Have you heard the term ‘marketing funnel’ but don’t know how to implement it? Read on for an explanation of what you need to do and how to do it.

What is a marketing funnel?

A funnel is a systemised sequence that naturally turns strangers into paying customers. The customer ‘journey’ should give prospects the right thing at the right time, and provide the obvious ‘next step’ as they ascend through your business. When done right, it allows you to have more predictability with lead generation.

Step One: Create your funnel.

A funnel can be a bit of an effort to set up but the good news is that once it’s done, it will attract and nurture leads for you on autopilot, even when you sleep. Here are the pieces you need to put it all together.

Lead magnet

A small “chunk” of value that solves a specific problem and gives a ‘quick win’ in exchange for their email address (e.g a marketing guide, market report or other insider info). This needs to be SUPER attractive for your ads to work (not something they can just Google). Thinks like eBooks, checklists, quizzes, discounts, swipe files, toolkits… whatever your audience wants the most.

Conversion tool.

A high-value, low-friction offer to convert subscribers (people who opted into your lead magnet) into leads with their phone number and address (e.g a consult)

Landing pages

Squeeze pages to generate opt-ins, track conversions and retarget people so you can follow them around the web (more on this soon).

Autoresponder.

An automated sequence that gets triggered when someone opts into your lead magnet. This should help them get from their current to their desired situation, ascend the relationship and guide them to your conversion offer.

Segmenting.

Putting leads and contacts into different 'buckets' based on behaviour.

Content.

Educational content to provide value, establish authority, use in your retargeting ads and also introduce new prospects to your brand.

Step Two: Send traffic to the funnel.

Once you’ve set up your funnel, now you need to get it in front of people. There are a few different types of campaigns you can run — here they are.

Google Search To Your Services

Only a small percentage of people are in ‘buy’ mode but you still want to target those people who are actively looking for a solution (obviously). Run Google Search ads to your website’s key pages (e.g for us we target people who might be interested in a new website and send them to our web design page). This gets them into the ‘middle’ of your funnel.

Social Media To Your Lead Magnet

This targets the ‘top’ of your funnel. Run Facebook and Instagram ads that send traffic to your lead magnet’s landing page. This is targeted to a cold audience of people who aren’t actively searching for a solution but might be interested in what you have to offer.

Retargeting

Retargeting people who took specific actions. E.g if they visited your website and didn’t download your lead magnet, you can show an ad asking them to come back. If they did convert, you can show an ad with the next step in the buying journey (like contacting you). It all depends on your funnel.

You can do this on social media as well as Google Display Ads (which are images or videos that show up on relevant websites, vs Google Search where they type something in and see text ads).

Social Media Engagement

Sponsoring your top content to build brand awareness. This isn’t about generating leads, it’s about getting in front of people and being seen by more prospects.

Creating omnipresence.

Ever searched for flights and then all of a sudden you see flight deals everywhere? That’s retargeting. When you have this setup, regardless of where people enter your funnel they will start getting seeing more ads based on their online behaviour. How cool is that?

When you do all of this correctly, you create an ‘omnipresence’ effect where you show up everywhere and stay top of mind in a relevant, non-intrusive way. You’ll also have a scaleable infrastructure that can work on any budget which achieves a few key things. You will:

• Capture some of the hot leads that are in 'buy' mode.

• Build your database by getting people in ‘research’ mode to opt-in.

• Stay in front of people who've seen you before with multi-platform retargeting.

• Put out relevant content to establish authority and build your brand.

Step Three: Optimising.

The ultimate goal of a funnel is to create a systemised way to grow your business. Now that your funnel has been setup and launched you want to make sure it’s firing on all cylinders. To do this, we use a simple If This Then That approach — simply find the holes, fix them, track performance and repeat until it works! Here are some examples of spotting + fixing holes:

Getting clicks?

If clicks are too expensive, the ad or offer needs work.

Getting subscribers?

If clicks are good but opt ins are low, the landing page needs work.

Getting leads?

If opt ins are good but leads are low, the follow up sequence needs work or the conversion tool needs to be more attractive.

Getting sales?

If conversions are good but sales are low, the sales process needs work.

Funnel is profitable?

If the overall funnel isn’t working review the data, find holes and optimise the funnel. Repeat and test until leads are within KPI.

Scale up!

If your funnel is profitable… hooray! Now you can scale up your top performing ads, and test new ads, offers and traffic sources.

Rules for success.

If you want to create a successful funnel, you need to follow a few rules.

Be Patient And Play The Long Game.

The funnel won’t work right away, and maybe not even for 1 - 2 months. Be patient, running testing to find the winning formulas and stick to the plan. Continuously monitor, optimise and test the funnel until it’s performing within KPI. You have to invest into finding what works, and then you will see profits.

Don’t Try Too Many Things At Once.

One of the most dangerous things is a new idea! If you’ve spent the time to set up a marketing funnel, stick to it and focus on improving it. Don’t be tempted by new ideas or gimmicks in hopes that it will be a silver bullet. Stick to your plan until you have enough data to make smart decisions.

Don’t Make Decisions Too Quickly.

Don’t check your statistics every day or make decisions too fast. You need enough data to have ‘statistical relevance’ in order to make an informed decision. Use the guide on the next page for when you should make decisions or changes to your funnel.

Don’t Overcomplicate the Funnel.

Keep it simple. Don’t try to have intricate multi-level funnels when you don’t need them. Start with the basics, then build from there once it starts working. Don’t have too many steps, and make it easy for people to ascend.

Focus On The Right Things.

When people want more sales they often focus on traffic. But if your funnel isn’t optimised, you’ll pour money into a leaky bucket. If you improve your conversion rate from 15% to 30%, you’ll double sales without spending any more money. Focus on the right things!

Implement, Don’t Look For a Silver Bullet.

If your funnel isn’t working it’s very tempting to go searching for a silver bullet. The bad news is, it doesn’t exist! The good news is, if you actually implement this formula without getting distracted, you will get results.

. . .

There you have it! That is the exact process for creating, launching and scaling a marketing funnel. You may be thinking it’s a lot of work… that’s what we’re here for. If you’d like a hand just click that button.

Mitch Hills @masteredmarketing