Your Marketing Funnel: A Simple Map to More Sales

Your Marketing Funnel: A Simple Map to More Sales

Introduction

 In this internet age, it is important to understand your customers. The marketers need to understand how individuals engage with their brand. Although analysing the journeys individuals take, from initial product awareness to purchase. After that, charting out those journeys and using a user funnel methodology, marketers can make valuable discoveries. They can see what works, what does not, and where they need to make adjustments. This article illustrates the salient elements of user journeys and user funnels. Therefore, it will help you in understanding and developing marketing plans, and also help to reach target users.

Understanding the Fundamental Concepts: User Journey vs. User Funnel

It is necessary to notice the distinction between a user journey and a user funnel. Both describe how the customer progresses the journey from awareness to purchase. However, these two fundamental concepts provide different perspectives on this progression.

What is a User Journey?

A user journey is the entire experience a person has with a brand. On the other hand, it is a story about an individual's purchase thinking. Moreover, a journey starts with seeing a product or service and ends with purchasing that product or service. In fact, the user journey is a story about emotion, action, and behaviour. It is a story of all the touchpoints a user has. Clearly, the user has several touchpoints, such as social media updates, visiting a website, receiving emails, ads, or even calling customer support. In fact, these touchpoints provide a complete picture of the user journey and the customer’s interaction.

What is a User Funnel?

A user funnel is a funnel-shaped user purchase thought segregated diagram. Although this diagram illustrates the steps a user goes through to achieve a certain objective. This objective could be purchasing something or subscribing to a service. Moreover, funnels are about numbers. Also, they are about how many users proceed from one step to the next. In fact, typical funnel stages are Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Intent, Evaluation, and Purchase. Each stage measures how many people carry on.

The Interplay: How Journey Inform Funnels

The user flows and funnels are complementary to each other. Also, knowing the whole journey helps in defining and optimising each stage of the funnel. In fact, a user sees a good review on social media, which could place them in your "awareness" stage of the funnel. The journey also illuminates the "why" behind the numbers in the funnel. As a result, it reveals the emotions and needs at every step.

The Phases of an Average User Experience and Funnel

Each & every customer follows a journey to achieve an objective. Thus, the journey goes through several stages of engagement. Each stage also has its own objective and marketing imperatives. For this reason, consider all the phases accordingly to get a better result.

·  Awareness: First Notice Capture

This is the stage where a user initially learns about your product or services. In fact, this is the time when a user or consumer notices your brand. Here, your intention is to be heard. Eventually, you need to make a lasting first impression.

• Finding Touchpoints

Currently, marketers have various channels. Meanwhile, marketers utilise those channels to attract people to their products or services. In this digital era, social media has played a vital role. Eventually, social media advertising reaches to a huge audience easily. Content marketing, blog posts, and infographics teach new segments. SEO also makes it easy for people to find you when they're searching. In fact, public relations and influencer marketing spread the word.

• Key Indicators for Awareness

You can quantify awareness in many different ways. First, check your website traffic metrics. Then, check social media impressions and reach. After that, check the frequency of conversation of your brand on social media. Finally, check search volume for your brand name.

Actionable Tip: Try out some different ad designs and landing pages. Figure out which ones are most appealing to new visitors based on their reaction.

·     Interest & Consideration: Creating Interest

Users are not only conscious but also actively looking and reacting. They want to know more about what you are providing. How is it helpful to solve a problem? They are comparing other people's solutions with your solutions.

• Providing Information and Value

Create your website with informative product pages. To illustrate, informative blog material, webinars, or case studies. Subsequently, comparison guides show how your product stands out. In fact, users are seeking answers and value here. Finally, your content must provide them with answers to their unique issues.

Expert Quote: "The interest stage is where you establish trust. Continue providing valuable content that addresses users' pain points."

Measuring Engagement & Intent

There are several ways to measure interest in user behaviour. Although a high bounce rate indicates that users navigate away from the website after viewing only one page. Meanwhile, a greater time on page and pages per session indicate users are interested. Also, users want to know more about the products, services or brand. Certainly, monitoring content downloads and viewing videos also helps to measure user intent. Newsletter sign-ups also indicate a high interest in users.

•     Decision & Intent: Shaping Action

After collecting all information and comparisons, the customers will decide to purchase or subscribe to the product or services. They need proper reasons to buy your product over the others. So, you have to remove all doubt they might have and showcase your product as a solution.

• Overcoming Objections and Being Assertive

Understand customer reviews and testimonials. Also, offer free trials or samples to your customers by reading all the reviews. Along with that, make sure your CTAs are super clear. Be upfront about pricing. So that the customer can get a clear idea about the budget. Your customers need to be persuaded to buy. Of course, show your product as a solution to their issue.

·      Tracking Conversion Triggers

You need to look for signs that customers are ready to act. Likely, monitor e-commerce cart abandonment rates, and monitor demo requests or trial sign-ups. Also, monitor the number of contact forms filled out. All of these are good intent indicators. Noticing all the indicators and analysis actually gives a clear idea about customer conversion.

Real-life Example: An online shop can send an email. It provides a small temporary discount coupon. It requests customers to purchase now.

·      Action & Purchase: Closing the Loop

This is the last segment of the funnel. This is where you turn a user into a customer. This has to be frictionless. If Anything is frictional here will push users away from your brand.

• Streamlining the Conversion Process

Make your checkout process simple and quick. Also, offer your users plenty of simple payment choices. Sometimes it is great to offer guest checkout so customers don't have to log in. Most importantly, eliminate unnecessary steps or forms from your website. Subsequently, the final barrier must be frictionless.

• Unpacking Shopping Behaviour

Need to focus on your conversion rate. Therefore, this is the number of visitors to your website that become paying clients. Also, look at your average order value (AOV) and your revenue. These are all your performance indicators.

Statistics: The global average e-commerce conversion rate is approximately 2.8%. You can perform better than that through funnel optimisation.

Post-Purchase & Loyalty: Relationship Building

It doesn't end after a sale. Also, building loyalty sees them return. As a result, it makes them an advocate for the brand.

Improving customer experience

Send reminders once a purchase has been made. Along with that, provide helpful onboarding materials, and also provide excellent customer service. Most importantly, create loyalty schemes or reward plans. Send personalised recommendations based on previous purchase patterns. Try to turn your customers into fans.

Measuring Long-Term Value

One of the most important factors needed to measure here is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). This is something that someone will spend in the long run. For this reason, need to look at your repeat customers. Also, focus on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and the customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys. Analyse the survey results to determine the happiness index of your customers.

•Actionable Tip: Run remarketing campaigns and also do some promotions. It brings your old customers back. Because sometimes acquiring a new customer is costlier. So, retaining your old customers always becomes beneficiary.

Tools and Methods for Mapping User Funnels and Journeys

Marketers use an array of instruments to discover customer journeys. In fact, numbers and emotions are both important in these cases.

Analytics Platforms

Some tools help to collect quantitative data as well. In fact, Google Analytics offers different dimensions for analysis, like behaviour flow and goal tracking. Another tool, named Hotjar, also offers heatmaps and session recordings. Graphs and maps help to the story behind the data. Heatmaps are always helpful for the correlation data. Meanwhile, Mixpanel and Amplitude also track user interactions and monitor user data.

Qualitative Research Methods

Numbers only tell a part of the story or one single side of the story. But Qualitative research tells you “Why" users do something. Various ways exist to gather the qualitative data. A user interview is one of them. User interviews allow you to interview customers one-on-one. Moreover, proper Surveys and feedback forms always give a better advantage to get abstract opinions. Another way of qualitative research is usability testing. Eventually, usability testing observes users using your product and then takes feedback from the users. These approaches are helpful for qualitative research.

Seeing the Data

Data plays a crucial role in any kind of operation. However, in a marketer’s journey, data allows you to envision the funnel and journey more easily. Along with graphical presentation, funnel diagrams and user journey maps present complex data in a simple form.

Actionable Tip: Use web tools like Miro or Lucidchart. They also help you map the user journey with your team.

Optimising Your User Pipeline for Maximum Conversion

The first step is learning to understand your funnel. Then, the second step is to refine it. Write informative and insightful content with proper backlinks so that more visitors arrive at your destination.

Identifying Bottlenecks

Identify where your users are dropping off within your funnel. Even though you need to figure out the pain point in the user journey.  Moreover, these places will be made apparent to you by your analytics. So, use Google Analytics to track and understand where your users are dropping off your site, or where they are not progressing. Most importantly, these “bottlenecks” need to be found.

A/B Testing and CRO

A/B testing and CRO are the vital parts of the user journey funnel. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is testing and tweaking to understand the user mindset. Specifically, experimenting with different calls to action to understand the user mindset in a better way. Also, experiment with different combinations of other landing pages. Along with that, experiment with different ad copy or offer copy. As a result, A/B testing will show you what works best for the user or customers.

Expert Quote: "A/B testing is not a strategy. It is a long-term growth strategy."

Personalisation and Segmentation

Send relevant messages and offers to every one of your users. Also, tailor your approach according to what you have learned about them and their past patterns. In fact, segmentation also enables you to do this in your marketplace. This serves to make your marketing more relevant.

Actual Use: You get a product recommendation through an email. The recommendations are according to what you viewed previously.

Improving User Experience (UX)

A good user experience makes people stay on your site. So, make your site fast and responsive. Also, make your website simple and easy to navigate. It needs to be usable also on mobile phones. Most importantly website must be informative.

Statistics: It will cut conversions by 7% if your page loads one second slower.

Conclusion: Facilitating Growth Through User-Centric Marketing

Understanding user journeys and funnels is the key to effective marketing. These give you the ability to actually see where your customers are going. Moreover, you can then make smart, data-driven decisions for your product and services. This also builds more effective campaigns and more conversions. By keeping your user top of mind, you create stronger connections and sustainable growth.

Start creating your own user flows today and analyse your funnels and their potential. Moreover, marketing is an ongoing process of refinement. So, Learn, test, and optimise your content. As a result, your customers will thank you, and your results will show it.