A customer acquisition funnel, or sales funnel, is a deliberate marketing sequence a marketer creates from start to finish by reeling in leads, deploying a lead magnet, and ultimately making the sale. Creating a funnel is a delicate balance between authentic connection and selling.
What is a customer acquisition funnel?
A customer acquisition funnel is an outline of the stages a customer goes through while making a purchase, and also a strategy marketers employ to find, nurture, and sell to leads.
Importance of the Customer Acquisition Funnel
Customers don’t make a sale after seeing an ad once. It takes multiple exposures, research, interaction, and often an incentive to make the sale, and create repeat customers. Don’t leave it up to chance—have a deliberate, data-backed marketing plan that guides your leads through the steps to making a purchase.
Stage of the Customer Acquisition Funnel
Each step of a customer acquisition funnel serves an important purpose. While each business will employ the step differently, the principles are the same.
Awareness
In the first stage, you need to make your potential customers aware that your brand exists. Use demographic data and targeted marketing such as PPC ads and content marketing to get your ads in front of your target market, and multiple times. It takes multiple exposures to an ad for a customer to move on to the next step, so keep the ad dollars flowing!
Interest
In the interest stage, your lead is aware of your brand after seeing an ad a few times, perhaps on multiple channels, and has started to show interest in your product by clicking through to your site. This is the optimal time to deploy your lead magnet.
Consideration
In the consideration stage, your lead is learning about your product, imagining how having this product will impact their life, and thinking about whether they really need it. This is the time to step up the engagement—answer FAQs on your website and make the case for your product.
Intent
In the intent stage, your lead is frequently engaging with your content and thinking about becoming a customer. During this time, focus on engaging with the leads who are statistically most likely to move forward to the next stage by reviewing your data.
Evaluation
The evaluation phase is when things start heating up. Your lead is intimately familiar with your brand, perhaps after signing up for a free trial or engaging with your customer service reps, and thinking about moving forward with the purchase. At this time they will be weighing the pros and cons and trying to convince themselves that they don’t really need to make the purchase. This is the time to show them that they really do.
Purchase
Congratulations! Your lead has made a purchase and is now a customer. The easiest sales to make are repeat sales, so make sure to nurture your customers, send them special insider deals, and stay engaged.
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