Marketing Funnel
A marketing funnel is a model that visualizes the stages prospects go through from first learning about your brand to becoming customers, helping marketers optimize each stage of the conversion process.
The marketing funnel gets its name from its shape, wide at the top (many people become aware of your brand) and narrow at the bottom (fewer people ultimately purchase). Each stage represents a different level of engagement and intent, and each requires different marketing strategies. The traditional funnel has four stages.
Middle of Funnel (MOFU) is consideration, interested prospects evaluate your solution through comparison guides, case studies, webinars, and demos. Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) is decision, prospects ready to buy need compelling offers, testimonials, and easy conversion paths. Post-funnel is retention and advocacy, existing customers are nurtured for repeat business and referrals.
In practice
- A SaaS company discovered that their TOFU→MOFU conversion was 0.5% (blog readers to email subscribers), adding targeted content upgrades and CTAs increased it to 3%, tripling their lead pipeline
- A consulting firm's funnel analysis showed 80% of demo requests converted to proposals, but only 20% of proposals closed, improving their proposal process doubled revenue
- An e-commerce brand tracked their funnel and found that product page visitors had a 1.5% purchase rate, adding customer reviews and size guides increased it to 3.5%
- A B2B company mapped their 90-day funnel and discovered prospects who attended a webinar within the first 14 days closed at 3x the rate, they restructured their nurture sequence to drive webinar attendance early
Not sure how this applies to you?
A senior engineer walks your site, your search presence and the way enquiries reach you, then writes down the three things worth fixing first. You keep the document either way.