Any effective digital marketing effort should be conducted with a goal in mind.  Do you want someone to visit your site and make a purchase?  Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter?  Or do you want them to follow you on social media?  When a user completes one of these desired actions, it is known as a conversion.  No matter what your end goal may be, setting up a marketing funnel is the way to get conversions and gather useful data you can use to optimize your future digital marketing campaigns.

In the first blog of our two-part series on marketing funnels, we’re covering marketing funnels, how they work, and how they can benefit you.  When you’r ready, don’t forget to check out Part 2, where we’ll discuss setting up and optimizing your marketing funnel!

What is a Marketing Funnel?

Think about what a funnel does in real life.  It captures a large volume of material and directs it into a smaller container.  A marketing funnel works the same way, except it captures leads and directs them to specific areas of your website.  The funnel is a list of steps a customer must take before you make a conversion.  Think of e-commerce as an example. Here’s what the marketing funnel would look like for an online retailer:

• A user visits the e-commerce website
• Then they view a product
• They add the product to their cart
• Finally, they check out and becomes a customer

While the site may have captured hundreds of users in the first part of the funnel, relatively few will end up making a purchase.  That’s why it’s crucial to expand the size of your funnel and remove any impediments that could cause users to leave your site without converting.

How to Use Marketing Funnels

Marketing funnels serve two important functions: getting conversions and collecting data.  We already covered the first function, but the second one is just as critical.  By using tools like Google Analytics, you can collect data about user behavior that will help you optimize your funnel in the future.  For instance, if you find that lots of users are leaving your site after viewing a product, it may be a sign that they’re not getting the information they need to make a purchase.  Based on this information, you can optimize your site content to improve your product descriptions.  The marketing data collected by your funnel can help you more easily identify problems with your site’s functionality.

How to Capture Potential Customers in Your Marketing Funnel

If you want to get more conversions, you’ll need to capture more leads.  That means increasing the size of your funnel and ensuring a smooth path to conversion.  For a bigger funnel, you may want to think about conducting paid ad campaigns or viral marketing activities.  The more people know about your site, the bigger your funnel opening will be.  Once those users are on your site, you’ll need to make sure they can easily convert when they want to.  Audit your site for dead links or any problems with your checkout process.  When you make things easy for your customers, the conversions will come naturally!

We know that digital marketing isn’t second nature to every business owner.  We hope this guide to marketing funnels will help you get a sense of what they are and how they can benefit you.  Check out Part 2 where we go in-depth about setting up and optimizing marketing funnels.  Of course, if you’d like some help, give us a call or head over to our contact page and fill out the online form to find out more about marketing funnels and other services like inbound digital marketing or WordPress development and branding.