By on Mar 4, 2022
As marketers, we all know the importance of guiding customers through the marketing funnel. But are you leaving money on the table by focusing too heavily on just one end of the funnel rather than creating a full-funnel marketing strategy?
There is a tendency for marketers to focus more on one part of the funnel they consider most important. When marketers give short shrift to other parts of the funnel, they can leave quite a lot of money on the table.
We live in a world where about 80% of shopping carts are abandoned. This is not usually because marketers ignored the sales phase of the marketing funnel. It’s often because they did not do a good job of convincing the prospect at every stage of their journey.
Full funnel marketing expends effort on each phase of the customer journey rather than just concentrating on one phase and giving only lip service to the rest. It’s not enough to put most of your efforts into the sales phase.
Good marketers don’t look at each part of the funnel in a vacuum. They understand each phase affects the next and strategically plan for a smooth customer journey
Today, you should be analyzing data to see what part of the funnel needs more focus at any given period of time. However, no part of the customer journey should ever be ignored.
Awareness is at the top of the marketing funnel. Customers are not yet aware or are just vaguely aware of your client’s brand. In this stage, you want to introduce people to the brand and educate the audience. You are not yet selling the product but rather providing content that will intrigue the audience. Attract their attention by providing them with useful, relevant information.
The goal of the awareness stage it to get prospects to not only become aware of your client’s brand but also to generate a positive association with it.
You can use a variety of tools for this purpose. Video ads are a great way to gain awareness for your client’s brand. Remember, a user is 27.5% more likely to click a video ad than a banner ad. Other types of advertising, public relations and SEO are also ways to gain awareness.
At the consideration stage in the marketing funnel, the prospect is already aware of your client’s brand. Now you must take action so they consider your brand over that of your client’s competition. Your goal is to build ever-increasing trust and show more pointedly how your client’s brand is better for the prospect than the competition’s product or service.
In the consideration phase, you want to increasingly engage the prospect. To do that you might use various types of content marketing including social media, email campaigns, video marketing, website retargeting and blogging. Strive to interact with the prospect based on their interests and online behavior.
The conversion phase of is where your client’s prospect decides whether to buy from your client, their competitor or not at all. At this point, you should have collected more data on the prospect than you had at the top of the funnel. You should be able to use that information finely focus on their needs and influence them to complete the sale.
At this stage, the prospect already knows and likes the brand. You want your client’s brand to be the obvious choice in the prospect’s mind. Be certain you don’t put any hurdles in the client’s way. Make it easy for them to buy from your client.
Marketing efforts at this bottom state should be highly personalized. Focus your efforts on prospects you think will make the best customers.
It’s not over once a customer buys of course. Once they buy, you want them to become long-time, loyal customers. Devise regular touchpoints that offer customers value rather than just hammering at them to buy more.
You can set up VIP or loyalty programs to give them special deals or the opportunity to buy a new line before anyone else for example. You could also give then a special, streamlined customer service line.
Effective use of full-funnel marketing can make a sea change in your ultimate conversions and customer loyalty.
A Nielsen study found that a switch to full-funnel strategies can produce up to a 45% higher ROI and a 7% jump in offline sales over campaigns that focus on just one stage of the cycle.
The same study found that that increasing spending in upper or lower funnels results in 52% more sales than increasing spend only in the middle funnel.
Here’s a couple examples.
Aveda wasn’t getting the numbers it wanted by focusing on middle to lower funnel media. When it switched to a full-funnel approach including more focus on brand awareness, Aveda realized a double-digit year-over-year increase in search impressions. And the jump was immediate.
When the Kraft Heinz Company switched from a top funnel approach to include Google ads in the middle and lower parts of the funnel, it saw 20% more incremental sales.
Umbrella offers white label marketing services across a variety of channels. We have programs to reach your client’s customers in all phases of the funnel.
Our experts can analyze your client’s company and create marketing campaigns that lead clients from awareness to considering the purchase and then conversion. They can also devise strategies to keep those clients for a long time to come.
If you would like to ensure your clients have effective, full-funnel marketing strategies and implementation, contact Umbrella to discuss how we can help.
Book a call today to discuss how we can help your marketing agency grow.