How to Build a Marketing Funnel for Your Online Business

I've heard time after time how marketing can feel hard. When you feel like you get a hang on your marketing things change, your consumer consumption patterns change or new and shiny marketing ways are introduced.

I keep up with marketing trends and patterns for a living and I get why marketing can feel overwhelming at times. It's hard to keep up with it all. What if I shared a way that simplified the way we approached your marketing? Slimming the way we market. 

The way this is done is by introducing a marketing funnel to your business. A marketing funnel allows for you to open up the client journey through a 5 step marketing approach that we will break down in this blog post. Your marketing funnel is your entry point for your customer journey that a potential customer goes through.

Now let's break down each phase for you.

Awareness 

Creating awareness is the entry point to your marketing funnel. In the awareness stage of a business it's key to let your potential clients know who you are, what you do and how you can help them.

Awareness is created with in a business by providing marketable collateral that speaks on behalf of your business. This could be a content marketing strategy, creating educational free resources and showing up on behalf of your business through the use of video marketing, 

Below are a couple of ways to start creating awareness:

• Social media awareness
• Lead magnet resources
• Features and collaborations 

Consideration 

In the consideration part of the marketing funnel an ideal client recognize they have a need to learn more and are making a conscious decision to either not continue to consume from you and your business or considers to trust you and your business further thus allowing for deeper relationship and connection. 
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In the consideration phase your messaging can be tailored towards their needs in which you market how you hold the solution for them. 

Below are a couple of ways to do this: 

• Content authority and conversations
• Sales pages and websites
• social proof and testimonials

Purchase

The Purchase phase of the marketing funnel allows for your ideal client to make a buying decision based on the sales marketing efforts you put into your offers and services. Should we make a blog post on the sales funnel?

When a potential client gets to the purchase phase they are faced with the decision of buying or not buying. As a marketer it's our duty to make that decision a super easy decision for them.

A common mistake that is often made here that is costing many dollars is that we complicate the purchase costing many sales for a business. Make it EASY. Ask yourself often, 'How can I simplify the purchase for my ideal client?'

Below are a couple of ways to do this: 

• Make the buying decision easy
• Do not complicate the starting process
• Straightforward next steps and communication

Loyalty 

In our marketing funnel when we speak on loyalty it's all about retaining our clients and further helping them in ways needed. When speaking on loyalty it's important to keep a constant reminder of the goals that your clients are wanting to fulfill. 

Keeping constant tabs on the goals that your clients are looking to achieve allows for your to create great client servicing that provides great results and open dialogue for continued work together. 

Below are ways to create loyalty in your business:

• Providing results that your clients want
• Prioritizing open client dialogue 
• Providing great client servicing 

Advocacy 

When it comes to Advocacy it really comes down to turning your clients into fans that speak on behalf of your brand and business. They do not hesitate to recommend you to people or shout you from the roof top. 

When it comes to creating advocacy for our business it's simply not enough to have good customer service. That's a given. It's about providing that stellar customer service while also creating a memorable experience worth talking about. 

Below are a couple of ways to further enhance advocacy:

• Referral systemsand affiliate programs 
• Creating a one of kind client experience
• Staying in touch with past clients 

Now let's plan your marketing funnel by having you answer the following questions. After you answer the following questions, start implementing your marketing funnel and put it into action.

Awareness:

How will your dream clients know that your business exist? How will they find you?

Consideration:

How will your ideal clients know that you are the person to trust with their needs? What are those needs?

Purchase:

How are you making the buying decision for your dream clients? Can it be simplified further?

Loyalty:

Do your ideal clients have the opportunity to keep working with you? What does this look like and when is the right time to introduce the opportunity?

Advocacy:

What makes a client want to speak on your behalf and become advocates of your brand? How can we create more of that?

Now take this information and create a custom marketing funnel for your business! 

Ps. I created a free business plan for you! Click here to download!