Funnelling customers to a buying decision

Before we write down exactly what we’re going to do with our marketing, we first need to plan our marketing funnel.  You might have come across the concept of funnels in business before but if you haven’t, don’t worry, we’re not about to start talking about car maintenance!  We’re talking about funnelling people, not oil or windscreen wash, into buying from you.  Of course, in the nicest possible way.

There are several stages someone goes through when buying a product or service from you.  In your marketing plan, you need to be aware of what these steps are to make sure that you have a strategy to encourage people along from one to the next.  A lot of marketing is called ‘top of the funnel activity’ because its purpose is to make as many people as possible aware of your company; those people are at the top of your funnel.  A proportion of those people will then move down that funnel and become customers; and the more people you put into the top, the more of them will become customers further down.