The Social Marketing Funnel Explained and Why You Should Have One

Marketing Funnel…Yes, my friends, that's an English term. Before you think that I have totally gone crazy with this term or my blog has turned into some kind of recipes/cooking blog, let me explain to you what a marketing funnel is.

As always, in defining some terms, I like to keep it simple.

First, as I have defined on my blog post 6 Guidelines for Creating a Sales and Marketing Strategy for Your Business, marketing is product or service meets target audience. Being that our topic is the social marketing funnel, we're referring to marketing that involves social media platforms and other online methods.

Now what is the funnel for? Wikipedia defined funnel as: A pipe with a wide, often conical mouth and a narrow stem. It is used to channel liquid or fine-grained substances into containers with a small opening.

The keyword on this wikipedia definition is channel. What does a funnel have to do with marketing?

Take a look at the diagram below:

Based on the diagram above, a marketing funnel is simply a system for channeling your leads into a more profitable, revenue-generating area in your business.

The Different Levels of the Social Marketing Funnel:

1. Attraction
As you can see, the Attraction is on the top level of the funnel, the one with the widest opening. This is the area where you get the word out there about your brand (products and/or services). Creating awareness that is.

How do you attract your target market? By leveraging a method that you most likely spend time anyways – Social Media. It's free and right in your finger tips. Twitter, Facebook Fan Page, LinkedIn, YouTube and many others that may be related in your industry. You may also utilize online banner ads in targeted websites, as well as

2. Education
Just because someone heard or knows your brand does not mean that they would be interested in it but once you have attracted attention or created buzz, the next step is to educate your audience. Why is it important to educate them? Educating your target market is providing them value. Information is commodity these days. Informational products are a billion dollar industry and when you provide information for free, then you have your audience's trust. You build your credibility. You build your expert status amongst them.

How do you educate them? Blog posts, articles, free ebooks, newsletters, published/hard copy books.

3. Conversion
Once you have gained your audience's trust by educating them and establishing yourself as an expert in the industry, you can then begin the process of conversion. Conversion is the process where you turn your leads, your passive audience if you would call it, into active, paying, and profitable customers.

Because your audience now trusts you, they know that you know what you're talking about, when you present something to them that they have to pay for to get, it's easier for them to trust you with the money in their pockets.

Conversion may involve email marketing, auto responders, social media engagement, proposal development, presentation or all of the above – depending on your industry.

4. Retention
You have converted your audience into profits, great! So what's next? From conversion you go back to education in order to retain your clients. Education -> Conversion -> Retention through Education

You have to keep providing value through your content. Mixed with education, you can do other ways to make your client feel special such as sending them cards every once in a while even if there is no occasion, just thanking them for doing business with your company. Creating a rewards or referral program is great.

Wikipedia, in addition to its definition mentioned above, said that 'without a funnel, a spillage would occur.' This holds true for any business without a marketing system. You could be attracting potential clients but without proper channel to lead them into a more profitable area in your business, you could lose them.

If you have not yet downloaded my ebook My 21 Days to Social Marketing Roadmap, it's free and you can download it at www.mysocialroadmap.com.

Until then!…