“Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world you are one.” – Robert Rose
Are you searching for an effective way to attract more customers? With the right retail marketing funnel, you can create a customized pathway for potential buyers and move them through a series of highly targeted messages that ultimately result in greater conversions. This blog examines how to build and implement a successful retail marketing funnel so your business can drive its growth into the future.
What is a marketing Funnel?
A marketing funnel is a visual representation of a person’s path from the moment they become aware of a product to the moment they make a purchasing decision. Marketing funnels consist of four stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty. Each stage plays a particular role; the aim is to attract, inform, convert and engage customers. See figure #1.
Figure 1: The Marketing Funnel
(source: Amazon)
Why are marketing funnels essential to understand?
An effective marketing funnel should provide details that help marketers offer relevant information to consumers at the right time and through the right marketing channel. The details of when and how customers interact with the marketing funnel path are critical for understanding how prospects think, what they know, and their levels of interest.
The four stages of the marketing funnel
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” — Tom Fishburne, Founder & CEO, Marketoonist
Creating good content that engages customers is the number-one objective of the marketing funnel Path. With a solid strategy, businesses can educate and influence a customers’ journey at every stage of the funnel. This occurs in the following sequence:
1) Awareness Stage: The end goal of the awareness stage is to create content that attracts sales leads and encourages them to become potential buyers. This content’s objective is to link products to consumers who want or need them.
2) Consideration Stage: The objective of the consideration stage should be to provide the prospect with information about how you can solve their problem. At the consideration stage, consumers interested in your business and its offerings are considering whether or not to buy.
3) Conversion Stage: The conversion stage helps marketers to learn consumer patterns, refine tactics and paint a picture of the customers’ journey along the path. The journey is critical for understanding how prospects navigate websites or physical-stores. They can break down which stage of the buyer’s journey has the most success or failure.
4) Loyalty Stage: In the loyalty stage, customers develop a relationship with products or the business. At this point they will decide whether to continue to buy your products in the future or not. Also, they will also choose to provide positive word-of-mouth reviews of their experience with your company.
Examples of Marketing Funnels
Blogging Funnel
A blog post is an article, news piece, or guide posted on a website’s blog section.
How are blogs used as marketing funnels?
Blog articles provide prospective customers with background information about a product or service they are interested in. For example, a standard Google search will provide a link to a blog landing page. In addition, the blog section can give details, answer questions, provide customer reviews, list pros and cons, etc. Blog articles aim to capture interest, address pain points and lead buyers toward a particular product.
Webinar Funnel
A webinar is an engaging online event where a speaker, or a small group of (professional) speakers, presents information to an audience interactively. Members of the audience can submit questions, respond to polls or use other interactive tools to participate.
How are webinars used as marketing funnels?
Live or recorded Webinars are excellent tools for generating leads. In exchange for webinar content, prospects give their personal details and contacts. This information can be used to nurture prospective customers by refining and personalizing marketing messages to the target audience. Aside from the benefits to your business, webinars are a good way to promote product awareness to potential audiences.
Social Media Funnels
Social media are interactive social websites or applications that allow users to create and share content and participate in social networking.
How is social media used as marketing funnels?
Many potential customers become aware of products while browsing social media or websites. Thus, social media is a reliable top-of-funnel marketing tactic. Businesses’ can initiate social media campaigns to create product awareness and generate leads. Lastly, social media can support advertising efforts with engaging and informative content.
Examples of other Types of Funnels:
- Sales funnels
- Email funnels
- Video marketing funnels
- Lead magnet funnels
- Home page funnels
Advice for Creating A Marketing Funnel
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- Learn about each step (the path) a customer took before purchasing your product
- Once you are aware of each step, draw the customer’s path
- Write the details of how the customer interacted with the path
- Determine which marketing funnel will best reach your target customer
- Simplify the customer’s interaction with the marketing path
- Use the above information to revise and implement the marketing path.
“Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone.” — KB Marketing Agency
If you’re not already using a retail marketing funnel in your business, now is the time to start. By building out a pathway for potential customers and crafting highly targeted messages that speak to their specific needs, you can take your business to the next level. Still, trying to figure out where to start?
Thank you for reading our article!
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