How to create an effective marketing funnel plan

Any business that takes its marketing seriously needs to create an effective marketing funnel. You know… a strategy that involves seeking out new potential clients and then moving those leads through the various stages of their buyer’s journey, with a proportion dropping off, until a sale is made. It’s been a proven approach that’s worked for years because a proactively managed marketing funnel, that’s backed by the right marketing strategy, will grow a business and boost its bottom line.

However, if you’re just starting up, are entering a new market, or are maybe simply realising you need to pep up your thinking, developing an effective marketing funnel plan is key. So what do you need to do? We’ve come up with a few ideas to help you get started.

Establish who your ideal customer is…

You have a product and you are eyeing a market, so you need to know what your ideal customer looks like in order to reach them. What sort of information do you need to achieve this? Key pointers include:

• Their demographics, e.g. gender, location, income etc.
• Their needs, e.g. what challenges do they face and how does your offering help them?
• Their interests, e.g. are they parents, or do they have a hobby?
• Their haunts, e.g. where do they hang out, online and elsewhere?

… How old are they? What needs of theirs can you fulfil? To what are they aspiring? 

Asking these sorts of questions will enable you to build up a profile of your ideal customer; often referred to as a buyer persona. It’s a labour intensive task, but it does pay dividends. For not only do you discover what they ‘look like’ at the top of your funnel, but you also discover what their decision points are along their buyer’s journey too.

Understand what your funnel stages actually are…

Your product, your market, your lead times… all those things affect the journey along which a potential buyer will travel. So your marketing funnel plan needs to match that journey and pinpoint key stages where a potential customer will decide to move forward or disappear. By knowing when to engage with your customer, you will greatly enhance your chance of catching them at the right moment so they move forward to the next stage. Example stages for a B2B marketing funnel might be:

• Gaining awareness of your brand
• Considering your brand and building credibility
• Becoming aware of their needs and your ability to provide solutions
• Comparing your brand to competitors
• Decision making

Work out how to engage at each stage…

Nurturing each potential lead needs to be based on a foundation of trust in your brand. Initially developing content, therefore, that highlights your expertise, knowledge, reliability, and professionalism etc. is a great way to catch a lead’s attention at the start; then you can take them by the hand and guide them along. Once you’ve achieved that, you next need content that matches their interests and requirements at each stage of their journey, in order to maintain their engagement in your brand until they are ready to buy. And timing that last call to action needs to be your pièce de résistance. So plan it, time it… and go for it!

We’ve covered a lot in just these few words, so if you’d like to understand more about how an effective funnel plan can make a difference to your marketing strategies and boost your bottom line, please do give us a ring on 07958 258 137 or email Tricia@gingertree-marketing.uk. We love nothing more than helping a business tackle the unique marketing challenges it faces, and we’d love to learn more about yours! You can even take advantage of our Marketing MOT. See here for more details.