The Conversion Funnel
This article was originally created by Caitlyn Hymer as a YouTube video and was later adapted into a blog format for Absorb Studios.
Defining “conversion funnel”
If you think about the fundamental use of a funnel, you place the funnel where you want something to pour into, then you pour the substance into the funnel and it fills the container. A conversion funnel follows the exact same concept. First, you build your funnel to achieve a specific objective – a customer purchasing a product or service from your business. Then you “fill” your funnel with traffic using marketing tactics to drive that traffic from the top to the bottom of the funnel where they convert into a paying customer and become an advocate for your brand.
Conversion funnels are everywhere, and they are an extremely important tactic that can help brands grow and attract new consumers. The conversion funnel definition is pretty loose—it’s a framework to help define, understand, and follow the different stages that consumers pass through during the customer life cycle. Traditionally, this has been a linear journey—buyers predictably passed through one stage at a time. However, consumers are actually navigating through the journey in more of a circular motion now—the journey doesn’t just end after a purchase is made and brands are constantly working on new ways to maintain engagement after the consumer’s journey “ends.”
Creating the funnel
Before we can begin to build out your conversion funnel, we have to conduct research and build a strategy to ensure that your marketing goals are not only met, but exceeded. Conducting a complete competitor analysis, developing tangible goals, and identifying your buyer personas are extremely important to the success of your funnel.
Once we’ve completed research and created a strategy, we can begin working on your funnel. When thinking about the format of a conversion funnel, we typically follow the AIDAA method where each letter of the formula represents a stage throughout the digital marketing funnel:
Awareness for the brand
Interest in the brand/product/service
Desire for the product/service
Action to obtain the product/service
Advocacy for the brand
After we’ve created the foundation for your strategy and funnel, we can open the floodgates to start generating leads and begin filling your funnel with traffic. Traffic into your funnel can come from many different places whether it be search engines, social media, advertisements, email campaigns, offline events, etc. The best performing conversion funnels are those that utilize all sources as a means to generate traffic.
Navigating through the consumer’s journey
In order to convert a visitor into an advocate for your brand, you have to nurture them from the time the enter the funnel until they become a customer. Throughout the different funnel stages, a brand needs to nurture the audience and continue to send them through the different funnel steps. The purpose of this process is to convert the prospective audience members into customers and then convince them to continue to purchase products, ie. become a repeat purchaser and brand advocate.
Many brands think that they can treat every lead the same; however, this is not true. How you treat your leads depends on which stage of the buyer’s journey they are in. For instance, a lead that is in the top of the funnel should not be given the same content as a lead in the bottom of the funnel. These two leads are completely different and by giving the top of funnel lead the wrong content, you could scare them away from your brand.
It is also important to understand that every lead is not ready to buy. Most leads need to be nurtured through the funnel until they are ready to purchase. Ideally, each lead needs to be given the right message at the right time, therefore helping push them closer to purchasing.
