Mastering the marketing automation funnel

The simplest way to understand a marketing automation funnel is to look at each piece of the puzzle–marketing funnel and marketing automation.

What is a marketing funnel?

A marketing funnel is a conceptual framework that represents the optimal customer journey, from the point of initial contact through to a purchase. In some scenarios a marketing funnel can be fairly short and straightforward, such as ecommerce transactions for inexpensive and familiar purchases. In other cases, the marketing funnel can be significantly longer and much more complex. For example, many B2B engagements take at least four months to close, and some can take longer than a year.

Regardless of whether a marketing funnel is relatively quick and simple or long and multifaceted, the core function and purpose is the same–to help brands deliver invitations, offerings, advice, and content at various strategic places, points, and times, with the goal of nudging potential customers that enter the top of the funnel towards a conversion.

What is marketing automation?

We just mentioned that a marketing funnel helps brands design and deliver communications and content at various touchpoints. Many marketers are inspired by the “design” part of this, yet dread the “deliver” part — because monitoring, managing, and modifying a marketing funnel (and many brands have several that target different customer segments) can be time consuming and tedious.

Fortunately, that is where marketing automation enters the picture. Marketing automation enables marketers to streamline, automate, track, and optimize various repetitive marketing tasks related to core functions, such as lead generation, segmentation, and measuring campaign ROI.

Marketing automation significantly increases data hygiene and operational efficiency (and we can add, marketer joy). Yet even more importantly, it enables brands to personally connect with customers across various stages of the sales funnel, build trust, boost engagement and increase the likelihood of conversions.

Below, we highlight the key reasons why an optimized marketing automation funnel helps brands continuously onboard profitable customers, and keep them on the roster:

• An optimized marketing automation funnel enables brands to deliver unforgettable, hyper-personalized customer experiences at scale — anytime and anywhere — across all channels. Consider that 84% of customers say being treated by brands as a unique individual is critical to earning their business and keeping their loyalty, 80% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand that offers personalized experiences, and 72% of customers only respond to personalized messaging from brands.
• A Gartner survey found that 75% of marketing leaders are under immense pressure to do more with fewer resources. As we mentioned a moment ago, an optimized marketing automation funnel automates a wide range of repetitive tasks and processes (e.g., lead scoring, cross-selling, etc.,), which frees marketing teams to focus on high value activities and priorities. What’s more, a funnel can show the number of qualified leads in the pipeline, which helps sales teams effectively plan their staffing and scheduling.
• An optimized marketing automation funnel collects and organizes a wealth of customer-related data from various sources, which can be leveraged for better and faster decision-making. For example, marketers can see what types of content marketing drive the most engagement at different points in the funnel, and adjust their strategy and resources accordingly.
• An optimized marketing automation funnel ensures that brands keep the dialogue with customers flowing and progressive, regardless of whether the interaction is taking place during conventional business hours. For example, a customer who watches a video about a specific product can — thanks to marketing automation — be immediately invited to explore reviews from other customers, which can be a powerful and persuasive nudge that help influence a purchase.

Next, we unpack the five stages of the marketing automation funnel: awareness, interest, consideration, conversion, and retention.

Stage 1: Awareness

The first stage in the marketing automation funnel is awareness. This is when customers start to familiarize themselves with a brand and its offerings. Often, customers in this stage have a problem or pain point, and are looking for a solution. For example, an airline may want to improve the airport experience for passengers, a hotel group may want to boost customer loyalty, an ecommerce retailer may want to grow revenue, etc. For brands, the primary goal in the awareness stage is to either usher customers into the funnel if they arrived through a non-gated channel (e.g., search engine or pay-per-click ad), or move them forward in the funnel if they have arrived through a gated channel (e.g., entered their email address on a landing page to download an ebook or white paper).

In addition, brands must respect the fact that customers in the awareness stage are exploring options and gathering information. As such, the approach and tone should be educational, rather than promotional. Content at this stage typically includes blog posts, email marketing, articles, social media posts, infographics, and interactive quizzes. Many brands also leverage user-generated content (UGC), which is when customers create content (e.g., videos, reviews) intended for other customers. UCG has been found in some cases to be 6.6x more effective than branded content.

Stage 2: Interest

In the interest stage, customers are more informed about their challenges and options (thanks to content in the awareness stage), and start to look closer at a brand and its offerings. Content that can help brands make a positive impression here include webinars, case studies, thought leadership articles, tutorials, and how-to guides.

It is important to point out that in most cases, customers who indicate (typically through various micro-conversion and micro-interaction behaviors) that they are interested in a brand and its offerings are not necessarily ready to make a purchase. Instead, they are open to continuing the dialogue and deepening the relationship. As such, brands should continue using automation to gently nudge customers forward — which, if done right, is something that they appreciate rather than find invasive.

Stage 3: Consideration

During the consideration stage, customers start to ask whether a specific brand could provide the products or services they need to solve their problems, achieve their goals, and ensure their satisfaction after the purchase (in B2C this is often evaluated through things like guarantees, warranties, and return options, while in B2B is it often evaluated through things like professional services and customer support). Content that can help brands triumph in this stage include case studies, testimonials, competition analysis (often crafted as side-by-side feature comparisons), and demos (automated and led).

Stage 4: Conversion

The conversion stage is when customers decide to purchase from brand A vs. brand B (or C, D, E, and so on). It is important for brands to be mindful that conversion is a stage in the funnel, and not a milestone. That is, merely providing customers with a “buy now” button, or in the case of B2B engagements sending an invoice or contract, could be ill-advised and counter-productive. Yes, customers in this stage are obviously engaged, interested, and open to making a purchase in the near future. But they have not yet crossed the finish line yet, and brands likely still have some work to do neutralizing concerns.

For example, sharing testimonials, reviews, and other forms of social proof can be quite effective, as can highlighting things like a comprehensive warranty or a no-hassle return process. Cost can also be an obstacle that blocks customers at the conversion stage. Brands can help customers overcome this by delivering content that emphasizes quality, durability, and ongoing value. This can be particularly beneficial for B2B brands whose price is higher than some competitors, but who offer a superior solution that helps customers save money and reduce risk in the long run.

Stage 5: Customer retention

Successful brands know that winning customers, while essential, is not the full story: keeping them is just as important; perhaps even more. Consider that:

An optimized marketing automation funnel helps brands identify the best-performing topical and subject-matter-specific content (e.g., feature articles, on-demand webinars, etc.) and deliver it to different customer segments — ultimately with the goal of keeping the relationship energized, driving customer engagement, and cultivating brand ambassadors.

Brands can also leverage automation workflows to boost cross-selling, which is when customers who purchased a specific product or service are invited or incentivized to purchase another, related product or service. Combining offers and incentives with content such as social proof and case studies can be highly effective.

What could the future of marketing automation SaaS look like? While there is plenty to get excited about, according to Entrepreneur.com five trends are poised to set the pace and shape the narrative in the months and years to come:

1. Enhanced data-based decision-making

Leading marketing automation SaaS solutions will continue to make massive strides capturing immense volumes of raw data such as web traffic, KPIs, and digital goals, and turning it into actionable business intelligence — ultimately helping marketers make better, faster decisions.

2. Enhanced omnichannel personalization

Omnichannel personalization is a strategic and integrated approach that delivers tailored experiences across every touchpoint — including web, social, mobile, and IoT — for improved customer engagement at every stage of their journey At its heart, omnichannel personalization leverages technology to replicate authentic human-to-human interaction by enabling brands to actively listen to customer needs and aspirations, and respond accordingly in-the-moment.

3. More effective and cohesive cross-team collaboration

Digital transformation is a team marketing effort, and leading marketing automation SaaS solutions will continue making it easier and more efficient for brands to collaborate across teams, such as marketing, or sales teams, product development, and customer support. Each group has a piece of the customer experience puzzle, and by sharing knowledge, resources, and best practices vs. retreating to silos, brands can develop a coherent, cohesive picture — guiding high-quality leads through the sales funnel, competitive advantage, and growth.

4. Enhanced cybersecurity

In recent years, data security has emerged as a top priority. Given this new normal, leading marketing automation SaaS solutions are focusing heavily on security measures to address data security vulnerabilities and risks through measures such as advanced user authentication, and secure code practices.

5. AI-powered automation

AI is revolutionizing the digital marketing world by enabling marketers to leverage data-driven insights, enhance customer experiences, automate repetitive and time-consuming marketing tasks, and optimize campaign performance.

There is no generic, one-size-fits-all playbook to master the marketing automation funnel and maximize conversions. However, there are some proven best practices that can help with unlocking success. These include:

• Define the objectives of the marketing automation funnel before focusing on tactics and execution. Research has found that marketers are a whopping 414% more likely to report success when they document their digital marketing strategy.
• Map the typical journey and lead flow for different customer groups as they transition through the stages of the funnel. This effort will generate valuable insights into customers’ behaviors, aspirations, and pain points.
• Leverage technology (such as APIs) to gather customer data from various relevant sources, including website analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and social media platforms. This actionable business intelligence helps brands segment target audiences, target messaging, and tailor valuable content and offerings.
• Build a digital relevancy map, which provides a framework for creating the most relevant content for key customer segments at different stages of the funnel.
• Use A/B testing (also known as split testing) to optimize automated marketing campaigns and improve performance.
• Content is still king when it comes to mastering the marketing automation funnel and driving a customer personalization strategy. Choose a user-friendly marketing automation platform that serves as a central hub for content planning, ideation, collaboration, and storage. This will be a massive aid in streamlining the end-to-end content lifecycle, and it will also help eliminate silos and reduce costs.
• To establish and evolve a funnel that maximizes conversions, choose a marketing automation solution that supports all of the following: streamlined campaign management; personalized customer experiences; lead nurturing through automating and optimizing activities (e.g., email campaigns, personalized content recommendations, timely follow-ups etc.); data-driven insights and optimization; and omnichannel engagement.

Today’s marketing landscape is multi-layered, complex, and driven by technology so advanced that, only a few decades ago, many people would have classified as science fiction — or perhaps even fantasy (alas, there are no fire-breathing dragons or spell-casting wizards to report, but we can all agree that things like generative AI and auto-personalization are pretty spectacular).

However, aside from all of the leading-edge technology, at its heart great marketing is still about generating awareness, sparking interest, fostering consideration, earning conversions, and retaining customers. In other words: exceptional marketing was, is, and always will be rooted in mastering the marketing funnel.

In conclusion, mastering the marketing automation funnel requires a strategic approach that integrates all stages of the customer journey. By continually refining your funnel strategies, from lead generation to nurturing and conversion, you can create a seamless experience that not only enables data-driven decisions and drives engagement but also fosters long-term loyalty.

Brands that effectively use automation to amplify, accelerate, and advance their marketing funnel can expect to enhance their marketing efforts, delight their customers, maximize conversions, outperform their competitors, and boost growth.

¹ www.crmtrends.com/loyalty.html
² www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2021/08/13/the-post-pandemic-playbook-for-data-driven-loyalty/
³ www.business.com/articles/returning-customers-spend-67-more-than-new-customers-keep-your-customers-coming-back-with-a-recurring-revenue-sales-model/