What is a marketing funnel and how to use it

Oise Trade company

The marketing funnel has several key stages: awareness, interest, desire and action. Each stage represents an important step in a potential customer's journey. The model looks like a funnel because the number of people decreases at each stage.

A marketing funnel is a model for describing the path a potential customer takes from initial exposure to a product or service to purchase. It is applicable to both offline and e-commerce. Oise Trade provides you with basic information about the marketing funnel.

The term 'marketing funnel' was coined under the influence of the AIDA model of consumer behaviour, proposed by advertising expert Elias St Elmo Lewis in 1898. He suggested that every purchase could be described by a sequence of events: awareness → interest → need → action.

What the marketing funnel consists of

Awareness. In the first stage of the funnel, a person finds out that your company exists. They see an advertisement on a social network or a link in a search engine and go to the site.
Interest. The user is interested in what you have to offer: he looks through the catalogue, studies the delivery conditions, payment methods and other details.
Desire. Before making a final choice, the user hesitates. He is trying to make sure he is making the right decision, looking for reviews of your products and comparing your company with others.
Action. The person makes a purchase and becomes your customer.

These four stages are a flexible concept that can be adapted to the characteristics of the target audience and the product when building the marketing funnel, according to the managers of the company Oise Trade.

The stages of the marketing funnel for online shops are

A funnel allows a business to measure the effectiveness of tools and communications at each stage of customer acquisition. The percentage of consumers who move on to the next stage is called conversion. The higher the conversion rate at each stage, the better for the business. If the conversion rate starts to drop, you need to find out why and fix it. For example, you may have built a funnel, tracked the movement through CRM, and found that most potential customers come to the site, start exploring it, but close it when they reach the cost of the product. Most likely they are not satisfied with the price.

Your business success depends not only on the quality of your offering, but also on how it is presented and marketed to consumers. Everything from the design and colour scheme of your website to the packaging of your product plays an important role in a customer's journey through the marketing funnel. How you choose to promote your website will also have an impact on this process.

With a clear understanding of the customer journey, you can identify the barriers that prevent them from moving through the funnel. Based on this data, you can make changes to remove these barriers and increase conversion rates. An action plan to improve your customer experience may include creating a more user-friendly website, launching new advertising campaigns, personalising your marketing efforts, using different advertising channels and more.

If you need to build a marketing funnel for your dropshipping business - contact Oise Trade Poland.

How to use a marketing funnel