Funnel Jargon Demystified For Your Edification ??

Unless you live deep in the jungle of digital marketing, I doubt you're familiar with all the lingo that gets thrown around.

Whatever words might be floating around your head right now, the ones I'm going to talk about are:

Tofu, mofu and bofu.

Writing them like that is a little misleading...

They are not words, per se, but acronyms:

TOFU = Top Of Funnel

MOFU = Middle Of Funnel

BOFU = (you guessed it!) Bottom Of Funnel

Not knowing these stages of every funnel, and thus not optimising with that knowledge in mind, is a big reason many people create poor funnels.

Most people treat their marketing funnel as a straight line process, and end up having only one message for everyone that passes through.

The problem with this is not everybody is at the same stage of the buying process...

• Some people don't know you from Adam.
• Some have a vague recollection of who you are.
• And some remember you and are growing to like you.

If you send the same message to all three, you've already lost 2/3 of the audience before they get to the offer.

So, what to do about it?

Simple: Split the funnel into 3 different parts.

Is it more work?

Yes, of course!

But we want to do this right, right?

Here's a little secret to keep your knickers untwisted:

You won't have to do 3 times as much work because each stage will build on the next. (Phew!)

The simplest way to think of each stage is to compare it to the art of dating:

TOFU: Introduce yourself to them and hope they like you

MOFU: Go on a few dates and get to know each other

BOFU: Ask them back to your place to seal the deal ??

Does that make sense?

In practical terms, the top of your funnel (or sales framework) will be things like:

— Ads you show to a cold (new) audience

— Articles that visitors found on your site

— Videos on Youtube

— Posts on Instagram

— This will be the first time they meet you and decide if they want to enter your world.

Most people won't.

That's normal.

Humans have the attention span of a gnat.

If your content resonated with the right person, they will have an open mind towards you.

A small percentage will dive in head first and start chomping all the content they can find.

The majority will want to take things slow.

They don't want to invest too much emotion, only to have their heart broken.

It's time to start wooing them with your brilliant content to show them that you are serious.

The middle is where you delve deeper into your subject matter.

You connect with them.

You express yourself to them.

Whether this is a themed email sequence or a Facebook ad where you share the best bits from a webinar... your focus is on developing the relationship.

And sequenced content isn't limited to email or Youtube playlists...

Themed sequential ad campaigns work better than you'd believe.

They are the secret behind many successful ad campaigns.

Even though retargeting ads are about 20% of a total budget... they often bring in over 40% of the total revenue.

(BTW, quick explanation of retargeting: you know when you visit a site and you start seeing their ads everywhere? That's retargeting.)

The best use of retargeting within Facebook is with video ads.

Facebook will tell you what % of the video people have watched.

You can then target the people that engaged in your content and watched over 75% with more content that builds on what you've already told them.

Do that 2 or 3 times and you'll have a rapt audience who know, like and trust you.

That brings us to the end of the “funnel” (I put it in inverted commas because I believe 'framework' is a better way of looking at it).

The bottom is where we go in for the kiss ??

You would have been dropping hints along the way, of course.

Things like calls-to-action in the articles and emails or a slight nudge at the end of videos where you suggest they book a call.

But now is when you get direct.

They like you.

You know they like you.

The only thing left is to ask.

Could be a coaching consultation, a software trial or an online course with a 30-day guarantee.

Whatever you have... offer it.

If they say “not right now”?

That's fine.

Keep building the relationship.

Keep showing that you care.

Leave the offer open.

Give them time.

If they see it's a win-win... they will buy.

??