What is the Digital Marketing funnel and how to create one

• Updated on: 2022-08-03
• Read original article here

As much as Digital Marketing offers countless benefits to companies when it comes to impacting the consumer, it is essential to stay informed about the main concepts and strategies that are part of these communication actions in the online media. 

After all, the resources and tools are available to everyone, but only those who learn how to use them will make something out of it.

An example of this is the concept of Digital Marketing funnel, which initially appeared as a tool for sales teams, and little by little was also being appropriated for communication strategies. 

Understanding what this idea means and its importance is fundamental to invest your resources better.

Are you curious and want to know more about the subject? In this article, we will address the following topics:

Read on and check out all about the Digital Marketing funnel, and how to make your planning even more precise and efficient!

The Digital Marketing funnel is a strategic model that represents the entire buying journey of the personas, from the moment they know your brand until the time they become customers. 

This concept is widely used among salespeople but has also become a fundamental resource for the success of marketing actions.

There are numerous approaches to the funnel concept, but the model we will present in this article is divided into six stages: 

The funnel serves so marketing professionals can understand what to offer users at each of the stages within this entire convincing process.

With so much competition among companies for the attention and resources of consumers, it’s necessary to prepare and, as a consequence, enhance their communication actions, impacting who matters. 

The Digital Marketing funnel will guide all strategies that your company should adopt in search of more conversions.

In practice, why is the funnel concept so crucial in any Digital Marketing strategy?

The first and primary benefit is precisely to perform a better segmentation of your marketing actions, directing content, ads, and other strategies with messages that will be useful for your audiences throughout the buyer’s journey. 

As a consequence, lead generation work also becomes more efficient, delivering more qualified leads to your sales team, and making the conversion challenge easier. 

When the funnel is approached correctly, you get closer and closer to the consumers, always being relevant in their journey.

Also, the productivity of your entire team tends to increase, once professionals dedicate themselves to, for example, producing the right content at the right time, without wasting time and resources on actions that aren’t effective.

Since the main advantage of digital advertising is precisely the segmentation of your communication actions, you will be able to talk to the right audience and, of course, offer the most appropriate content for each stage. 

What’s the point of creating an ebook on a certain subject if your public is not yet prepared for it? What’s the point of impacting users who don’t understand they have a problem to solve with more advanced content? You need to be more precise in your actions.

This would represent a waste of time and resources for your company. The Digital Marketing funnel serves to guide all these actions, following each step to deliver the most accurate content.

As important as it is to respect the user’s time to leave each stage of the funnel, having this broader view of the consumer’s journey allows you to urge them to move from one stage to another.

In short, the Digital Marketing funnel is crucial to make better use of your company’s resources and improve your bottom line.

Even though it’s so crucial to the success of your Digital Marketing strategy, not everyone knows what needs to be done to create a funnel for your business.

The first step is simple: create a goal for your actions — it may be to sell more or increase the Return On Investment (ROI) of your business. In short, a goal to be achieved.

Then you need to structure the funnel, defining the steps that are part of the sales cycle.

By creating the visual image of the stages, it’s easier to know precisely what is the best model for your business.

With your funnel established, it’s time to understand what you need to do to generate the expected traffic in each stage.

In this way, your target audience will be impacted by material that is aligned with their level of knowledge.

Understanding how Digital Marketing funnel works will ensure that your actions are more accurate, making better use of your company’s available resources and impacting users who may become consumers of your brand.

That’s why we separated the best type of content for each stage. Check it out!

No matter which Digital Marketing funnel is established for your business, it should start with the exposure step.

After all, nothing will work if the consumer doesn’t know your company. What better way to do this than by advertising and promoting your brand on the right platforms?

On average, there are about 75,000 searches per second on Google. In other words, you need to be present and, more importantly, be seen within this channel. 

Therefore, the idea is to start your Content Marketing strategy by strengthening your presence with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques or even paid advertisements in search engines.

The important thing is that the user enters a specific keyword, and your page appears among the main results. 

At this stage, the goal is to produce content that captures the attention of users, such as educational videos and infographics. Now it’s time to attract as much traffic as possible.

On your blog, focus on those materials directed to people who don’t know your company or the fact that you can offer the solution to some of their problems.

The formula for this step is simple: to increase exposure, the company should work with subjects that attract a high number of people and are related to her. 

To do it, they can do researches focusing on a head-tail keyword, with thousands of searches per month.

In this next step, it is ideal for focusing on producing content that encourages users to take an interest in your brand.

After all, as much as the previous stage means that they already know your company, it is necessary to make them stay on your page to discover your products, services, and solutions.

There is no point in taking a user to your website if they have no interest in your brand. This will only serve to increase the bounce rate of your site, which can even harm the stage of exposure.

The main goal of this stage is to turn the visitor into a lead. 

And now the first challenge arises: to offer some material or content that encourages the user to leave contact information, for example.

The most suitable suggestion for this stage is to deliver rich and educational content that presents a problem and offers a solution.

The consumers are at a stage of consideration when they know your brand, and that they have a problem your company can solve.

It is up to you, then, to deliver materials that facilitate their decision process. Therefore, the most suitable materials are the ones that explain your company’s differentials and benefits.

At this stage, you already know a little more about the leads and exactly what they are looking for.

Your content must present facts and information that prove the efficiency of your solution.

Present a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that solve their main issues or relevant evaluations from other customers.

After all, there is nothing better than the opinion of those who have already tried a certain product or service to make their decision.

Investing in case studies, for example, is an excellent way to clear up any doubts they have regarding what you offer.

The idea is to deliver everything that serves to confirm the efficiency of your work.

Now that you have shown the pros and cons of your offer, it’s time to help them to make the decision. After all, you want loyal customers.

So, it’s time to focus on more and more personalized content and according to your goals, preferences, and challenges. It’s time to create customized campaigns.

With sponsored links, you can draw the user’s attention to a specific landing page, focused almost exclusively on its conversion.

A hint of content for these pages is the free trials, letting the user experience your product or service for a while and know even more about its advantages and benefits.

In all communications, it is necessary to focus on the results that the user will be able to obtain with your company’s help, leaving a little of the functionalities aside.

The idea is that he understands, in practice, how what you offer is better than what you offer in the competition.

With the lead conversion established, the next step is to get closer to your customers.

It’s increasingly essential to leave advertisements for your brand aside and focus on teaching the client how to use your solution to solve their problems. This closer contact can become a competitive advantage.

Investing in a drip campaign to further educate the customer and clarify their main questions is an excellent alternative.

Being able to show that you aren’t just interested in getting a conversion but want to help the consumer solve their problems and make their business prosper.

You can invest your resources on an email marketing strategy, strengthening your ties with the lead even more.

This way, you can establish a direct channel with them and always be at their disposal to solve their doubts. Now that they know your company and how you can help them, it’s time to stand out from the competition.

Another option is using videos with tutorials to help the consumer use with your products and services, showing that you care about its performance.

Also, exclusive content to present a product release, for example, is incredibly efficient to get even closer to whoever is on the other side.

The work has been long, but it is not over yet. It’s time to think about the actions and content focused on the retention challenge.

In other words, make the consumer who already knows your brand and has bought your product or service continue to make new transactions. Especially in the long term, this stage is fundamental.

In addition to continuing the production of content from the previous stage, it’s essential to monitor and analyze your communications with the lead regularly.

 A very efficient way to do that is to interview the client to create a case study to be used in the previous stages.

Creating a Digital Marketing funnel for your business is, therefore, fundamental to develop increasingly accurate actions and generate an impact on your buyer persona. 

With so many benefits of disseminating and promoting your brand digitally, it’s necessary to know and apply all the concepts required to take advantage of the resources properly.

Now that you know the importance of this concept, and how to create a Digital Marketing funnel for your business, how about ensuring that you will understand all of the terms of the Digital Marketing ecosystem?