I often think about how the stages of a marketing funnel are like the stages of a relationship: there’s the introduction, the get-to-know-you stage, building the relationship, and finally committing to each other. Depending on your industry, the buyer journey might be shorter or longer than your typical relationship that ends in marriage, but I still think the main stages are the same, even if they’re sped up in some situations.
Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, I wanted to take this opportunity to explain how I think the stages of a marketing funnel are like the stages of a relationship. If you’re new to the concept of a marketing funnel, or if you’re familiar with it, but you’ve been struggling to grasp the concept, I hope this article will help clarify it for you.
Table of Contents
Awareness
Before someone can ask you out on a date, they have to know who you are, but they don’t have to know a lot about you yet. Maybe they saw you in a coffee shop or walking around town and thought you looked good so they came over to start a conversation with you. They have become aware of you and they liked what they saw, so they decided they wanted to know more.
The same goes for your brand. People have to be aware of your brand before they take the step to learn more (i.e. go on a “date” with you). This can happen a variety of ways: they see you on social media; they search for something and your website appears on the first page of Google (either organically or with the help of an ad); maybe they’re browsing the business section or self-help section of a bookstore and they come across your book; they could even meet you at a networking event and like your elevator pitch enough to come over and ask for your business card.
There’s one key similarity between someone seeing you out and about and deciding to initiate a conversation and someone who sees your brand: you only have a few seconds to make a good impression because that’s how long it’s going to take them to decide whether they’re going to take the next step in the relationship.
It’s also important to remember how vital branding is at this stage. If someone sees you out and about town and thinks you look good, but they don’t approach you right away, they’ll still recognize you if they see you in a coffee shop a few days later. That happens naturally, assuming you don’t drastically change your appearance, but your brand requires a little bit more work. You need to decide on your logo, your brand colors, your brand’s font, your brand tone of voice, etc. Everything needs to be consistent so people will recognize your brand the next time they see it. For example, they might see some of your posts on social media, and they might not take action then, but if they see your book in a bookstore or online and your book reflects your brand, it will be familiar to them and we are more likely to buy things that seem familiar, so make sure you have a strong brand identity before you do anything else for your business.
Getting to Know You
In a relationship, this is the first date. In the marketing funnel, this is probably reading your book or one of your blog posts. If you do public speaking, this could be attending an event where you speak. The date is so you can get to know each other, and the same goes for your content that’s created for this stage of the buyer journey.
When people are consuming your free or low-cost content, it’s because they want to know more about you and your business and make sure you really know what you’re talking about. They want to make sure you can make their lives better in some way and they’re going to go straight to your content library to make that decision.
This is why I always say blog posts should not have a call to action that asks readers to buy because it’s like proposing marriage on the first date. Your date is nowhere near ready for that kind of commitment at that stage of the relationship. If things went well, they’ll ask you out on another date.
The marketing equivalent is to lead them to another piece of your content. Maybe you leave a link for another blog post on a related topic (this is where blog series/topic clusters can really come in handy). Or you ask them to sign up for your newsletter or follow you on social media so you can continue putting great content in front of them until they’re ready to take the next step in the buyer journey. It’s not quite the same as asking your date to go steady, especially since your prospect might very well be subscribed to your competitors’ newsletters and/or following them on social media, but it’s close.
Developing the Relationship
The first date is most likely to be casual, so you’ll probably go out for coffee or see a movie and then grab dinner somewhere that’s not too expensive, but as things progress, you’ll want to invest more in your dates. Nicer restaurants, gifts, staying the night, maybe even a weekend getaway together.
When it comes to your marketing funnel, you’ll want to continue putting great content in front of your prospects, but you’ll also want to offer a variety of content types. For example, you might lead a webinar or host a workshop. You might be giving the keynote speech at an event. You might have a class you’re offering, either for free, or for low cost. It’s not quite the same as proposing marriage, but you are asking them to make some sort of financial commitment, which means you are asking them to take the next step towards marriage.
Put a Ring on It
If they’ve been following you on social media, reading your newsletter and your blog posts, attending your webinars and maybe even a workshop or two, they’re either ready to commit or they never will be. Now it’s time to ask them marry you – I mean buy from you.
This is your sales page. Once your prospect has decided to commit and they’re ready to go shopping for an engagement ring, they’ll make their way over to your sales page to read more about your product/service and determine whether they really want to commit to this relationship. This means the content on your sales page has to clearly lay out the benefits they’ll get from working with you. What does happily ever look like to them? How can you help make that a reality for them?
Mixing It Up
The tricky part about content marketing is that, while each piece of content should be created for a specific stage of the marketing funnel, in reality you’ll end up getting people from various stages reading the same piece of content, especially when it comes to your blog posts and your newsletters. Someone who already knows who you are and values your expertise will come back to read more of your blog posts, and they’ll probably have signed up for your newsletter to make sure they don’t miss a post, but those same posts could be attracting new readers who find you on social media or through a search engine and have no idea who you are or why they should listen to you.
The same goes for your newsletter – the same newsletter you send to someone who just subscribed will go to someone who’s been reading your newsletter for months, which is why I like to break my newsletter up into sections and have different sections for different stages of the buyer journey. I always start with the new blog post for the week and end with a video, but I also have a section with a stronger call to action, especially if I’m running a promotion or a special sale on one of my services. Newsletters are also a great place to make announcements if you’re launching a new product/service or if you want to let your followers know you’ll be speaking at an upcoming event or hosting a webinar or workshop.
If you’re not yet ready to commit to this relationship, but you do want to see where it leads, you can sign up for our newsletter in the space below. You can also see what we’re up to by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
If you’re ready to put a ring on it and have a professional help you map out your marketing funnel, you can check out our content strategy services.
