How to Build a Full Funnel Marketing Strategy [With Examples]

Everybody wants to close sales, but numerous factors influence customers’ decisions to make a purchase. That’s why, when planning a marketing strategy, we aim to cover it comprehensively, from start to finish. This is the essence of what we refer to as a ‘full-funnel marketing strategy.’

Don’t worry if the term ‘full-funnel’ sounds complicated. We’re here to assist you in creating a powerful full-funnel marketing strategy to help your business thrive. So, let’s embark on this journey together!

The Basics of Full Funnel Marketing

First and foremost, you might be wondering what a full-funnel marketing approach is.

The full funnel is symbolic of the customer journey, typically composed of three parts: the top of the funnel, the middle of the funnel, and the bottom of the funnel. Each part of the funnel has distinct goals and targets different audience groups.

When it comes to Full-funnel marketing, it is a strategy that involves creating specialized content for each part of the funnel according to their differences.

The bright side of this approach is that it is a holistic business plan in which all these components eventually connect, leading to an increase in the number of your customers. 

Why Full Funnel Marketing Is Important for Businesses?

Just as we mentioned in the introduction, every business aims to close sales. However, the process of a customer deciding to make a purchase is not always a quick one. Sometimes, if you want to have a fruitful business, you need to plant a seed. And this is where Full Funnel Marketing comes into play.

The Full Funnel Marketing strategy can help build a strong relationship between your brand and your customers, thereby expanding the pool of potential customers.

In fact, a study has shown that businesses employing these marketing strategies achieve approximately a 45% higher return on investment (ROI) and also increased offline sales.

Stages of the Full Funnel Marketing Approach and Tactics for Each Stage 

Now that we’ve covered the basics and understand why Full Funnel Marketing is important, the next step is to delve into the roles of each part of the funnel and the tactics for each stage.

Top of the Funnel (TOFU): Awareness Stage

The Awareness Stage sits at the top of the funnel, where you’ll find the widest audience. This is where you’ll encounter the most potential customers because it’s the phase when people are unaware of your brand or product, even though they’re well aware of their own problems. So, as the name suggests, the goal at this stage is all about creating awareness.

During this phase, it’s a good idea to focus on producing educational, engaging, and easy-to-find content. This way, you can help them discover that your brand exists and that your product has the potential to address their issues.

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): Consideration Stage

Next up, we have the Consideration Stage, situated in the middle of the funnel. At this point, you’ve already captured the attention of your potential customers in the Awareness Stage. However, they’re now seeking additional information to learn how to address their problems. Therefore, the primary aim in this stage is to encourage customers to seriously consider your brand.

During this phase, your goal is to provide even more valuable and insightful content that helps them address their pain points. Ultimately, your focus should be on building trust and continuing to engage with your audience. The result you want is that they’ll think more about your brand and become more interested in your product than in your competitors. 

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): Conversion Stage

Moving on to the Conversion Stage, located at the bottom of the funnel. After two stages went by, potential customers are already familiar with your brand, and hopefully, they’ve been actively engaging with your brand’s communications. Now, they’re in the decision-making phase, weighing the pros and cons between your brand and your competitors. They’re just a click away from making a purchase, so the ultimate goal here is to get them to click that ‘buy’ button and seal the deal.

During this phase, your focus should be on making their decision easier. You can achieve this by providing content such as comparison guides, summaries of why they need your products, and more. 

Post-Funnel: Loyalty and Advocacy Stage

Last but certainly not least, while we’ve covered the three main parts of the funnel, there’s another crucial aspect to consider: the Post-Funnel Marketing Strategy, or what you should do after customers make a purchase.

In this stage, the aim is to retain your existing customers so they keep coming back to purchase more of your products. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this post-funnel stage is to build loyalty and encourage positive word-of-mouth referrals among your customers.

Your primary focus should be on showing your customers that you care about them even after the purchase has been completed. This approach helps establish long-lasting relationships with them.

How to Build Full Funnel Marketing Strategies Step-by-Step

 1. Understand your customer’s journey

First thing first, before we build any marketing strategy, especially the full funnel one, we want to understand customer’s insights as much as possible. This involves getting to know the ‘customer’s journey,’ which means understanding the steps they go through before making a purchase of your product. In a nutshell, try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes.

Primarily, as mentioned in the last section, we categorize the customer’s journey into three stages, corresponding to the three parts of the funnel: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. By mapping out the customer’s journey, you’ll be able to clearly see which part or step of the journey corresponds to each part of the funnel. This will, in turn, make the process of developing full-funnel marketing strategies much easier.

2. Set your KPIs beforehand

KPIs, short for Key Performance Indicators, are the metrics you can use to gauge the performance of your marketing strategies—whether they are doing well or not. Examples of KPIs include website traffic, time on page, bounce rate, and more. (We’ll delve deeper into this topic later in this article, so stay tuned!)

While there are numerous KPIs to choose from, it’s important to clarify which ones matter most for your specific strategies. Determine which metrics align with your definition of success and designate them as your KPIs. This will help you maintain focus as you move on to the next stage, where you’ll be creating actual content pieces.

3. Execute your content ideas

Now, here comes the most challenging step: creating content. You should know that the type of content you create will depend on several factors, including your niche, marketing channel, and your chosen KPIs. 

Another important consideration is that each part of the funnel requires different types of content. Here are some examples:

• Awareness Stage: “Where does (your brand) come from?” “What does (your brand) specialize in?”
• Consideration Stage: “What is (your product)?” “How can (your product) help solve problems?”
• Conversion Stage: “10 Best Products from (your brand)” “5 Top-Selling Products from (your brand)”

Remember that this is not all there is to it. The list is just the basics you can use as a guideline. Most importantly, when you’re creating content, you should be creative and be sincere with your customers. 

4. Make Changes According to Your Performance

After you’ve created and published your content online, perhaps even invested in advertising, it’s time to assess the results based on your chosen KPIs.

These days, there are numerous third-party tools available for tracking performance and analyzing analytics. You can tailor these tools to display the specific funnel analysis tools you’re interested in. 

If the performance turns out to be impressive, it means you’re heading in the right direction. If not, you may need to revisit previous steps to identify areas for improvement and achieve better results.

Measuring Success in Full Funnel Marketing

Because each part of the funnel has different objectives, the definition of ‘success’ varies, and therefore, the KPIs you use also differ. Don’t worry; we’ve put together a concise list that can serve as a handy guideline when you’re measuring your own business’ success.

Top of the Funnel (TOFU) Metrics:

• Cost-per-1000-Impressions (CPM): Just like its name, this metric measures the cost spent per 1000 impressions of your advertisement shown to audiences.
• Traffic: Evaluate how much traffic is coming from a specific ad or link.
• Click-through rates (CTR): This is determined by the number of clicks that your advertisement receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown.

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) Metrics:

• Cost-per-Lead: Measure how much it costs to obtain the contact information of potential customers or achieve another type of conversion. Cost-per-lead is calculated by dividing total marketing spend by the number of leads generated.
• Lead quality: Assess the quality of leads to adjust your content and experiences accordingly. 
• Engagement rates: Understand when and how your audience engages with your ads or campaigns to optimize according to their preferences. One formula for calculating this rate is the total number of interactions your content receives divided by your total number of followers, multiplied by 100%.

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) Metrics:

• Conversion rates: Measure how many people convert compared to the number of website or digital asset visitors.
• Customer acquisition cost: Determine how much it costs to acquire a new customer. 
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): This represents the total revenue generated by a customer throughout their lifetime as a customer.

Real-World Examples

Up to this point, you’ve likely got the hang of the theoretical side of things, and you might be wondering whether big brands have successfully followed this path. The answer is YES.

One of the best examples is Apple. As we all know, this year, Apple launched the iPhone 15 along with a new series of Apple Watch models. Let’s examine how their strategy in the first few days of product launch is all part of the Full Funnel Marketing strategy.

Awareness Stage:

One of the tried-and-true tactics that Apple has done every year is hosting product launch events and press releases. This powerful and effective strategy aims to create awareness among the general audience, signaling that Apple returns with something exciting every September. 

Consideration Stage:

Building on the excitement generated during the launch events, Apple carefully presents the new features and compares them to existing options. This approach prompts customers to consider whether the new product can address their needs and pain points. 

Conversion Stage:

To seal the deal, Apple hosts physical events at their stores. Here, they invite influencers to create quick vlogs and allow customers to experience the iPhone firsthand. All of this is aimed at reassuring potential buyers that they should buy this new product. 

It’s clear how all these marketing strategies come together at the end of the day. While Apple’s case is just one among numerous examples, as a brand owner, you can examine this model and adapt it to meet your specific needs and goals. 

Challenges and Solution

Before we go, remember that when it comes to crafting any marketing strategy, it’s not always a bed of roses. There are various challenges and obstacles you will have to overcome, but these are two concerns that you should never overlook.

1. Know Who You Are Marketing To

In the marketing game, it’s crucial not to make your content or strategy overly generic, attempting to appeal to everyone.

If every brand adopts this approach, they all end up sounding the same, and your message will likely go unnoticed.

Therefore, it’s essential to identify your target audience beforehand, so you know who you’re addressing.

2. Consistent Monitoring Is Vital

If you want to make your customer’s experience smooth and effective, you need to always maintain optimum performance, and this requires consistent monitoring.

Keep in mind that various external factors, such as economic changes and seasonal fluctuations, can influence your marketing outcomes.

So, monitor, monitor, and monitor; this is the only way of staying ahead in the business game.

Start Crafting

In the digital era, we have so much information presented around us. Therefore, it’s crucial for businesses to incorporate a marketing strategy that leverages insights and analytics to the fullest extent. And this is why a full-funnel marketing strategy is a perfect fit in this era. 

If executed well enough, this strategy can attract potential customers, retain existing ones, and expand your customer base across various marketing channels at the same time. Moreover, it can also maximize your sales while minimizing your costs. 

Now that you have everything you need to know, the final step is to put it into action! Incorporating this approach into your marketing plan and using the data you gather to continually refine and improve your strategies.