In this post I will go over the sequence of digital marketing funnel stages explained as many people are not aware of the correct sequence of marketing funnels and what the stages should actually be looking to achieve. And often ask what is the right sequence of stages in the digital marketing funnel?
Also known as the sales funnel stages, the sales funnel explained or digital marketing sales funnels as ultimately the aim here is to make sales for your business.
Table of Contents
How Marketing Funnels Work from Top to Bottom
In the last post we looked at the different stages of the digital marketing funnels at a high level. And how these digital marketing funnel stages align with the traditional AIDA marketing process.
- A- Attention or Awareness
- I – Interest
- D – Desire
- A – Action
In this post we will cover the digital marketing funnel's explanation in more detail and the digital marketing funnel's definition of each stage.
Each stage of the funnels like the AIDA model has a specific purpose. If you understand these you can then ensure that each stage of these online the automated marketing processes are fulfilling their purpose. You can also test the stages and improve them if necessary until each stage of these funnels, are fully optimised for your business.
Top of the Funnel Meaning
The online funnel marketing is the process of bringing new prospects into your business. And the first stage of the marketing funnel is called the top of the funnel. This follows the concept of traditional, physical funnels which are wider at the top to capture as much traffic as possible.
The first stage, the top of the funnel marketing strategy is where you want to be attracting new prospects into your business. And gaining their attention about your products and services. This could be by a number of commercial methods both traditional and online. These could include methods such as business flyers and brochures, trade shows, online advertisements, using social media and email.
So the aim of the top of the funnels is for you to maximise this area of activity. As the more prospects you can introduce, when the digital marketing funnel stages are set up correctly they can become money making machines for your business.
And we would then introduce more funnels in as many areas as you had prospects entering your business reach.
Digital Digital Marketing Funnel Stages – Middle Stages
So you can see with the sales funnel stages explained, you will want to be connecting with customers. You could be using email sequences, social media, videos, your website content or ideally a combination of all these.
In the engagement funnels, this is where you want to be educating the prospects on your products. So much like in school where you might have different teaching techniques.
Here you want to have a good variety or range of material for your different prospects. This is in order to reach a varied audience online and educate them on your products or services by different methods. A good example will be videos and also web pages, or downloadable brochures or white pages. With a good selection of good quality product images.
This is because some people like to read. And some people prefer to watch videos.
Middle Engagement Funnel Stages
The next sequence of digital marketing funnel stages is where you want to be building value & trust. Answering your prospect queries and overcoming objections.
This could be using your website FAQs. Showing products reviews and testimonials.
Your product comparisons and social media videos and the like. These are all to help your prospect make a buying decision and overcome any buying objections.
Bottom of Funnel Marketing Stage
At the last stage of the funnel the bottom of funnel marketing tactics are to ensure that prospects who are now ready to buy. And these are hot prospects for your business. At this stage you need to make it easy for them to support the buying decision.
This could be easy to navigate on-line payments systems. Think Amazon or it could be offering payment terms and even showing reviews at the check out. These are all known as lower funnel marketing tactics and we will cover these in more detail in a further post.
So you can see the way the 4 lead funnel stages of the digital marketing funnel stages come together. Is a very powerful method for your business. If set up correctly these digital funnels will continue to do their function and turn your prospects into your customers, over and over again.
You can see also that the 4 stages also align with the 4 traditional marketing principles of AIDA and that is why they work so well.
