A traditional marketing funnel often focuses on generating a lead and walking the customer through the funnel until they purchase the product. In the digital world, there are plenty of opportunities for businesses to continue to make business after the conversion stage. Turning customers to become advocates for the brand and business can be as important as selling products. The digital marketing funnel is split into two distinctive groups: Pre-Buying Stage and Post-Buying Stage.

Pre-Buying Stage

Engagement

The first step for any brand is to build brand awareness and expose the brand to new customers that could be interested in buying your product or service. With many options on the market, many customers may have a desired product or brand; having a strong brand presence and effective online reputation management could help you bring in more customers.

Education

Many online experiences begin on search engines such as Google, so you will need to have a strong content marketing and search engine optimisation campaign to target the audience to come to your website. If your website solves a query then users will develop unknown advocacy for that brand. Next time when that user was to make a new decision to buy into the market you are in then they possibly look for that specific website with more authority and credibility.

Research

When customers are looking for a product or service product, they will invest time to research solutions and have a list of every possible option. You will need to have a digital marketing campaign that will capitalise on these moments.

Evaluation

Once customers have gathered the options that are available to them, they will evaluate each product and determine how that product or service would resolve their problem. You will need to build a strong brand presence and credibility in the market to push customers to believe in your brand and purchase from you.

Justification

Nowadays customers are more knowledgeable and have access to almost every piece of information they would need. Customers will justify and validate the products and services by leaving reviews and case studies to help enforce that the product or service is great. Having good reviews and case studies will help you earn the confidence of your consumers.

Purchase

The most important stage is for the customer to buy your product or service. You will need to build a strong search engine marketing campaign for your branded keywords so that customers do not land on your competitor’s website. Competitors can still steal your customers by putting ads for your branded keywords on Google.

Post-Buying Stage

Adoption

The customer onboarding process must be made as smooth as possible so you do not lose customers. For customers to repeat purchases and see what value you bring to their lives, customers will need to use the product in their day-to-day life.

Retention

One of the most important aspects of marketing is retention as you have already invested your time and money to get the customer to this stage.

Expansion

If you offer good customer service and your products fulfil the need of your consumers, you will have a good chance that customers will like you. When customers trust your services and products it is a good chance that you can upsell and cross-sell to your existing consumers to increase revenue and lifetime value of consumers.

Advocacy

The last step in the digital marketing funnel is to make your consumers become brand advocates. Consumers that post on social media or tell other consumers about the positives of your services or products are providing a genuine testimonial and free marketing for your brand.

Summary

The digital marketing funnel identifies each stage in a consumer's journey and areas you should maximise your marketing impact to encourage the customer along the journey. By connecting to your customers at every point of the funnel, your business can benefit greatly and gain a lifetime customer that will be an advocate for your brand.