Seduce your customers with the marketing funnel

If you think of your marketing as a funnel, where you fill the top with new traffic that comes out the other end as a result - for example, a booking, an order or a newsletter sign-up. Well, then you have the answer to what a marketing funnel is.

But what on earth can you do with that information?

Brands that work with ads often make the mistake of creating direct sales ads to an audience that has never heard of their brand. The consequence of using this strategy is that you will hit the target audience too early in their buying journey - with poor results.

That's why it's essential to work on your funnel strategy and communicate the right messages at the right stages of your audience's buying journey.

Why you need to work with the marketing funnel:

• To avoid wasted ad dollars
• To convert so many strangers into fans in your shop
• To create as many customers in the most efficient way possible

The theory can and should be applied to all marketing efforts, but in this blog post I will focus on how to succeed with your funnel strategy on social media.

Topfunnel

At the top funnel level, you work with "cold" leads. In practice, you'll be working with a broad audience, based on demographics or interests that match your target audience - or look-a-likes, if you already have data on your customers. This could be in the form of customer database or newsletter sign-ups.

In the early stages 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 your target audience at this stage.

Recommended campaign level objectives: traffic, interaction, video viewing or brand awareness.

Example:
If you sell skin care products, you could include a video in your campaign educating your target audience on how to take good care of their skin or what to avoid to keep their skin young and beautiful.

If your brand has some knowledge that creates value for the target audience and that can position you as an expert in the field, you are likely to gain the trust of the target audience and make them curious. In this example, you could choose traffic as your campaign objective and lead the target audience to a more detailed blog post on your website.

Mid funnel

At this stage in the buying journey, you will be working with an audience that is already familiar with your product. This could be people like:

1. Have interacted with your Facebook or Instagram page.
2. Visited your website.
3. Have watched, for example, 50% of your videos.
4. Signed up for your newsletter.

So we are now working with the so-called retargeting audiences.

At this stage, you can gently ask the target audience for more - for example, to provide their data in the form of email, phone number, etc. However, it is important to remember that you need to offer some form of value if you are going to ask for data from the target audience. This could be in the form of a digital guide, whitepaper, access to a webinar etc. It could also be that you want to offer the target audience a free trial of your product or service before they decide to become a customer of yours.

Recommended objectives at campaign level: traffic, lead generation, conversion, messaging.

Lower funnel

At this stage of the buying journey, you want to turn your hot leads into customers in your store.
This could be people like:

• Visited your website or specific landing pages.
• Have downloaded whitepaper, e-book, guide etc.
  Have subscribed to your newsletter.
• Added to cart (without completing purchase).
• Former customers

Now the target audience has had time to get to know your brand and product well, as well as to reflect. Therefore, at this level, you can create campaigns that give the final push towards the goal: turning your leads into customers.

This is a great place to promote your campaigns and offers, sell catalogues or encourage your target audience to fill in their contact details so that your salespeople can get in touch with them. If you have a webshop, it would be obvious to use dynamic product ads, as this allows Facebook to display the products that the individual person has seen on your webshop.

At this level, you should also work on campaigns targeting current customers to create loyalty and easy repurchases. For example, you may be launching a new product where you want to offer 10% to your loyal customers, or you may want to ask your customers for a review on their experience.

Recommended campaign level objectives: lead generation, conversion, catalogue sales