DIGITAL MARKETING FUNNEL

The new digital marketing funnel consists of at least eight stages: 1 – Awareness, 2 – Engagement, 3 – Consideration, 4 – Purchase, 5 – Adoption, 6 – Retention, 7 – Expansion, and 8 – Advocacy.

Awareness

The big brand names set up branding strategies. They would show the entire world the value that they can offer through implementing their brand advertising campaigns. e.g. Buy banner/video ads through Facebook Ads campaigns.

As a small business, you would be both less aggressive and more aggressive.

Less aggressive – You probably don’t have too much budget to spend on advertising. So you will skip all expensive advertising campaigns.

More aggressive – You show off by revealing your expertise with content marketing (and/or inbound marketing).

Engagement

When you engage and communicate with people or your potential customers, you get to figure out the problems they are facing, or the pain points.

Through varous channels (including blogs, forums, search engines, social media, etc), you can communicate with people.

Only by knowing exactly what pain points you are working on, you’ll be able to re-define your products (and/or services) to solve people’s problems.

Consideration

Connect the pain points to the key benefits, differentiators, and competencies of your products.

For example, your small business website can offer the products that can solve people’s problems. Or you can talk about the pain points and the solutions together on your blog.

People wouldn’t necessary buy your products the very first time they see or visit your website/blog. You must have a website or landing page that is ready to get their contact details, such as email address.

Only after people start to consider your products or your content (which you have been delivering through inbound marketing), they may give you their emails.

Purchase

Nurture your leads (i.e. prospects) with communication through emails. More importantly not only with standard emails, but integrate marketing automation into your email campaigns.

Adoption

Build the user/customer onboarding process into your products. Onboard your new customers. Train them and provide materials for them to train themselves to use your products.

Retention

Anything beyond the first purchase of your customers should be placed under “retention”.

For example, you should get your customers to make the second purchase, third purchase, and more, when the timing is appropriate. Offer upsell products and cross-sell products to customers to increase overall profits.

Expansion

As time goes by, your current customers may encounter new pain points. Through regular communication with your customers, you will uncover new problems. To solve the problems you may refine your products, or invent new products. New products may mean opening up a whole new market (i.e. niche).

Advocacy

A priceless strategy is word of mouth advocacy. This is the ultimate free traffic (or free new customers) that you can get through the referral of your existing customers.

The key is that your existing customers must love your products (or brand), and then a portion of them automatically (or voluntarily) become the enthusiasts of your products.

It is a “snowball rolling” method in which the more satisfied customers you have, the more new customers you will get.