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What Is Top Of The Funnel Marketing?
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By: [su_tooltip style=”tipped” position=”north” size=”2″ title=”Rank-Jacker” content=”Posts by Rankjacker Team”]Rank Jacker[/su_tooltip] ∣ Updated: January 17, 2022
Top of the funnel marketing refers to taking your product, service or an idea to a vast set of audience, expecting to strike a connection with the most likeable audience, who potentially could become paying customers in due course of time.
This forms the first stage of the sales life cycle, wherein the idea is to spread brand awareness, rather than make sales.
Having worked on numerous marketing funnels for various brands, here's my brief view of an effective top of the funnel marketing that could set a marketing plan on the right turf to build upon.
It's easy to generate ideas, but pretty difficult to implement them successfully.
This forms the first stage of the sales life cycle, wherein the idea is to spread brand awareness, rather than make sales.
Having worked on numerous marketing funnels for various brands, here's my brief view of an effective top of the funnel marketing that could set a marketing plan on the right turf to build upon.
It's easy to generate ideas, but pretty difficult to implement them successfully.
Share
90% of start-ups fail in their first few years and the biggest underlying reason is lack of proper product and market research, popularly known as Product Market fit.
And if they choose the right product they are unable to take their offer to their potential prospects in the right manner.
This mistake starts from the initial stage of your business i.e. top of the funnel.
And if they choose the right product they are unable to take their offer to their potential prospects in the right manner.
This mistake starts from the initial stage of your business i.e. top of the funnel.
What’s The Purpose Of Top Of Funnel Marketing?
Having a clear understanding about the optimum motive of the top of the funnel marketing shall set the stage for a more conscious approach towards the desired outcome and its success.
First and foremost purpose of the top of funnel marketing is to attract a likeable audience by offering content that's relevant and persuasive enough to catch their attention.
Secondly, to identify as many marketing angles as possible to broaden the horizon and scope of your overall marketing campaign.
Once you have people landing on your site, your objective transforms to optimise your landing page for better engagement.
The aim is to turn your cold audience to warm prospects and then finally into a hot lead in future.
The crux of top of the funnel is creating your Brand awareness and subsequently generating leads optimally. But, you need to identify the target audience first.
First and foremost purpose of the top of funnel marketing is to attract a likeable audience by offering content that's relevant and persuasive enough to catch their attention.
Secondly, to identify as many marketing angles as possible to broaden the horizon and scope of your overall marketing campaign.
Once you have people landing on your site, your objective transforms to optimise your landing page for better engagement.
The aim is to turn your cold audience to warm prospects and then finally into a hot lead in future.
The crux of top of the funnel is creating your Brand awareness and subsequently generating leads optimally. But, you need to identify the target audience first.
Identifying Top Of The Funnel Targets
Today's buyer is smart and well-informed too, but still unaware about all the options available in the market, so before they decide to finalise their purchase they will be visiting numerous brand sites, to compare, analyse and then select the one which fits into their interest frame.
This pattern of their research journey needs to be understood strongly. The ones entering the funnel need to be nurtured well to be taken to the next part of the sales life cycle.
For any business, digital marketers or marketing consultants, the buyer's behaviour - their pain points, their needs, their desires, and their beliefs need to be focused on before beginning with marketing.
This pattern of their research journey needs to be understood strongly. The ones entering the funnel need to be nurtured well to be taken to the next part of the sales life cycle.
For any business, digital marketers or marketing consultants, the buyer's behaviour - their pain points, their needs, their desires, and their beliefs need to be focused on before beginning with marketing.
Beginning Meaningful Relationships With The Right Ones
Any customer will go through various stages, from taking a look at your site for the first time to later subscribing to your email or booking a call, of course if you prove to be impressive.
We can understand the top of the funnel marketing by breaking it into the below mentioned aspects:
[su_list icon="icon: star" icon_color="#Fb7949"]
We can understand the top of the funnel marketing by breaking it into the below mentioned aspects:
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- Aware
- Attract
- Engage
- Excite
Aware
This aspect focuses on informing your target audience with content that carries topics which are brand relatable and doesn't focus on sales at all initially.
For increasing your brand awareness you should go through a process of proper research, later on analysing the topics and designing content that surrounds only the user's interest.
For Example - If you have a fashion brand then you should produce content related to the latest trends by designers, showcase forthcoming items, product tutorials, case studies on fashion, and more.
Collecting contact numbers and email addresses is your goal at the top of the funnel marketing.
At this point you can use channels to outreach people.Remember this will be cold outreach which can be worked using various social media platforms:
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For Example: If your target audience are more Reddit users than Twitter, then creating awareness on such a medium will prove more fruitful. In short, focus on social media platforms where your audience hangs out.
Pinterest and Instagram are great platforms when your brands show more relatability to visuals. Using trending topics and hashtags also works well
Lastly, You should be convincing enough to portray yourself as a thought leader and could ask for an email from the one who visits your site in exchange for an eBook or a valuable whitepaper. But along with awareness your message and site should be attractive enough.
For increasing your brand awareness you should go through a process of proper research, later on analysing the topics and designing content that surrounds only the user's interest.
For Example - If you have a fashion brand then you should produce content related to the latest trends by designers, showcase forthcoming items, product tutorials, case studies on fashion, and more.
Collecting contact numbers and email addresses is your goal at the top of the funnel marketing.
At this point you can use channels to outreach people.Remember this will be cold outreach which can be worked using various social media platforms:
[su_list icon="icon: check" icon_color="#Fb7949"]
- Quora
- LinkedIn And More
For Example: If your target audience are more Reddit users than Twitter, then creating awareness on such a medium will prove more fruitful. In short, focus on social media platforms where your audience hangs out.
Pinterest and Instagram are great platforms when your brands show more relatability to visuals. Using trending topics and hashtags also works well
Lastly, You should be convincing enough to portray yourself as a thought leader and could ask for an email from the one who visits your site in exchange for an eBook or a valuable whitepaper. But along with awareness your message and site should be attractive enough.
Attract
The first aspect awareness and the second one attract goes hand in hand. Just keep in mind one thing that many prospects will still be in the awareness state on top of the funnel while you begin to attract them.
So, the aim of your content's aim would be to touch their pain points and offer an impressive solution.
You create content and related conversation using your expertise to establish connection with the right people.
Over here, superior-level educational content is what the buyer is looking for which gives them the answers what they were seeking for. The best marketing channels which will be useful here:
[su_list icon="icon: check" icon_color="#Fb7949"]
So, the aim of your content's aim would be to touch their pain points and offer an impressive solution.
You create content and related conversation using your expertise to establish connection with the right people.
Over here, superior-level educational content is what the buyer is looking for which gives them the answers what they were seeking for. The best marketing channels which will be useful here:
[su_list icon="icon: check" icon_color="#Fb7949"]
- Relevant Blog posts
- Social Media
- SEM - Search Engine Marketing
Engage
Now if the reader is quite attracted then this filtered audience will show more interest in your site and may visit some of your blogs. They might get some credible solutions to their problems which they were trying to discover.
Yes, the top of the funnel is designed and streamlined to educate the cold prospect, and later more engagement starts when the prospect enters the middle of the funnel after you have managed to grab their adequate attention.
You are in the process of nurturing the lead and building trustworthy relationships between your brand and the audience offering useful solutions & insights targeting their pain points and aims.
The prefect channels at this point would be:
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The final dig is a perfectly compelling call to action for optimising your sales outreach, best explained in the blog focusing at the bottom of the funnel.
Yes, the top of the funnel is designed and streamlined to educate the cold prospect, and later more engagement starts when the prospect enters the middle of the funnel after you have managed to grab their adequate attention.
You are in the process of nurturing the lead and building trustworthy relationships between your brand and the audience offering useful solutions & insights targeting their pain points and aims.
The prefect channels at this point would be:
[su_list icon="icon: check" icon_color="#Fb7949"]
- Email Marketing
- Remarketing
- Social Media
The final dig is a perfectly compelling call to action for optimising your sales outreach, best explained in the blog focusing at the bottom of the funnel.
Excite
Content marketing is about thinking unique and creating something that's out of the box.
Through contextual marketing and personalization you can always continue with customer engagement as this is not a one time task but a progresive work.
The qualified prospects should always be taken great care of by you and the best channels for this would be:
[su_list icon="icon: check" icon_color="#Fb7949"]
The crux is to capture the attention of all those likeable prospects who enter the top of the funnel and then try to engage them in the best possible way.
All stages could be on your radar while you aim at attracting the buyers through their journey.
Many funnels fail....Avoid this!!
As I mentioned above also that marketing is not a one time task but a process that should be iterative.
Funnels are similar to a procedure that require functioning of all the components in synchronisation. The system will collapse if any single part doesn't work properly.
So, what should you do?
The key for making a funnel successful is to attract the right traffic initially i.e. top of the funnel.
If you are unable to do so then I am worried your product or service isn't doing well. How great your copywriting or design is, the likeable future prospects need to be captured at the first stage for further filtration for your ultimate goal - “SALES”.
Through contextual marketing and personalization you can always continue with customer engagement as this is not a one time task but a progresive work.
The qualified prospects should always be taken great care of by you and the best channels for this would be:
[su_list icon="icon: check" icon_color="#Fb7949"]
- Loyalty Programs
- Email Marketing
- Live chats
- Remarketing
- Video Sales Letters
- Word of mouth referrals
The crux is to capture the attention of all those likeable prospects who enter the top of the funnel and then try to engage them in the best possible way.
All stages could be on your radar while you aim at attracting the buyers through their journey.
Many funnels fail....Avoid this!!
As I mentioned above also that marketing is not a one time task but a process that should be iterative.
Funnels are similar to a procedure that require functioning of all the components in synchronisation. The system will collapse if any single part doesn't work properly.
So, what should you do?
- Use the right ads while you target your future customers.
- Copywriting should be perfect be it at any of the funnel stages.
- Design your offers properly.
- Remarketing and retargeting should not be missed upon.
- Use different channels to engage your target audience properly.
- Build your funnel and test it, refine it whenever required.
- Scaling up your budget is only advised when you actually have a winning formula.
The key for making a funnel successful is to attract the right traffic initially i.e. top of the funnel.
If you are unable to do so then I am worried your product or service isn't doing well. How great your copywriting or design is, the likeable future prospects need to be captured at the first stage for further filtration for your ultimate goal - “SALES”.
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