Let’s clean up some common confusion around funnels. Marketing funnels, sales funnels, lead funnels, top of the funnel, bottom of the funnel…what does it all mean?
A marketing funnel is really just a visual representation of your customer journey – and every aspect of your business is involved in various stages of the marketing funnel.
From the moment someone hears about your offering, to the moment they sign on the dotted line, and then later on when they shout from the rooftops, raving to all their friends about how awesome you are! Every step of the way, they were in your marketing funnel.
A lot of the confusion around marketing and sales funnels is because there are many variations on the traditional marketing funnel, and no single model is universally accepted by all companies.
That’s because every business model and offering is different!
The good news is that there’s no wrong way to look at a marketing funnel, as long as it works for your business. But before we get into all the variations, we have to understand the foundation.
3 primary elements of a marketing funnel:
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Awareness (also called ‘Attention’)
This is how people hear about you. Whether you use traditional marketing methods like print ads and tv commercials, or if you use digital marketing media like Google Ads, Social Media or SEO.
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Consideration (also referred to as ‘Interest’)
This is where prospective customers identify that they have a problem, and they think you may be able to solve it. It’s also when a prospect connects with someone in a sales role (with e-commerce business models, the sales guy is usually your website).
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Conversion (also known as ‘Purchase’)
The moment we all get excited about! You could have the most innovative product, and the best customer service experience, but nothing happens until somebody buys something.
Y’know what? I think we can break it down and simplify our understanding of these three elements even further. In the awareness phase, we call that person a PROSPECT. In the consideration phase, we call them a LEAD. In the conversion phase, they become a CUSTOMER.
These three phases are also commonly referred to as the Top of the Funnel, Middle of the Funnel, and Bottom of the Funnel.
Evolution of the Marketing Funnel
In recent years, many organizations have started to add a couple of additional phases to the funnel: Loyalty, and Advocacy.
Now here comes is the best part! This is when your one-time customer becomes a repeat customer, and then your repeat customer becomes a brand advocate by referring other people to you as well!
Repeat customers and referrals are the LEAST expensive form of marketing. Their business is really driven by the quality of the product and customer service you provide.
There are ALL KINDS of other variations of the funnel out there, a lot of organizations like to break those phases down into smaller groupings so they can focus on specific activities and outcomes, which is where terms like ‘sales funnel’ and ‘lead funnel’ come from.
Some even like to customize the phases to their specific business model. No matter how you split them up, they all fall into one of these 5 phases: Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, Loyalty, and Advocacy.
In case you are wondering why it’s called a marketing funnel – well, it’s simple. There are a whole lot more people at the top of the funnel in the awareness stage than there are in the bottom of the funnel in the advocate stage.
That’s because not every prospect becomes a lead, not every lead becomes a customer, and not every customer becomes an advocate.
I hope this helped clear up some of the confusion around marketing funnels. If you have questions, be sure to leave them in the comments, and I’ll be sure to answer!
