If you’ve ever wondered why some businesses seem to effortlessly attract customers while others struggle, the answer often comes down to having a digital marketing funnel.
Think of it as a roadmap that guides potential customers from first hearing about your business to becoming loyal buyers.
A good funnel helps you focus your marketing efforts and build a solid digital marketing strategy that works. By breaking the process into steps, you can create a clear conversion funnel that feels natural and customer-centric.
People don’t often buy on impulse. They want to feel understood and see value in what you’re offering — that’s where the digital marketing funnel comes in, leading them smoothly towards making a decision.
In this guide, we’ll explain what a digital marketing funnel is, why it matters, and share actionable tips to help you create content for different stages of the digital marketing funnel.
What is a digital marketing funnel?
A digital marketing funnel is a step-by-step framework that represents the customer journey from discovering your brand to making a purchase (also known as buyer’s journey).
It’s a tool that businesses use to structure their marketing campaigns and ensure their marketing messages are aligned with their audience’s needs and buyer personas.
The funnel is divided into stages that reflect the customer journey — from awareness to consideration to decision-making. Essentially, it mirrors the buying journey that a prospective customer goes through when deciding to purchase a product or service (or create repeat purchases for existing customers).
At the top of the funnel, the focus is on increasing brand awareness. This is where customers first learn about your business through various marketing efforts like blogs, social media, or ads.
As customers move to the middle of the funnel, they begin evaluating their options. Here, businesses provide valuable content, such as case studies or product comparisons, to showcase how their offerings meet customer needs.
The bottom of the funnel is where the conversion happens. This stage is all about persuading customers to take action, whether it’s making a purchase, scheduling a demo, or subscribing to a service.
This structured conversion funnel simplifies the marketing process, ensuring that businesses nurture relationships with customers and move them seamlessly toward a buying decision.
Why are marketing funnels important to have?
A well-structured digital marketing funnel is critical for businesses for several reasons. Here’s why every business owner should prioritize creating one:
1. Providing a clear marketing strategy
A digital marketing funnel ensures that every stage of your marketing process has a purpose. It helps businesses define clear objectives for targeting the right audience at the right time.
Businesses that align marketing messages to the funnel stages maximize the results of their marketing activities across marketing channels: including both organic and paid advertising.
2. Helps identify and reach your target audience
Creating a funnel allows you to understand your customers’ needs and behaviors at different stages. By segmenting audiences, you can craft more personalized campaigns that engage customers and increase your chances of converting prospects into buyers.
3. Increasing customer loyalty
A well-designed funnel doesn’t end at the purchase.
By incorporating post-purchase engagement strategies, businesses can nurture relationships, improve satisfaction, and drive customer loyalty. Loyal customers are more likely to become advocates for your brand.
4. Boosts customer acquisition
With a structured approach, businesses can attract and convert prospective customers efficiently. A marketing funnel helps your efforts, ensuring your investments in paid ads, content, and promotions yield better results.
5. Improving customer engagement
A digital marketing funnel keeps customers engaged throughout their journey. Whether it’s through educational content at the top, value-driven content in the middle, or special offers at the bottom, a funnel ensures customers remain connected with your brand.
6. Increasing brand awareness
A digital marketing funnel exposes your brand to a larger audience by targeting potential customers at the awareness stage. This increases visibility and positions your business as a trusted solution in your niche.
Marketing funnel vs sales funnel: know the difference
While the terms marketing funnel and sales funnel are often used interchangeably, they serve distinct purposes within a business:
- The marketing funnel focuses on attracting and nurturing leads through the various stages of the customer journey.
- The sales funnel zeroes in on converting those leads into paying customers.
One key difference is that a digital marketing funnel doesn’t stop once the sale is made. It extends beyond the purchase with different loyalty programs and strategies to build relationships with existing customers, ensuring they keep coming back.
In contrast, the sales funnel is more focused on the consideration stage and decision-making process, emphasizing closing the deal.
Both funnels work hand in hand. The marketing funnel generates interest and nurtures leads, while the sales funnel turns that interest into actual revenue. Recognizing the difference helps businesses create a well-rounded strategy that addresses customer needs at every stage.
Types of digital marketing funnels
Depending on how precise and targeted their approach is, there are several different types of digital marketing funnels:
- Granular marketing funnel: This approach breaks the funnel into highly specific steps and touchpoints, allowing businesses to fine-tune their messaging for each stage of the customer journey.
- AIDA marketing funnel: This classic model focuses on four key stages: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.
- Basic marketing funnel: A simplified version of the funnel with three main stages: Top of the funnel (TOFU), Middle of the funnel (MOFU) and Bottom of the funnel (BOFU) — addressing awareness, consideration, and conversion. It’s ideal for businesses looking to implement a clear and effective structure.
- The hourglass marketing funnel: This funnel extends beyond conversion and also focuses on the customers post-purchase with post-conversion engagement, brand loyalty, and advocacy to maximize long-term value.
- The marketing loop: Unlike a classic purchase funnel, this model emphasizes ongoing customer satisfaction, relationships and engagement, creating a continuous cycle of attracting, nurturing, and converting leads.
Granular marketing funnel
A granular marketing funnel takes a highly detailed approach to guiding customers through the buying journey. It breaks the process into smaller, more precise steps, allowing businesses to deliver highly targeted messages at each stage. You can fine-tune the content, offers, and strategies to match customer intent at every phase.
The result is a smoother, more personalized experience that increases the likelihood of conversions and builds long-term relationships.
This method works well for businesses with complex sales cycles, multiple touchpoints, or highly segmented audiences.
Below are the granular marketing funnel stages; sometimes they’re called differently, but the main points remain:
- Discovery (awareness): Prospects are just becoming aware of your brand. The goal is to build recognition and pique curiosity without pushing for an immediate sale. Marketers focus on creating educational and attention-grabbing content like blog posts, videos, and social media campaigns to introduce their brand as a solution to the audience’s problems, fostering initial interest.
- Consideration (desire): Now familiar with your work, the prospects are evaluating whether the product meets their needs. The messaging emphasizes how the product solves specific problems and builds trust to solidify the desire to learn more. Engaging resources like webinars, product demos, and comparison guides that highlight the product’s benefits and unique selling points are the way to go at the consideration stage.
- Evaluation: Prospects are now seriously considering options, including competitors. It’s time to focus on addressing specific concerns and objections, using tools like free trials, customer testimonials, or in-depth consultations to showcase the product’s fit and value. The emphasis is on providing clarity and confidence to move the prospect closer to a decision.
- Conversion (purchase): This is the decision-making stage, and you should make the purchase process as smooth as possible. Focus on reinforcing the prospect’s decision, reducing friction, and encouraging immediate action to close the sale: use clear calls-to-action, exclusive deals, or simplified checkout experiences.
- Loyalty: Post-purchase, marketers aim to turn buyers into repeat customers by delivering exceptional service and maintaining engagement. Personalized recommendations, loyalty programs, and exclusive benefits are used to keep customers satisfied and encourage ongoing interactions with the brand.
- Advocacy: Satisfied customers become brand advocates. Cultivate this relationship by creating testimonials, referral programs and creating opportunities for customers to share their positive experiences on multiple platforms. This amplifies brand visibility and attracts new prospects through word-of-mouth marketing.
These stages correspond and overlap with similarly named stages of the other digital marketing funnel types.
AIDA marketing funnel
The AIDA marketing funnel condenses the customer journey into four distinct parts:
- Awareness: The stage where prospects first learn about your brand through content that captures their attention and introduces your value proposition — leave a good first impression on potential customers!
- Interest: At this stage, prospects actively engage with your brand, exploring how your offerings align with their needs or goals. Create and maintain their curiosity about your product or service.
- Desire: Prospects develop a preference for your product or service as they see how it uniquely addresses their challenges or resolves their pain points. Your messages need to be convincing and alluring.
- Action: The decision-making stage where prospects commit to a purchase or desired conversion through clear calls-to-action and seamless experiences. Converting visitors and prospects should be as frictionless as possible.
Unlike the granular approach, hourglass and loop model, the AIDA marketing funnel doesn’t cater to the customer post-purchase.
Basic marketing funnel
The simplest, most popular digital marketing funnel variation has three stages:
- Top of the funnel: The awareness stage that aims to attract as many qualified leads as possible. Qualified leads are potential customers who meet specific criteria indicating they are likely to convert into paying customers; briefly put: people who would benefit from your services.
- Middle of the funnel: The consideration stage — now that the top of the funnel filtered the qualified prospects with targeted content, they are considering you as one of the options for their pain points and compare you to your competition.
- Bottom of the funnel: This is where the magic (conversions) happens! You should turn leads into customers when they’re ready to make a purchase decision, remove any doubts and obstacles and nudge them to convert.
This basic model, much like AIDA, is rightly called conversion funnel, since they don’t cover activities for existing, loyal customers.
The hourglass marketing funnel
Moving away from the traditional funnel shape — the hourglass marketing funnel is actually the most granular, with nine different stages that have sharply divided the target audience.
The hourglass has three parts that encompass nine stages: top half, neck and bottom half.
Top half: demand generation and attraction
The top half of the hourglass consists of stages that should create awareness and spark interest in the audience:
- Awareness: Capture attention by introducing your brand and its value to potential customers. Examples include blog posts, SEO content, and social media campaigns.
- Interest: Engage the audience by providing relevant and educational content that aligns with their needs. Examples include webinars, eBooks, and video tutorials.
- Consideration: Help your audience evaluate your brand as a potential solution through content like case studies, comparisons, and in-depth guides.
Neck: the conversion
The neck of the hourglass is where the conversion happens, narrowing the audience to those ready to take action:
- Evaluation: Allow potential customers to try or experience your product/service through free trials, demos, or consultations.
- Decision-making: The customers are on the brink of purchase, looking for the final confirmation: this is the key moment to convince them.
- Conversion: Encourage action by providing attractive offers, clear CTAs, and a seamless purchasing process.
Bottom half: loyalty and advocacy
The bottom half of the hourglass focuses on building loyalty and turning customers into advocates:
- Onboarding: Welcome new customers and ensure they understand how to use your product or service effectively with tutorials and personalized emails.
- Retention: Keep customers engaged through loyalty programs, exclusive offers, and regular follow-ups.
- Advocacy: Empower happy customers to share their positive experiences through referral programs, reviews, and testimonials.
The marketing loop
Abandoning the concept of finite funnels, the marketing loop shows that the customer journey doesn’t end at a particular moment.
The marketing loop is a dynamic and non-linear approach to customer engagement that focuses on building ongoing relationships rather than moving customers through a one-time linear funnel. Unlike traditional marketing funnels, which end at the conversion stage, the loop prioritizes continuous value and retention, ensuring that customers remain engaged and loyal over time.
The marketing loop can have as many stages as any of the other digital marketing funnel models, but it goes in circles:
- Awareness and initial customer attraction;
- Engagement and consideration stage;
- Conversion moment;
- Customer retention through good onboarding, exclusive offers, etc;
- Advocacy and turning loyal customers into brand advocates
- …and again, awareness — of the new company products, offers and packages. This is an ongoing expansion stage for leveraging existing customer relationships to cross-sell or upsell additional products or services. Provide personalized recommendations, bundling offers, beta-testing and exclusive early access to new products.
Why (and how) to use content marketing for all digital marketing funnel stages
Content marketing is an essential tool for successfully guiding customers through every stage of the digital marketing funnel.
Marketers should deliver customer-centric, valuable content at each funnel stage, so the businesses can effectively engage users, establish credibility, and drive conversions.
Here’s how content marketing supports an effective marketing funnel from top to bottom, using the basic funnel model as an example:
Top of the funnel (awareness stage)
At the awareness stage, the goal is to attract potential customers and drive organic traffic by addressing their search intent.
Businesses can implement a blog content strategy to create informative articles optimized for target keywords, helping them rank on search engines and draw attention to their brand.
Top of the funnel (TOFU) content examples
- Blog posts that solve common problems or explain industry trends
- Educational videos and “how-to” tutorials
- Social media ads introducing your brand
- SEO-optimized landing pages with helpful resources
- Infographics that simplify complex topics
Middle of the funnel (consideration stage)
At this stage, the focus shifts to engaging potential customers and providing information to help them evaluate their options.
Using tools like Google Analytics, businesses can analyze audience behavior and write web content that aligns with their preferences, enabling data-driven decision making.
Middle of the funnel (MOFU) content examples
- Detailed case studies highlighting customer success and results
- In-depth guides, eBooks, or whitepapers requiring email sign-ups
- Webinars addressing pain points in-depth
- Email newsletters nurturing relationships with valuable insights
- Product comparison guides showing unique benefits
Bottom of the funnel (conversion stage)
At this stage of the buyer’s journey, content marketing helps encourage prospects to take action.
The focus is on emphasizing the business’s unique value proposition and creating a specific landing page for offers that meet customer needs.
Bottom of the funnel (BOFU) content examples
- Free trials or product demos to showcase features in action
- Limited-time discounts or offers that create urgency
- Consultations or one-on-one calls
- Customer testimonials and reviews
- Retargeting ads with convincing CTAs on optimized landing pages
By creating targeted content with the right organic and commercial keywords throughout the funnel, businesses can create a marketing strategy that meets the needs of their audience at every step, builds lasting relationships, and establishes their authority in the market.
Conclusion
An effective marketing funnel is a vital tool for businesses aiming to attract, engage, and retain customers effectively.
If you understand the differences in various stages of the funnel and how to tailor specific content for each stage, you can create a seamless journey that increases conversions and drives long-term success.
No matter how simple or granular your digital marketing funnel of choice is, planning and managing content for every stage can seem overwhelming.
Luckily, WordPress tools like Strive Calendar make it simple and much easier!
Strive Calendar helps you organize your content strategy, ensuring you deliver the right message at the right time to the right audience.
From brainstorming awareness-stage ideas to scheduling post-purchase engagement campaigns, Strive Calendar is your go-to solution for strategic, streamlined content planning.
Use it to optimize your landing page content, plan SEO-friendly articles for search engines, and create compelling offers for your product or service.
Test Strive Calendar with a free trial today to bring your digital marketing funnel to life and see measurable results in your business growth!