Marketing Funnel: What It Is, How It Works, And What Its Elements Are

In the ReputationUP Coach article, you will find out what the marketing funnel is, how it works, its elements, and its stages

What does marketing funnel mean ReputationUp

What does marketing funnel mean?

The marketing funnel is a marketing concept.

It is a process that involves the company’s communication department and the reputation manager.

The system tracks the stages that help to achieve a company’s goals. 

What is the marketing funnel?

The funnel is a structured process to reach specific goals. 

The marketing funnel is each step that a company must follow to achieve a goal, such as lead generation

How to create a marketing funnel?

To create a marketing funnel, you need a strategy that starts with action and finishes with a business opportunity. 

What should you know about your company to build a marketing funnel?

  • Keyword analysis: treat the content according to the most prominent search engine keywords; 
  • Buyer personas: create a targeted database to categorise prospects according to their characteristics;
  • Online conversion of the website: revamp it by including a landing page or call to action (CTA);
  • Website and social media monitoring: website traffic analysis through tools such as Google Analytics

It helps measure the number of visits, how long users stay, how many screens they view before they buy, etc. 

A measurable strategy is a process that requires commitment and a professional attitude. 

ReputationUP Coach provides corporate teams with training to have full autonomy on reputation management. 

The company will come together to learn the various logics of conversation marketing aimed at building brand loyalty, increasing brand awareness, and improving its conversion rate. 

It also requires the implementation of direct marketing strategies, such as the use of funnels. 

What are the elements of the marketing funnel?

The elements of the marketing funnel are the means that help to achieve the final objective.

And what are the components of the marketing funnel

  • Blog section: it is essential to offer varied, updated, and quality content on topics in your industry. It helps increasing traffic to your website and turn visitors into customers;
  • Premium content: this type of content is perfect for turning visitors into leads. Guests will leave their data on a form;
  • Social Networking: this tool attracts new profiles to your website and creates a loyal community;  
  • Acknowledgment page: to capture the audience’s attention on the content related to your brand;
  • Email marketing: a handy mechanism for maintaining a lead. Constant feedback provides a relationship between customers and the brand.

What are the different stages of the digital marketing funnel?

The stages of the digital marketing funnel range from three to five, depending on the company’s corporate structure. 

Here are the visitor’s journey steps, from brand awareness to purchasing a product or service. 

The four stages of the most common marketing funnel are: 

  1. Awareness: the user accesses the page using one of the tools mentioned above. Likewise, a positive comment left by an acquaintance leads him/her to the website;
  1. Interest: the potential purchaser expresses an interest in the brand to learn more or solve a problem;
  2. Desire: the customer searches for information on the brand, and this leads to conversion. That is, the user does something that you want him to do. 
  1. Action: at this stage, the customer decides, for example, to book a demo or buy a product. Every brand, sector, and audience is different. ReputationUP Coach helps your team customize the right strategy for your industry and company. 
What are the different stages of the digital marketing funnel ReputationUp Coach

What is the advertising funnel?

The advertising funnel is the procedure that customers use to achieve a specific objective. 

It may apply from registration to the purchase of a product. Funnel is a ​​marketing concept. 

What is a sales funnel?

The sales funnel is the procedure carried out by the commercial department of a company, starting with a business opportunity and ending with the customer acquisition. 

This marketing tool helps the company understand the customer’s journey from brand awareness to conversion

How do you create a sales funnel?

Let’s break down the process into three stages

  1. Awareness: user acquisition through online marketing campaigns. This stage generates leads. Traffic acquisition strategies help capture the attention of users who enter the website. The visitor goes through a problem and researches the brand for a solution. 
  1. Interest and evaluation: that is, lead nurturing. It is the process that tries to establish a valuable relationship with the customer. And, therefore, it accompanies you throughout the purchase process. In the second stage, the customer compares the products with those of the competitors. 
  1. Conversion: in the last phase, the user shows his commitment to the brand and converts.The sale ends with customer loyalty and a possible recommendation. Satisfied customers lead to more customers. So, the sales funnel starts the process again with a new user.

How does a sales funnel works?

The sales funnel consists of goal setting and achievement through stages

In this way, the company visualizes the customer’s journey from brand awareness to conversion

And, above all, the company learns the reason why a user decides to convert or not.  

This process uses a funnel model as many prospects visit the website or express their interest in a marketing campaign. However, most of them gradually leave it. 

Thus, only a few interested buyers convert.  

What is the sales process?

The sales process is the set of steps to achieve one goal: user acquisition. 

This procedure begins with the client’s acquisition and ends with the purchase of the product or service. 

How does the sales process works?

The sales process consists of four steps:

  1. Awareness: by using different marketing strategies, the brand captures the customer’s attention;
  2. Interest: awareness turns into the lead’s interest in a service or product;
  3. Desire: it emerges when a product meets the customer’s needs. At this stage, the user decides to choose your brand or that of a competitor; 
  4. Action: the final step of the sales process when selling the product to a lead.

Online sales are vital for large companies. 

According to Statista data, e-commerce sales are expected to reach 6.5 trillion dollars in 2023.

What is the sales process ReputationUp Coach

This annual growing trend is likely to top 4.2 trillion dollars in 2021. 

What is conversion funnel?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines conversion as : 

“The process of converting something from one thing to another”. 

When considering the conversion funnel, it means converting a lead into a buyer. 

It is necessary to follow different phases of a funnel to meet the final objective.

We use this term because many users start the process but leave it in the following phases. 

But in the end, only a few users proceed with the purchase. 

Conversion funnel in Google Analytics

Google Analytics helps analyze conversions in different areas through multi-channel funnels

What is conversion funnel ReputationUp Coach

Multi-channel funnels offer more options to the user regarding multiple channel configuration or analysis of channels to create conversion

What is conversion funnel Guide ReputationUp Coach

Insights displayed in multi-channel funnels demonstrate how content works together across different channels to drive sales and conversions. 

How to attract customers through the conversion funnel?

The strategy designed by the company’s marketing team is key to attracting customers

The knowledge of this marketing area is vital to increase the revenue of a company. 

ReputationUP Coach makes your staff completely autonomous in reputation management by providing a training service in various areas, such as data intelligence or PPC

How important is a sales funnel for a company?

The article clearly shows how important the sales funnel is for a brand. 

There is a difference between companies that establish a clear sales strategy and those that do not. The number of customers proves it.

Sales funnel helps measure the number of users and understand why they choose your product or brand rather than competitors. 

The benefits of setting a sales funnel are:

  • Knowing how many people start in the first phase and which ones buy, through statistics;
  • Increasing conversion rates; 
  • Spotting mistakes and improving a future strategy

Conclusions

Through the article, we have a comprehensive understanding of the marketing funnel concept.

We can thereby draw the following conclusions:

  • The company implements this process to achieve an objective;
  • It consists of a strategy that starts with an action and ends in a business opportunity;
  • The marketing funnel stages are awareness, interest, desire, and action
  • Online sales are an essential process for big brands; 
  • It differs from a common marketing strategy in terms of the number of customers acquired.

ReputationUP Coach makes your staff completely autonomous in reputation management

It teaches companies different marketing models, to attract more consumers