Your primary task as a marketer is to convince the right cows to drink from your pond with the least possible cost.
To better understand this process, we will refer to a marketing funnel. A marketing funnel visually represents the customer journey, mapping out the stages a potential customer goes through from initial awareness of a product or service to becoming a paying customer and potentially an advocate. It helps businesses understand and optimize their marketing strategies to guide prospects through each stage, ultimately driving sales and building brand loyalty.
It is called a “funnel” because, like a physical funnel, a wide range of potential customers enter at the top, but only a smaller, more qualified group progresses through each stage and eventually converts. This natural narrowing means that some prospects will always drop off along the journey.While many visual representations of a marketing funnel exist, we will use the Jayon Marketing Funnel.
Guiding Cows to Drink
Our objective is to guide the cows through various stages of decision-making, until they reach the point of drinking. The Jayon Marketing Funnel represents this process with three stages:
1. Awareness
Cows discover your pond exists. They notice your signboards, smell fresh water, or hear from other cows.
2. Engagement
Cows approach the pond, sniff around, and inspect the water. They visit your website, read your content, or explore your offerings.
3. Conversion
Cows finally drink the water by making a purchase or submitting an enquiry.
Channels to Attract Cows to Your Pond
To effectively attract and guide the target audience along the marketing funnel, a range of channels are utilized:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Display, Video and Shopping Ads
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Retargeting and Remarketing.
- Influencer Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Public Relations and Crisis Management
These marketing channels are typically categorized within the Awareness, Engagement, and Conversion stages of the Jayon Marketing Funnel. The dollar signs ($, $$, $$$) next to each channel indicate its typical relative cost as a paid media. Note that a single channel can sometimes be used effectively across different stages.