Advertising, Digital, Marketing & Strategy, Media Buying

Using a Digital Marketing Funnel to Drive Qualified Leads

By: Digital Department, MasMedia Marketing, Advertising, PR

When planning lead generation digital campaigns, MassMedia’s digital specialists always try to instill upon our clients the importance of running ads with different messaging on multiple channels. Think about it, prospects are rarely going to convert into a client or customer just from seeing the same ad on Facebook a couple of times. And right now is the time to utilize a multi-channel approach. Due to the economic fallout, buyers have disappeared, and digital ad inventory has soared, making way for savvy companies to grab market share.

When learning about your company as well as a specific product or service it offers, a prospect embarks on a journey that includes various phases and platforms. So when targeting prospects, the ads need to speak to where they are on this journey, requiring differing messages and touchpoints. This is where the marketing funnel comes in.

What’s a Marketing Funnel?

A marketing funnel is a sequence of stages in the customer journey that users move through, from starting out as a prospect to ending up as a customer. It helps determine the best way to reach and engage with users based on the stage they are currently in.

There are several types of marketing funnels, but for this purpose we are going to keep our breakdown simple to cover the three fundamental, overarching stages that are included in every type:

• Awareness Stage (Upper Funnel)
• Consideration Stage (Mid-Funnel)
• Intent Stage (Lower Funnel)

Let’s review the different stages as well as the channels and messaging that are most effective for each stage.

Stages of the Marketing Funnel

Stage 1: Awareness

Before anyone can become a customer or client of your company, they must first become aware of your company. When targeting prospects at this stage, the focus is widescale reach for maximum exposure, while still adhering to the parameters that define your target market.

There are plenty of channels that are ideal for this stage in the marketing funnel, including social media, YouTube, display banner ads, and streaming video content. For this stage, key metrics should be impressions and reach.

Stage 2: Consideration

At this stage, users are brand-aware as they’ve interacted with your brand to some degree, whether that be watching a video ad or visiting your website. You should continue outreach to these prospects, but on a more targeted level.

Many of the channels used for the Awareness stage should also be used for the Consideration stage (display banner ads, social ads, etc.), but in a different manner and with different intentions. The goal now is to encourage engagement, as brands want to continue driving prospects through the purchasing journey. At MassMedia, we’ve found one of the most effective ways of doing this is through retargeting — showing ads specifically to prospects who have visited your website. For this stage, key metrics include clicks and website traffic.

Stage 3: Intent

At the Intent stage, prospects are actively seeking information about a product or service that your company offers. This phase usually takes place on search engines (e.g., Google or Bing) or even on Yelp, which is becoming an increasingly popular search tool for consumers. It’s at this stage that prospects are most likely to convert, as they have a need and are looking for a solution, so it’s imperative your company has a presence on the results pages of these search tools. Key metrics for this stage include leads, calls, traffic to specific pages, etc.

For additional tips for using the marketing funnel, you can request our white paper. Click here and complete the form by providing your name and email address. Leave a note in the Comment field requesting the Lead Generation White Paper.

Deploying a multi-channel, lead generation digital campaign can sometimes be a stressful undertaking, so it may be in your best interest to use a digital marketing company. Our clients rely on MassMedia as the primary source to maximize their marketing spend and bring qualified leads for their companies, and we have a proven track record of generating tangible results. Contact us for more information.

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