Before we explore the best marketing funnel strategies, let us understand the “marketing funnel” process. A marketing funnel is a strategic visualization of the customer journey from lead to committed buyer. It shows the various steps that a prospective customer takes to move from one stage to the next.

A marketing funnel is designed based on the four stages of a typical buyer journey – AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action). Visually, a traditional marketing funnel could look like this:

Digital marketing – Modifications to marketing funnel theory

Customers today are more informed, more connected and more empowered, thanks to digitalization and online channels. The growth of digital marketing and growing consumption of content on digital devices has led to modifications in the traditional AIDA model of a marketing funnel. The ideal digital marketing funnel has five key stages, covering customer acquisition and retention. These stages are:

1. Awareness or Lead Prospection (Top Of The Funnel)
   1. To build awareness
   2. To target a relevant audience
2. Consideration or Lead Generation (Middle Of The Funnel)
   1. To target an audience with a higher purchase intent
   2. Convert awareness into a firm purchase intention
3. Conversion or Deal Closure (Bottom Of The Funnel)
   1. To close leads and reduce barriers to conversion
   2. Push to action (purchase)
4. Loyalty or Repeat business (Customer retention)
   1. To get customers to return
5. Advocacy or Referrals
   1. To turn a confirmed customer into a source of new customers

A digital marketing funnel can be represented visually as under:

This concept can also be represented by mapping each stage of the customer journey at different parts of the funnel:

1. Top Of The Funnel (TOFU) – also referred to as the Awareness Stage
2. Middle Of The Funnel (MOFU) – also referred to as the Consideration Stage
3. Bottom Of The Funnel (BOFU) – also referred to as the Decision Stage

 This approach can be shown below:

It must be borne in mind that regardless of how the specific stages of the marketing funnel are identified or labelled, the function of the funnel remains the same: Attract, Engage and Convert all possible leads to become customers.

Marketing funnel strategies

A “marketing funnel” reflects the state of mind of the consumer during the entire purchase cycle. This state of mind is not static or predictable and can take several forms and shapes before the customer even begins to consider the company’s product or brand.

From the company’s point of view, a marketing funnel is a valuable tool for the marketing team to design plans to attract, engage and convert potential customers through relevant marketing material. It is valuable because it is a measurable activity and can help prevent customer leakages, i.e., customers dropping out at different stages before buying.

Why should a company have a funnel strategy?

Customer purchase behaviour has changed dramatically over the last few years, particularly post 2019, due to the impact of the Covid pandemic. The marketing funnel has also taken on greater importance in recent years because of the growth of digital marketing, which makes it possible for marketers to focus on individual consumers at a very granular level and develop measurable means of promoting brands.

To get the maximum benefit out of its marketing funnel, the company should have a full-funnel strategy that helps it get a 360-degree view of the customer journey, build lasting relationships and offer better brand experiences.

To do this, the company must start by defining its buyer personas or profiles. The goals of each persona should be matched with company goals, and the company should identify the right channels to reach and engage these customers.

Let us now examine a few top-of-the-funnel marketing strategies that will help companies effectively map the entire customer journey and gain several benefits:

1. Identify and prevent customer leakage areas
2. Identify and implement growth tactics
3. Drive cost efficiency and better ROI

Strategy 1: Place customers at the heart of the marketing funnel

• The company needs to connect emotionally to its customers.
• It needs to understand the motives and desires of the customers.

Strategy 2: Define the objectives of each stage of the marketing funnel

• There is no such thing as a “standard marketing funnel”.
• Every company needs to have a customized marketing funnel that is relevant to its customers and its products.
• Each stage of the marketing funnel has a different objective that is specific to that stage.
• The company must define the specific objectives of each stage.

 Strategy 3: Create a meaningful customer journey

• Every stage of the funnel should be inter-connected and give a reason to the customer to move to the next stage.
• The stages cannot be stand-alone segments in the customer journey.
• Creating a smooth and friction-free customer journey that drives the customer to move from one stage of the funnel to the next.

Strategy 4: Establish outcomes (KPIs) for each stage of the marketing funnel

• Every stage should convert the customer to go to the next stage.
• The metrics defined for each stage allow the company to gauge the effectiveness of the tools and content used for that stage.
• A key metric is a percentage of customer drop-offs (leakages) at each stage. This is a very clear indicator of the robustness of the tools and content for that stage.

Strategy 5: Use different marketing channels for different stages

• We cannot use the same marketing channels for each stage of the marketing funnel.
• Different channels have different outcomes and can impact the ROI of each stage differently.
• Aligning the marketing channels through the entire funnel will help the company plan smarter acquisition tactics without waste of money or time.

Strategy 6: Focus on the complete brand experience

• Customers can find a company on a variety of platforms and channels.
• Each channel or platform has a differentiated customer profile.
• It is therefore important that the company adopts an omnichannel approach to identify, reach and engage its customers.

Strategy 7: Use SEO optimization and CRM tools

• Content is critical to move prospects along the marketing funnel.
• Since most customers search online for solutions, the company should ensure that its content is optimized for search engines and can be easily found online.
• CRM tools deliver relevant and enjoyable brand experiences at every touchpoint.
• The better the brand experience, the stronger the relationship of the customer with the brand/company.

Top Of Funnel (TOFU) Marketing Strategy

The Top Of The Funnel (TOFU) segment is the most important segment of the funnel because it generates customer leads at the very start of the customer cycle and helps the brand engage potential customers.

The TOFU segment drives brand awareness, educates potential customers and creates excitement around the brand that captures the attention of the customer.

A smart company uses smart and relevant content at the TOFU stage to be visible to potential customers and move these potential customers to the BOFU stage faster, which helps it save money and time.

Benefits of a TOFU strategy

1. High brand awareness
2. Enabling top of mind position of the brand
3.  Lesser competition (it is a fact that most companies focus on the BOFU segment)
4. Own the conversation with the customer
5. Build a high level of trust

The risk of low or zero conversion at this stage is very high. The company should focus on conversion rates rather than higher-level engagement rates. The major tools or content platforms that the company should use at this stage include:

1. Original research reports
2. Content tools or templates
3. Videos
4.  Interactive content such as quizzes or psychometric tests
5. Checklists
6. Infographics
7. FAQs about the category/product/brand

Conclusion

Marketing funnels these days are becoming more “circular” shaped than “funnel-shaped” due to the high number of touchpoints and influencers at every stage of the purchase cycle. Customers may go directly to the purchase stage upon becoming aware of the product or company, or they may spend more time at the consideration stage evaluating several options before making a decision.

A marketing funnel is a valuable source of customer data, and every company needs to ensure that it has developed the correct metrics to judge and evaluate the effectiveness of every stage of the marketing funnel. Developing a seamless user experience is at the heart of every customer engagement and is a vital component of a company’s marketing funnel strategy. Every company today needs to place the customer at the centre of their business operations.

The marketing funnel is not the same as the customer journey process. The marketing funnel strategy should ideally be derived from the customer journey to understand and simplify the customer buying process, eliminate the maximum friction points and boost the ROI or effectiveness of the marketing funnel.

The company needs to look very closely at its customer journey, customer experience platforms and customer behaviour patterns to get total visibility of its customer base and identify opportunities that may not have been evident earlier. A well thought out and structured yet flexible marketing funnel strategy helps a company achieve its customer acquisition goals faster, with lesser investment and better ROI.