CuriousOwl

A “Marketing to Sales funnel” is the term for the journey that prospects go through on the way to becoming a customer, i.e., the point at which they purchase the product being considered.

“Marketing” is a broad function for a company that covers various commercial activities, and “sales” is the core of this function. A marketing funnel presents the brand to the prospect, and helps them to k.now how it solves their problem. It involves two key steps: Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing.

When the prospective customer expresses an interest, the sales function takes over. The sales funnel guides the potential customers from “consideration” to “conversion.” Thus, a sales funnel can be a part of the overall marketing funnel.

For any funnel to be relevant and successful, sales should be aligned with the product and customer journey. It should provide insights into the ideal customer persona. The relation between a typical sales process and customer journey is as below:

1. Create awareness of the brand
2. Develop prospect’s interest in the brand
3. Make an offer to sell
4. A decision by the customer

In this article, we will look at different funnels and understand how they have developed over time.

The AIDA Model

In the pre-digital days, marketing and sales functions approached customer acquisition and retention through four clearly defined stages: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA).

The AIDA model was created towards the end of the 19th century by an American advertising practitioner called Elias St. Elmo Lewis. His model worked on a “problem-solution” approach and proposed that every purchase involved the following:

1. Awareness: The prospect is aware of their problems and the possible solutions for them.
2. Interest: The prospect shows an interest in a group of services or products that could solve their problem.
3. Desire: The prospect begins evaluating possible brands.
4. Action: The prospect decides to purchase a particular item and becomes a customer.

This journey can be visualised as under:

It is noticed that the number of potential leads narrows down as the journey progresses from awareness to action (or purchase) and takes the shape of a funnel.

The Digital Revolution: Changes in Sales Processes

Customers today are increasingly reliant on digital sources to consume content, shop, entertain themselves and whatnot. It has, hence,  become mandatory that companies have an online presence to market themselves digitally.

Interestingly, customer acquisition and sales still go through the AIDA process even in the digital age. The only difference is that this journey is now online. Companies have developed a “marketing to sales funnel” to place consumers in different stages of the purchase process.

This funnel maps customers’ online journeys using the AIDA model. It allows the company to determine the content and digital tools required to convert leads into paying customers.

This funnel can be presented visually as below:

Marketing and Sales Funnel Structure

A typical marketing to sales funnel has three parts representing the progress of the customer through the journey from lead (prospect) to confirmed customer. The company should be aware of this structure in order to develop content that helps the customer move smoothly through each stage of the journey

1. Top of the Funnel (or TOFU)
   1. A large number of potential customers who are aware of a problem
   2. At this stage, they may or may not take a purchase decision
2. Middle of the Funnel (or MOFU)
   1. The potential customers have identified possible solutions to their problem
   2. They exhibit a “higher purchase intent” and are looking to make a purchase decision
3. Bottom of the Funnel (or BOFU)
   1. The potential customer has decided to purchase the brand

This can be represented graphically as follows:

Marketing and Sales Funnel Stages

There are four main stages in the marketing to sales funnel, covering the progress from lead to confirmed customer. Each stage represents a specific “state of mind” of the customer, and knowing these stages will help the company plan its funnel strategy to get maximum conversions:

1. Awareness
   • This is where a potential customer learns about the brand or the company. They are looking to solve a pain point
   • At this stage, the goal is to generate the maximum number of leads from a variety of sources of customer traffic
   • It is important for the company or brand to target the right customers
2. Interaction (or Consideration)
   • At this stage, the goal is to engage the customer in the company’s offerings
   • The company must focus on educating customers about how the offerings can solve their problems
3. Interest
   • The prospective customer shows interest in the brand at this stage
   • The company should ensure the prospect has adequate information to move to the next stage of the funnel
4. Action
   • This is where the customer buys the product
   • The aim is to convert the maximum number of people from the earlier stages to this stage
   • The customer always has an option. Hence, the focus here is to convince the customer that the product is the best solution for their concerns

Visually, this journey can be shown as below:

Automated Sales Funnels

Automated sales funnels are used where a significant amount of the marketing and sales effort is partially or fully automated. This helps in generating sales constantly.

There are two types of automated sales funnels

1. Evergreen Sales Funnel
2. Marketing Automation Sales Funnel

Evergreen Sales Funnel

An “evergreen sales funnel” is a process that involves running an automated email campaign. An evergreen sales funnel automatically draws customers into the email process once they have signed up, without the sales/marketing team being actively involved in the process. Evergreen sales funnels are particularly useful for industries which do not function on specific sales timelines, i.e., industries that have to find customers for their products all the time. One example of such an industry is online education.

Steps to building an evergreen sales funnel

1. Start by defining the result to be delivered to customers.
2. Properly define the target audience.
3. Propose a free offer to attract the audience immediately.
4. Design an interesting landing page. This will determine whether the customer buys the product or not.
5. Attract the most relevant customers to make the sales funnel viable.

A typical evergreen sales funnel can be represented as below. This example uses a “tripwire offer” as a hook for customers. A tripwire offer is a low cost, limited time offer.

Benefits of an evergreen sales funnel

1. It functions without the daily intervention from the sales or marketing team.
2. It is available 24/7 and helps potential customers purchase products as soon as they are ready.
3. It is a strategic tool that helps the company drive sales all year round.

Marketing Automation Sales Funnel

“Marketing automation” is the process of automating repetitive marketing tasks to reduce human intervention and, hence, reduce errors.

A marketing automation sales funnel allows a company to automatically track the actions of a visitor to its website. It helps the company deliver content that leads the visitor to make a decision—an offer that makes the visitor buy or provides more information to push the visitor deeper into the funnel towards a purchase.

The stages of a marketing automation sales funnel include:

1. Lead capture—Top of the Funnel (TOFU) stage
   • The company should ideally address the customer’s problem and build awareness at this stage.
   • Educating the customer and providing information to make a better purchase decision are crucial at this stage.
2. Lead nurturing—Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) stage
   • At this stage, the customer is ready to consider the product as a solution to their problem.
   • The company should highlight why their product is the best solution for the problem.
   • It also helps retain the customer while they decide whether or not to buy the product.
3. Lead conversion—Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)
   • The customer is successfully engaged, and they have decided to purchase the product.
   • The company should try to reward the customer for purchasing and hence encourage them to return for a repeat purchase.

This can be represented graphically as follows:

Steps to building a marketing automation sales funnel

1. Know the audience so that the content of the sales funnel is relevant.
2. Create a clear funnel strategy to ensure that the sales funnel matches the customer journey.
3. Develop useful content to create a friction-free engagement that pushes the customer further down the funnel.
4. Engage all necessary teams (sales, marketing, and customer support) to get a 360-degree view of the customers.
5. Test the funnel regularly to ensure it is aligned with the evolving customer journey.

Benefits of a marketing automation sales funnel

1.  It improves the efficiency of the marketing and sales functions.
2. It frees the marketing and sales team from repeated and monotonous tasks to focus on more strategic efforts.
3. It reduces the cost of maintaining a fully-staffed marketing and sales department to do repetitive tasks.
4. It improves the quality of customer data collected.
5. It leads to better conversions and increases ROI.

Conclusion

Marketing-sales funnels are vital tools for a company to optimise its customer journey at scale and with minimum wastage. A properly designed funnel maximises conversations and boosts revenue. It also reduces the risk of losing potential customers.

Marketing-sales funnels help companies deliver a personalised experience and friction-free purchase journey to close sales faster and reduce wastage of time, resources and investment.