DIY Marketing Funnel

If you’ve started a business, you’ve probably heard the term “marketing funnel” -- and disregarded it as something you can’t do. But before you dismiss it completely, know this: a marketing funnel is just a fancy word for a bunch of things you already do. That's right;

Knowing your audience,

having a newsletter,

running a blog,

offering free trials,

having a website,

and making sales

are all parts of the funnel.

The difference between maintaining these things a-la-cart vs. with a marketing funnel is understanding your buyer’s journey. Who’s writing the story here? In the a-la-carte case, you may be getting lucky with sales. Contrastingly, a funnel gives you control over your business strategy.

When you have a goal to sell something, you can do a lot of different things to make it happen.

You can knock on doors, make cold calls, start an instagram. This is a version of marketing that can be described as “throwing pasta at the wall to see what sticks”.

Or, you can be strategic.

That strategy is called a marketing campaign and it is charted out by a marketing funnel. The marketing funnel is just a way of organizing your buyer’s journey, but it also serves as an opportunity to optimize every single action you take. A calculated approach means you’re not wasting any time or effort and allows you to measure your progress so you can adjust in the future.

Create your first marketing funnel in fifteen minutes by following along with this PDF as you read the following steps:

Awareness - How do people find out about you?

At the top of the funnel is awareness generation. No one can buy what you're selling if they don’t know you’re selling it. In the old days, the awareness component would involve business cards, radio commercials, bulletin boards, and ads in the newspaper, that kind of thing. Today, all of that is digital. To execute on this part of the marketing funnel, choose at least one of the following to put in place:

• Website, social media page, ebook, facebook group, paid advertisement

Pro tip: The prerequisite here is to know your audience but you can refer to this post for more info on how to develop a clear understanding of your target market.

2. Interest - How do you convince people to like you?

The second phase of the marketing funnel is about capturing interest. This is where we nurture leads, which basically just means we’re giving people a reason to like us. This is every entrepreneur's opportunity to showcase their value proposition. If you’re good at writing, let stage 2 be your blog. If you love making videos, stage 2 can be instagram stories. If you have something to teach, stage 2 might be a webinar. Choose at least one of the following to generate interest.

• Case study, youtube channel, newsletter, downloadable PDF, blog

3. Conversion - How effectively do you communicate your solution to your customer’s problem?

It’s not enough to state the problem and declare a solution. We have to convince people that our solutions actually work. This is the proof-of-concept phase or the WHY phase. It’s the point of transaction where your buyer makes the decision to give you a chance. Consider how easy you’re making it for the customer to take you up on your offer. Have at least one of the following in place:

• An e-commerce platform, a calendly link for scheduling the service, a swipe-to-shop mechanism, an extra incentive to purchase, offer free shipping

4. Loyalty - What makes people stick around?

Once people buy, they become existing customers with a higher potential to buy again and a lower acquisition cost. We want to maximize this opportunity by offering these people things of value. This can be in the form of:

• loyalty programs, email marketing, community, and virtual challenges, just to name a few.

5. Advocacy - Why should people tell their friends about you?

On the spectrum of customers, we have one-time buyers on one end, and brand evangelists on the other. The easiest way to grow your business is to turn followers into evangelists. These people do your marketing for you. They share your offering with people, advocate your value proposition, and essentially become ambassadors of whatever it is you do. This is the ultimate goal. Creating evangelists is no easy task, however. It requires a lot of engagement on the business owner’s behalf, but it can be done. Turn your existing customers into evangelists by choosing any of the following methods:

• Highlight your customer’s experience/show appreciation to select individuals

• Share exclusive discounts, specials, and content

• Send out surveys asking customers for feedback

• Connect authentically, in-person or over zoom

When you have these things in place, you're setting your business up for real growth. It's actually impossible not to grow when you start creating funnels. Easier than you thought, right?

As always, if you have any questions, drop 'em in the comments!