What is the Funnel Marketing / Lead Generation?
What is a lead generation funnel?
A lead generation funnel also referred to as a lead funnel , is a systematic approach to generating leads (i.e., potential customers).
It's the process of funneling your target audience through distinct stages until they ( hopefully🤞) decide to make a purchase.
A lead generation funnel can range in complexity from surprisingly simple to I-need-a-degree-in-rocket-science to understand.
Lead funnels have three stages. Let me walk 🚶🏿you through them.
Source: (leadfeeder.com)
What Exactly Is a Conversion Funnel?
A conversion funnel, or sales funnel, is the path that a prospect takes through your site that ultimately results in a conversion. Because the amount of traffic (visitors) your website gets will likely be larger, with prospects dropping off at various points in that path, those that do convert will be a smaller percentage of the original group – thus the funnel shape.
Why do they drop off? There can be any number of reasons, ranging from technical errors to disconnects between your ad and your landing page and so on. Each of these drop offs increases your bounce rate and lowers conversion rate.
As you build your conversion funnel, you will learn how to identify and fix these “leaks,” so that more and more of your visitors become loyal customers.
In the past, you may have seen examples of conversion funnel visualizations. Here is an example of a sales funnel chart:
Essentially, traditional sales funnels are generally a variation on AIDA (attraction, interest, desire, action) but conversion funnels are not quite that simple and straightforward. Potential customers shouldn't be treated like cattle they're not designed to be wrangled or sorted.
A conversion funnel is less exclusive and places more emphasis on customer behaviors, nurturing and retention at each step of the customer journey.
More questions are asked at each level of the conversion funnel:
How do we make the customer more aware of our brand?
How do we entice them with an irresistible offer?
Why would they not act and what can we do to fix it?
How can we recognize and anticipate their needs?
A conversion funnel is more open-ended and understands that the true art of converting doesn't just end at checkout. Here is a conversion funnel chart:
A conversion funnel is a continuous mission of getting, keeping and growing your ideal customer base, while using technology, social media, and other available tools to meet their needs more efficiently. It's lead nurturing, behavioral targeting, retention and referrals, all rolled into one marketing strategy.
Sounds overwhelming? It's not, when you break it down piece-by-piece. Let's take a look at each element of a conversion funnel on its own and learn how to implement it:
Source: (neilpatel.com)
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in your company's product or service. Some examples of lead generators are job applications, blog posts, coupons, live events, and online content.
These lead generators are just a few examples of lead generation strategies you can use to attract potential customers and guide them towards your offers. (We talk about more strategies later Whenever someone outside the marketing world asks me what I do, I can't simply say, "I create content for lead generation." It'd be totally lost on them, and I'd get some really confused looks.
So instead, I say, "I work on finding unique ways to attract people to my business. I want to provide them with enough goodies to get them naturally interested in my company so they eventually warm up to the brand enough to want to hear from us!" That usually resonates better, and that's exactly what lead generation is:
It's a way of warming up potential customers to your business and getting them on the path to eventually making a purchase.
Source: (blog.hubspot.com)
How the Marketing Funnel Works From Top to Bottom
By Rebecca Lee White Subscribe to our Blog There is a lot of debate surrounding the marketing funnel from who owns it, be it marketing or sales, to whether or not it's still relevant to today's consumer buying process.
Here, I'll explain what you need to know about the marketing funnel, and I'll dive into recent changes and rising challenges for marketers. I'll compare B2C and B2B uses of the funnel, break down the hype around the marketing vs. sales ownership debate, explain how the funnel can be flipped to create more leads, and explore nonlinear approaches to the funnel.
First, let's establish a basic framework for the funnel, so we can better address these issues.
Source: (trackmaven.com)
Sources
You will find more information about Funnel Marketing / Lead Generation in the following sources:
- Lead Generation (marketo.com) - As a modern marketer, you should know how lead generation has changed and how this critical multichannel strategy fits in your marketing toolbox to generate demand and convert new business.
- Lead Generation Funnel – What is it and How Does it Work (digitalmarketingphilippines.com) - The following attempts to give you valuable insights in understanding how lead generation funnel work and how you can properly use it.
- How To Create A Lead Generation Funnel [Infographic] (albacross.com) - This infographic will give you invaluable insights that will help you build your lead generation funnel using the easy to use tools and processes.
- Leadfeeder (leadfeeder.com) - Feeling like a noob optimizing your first lead generation funnel? Learn how to build a sure-fire lead generation funnel, all about the lead funnel stages, & more.
- How the Marketing Funnel Works From Top to Bottom (trackmaven.com) - Here's everything you need to know about the marketing funnel, including recent changes and rising challenges for marketers. Take a look.
- Lead Generation: What Is Your Sales Funnel? - dummies (dummies.com) - After you have a good idea who your best leads are, the next step to defining your lead generation process is to define your sales funnel — knowing where a prospect is in his buying journey so that you can align it directly to your marketing and sales processes. Mapping your lead generation efforts to […]
- How to Build a Conversion Funnel That Will Triple Your Profits (neilpatel.com) - Ever feel like you're doing everything you can to improve your conversion rate, but people just aren't buying? You're following all the best practices, like having a single call-to-action and using enough white space. You've got your content broken down into relevant areas that readers can easily scan and your offer is irresistible. Your form […]
- Lead Generation: A Beginner's Guide to Generating Business Leads the Inbound Way (blog.hubspot.com) - Learn how lead generation fits into your inbound marketing strategy and easy ways that you can start generating leads for your company.
- What is a Lead Funnel and How to Build One (leadsquared.com) - What is a lead funnel and why is it important? Learn the different stages of the funnel and how you can build a strong funnel for your own business.
- Lead generation - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) -
- A Guide On How to Build a Marketing Funnel for Lead Generation (medium.com) - Mapping out the buyer journey is key to marketing success. Being able to visualize their lifecycle stages, how marketing efforts will attract and influence potential buyers to become customers and…
- What Is A Lead Generation Funnel And Why Should You Understand It? (blog.jdrgroup.co.uk) - Have you heard of a lead generation funnel? Here's what they are and why you need to understand them as a business owner.
- What Is a Sales Funnel? (salesforce.com) - The sales funnel is a fundamental concept in sales and marketing. But changing customer expectations mean sales funnel strategies must evolve.
- 7 Ways to Generate Leads through Content Marketing (marketingmasala.com) - Content Marketing Strategies that will fuel your B2B lead generation efforts. It emphasis on structuring & implementing the right techniques.
- How to Create a Marketing Funnel That Generates Sales (singlegrain.com) - A powerful marketing funnel is key to generating leads and converting prospects. Use this step-by-step guide to help you build your own sales funnel.
- Why Full-Funnel Demand Generation is a Critical Part of B2B Marketing (bython.com) - Full-funnel demand generation is a strategically-planned marketing operation designed to constantly drive a demand for your products. It is a critical part of any B2B marketing program.
- 7 Tips for Generating Top of the Funnel Leads - SugarCRM (sugarcrm.com) - Need help keeping your funnel full? Take a look at these 7 lead generation strategies for producing top of the funnel leads.
- 5 Steps to a More Effective Lead Generation Process (2019 Update) (blog.jumplead.com) - Learn how to build an actionable lead generation process attracting leads into your contact management system to nurture them into paying customers.
Topics
These topics were mentioned multiple times across various sources:
- lead generation
- social media
- sales team
- sales funnel
- marketing team
- landing page
- webinar
- potential customer
- lead scoring
- content marketing
- paying customer
- blog post
- Marketing Qualified Lead
- target audience
- contact information
- email marketing
- lead nurturing
- conversion rate
- Sales Qualified Lead
- inbound marketing
- marketing automation
- marketing funnel
- ideal customer
- buying process
- generating leads
- Lead Generation Funnel
- sales process
- paid advertising
Questions
These are some relevant questions found across sources:
- What is a lead generation funnel?
- How does a lead generation funnel work?
- What Is A Lead Generation Funnel And Why Should You Understand It?
- What is Lead Funnel and How to Build One For Your Business
- How To Create A Lead Generation Funnel [Infographic]
- What is a lead funnel?
- What is the marketing funnel?
- How to Build and Optimize Your First Lead Generation Funnel
- How to optimize your lead generation funnel
- What Is a Marketing Funnel?
Sections
These are some relevant subsections found across sources:
- Lead Generation Strategies
- Lead Generation Marketing
- Lead Generation Process
- Understanding the Lead Generation Funnel
- Lead Generation Trends & Benchmarks
- Managing your lead generation Process
- Online lead generation
- Tips for Lead Generation Campaigns
- LinkedIn Lead Generation
- Planning, implementing, and optimizing your lead generation program
Statistics
These are some factual sentences found across sources:
- According to Forrester, buyers might be anywhere from 75 to 90% of the way through their buying journey before they contact the vendor, after they've completed their own research. (marketo.com)
- KoMarketing to increase their organic traffic by 93 percent year-over-year. (leadfeeder.com)
- And, that's why Digital Third Coast saw an 11,324 percent ROI on its SEO campaign for Shorr Packaging. (leadfeeder.com)
- -Email marketing 59 percent of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI . (leadfeeder.com)
- According to Wordstream, email marketing produces an average ROI of 4,400 percent in the United States. (leadfeeder.com)
- Tami Brehse, freelance marketing consultant, drove 50 percent more traffic to her site using Twitter. (leadfeeder.com)
- In fact, CEB reports that B2B customers are traversing 57 percent of the funnel on their own, before encountering a sales rep. (trackmaven.com)
- Dayna has also been featured as one of the top 25 content marketers to watch according to Kapost, and one of the top 50 content marketing influencers according to Onalytica. (dummies.com)
- In 2018, Salesforce Research  found high-performing marketing organizations to be 1.5x more likely to use ABM methods, and 1.9x more likely to use lead nurturing than underperforming marketing organizations. (salesforce.com)
- In fact, 60% of sales reps say they spend more time selling virtually  than they did in 2015, according to the third edition of Salesforceâs global â State of Sales â study. (salesforce.com)