How to Get More Results Out of Your Marketing Funnel — UnboundB2B

Abbey Houston
8 min readApr 24, 2019
Image Source : Pixabay

Introduction

The marketing funnel was developed in 1898 by Ad agency executive Elias St. Elmo Lewis. He broke down the marketing journey into four distinct stages including awareness, interest, desire, and action, commonly known by the acronym AIDA. Even today, marketing funnels still use this basic template.

That said, today, marketing companies have adopted slight variances to suit the digital age. The likes of Moz, Hubspot, AWeber, Act-On, Forrester, and Bizible have their own take on the marketing funnel. Before you get the most out of your marketing funnel, it is essential to understand what the marketing funnel is for, what it represents, and how you can build your own. So, without further ado, let’s get right to it.

What is the Marketing Funnel and What is it Used For?

The marketing funnel is a map of the customer journey that is typically organized in a set of stages that the marketer uses to measure how effective their efforts are at directing new leads into the funnel and how efficiently those leads convert through each step.

Figure 1: The buyer’s journey

As such, the marketing funnel is used for defining and improving a companies marketing strategy. For example, a content writer can use a marketing funnel to understand the different types of content in the context of the customer’s journey. For instance, an email can be used to drive brand awareness or to enable seamless onboarding. A demand generation director, on the other hand, will use a marketing funnel from a statistical viewpoint to understand the conversion rate and revenue that each stage in the funnel and every marketing channel generates.

What Does the B2B Marketing Funnel Represent?

It is essential to understand that the B2B marketing funnel is merely a guiding principle and an idyllic illustration of the customer journey. In the ideal situation, a marketer could basically place a few Ads and get Ad impressions right away…