What is a marketing funnel?
If you picture your marketing as a funnel, where you pour new traffic in at the top and it comes out the other end as a result, such as a booking, an order or a newsletter sign-up, then you have the answer to what a marketing funnel is.
But what on earth can you use that information for?
Why work with a marketing funnel?
Brands that work with ads often make the mistake of creating direct sales ads for an audience that has never heard of their brand. The consequence of using this strategy is that you reach the audience too early in their buying journey, with poor results to follow.
That's why it's absolutely essential to work on your funnel strategy and communicate the right messages at the right stages of your audience's buying journey.
Why you should work with a marketing funnel:
- To avoid wasted ad spend
- To convert as many strangers as possible into fans of your shop
- To create as many customers as possible using the most effective method
The theory can and should be applied to all marketing efforts, but in this blog post I'll focus on how to succeed with your funnel strategy on social media.
The theory behind the marketing funnel
The simplified marketing funnel has 3 layers:
Top funnel, Awareness
Mid funnel, Consideration
Lower funnel, Purchase/decision
Top funnel
Here you want to spread your messages and create awareness of your brand or product. That's why you'll typically target a very broad audience who may not have heard of your brand or product yet.
Mid funnel
Here you go one layer deeper into the buying journey, where you may be able to bring the audience a step closer to converting into customers. The audience will probably start researching your product, or alternatives from competitors.
That's why it's important for your brand to position itself in the market with the USPs that set you apart from your competitors.
Lower funnel
In the lower funnel, we work with an audience that has shown strong interest in your product or service. They may have visited your webshop and added products to their basket without completing a purchase, or they may have downloaded your whitepaper.
Here we work with the so-called retargeting audience, using calls to action that encourage the audience to become your customers.
Marketing funnel with social ads in practice
Top funnel
At the top funnel level, you work with “cold” leads. In practice, you'll work with a broad audience based on demographics or interests that match your target audience, or lookalike audiences if you already have data about your customers. This could be in the form of a customer database or newsletter subscribers.
At this early stage of the buying journey, you want to educate and inform your audience about products or services. It's important not to ask too much of the audience at this stage.
Recommended campaign-level objectives: Traffic, Engagement, Video views or Brand awareness.
Example:
If you sell skincare products, your campaign could include a video that educates your audience on how to take good care of their skin, or what to avoid to keep skin young and beautiful.
If your brand has knowledge that creates value for the audience and can position you as experts in the field, you'll probably win the audience's trust and make them curious. In this example, you could choose traffic as the campaign objective and lead the audience to a more detailed blog post on your website.
Mid funnel
At this stage of the buying journey, you'll work with an audience that already knows your product. For example, this could be people who:
1. Have interacted with your Facebook or Instagram page.
2. Have visited your website.
3. Have watched e.g. 50% of your videos.
4. Have signed up for your newsletter.
So we're now working with the so-called retargeting audiences.
At this stage, you can carefully ask the audience for more, for example to give their data in the form of an e-mail address, phone number etc. However, it's important to remember that you need to offer some form of value if you're going to ask the audience for data. This could be a digital guide, a whitepaper, access to a webinar etc. You might also want to offer the audience a free trial of your product or service before they decide to become your customers.
Recommended campaign-level objectives: Traffic, lead generation, conversions, messages.
Lower funnel
At this stage of the buying journey, you want to turn your warm leads into customers in your shop.
For example, this could be people who:
- Have visited your website or specific landing pages.
- Have downloaded a whitepaper, e-book, guide etc.
Have signed up for your newsletter. - Have added items to their basket (without completing a purchase).
- Past customers
By now, the audience has had time to get to know your brand and product well, and they've had the chance to consider it. That's why at this level you can create campaigns that give the final push towards the goal: turning your leads into customers.
Here it pays to promote your campaigns and offers, run catalogue sales or encourage the audience to fill in their contact details so your sales team can get in touch with them. If you have a webshop, it makes sense to use dynamic product ads, as these allow Facebook to show the products each individual person has viewed in your webshop.
At this level, you should also run campaigns targeting existing customers to build loyalty and make repeat purchases easy. For example, you might launch a new product and offer 10% off to your loyal customers, or you might want to ask your customers for a review of their experience.
Recommended campaign-level objectives: Lead generation, conversions, catalogue sales
Get help with your social media strategy
Well begun is half done. Badly begun is… well, not good. If you don't have the resources to put together a well-thought-out social media strategy, you're always welcome to drop me an e-mail at seo@webamp.dk or get hold of one of my colleagues at info@amplify.dk.
