A marketing funnel is a visual representation of your customer’s journey from the moment they come in contact with your brand till they become a paying customer. Other marketers also refer to marketing funnels as purchase, conversion, and lead funnels, among others.

We’ve already discussed marketing and sales funnels, the differences, and the various marketing funnel types. However, in this article, we’re taking a closer look at the marketing funnels so you can get a better idea of how to start using them in your marketing and sales strategies.

Why Do You Need A Marketing Funnel?

Having a marketing funnel is essential for every business, especially now since so much shopping and research is done online. Your marketing funnel is essentially the act of generating leads on your website, identifying the needs of those leads at each stage of their journey, and mapping out the best ways to engage them and encourage them to take action, be it downloading your content or making a purchase.

A marketing funnel allows you to optimize your marketing efforts to influence your customers and get them to take actions beneficial to your business. However, it’s crucial to note that your marketing funnel is powered by marketing automation software. By using an all-in-one marketing automation tool,  you’re able to generate leads and keep track of them in your CRM. You can tag your leads based on certain qualifiers, which make it easy for you to determine where they are in their buyer’s journey, and you can set up automatic nurture campaigns to go out to your leads based on actions they take. These efforts help you not only engage your leads but push them through the funnel closer to a sale.

6 Types of Marketing Funnels You Need to Know About

There are different types of marketing funnels. The one you choose for your brand will depend on several factors, including your audience, your goal, and your product or service. Also, you are not limited to one funnel; you can create different funnel types to push different CTAs to achieve your marketing goals.

Here are some of the most used funnels by marketers:

1. Email Funnel

The email marketing funnel is a marketing funnel that involves the conversion of a prospect to a paying customer using promotional and educational emails.

Creating an email funnel typically involves:

• Collecting prospects’ contact details, including name and email address.
• Offering education to prospects on your brand and product via nurturing email campaigns.
• Including offer-based promotions and conversion-focused CTAs in order to convert prospects into customers.

Examples of email funnels are:

• The free consultation funnel. This email funnel is a series of emails that nudge a prospect towards signing up for a free consultation.
• The cross-sell funnel. The goal of this email funnel is to get a customer to purchase another product or service.
• The upsell funnel. This email funnel leads a customer to select a product or service that has a higher price point than the one they’ve already purchased.
• The product launch funnel. When you launch a new product, you can create an email funnel that is focused on educating prospects and customers about that new product.

2. Video Funnel

The video marketing funnel is designed to convert prospects to customers through videos. To do this successfully, you have to create videos that will attract, educate, engage, and convert your leads at every stage of their journey.

People love video content because it’s entertaining and simple. In fact, Facebook gets about eight billion video views daily. If you’re looking to increase your content engagement, you should consider adding videos to your rotation.

However, for video funnels to be successful, you have to do the following:

• Identify the traffic source for the top-of-the-funnel content. Lots of marketers turn to social media and Youtube.
• Map the buyer’s journey and fill the funnel with video content that’s relevant to each stage.
• Include a strong CTA and links to supporting content, and brand your videos with custom intros and outros.
• Use video in your paid ads, as this will get more top-of-the-funnel traction.

3. Webinar Funnel

The webinar funnel is a marketing funnel that attracts visitors by way of webinar promotion and registration, converts them to leads, and finally turns them into paying customers. A typical webinar funnel starts with generating traffic to your webinar landing page and ends when they purchase your product or service.

With webinar funnels, the registration point is where you collect details of prospects interested in your webinar. You can include emails in this, as you’ll need to send reminders to registered participants before the webinar event itself.

When creating a webinar funnel, make sure to do the following:

• Include a form on your webinar’s landing page that asks for names and email addresses, and include key details that will be covered on the webinar to entice more registrants.
• Have your marketing automation tool add a tag to each webinar registrant, identifying them as someone who signed up for your webinar. This will be indicated in your CRM and help you understand their needs more. It will also indicate who is in your webinar funnel.
• Set up a confirmation or thank you page after registration.
• Send out an email to each registrant that includes how they’ll log on to the webinar the day of the broadcast.
• Promote your webinar.
• At the end of the webinar, promote a special offer for registrants to redeem.
• Send a follow-up email after the webinar that includes the slides, recording, and special promo to boost conversions.

4. Lead Magnet Funnel

The lead magnet funnel involves offering your website visitors a valuable resource in exchange for their contact information. This resource can be in any format – video, case study, eBook, template, white paper, or product trial.

The beauty of the lead magnet funnel is that it attracts high-quality leads interested in the content you are giving them. Furthermore, the lead magnet funnel will help to establish your brand as an authority, making you top of mind when the prospects require a service or product you offer.

With lead magnets, make sure you

• Begin with an incentive that your potential customers will find valuable.
• Design your landing page and your follow-up email series for lead nurturing.
• Promote your lead magnet and use social media marketing and PPC campaigns to send high-quality traffic to the page.
• Watch your list grow, and analyze your campaign performance.

5. Live Demo Funnel

The live demo funnel is often used in SaaS and product-based businesses. It’s an effective marketing funnel because it involves hosting a live demonstration of your product so leads can see first-hand how it works.

One of the benefits of the live demo funnel is that it gives your brand a chance to answer your audience’s questions directly. As a result, you can remove all their friction and doubts about your product, convincing them to make a purchase.

Furthermore, using the live demo funnel will help you establish a relationship with your customers and begin the journey toward ensuring their lifelong loyalty.

For a live demo funnel, you’ll want to establish the following:

• An on-site CTA for visitors to sign up for a live demo.
• Create an email series aimed at encouraging leads to schedule a live demo.
• An email series to deploy after a lead has sat through a live demo. Since demos are typically experienced when a lead is closer to making a decision, this email series should offer them additional bottom-of-the-funnel resources, such as case studies or testimonials, to help them make the decision to buy.

6. Home Page/Landing Page Funnel

The landing page is the page on your website where visitors arrive after clicking on an ad. The purpose of this page is to persuade website visitors to take action. This can be anything from signing up for a webinar or downloading a resource to buying your product or service.

Typically, the landing page funnel works with other funnel types for maximum results. Therefore, it’s recommended that you have a clear CTA on your homepage to serve as a catch-all. Keep in mind, however, that not everyone who enters this funnel is qualified. Therefore, you’ll want to ensure this funnel is focused on offering education and allows you to mark leads as qualified once they perform a specific action that takes them further down the funnel.

Marketing funnels are valuable marketing tools that allow you to build relationships with your customers through the buyer’s journey from awareness to action. They consider various scenarios, allowing you to offer your leads more personalized nurture to address their specific needs. Use a combination of the marketing funnels listed above to drive engagement and boost conversions for your business. Let us help you further with your small business marketing and visit our services page or book a  Free 30 Minute Discovery Call today!