A Must-Do Series on Marketing Funnel for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs: Part 2

What are the Different Stages of a Marketing Funnel?

Here’s hoping that you’re not here by accident, but after reading the first part of our series, where we discussed the fundamentals of a marketing funnel. We recommend you stick through the series in the proper order.?

In this article, we will understand how the marketing funnel structurally works.?

Let’s get started.?

A marketing funnel segregates your leads based on where they fall in their customer journey.?

Simply put, a marketing funnel represents various phases or stages of the customer journey. These stages are grouped into two models:

• AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action)
• ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu (Top of the Funnel, Middle of the Funnel, and Bottom of the Funnel)?

While AIDA is a foundational model — defining the various stages in a prospective customer’s decision-making process — ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu weave specific types of content into these marketing stages.??

Let us now understand these models and stages in detail.?

AIDA model

The AIDA model is based on the cognitive stages that an individual experiences throughout a purchase decision. Understanding this allows marketers to target them psychologically more efficiently and take appropriate action to accelerate them to the next stage of decision-making.

Attention (or awareness): The ‘what is it’ stage.?

This is the stage where the ideal customer is made aware that a brand, product, or service exists and grasps the basic details about the same.?

If you have ever wondered what motivates marketers to use bright colors and attractive images in their newspaper ads, it is to get your attention and make you aware of the brand’s existence.?

This is where the brand says “hey! Ssup!” to a potential consumer.?

For example, a food delivery app might ask, “Tired of hefty delivery charges on your food orders?” Or, a new video streaming service might ask, “Wishing you didn’t have to watch a million ads between your show?”?

Well, they have your attention now!?

Interest: The ‘I like it’ stage???

This is the stage where the prospective customer is interested in your brand (more specifically, the marketing efforts of your brand). They are still far from convinced but ready to listen at this stage.?

This is where they take a second look at your brand and rhetorically ask, “ what can you offer me?”

For example, food delivery companies support their attention-grabbing question with “Get lighting fast deliveries within 15 minutes”.?

Desire: The ‘I want it’ stage?

If through your marketing efforts, you can convince that your brand or product is worth their time and money, you will elicit a desire within the prospect.?

One stage ago, the ideal customer was simply giving you their attention, and now they are genuinely considering a purchase and fathoming if they should proceed.?

This is when they consider the pros, cons, costs, reviews, and other details for the same.?

For example, the same food delivery app says, “Get a guaranteed 30-50% discount on all orders”.?

Action: The ‘I am getting it’ stage?

Action is the fruition of all the efforts. If your funnel started with a hundred customers, probably only seven will take action.?

At this stage, the customer takes a purchase action and practically ‘responds’ to the brand’s efforts in quantifiable methods, like clicking on a link or carting a product.

You will see a call to action in almost every advertisement pushed in your direction.

For example, the advertisement for the same food delivery application will prompt you to download their app on the Play store, App store, etc.?

ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu model?

This model compresses AIDA into three stages and ties a specific content type to each stage:

Top of the Funnel (awareness)?

At this stage, the potential customer might not even know they have a problem or that your brand exists to solve it.?

This is where you employ informative and attractive content marketing strategies to ensure that they learn about their problems and get to know your brand.?

For example:

• blog posts,?
• guidebooks,?
• introductory videos or?
• e-mail drips.?

Check out the ToFu content of a fitness and nutrition brand called Herbalife Nutrition. This is a blog about effective muscle building where they introduce their prospective customers to their brand.?

Middle of the Funnel (Consideration)?

At this stage, you say: “Hey! So now you know the problem, and we understand the depth of it; here are some solutions.”

This is an excellent time to push the prospective customer to take a ‘no-cost’ action — like subscribing to an email newsletter or following you on social media — in light of getting a solution to their problem. This is an excellent time to provide them with more information about the brand.?

For example:

• case studies,?
• whitepapers,?
• webinars, and?
• engaging social media posts.?

Here is an example of MoFu content by Arnia software where they communicate their value to prospective customers through case studies.?

Bottom of the Funnel (Conversion)?

We like to call this stage “the sigh of relief.”?

By the time your audience arrives here, it has fostered a relationship with you and is ready to purchase. Now your sole responsibility is to differentiate yourself from competitors and prompt action.?

Brands communicate to the bottom funnel through:

• free demos and trials,?
• tutorials,?
• consultations etc.?

Here is an example of BoFu content by Salesforce, a CRM tool offering a free trial for their customers.?

The bottom line?

If you made it this far, here is your takeaway: The AIDA and the TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU models help business owners and marketing professionals meet numbers faster and foster a better relationship with their prospective/existing customers.?

It also prevents marketing teams from mindlessly squandering their marketing budget by enabling them to do only what is needed.?

Thank you for staying with us till the end. In the next part of the series, we will dive deeply into the prerequisites you need to start your marketing funnel activities.