Full-Funnel Marketing Tactics: Strategies to Drive Customer Success

Marketing funnels go by many names… brand advertising funnel, sales funnel and conversion funnels, to name a few. However, no matter what you call it, its purpose is still the same: create a seamless transition for your customers from brand awareness to sales conversion. The marketing sales funnel is the ultimate tool for preserving the value of every lead by taking users on a journey that keeps them engaged every step of the way. Understanding its impact on advertising efforts, we’ll cover what a marketing funnel is and examine its parts. More importantly, we’ll explain how it all works. By the end of this text, you should be ready to create a system that will continue to deliver quality leads to your brand.

Introduction to Full-Funnel Marketing Approach

Before we dive into how you can apply this approach to your brand or business, let’s cover what it means to employ a full-funnel approach to the marketing funnel. The next subsections will cover three salient points: what is full-funnel marketing, why you need it and how it makes sense for your objective. We’ll reveal more of the secrets of full-funnel attribution for you to uncover throughout the rest of this article.

What is Full-Funnel Marketing?

Full-funnel marketing is composed of a series of strategies, each of which is meant to resonate with the customer at the top, middle or bottom of the marketing funnel. It creates a seamless approach where the customer “flows” from the top down to the bottom, just like how a real funnel works. You can also think of a full marketing funnel as a well-oiled machine in which every part works perfectly. At least, that is what you should try to achieve when you create one!

Why is a Comprehensive Approach Important?

Your marketing funnel represents your customers at every point in their journey. Creating various touch points ensures that the brand remains relevant and receives the most sales. The more engagement that you’re able to generate and retain, the larger the profit will be in the end. Another consideration here is the tight competition in practically every industry. You need to constantly fight for their attention. With a good product funnel, you’ll be able to take up space in conversations and become more than just an afterthought for your target market.

How a Full Funnel Marketing Strategy Supports Customer Journey Stages

A complete marketing funnel strategy will address the various objectives that are associated with the customer journey.

• Awareness: Brand recognition, customer education and interest generation
• Consideration: Lead nurturing and trust and credibility building
• Conversion: Purchase assurance, seamless buying processes and incentive creation.

If these points don’t make a lot of sense right now, don’t worry. These components of the marketing funnel will be discussed in much greater detail in the next sections. And by including your existing customers in your marketing funnel strategy, you’ll be able to increase the customer’s lifetime value. Assuming that the product or service is good, they’ll be a lot easier to convince, too.

Overview of the Marketing Funnel Stages

From the previous section, you already know the three basic stages: awareness, consideration and conversion. Essentially, the awareness stage of the marketing funnel provides an introduction to the brand. Here, we can match sponsored native content on a relevant high-traffic site, so you don’t have to gather an audience on your own. The same marketing funnel platforms can be used for the middle stage: consideration, since in this stage, you’re only providing more in-depth content. Finally, beautifully designed interactive ads can work well for an audience that’s ready to be converted.

Top of Funnel Marketing Tactics for Building Awareness

The marketing funnel is akin to a budding friendship. It all starts with the other party being aware of your existence. For this part of the marketing funnel, awareness should be your only objective. After all, you don’t want to be seen as being only after the money. Imagine yourself in their position. Selling a product at the top of the marketing funnel is equivalent to ambushing a person who has never met you. There’s a right (and wrong) way to approach the top of the marketing funnel. Meaning, you should at least say hi first! And in the following subsections, we’ll talk about how that’s done.

Objective

While we’re still at the top of the marketing funnel, the main objective is to create and spread brand awareness, as you now know. This means you want to create the very first touch point for your brand. So, your target here can include people who may have heard of you before. Here, you want to break the ice through the marketing funnel. Think of this as a way for your audience to learn what you’re about. However, this doesn’t mean you should send them directly to your About Us page. The marketing funnel should help you show, not tell. Instead of telling them the brand promotes sustainability, create content that shows exactly that.

Key Strategies for the Top of the Marketing Funnel

With so much noise in the digital space already, how do you get your word in? Here are a few ideas.

• Blend in to stand out: Through MGID’s native ads, you can reach new audiences without disrupting their browsing experience. We’ll help you reach the right demographics to make a lasting impact.
• Use video content: Since videos are easier to consume than text, your target audience may respond well to this marketing funnel content.
• Run ads: In doing so, you can access niche audiences that may not be able to find you otherwise.

Feel free to use multiple platforms to beef up your results at the top of the marketing funnel!

Top of the Marketing Funnel Key Metrics

Best Practices to Remember

To generate as much success here as possible, keep in mind these best practices.

• Don’t create content for the sake of it: The value that you deliver at this part of the marketing funnel can greatly affect the outcome that you get down the line.
• Use consistent messaging: This way, the audience will easily recognize your brand.
• Optimize for mobile: Did you know that nearly 60% of browsing activity happens on mobile devices? So, you need to make sure that no matter what content format you’re using for the marketing funnel, it looks good on mobile.

By doing all these things, your brand will be remembered for the right reasons.

Middle of the Marketing Funnel Tactics for Engaging Prospective Customers

Now that you have caught their attention, the next step is to keep it. You’ve already accomplished the hardest part — getting noticed! You’re now ready for mid-funnel marketing, where you’ll nurture the connection that you’ve started. At least from the perspective of the user, the experience for this part of the marketing funnel is largely the same. But as a marketer, you’ll know that there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface. And that’s what we’ll discuss in the following subsections.

Objective

There are a few objectives that you need to fulfill to retain customers as you move them to the final part of the marketing funnel:

• Build their trust;
• Ensure your presence when they’re browsing;
• Retain their attention.

Essentially, you want to create a deeper relationship with the audience. At this point, you want to be at the top of their mind and to expand their familiarity with what you offer. By fulfilling these objectives, you’ll be able to retain more of the audience as you move on to the last phase of the funnel.

Key Strategies for the Middle of the Marketing Funnel

As we have mentioned, there are a lot of similarities in strategizing for the top and middle of the marketing funnel. So, let’s focus on how they’re different. Apart from keeping your current efforts at the top of the marketing funnel, implement these strategies as well.

• Bring them back to your content: For example, with MGID’s retargeting options, you can keep interested users engaged by bringing them back to relevant content.
• Familiarize them with your products and services: Since the marketing funnel has already helped build some level of trust, you can now introduce your offer.
• Personalize your communication: Personalized communication tends to resonate more. Quizzes that gather their information to reveal a result can work here.

Middle of the Marketing Funnel Key Metrics

Best Practices to Remember

As you implement your strategies for the middle of the marketing funnel, keep these best practices in mind.

• Set the timing and frequency for your retargeting efforts: The last thing that you want to happen is for them to get annoyed by seeing the brand everywhere.
• Use the power of storytelling: Stories about positive experiences with the brand work wonders for this part of the marketing funnel because they help deepen trust.
• Segment your audience: By doing so, you’ll be able to provide more relevant messaging.

Bottom of the Marketing Funnel Tactics for Driving Conversions

If you’ve created a strategy that fits the brand, its offers and the audience, this part will be pretty easy! A successful full-funnel approach so far ensures two things: that you’ll have a larger pool of prospective buyers and that they’ll be pretty warmed up to buy. You have done the work to create the marketing funnel; just do this last thing right, and it will all pay off… literally! In the following subsections, we’ll talk about how you can pull this off successfully and reap all the benefits from your efforts.

Objective

Contrary to popular belief, the objective here isn’t actually to convince users to buy. This is something that you’ve been doing since the top of the marketing funnel by building trust and providing quality and relevant content. Here, your goal is very simple: remove all the obstacles that the user may have when buying your product or service. The obstacles that you’ll tackle at this part of the marketing funnel can be logistical or psychological, which will be the focus of your strategy formulation process.

Key Strategies for the Bottom of the Marketing Funnel

With MGID’s customizable CTA options, you can deliver clear and action-oriented messages that will resonate with different kinds of potential buyers. However, to get them to complete the purchase at this part of the marketing funnel, this should be combined with other strategies.

• Create a seamless transition from the ad to the landing page: One potential solution here is our in-feed ads that can help remove the friction towards the purchase, making it easier for them to say yes.
• Don’t ask for a lot: Are you asking for information that isn’t necessary for the delivery of the product? Then, you don’t need it in your marketing funnel.
• Retarget abandoned carts: You can send them a quick reminder or further incentivize the sale by offering a discount.

Bottom of the Marketing Funnel Key Metrics

Best Practices to Remember

To maximize the revenue that you can receive at the bottom of the marketing funnel, incorporate these best practices into your strategy formulation.

• Promote transparency: Make sure that it’s clear how much the purchase will cost and what is included. If it’s something physically delivered, include when they can expect their order.
• Optimize for mobile devices: Avoid using a lot of dropdown menus in the marketing funnel because they tend to look clunky on mobile. Make sure that each element of the checkout page is clearly visible on smaller screens as well.
• Remove distractions: For example, the checkout page is probably not the best place to get their attention about a newly discovered way to make your pores look invisible.

Retention and Loyalty Tactics for Post Customer Purchase Funnel Marketing

Have they completed a purchase? As a newly-minted customer, they’re probably still enjoying the high of experiencing the amazing products and services that your brand offers. And even though they’ve completed the action at every part of the marketing funnel journey, it doesn’t mean that their customer journey is over. After all, they can still buy more in the future. So, there’s still a lot that you can do! The way you handle those who buy at the bottom of the marketing funnel can spell even greater profit opportunities for the brand.

Objective

The main objective is to increase customer lifetime value. This is defined as the total revenue that you generated through that customer, which you can boost by:

• Improving customer retention: For your service-based offer, high customer retention means a more reliable income.
• Creating loyal followers out of them: Loyal followers are excited about buying what you have, so they mostly stay at the bottom of the marketing funnel.

And how exactly can you make this happen? We’ll reveal this in the next two subsections.

Key Strategies for Retaining Customers Who Bought at the Bottom of the Marketing Funnel

Assuming that you have an offer that truly addresses the pain points of your target market, you already have half of the work done! By implementing these strategies, you can secure repeat purchases.

• Create a loyalty program: The more that they buy, the more perks that they can unlock.
• Upsell and cross-sell: Based on their past purchases, what are they more likely to buy? Present these options to them!
• Re-engage: You need to keep the conversation going by directing them to relevant content and even asking about their experience with your product.

Even though they’ve already bought from the business, they can still move up and down the marketing funnel. By doing these things, you’re helping keep these leads warm and ready to buy.

Post-Purchase Key Metrics

Best Practices

As important as it may be to move the target audience along the marketing funnel, remember that it shouldn’t just be about the sales. And with these best practices for making the marketing funnel, higher sales numbers are practically inevitable!

• Prioritize customer support: Show your dedication to their experience even after purchase to boost their trust and likelihood to repurchase.
• Create a community: Having a community surrounding the brand also helps with the top and middle of the marketing funnel. Plus, it provides happy customers an avenue to send feedback and become a brand advocate.
• Optimize the order process: Save them from the hassle of filling out tedious information with one-click purchase options for repeat orders.

Analyzing Marketing Funnel Performance and Optimization Tips

Making the most out of your data requires advanced analytics, and with MGID’s granular reporting capabilities, you can create customized reports by filtering the marketing funnel metrics. All these make analysis fairly straightforward, allowing you to gather relevant insights. To get the best possible outcome from your marketing funnel, follow these tips.

• Set everything up for success: With performance prediction tools, you can get rid of potential conversion pitfalls so that there are fewer issues to address later on.
• Optimize each marketing funnel stage independently: This way, you can ensure that you’re paying attention to even the smallest of details.
• Implement split testing: Based on the data coming in, look for ways to improve the conversion at all touch points.

7 Steps to Create a Marketing Funnel That Converts

At this point, you know the best practices, tips and everything in between. So now, it’s time to put all that we have learned about a full marketing funnel into action. The steps that we’ll prioritize are things that all successful marketing funnel examples have in common. However, your details, which may be completely different from that of another advertiser, will depend on many factors, like your research, developments in the advertising environment, audience response and more.

Step #1: Define Your Target Audience and Create Buyer Personas

Your marketing funnel can only be successful if it can speak to your target audience. This step will entail a lot of research because it will be the foundation of your campaign! To better understand how you’ll approach the marketing funnel strategy later on, here are a few details that you should cover:

• Demographics;
• Interests;
• Pain points;
• Purchasing behavior.

Once you’ve collected and organized the information here, create buyer personas. This makes it easier to develop the details for various components of your marketing funnel because you can pretend you’re advertising to just one person instead of a whole group.

Step #2: Map Out the Entire Marketing Funnel

In doing so, consider awareness, curiosity and conversion. Remember that you’re not making three separate campaigns. As they’re all part of the same marketing funnel, they have to be related in some way. Here’s an example of the continuity that you should strive for:

• Awareness: Top Tips To Keep Your Skin Hydrated
• Curiosity: Finding The Best Skin Care Products For Your Skin Type
• Conversion: Purchase These Skin Care products At A Discount

Your marketing funnel should make logical sense from beginning to end. Even the visuals should display continuity, something that you can handle easily if you already have a brand book.

Step #3: Create Content for the Top of the Funnel

We already talked about what is top of the funnel in marketing: generating awareness and familiarity for the brand. However, it’s not just about translating that knowledge into action. Here are a few ideas on the kind of content that you can create:

• Educational blog posts;
• How-to guides;
• Videos that help them gain insights about your brand;
• eBooks;
• Sponsored native content;
• Interactive quizzes.

For this part of the marketing funnel, focus on getting their attention without pressuring them into buying anything. If they consume the content, that already counts as a win!

Step #4: Create Ways for Your Audience to Further Engage with the Brand

After the initial contact, you have to be persistent. Just hearing about your brand one time is not enough. So, to address the objectives for the middle part of the marketing funnel, focus on nurturing leads. This can include:

• Retargeting them with paid ads;
• Sending them a direct message;
• Using personalized emails;
• In-depth content, resources and tutorials;
• Free trials.

There are a lot of similarities with the top of the marketing funnel. This is because you’re trying to reinforce the good first impression that you created. But here, the approach is slightly more personalized. This increases the odds that they’ll continue to engage as we get to the bottom of the marketing funnel.

Step #5: Make It Easy for Your Audience to Buy

Of course, the main objective at the bottom of the funnel is to get your audience to purchase your product. And for this part of the marketing funnel, you’ll want to make it as effortless as possible for them to say yes. This can include:

• Minimizing the steps toward completing the purchase;
• Offering a limited-time discount;
• Show proof that the product or service works;
• Provide guarantees;
• Display any relevant certification to elevate legitimacy.

Depending on what’s being sold, you can use a combination of these pointers in your marketing funnel. Reduce friction to get them excited not only about the purchase but also the results that it can deliver.

Step #6: Get Them to Buy Again

Creating a successful marketing funnel is a lot of work! However, once you get them to buy for the first time, they’re more likely to buy again. So, be sure to keep in touch with your new and existing customers by:

• Asking them about their experience with the product or service;
• Sending personalized content about how they get the most value out of their purchase;
• Asking them for reviews in exchange for a discount voucher;
• Retargeting them in ads;
• Letting them know about the latest offers.

A little nudge here and there will help profits come in at the bottom of the marketing funnel. However, the frequency by which you should ask them to buy again depends on the product. A marketing funnel strategy that incorporates a repurchase too early may be seen as annoying. So, find the balance between the two.

Step #7: Optimize, Optimize and Optimize

To be fair, you don’t need to see a full run of the marketing funnel to determine where you can optimize. So, simply do this whenever you see something that can be improved. Each segment of the marketing funnel is associated with certain metrics and KPIs, so look into those. With so many things to track, you may miss opportunities for potential revenue growth in your marketing funnel. So, try to use advanced analytics tools like those available to our clients at MGID.

Marketing Funnel: Your Not-So-Secret Weapon to Creating a Constant Stream of New and Repeat Customers

Other than in extremely unique circumstances, your target audience won’t learn about your brand today and buy from it tomorrow. You need marketing funnels to ensure that you’re constantly bringing them closer to a sale while also expanding your brand reach. That’s why it’s imperative that you understand it’s not about upper funnel vs. lower funnel marketing. What’s important is how you can get them to work together to reliably generate sales for the brand.

Are you ready to engage in this high level marketing? Native advertising can help capture your audience’s attention, whether your goal is to spread brand awareness or get people to buy. From the introduction to the purchase, know that we have your back at MGID. Join the MGID platform to access our top tools and talents to help your marketing funnel be a success.