Understanding the marketing funnel
When I first began as an entrepreneur, there were certain words and acronyms that I heard and just pretended to understand.
Burn Rate
Seed Round
Bootstrap
Angel
VC
CAC
MVP
Product Market Fit
You know the words. As a 20 something year old who dropped out of college I just never was exposed to them or had them explained to me.
I’m excited to introduce a new regular piece of content!
Tuesday Terms
Each Tuesday we’ll go through a term that young entrepreneurs should know. It probably won’t take up the whole newsletter, but will be a segment in addition to other content similar to Thinker Thursday.
I’ll even give you a chance to vote on which term to for me to cover and explain in normal, plain jane terms.
Vote here for next week👇
If you have topics you’d like me to cover, go ahead and drop a comment!
This week we’ll cover a term that gets thrown around a ton, but I don’t think that many people actually use it properly.
Marketing Funnel
Here is an example of the type of content I would see:
What exactly does it mean to fix your funnel?
Well, today we are going to dive in and find out.
There are a lot of funnels out there. I really like this one as I think it has the most accurate customer path.
A lot of inexperienced business owners think of marketing as one dimensional.
Make post on Facebook
Boost post with marketing budget
Get more phone calls
Close more sales
In reality, the customer path is more like this:
Sees billboard on freeway and thinks that’s cool
Watches YouTube preroll ad for a specific product
Researches other companies that also offer the product
Sees your boosted Facebook post and calls in
Makes the purchase
Joins referral program
Shares product with friends and family
It’s really easy as a business owner to just see the Facebook link click and assume that Facebook ads are working, so you cancel all other advertising and double down.
Different marketing mediums have different purposes in the marketing funnel.
Awareness - TV commercials, Radio, Billboards, Flyers
Geico doesn’t expect you to see their Hump Day ad and go directly to buy ads. It’s all about building the awareness.
Interest - YouTube Preroll, Reels, TikTok
User generated content(UGC) has grown a lot in popularity recently. Companies pay normal people to make videos that don’t stand out from your normal feed.
Consideration - Blog posts
Zillow has a great example of a blog designed to get you used to seeing them as a valuable resource and put homes in front of you.
Evaluation - Search Engine Optimization
Dick’s Sporting Goods has different articles written to target the keywords for someone on the journey to buy a basketball.
Decision - Social media ads, promotions
Hello Fresh has insanely large social media marketing budgets.
Using the marketing funnel on a budget
Obviously most of these companies are spending millions of dollars on marketing efforts to bring target customers through a sophisticated funnel.
Here’s an example of a funnel that can be done with $20 and some old fashioned hustle.
On Thursday evening pass out flyers advertising your service and directing people to your website. ($20)
Hits awareness, interest, and consideration
After 2-3 days knock on every door that received a flyer, help them evaluate your service and guide them to a decision.
Offer a discount if you can put a yard sign up for 2 weeks.
Loyalty, advocacy
You don’t have to have a giant marketing budget to make sure you are using the funnel. Keep it simple.
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