It’s the journey someone has from becoming a potential customer when they first interact with your brand to someone that is paying for your product or service by the time they reach the end of the funnel.
Marketing funnels are useful because by visualizing the stages your prospective clients go through. You can plan and optimize your content and strategy at each stage to turn them into paying clients and increase brand awareness and customer loyalty.
There are many stages along the customer’s journey where they can fall off. A marketing funnel can help you look at these stages your clients are taking so that if you do lose them along the way, you’re able to find out where so you can adapt your marketing strategies and design a plan of action.
The marketing funnel has three main stages: Top of Funnel (TOFU), Middle of Funnel (MOFU), and Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) where each main stage includes different points of interaction with your customer.
Top of Funnel (TOFU)
Top of funnel marketing is all about how you create awareness for your product or service. When businesses have a problem, how can you better position yourself so that they can see you as the solution they need? TOFU marketing is all about brand awareness and helping customers get to know your brand and know that your product or service is a solution to their problem if they have it now or in the future.
An example of this is Mcdonald’s. McDonald’s has built great brand awareness over the years. They have positioned themselves as the solution for people who want something tasty, cheap, and convenient.
When thinking about perceptions of your brand, you need to communicate what problems you solve for businesses and how you solve them.
Ways to increase your brand awareness can be through:
- Paid advertising on social media or search engine platforms
- Social media posts
- Blog posts
- Having a high search engine ranking (achieved through SEO)
Middle of Funnel (MOFU)
Middle of Funnel marketing is all about how once prospective businesses have an awareness of your brand, how you get them to consider your product or service as a viable solution compared to the competition.
Having a good SEO strategy is crucial as when customers search for solutions to their problems, you want your brand and website to be something they see.
Another thing to consider for MOFU marketing is how your product is different from the competition. What is unique about you and your brand? Is it your commitment to environmentally conscious practices? Is your product the easiest to use? Does it do something the fastest? You need to pique the interest of prospective businesses so that your product or service stands out from the rest.
Bottom of Funnel (BOFU)
Bottom of Funnel marketing refers to the final stages of the marketing and sales process.
Once a prospective customer has chosen to go with your product or service, how are you optimizing your website or offering so that businesses looking to purchase your services can do so easily?
For example, an unorganized buying process might be enough to deter businesses from buying your product or service. Businesses struggling to see your pricing options because they aren’t organized well could be why they might not choose to purchase your product or service.
One tip to make your brand more appealing for companies to buy from is by offering promotional incentives such as free trials, special offers, money-back guarantees, and other things that show that you have confidence in your product or service and differentiate you from everyone else.
Marketing funnels help businesses increase client conversion rates, build brand awareness, and grow customer loyalty. If you want to reap these benefits for your business, check out our FREE webinar which teaches everything from the design to the execution of marketing funnels.
Are you interested in marketing funnels? At Ajax Union, we specialize in building custom marketing funnels for businesses. Schedule a FREE strategy session with us, and we’ll give you personalized insights on your business and be sure to deliver you the marketing funnel that works best for your needs.
For more helpful information on B2B Marketing check out our resource library.
