now? Well now you need to tell them why they can’t live without it – make a need a necessity! Explain ways in which it will benefit them specifically. You might do this with a direct email to the customer or offering a consultation/meeting with them.

Action 

You are finally at the narrowest part of the tunnel with your customer on their journey. Wahoo! This is when your potential customer turns into a customer! You have given them the information they need, they have chosen their product/service and they now know they must have it… So, this is the time to use your sales strategy. If they are ready to purchase, guide them to the payment stage and if they need that little bit of extra persuasion, you may entice them with an offer or discount. All that’s left is to complete the purchasing process with the customer and there you have it – a successful marketing funnel.

You have spent time and effort in creating customer relations, but you have also invested time into finding what your customers journey is. This will only help future sales and encourage customers to recommend your business because of the customer service they received.

Happy selling!