From the course: Marketing Foundations: The Marketing Funnel

Full-funnel marketing

From the course: Marketing Foundations: The Marketing Funnel

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Full-funnel marketing

- Now that we've evaluated each stage in the funnel. Let's look at the big picture. Our goal is to develop a full-funnel marketing approach. And what I mean by this is, we want to make sure we have marketing tailored to each stage of the buyer's journey. Your competitors are already making such efforts. And if you haven't developed your own full-funnel strategy, you're behind the curve. Now oftentimes, you'll hear about funnel strategies referred to as, top of funnel, middle funnel, and bottom funnel marketing. Let me explain. Towards the bottom of the funnel, you have a consumer who is close to making a purchase. Bottom funnel marketing, focuses on identifying consumers, who are in a buying decision, and then converting them. At the top of the funnel, you're focused on bringing leads into your funnel. If there's zero top of funnel marketing, there's nobody coming out the other side. And as you might expect, middle of the funnel marketing, is the nurturing process to keep the leads moving. What we fail to take into account so far, is the mindset of the buyer, as it pertains to their journey. You'll often see this play out in pay-per-click advertising. A consumer who does a search on Google for Eyeglass Repair Santa Barbara, is close to making a purchase. We call this type of marketing, bottom funnel marketing. This isn't because the consumer is already at the bottom of our funnel. It's just that the consumer is ready to be in the bottom, of someone's funnel. We know that from a marketing perspective, they've expressed interest in resolving their problem. Therefore, we know that this customer is incredibly valuable. They're not window shopping. They're ready to take action. And that customer is worth more money to us, because it will take less effort to convert them. A top-of-funnel customer, well, they can exist in several states. For starters, they can be aware of their problem, but not aware of any solutions. Additionally, they can be aware of solutions, but not aware, if they have a problem. And finally, they can be aware of their problem, and aware of their solution. So, we're adding a new layer of complexity, to how we think about our funnel. We must consider the fact that a buyer, has their own funnel, agnostic of ours. They're moving through that buyer journey, as it pertains to their problem, they're hopping in, and out of other funnels, and as they continue on their journey, their state of mind changes. We must now consider the buyer journey, both inside and outside of our funnel. When we know their state of mind, we know where in our funnel, they'll likely end up. Back to the eyeglass example. Here the customer is aware of their problem, and they know a solution must exist. They do a search, they see our advertisement. They're now aware of our company. They're interested because they already have a problem. So they come into our landing page, and the experience is personalized to their needs. And therefore they desire what we have and they take action. They've moved through our funnel quickly, because they were in a buyers state of mind. But look at another example, let's say we have a window on a busy street front. We have a sign in that window that says, "Eye Glass Repair, same day, starting at $29." We're doing top of funnel marketing here. People walk by every day and see our sign. And some of them become aware of our solution, but they don't have a problem yet. One day, somebody who has a pair of broken eyeglasses thinks, "Wait, there's that place near my work, that does eye glass repair." And they come into the store. Now the first example sounds most desirable. It's faster, and it's more likely to yield results, but you must invest in awareness marketing in the upper funnel to keep your products and services, on the minds of your prospects. Even when they aren't actively looking for a solution. Additionally, awareness demonstrates a presence in the market. If someone knows you offer a product or service, but doesn't recall seeing your brand anywhere, their appeal is much lower. And if they enter into your funnel, with low appeal, well, you can guess the outcome.

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