Inbound Marketing Funnel

Sales & marketing love funnels. You have the famous sales funnel, showing the path of a prospect to a lead to a customer. They're a great way to visualize the journey that your new customers will take to find you. The funnel works so well, that inbound marketing has its own.

The inbound marketing funnel works much like the sales funnel of yesterday, but with one key difference. It tells us, as marketers, what exactly your marketing message should be saying when. Our inbound strategy is built on this funnel and it's served us and our clients well.

The basic premise of the inbound marketing funnel is that not all visitors to a web site are equal and more importantly, they're not all looking for the same thing.

ToFu: Top of the Funnel

To hear us talk around the office, you'd think that all we eat is tofu. This is not true, we're actually huge BBQ fans.

ToFu in inbound marketing refers to the top of the funnel.

With 85% of your website visitors falling into this category, it's important that you not only know who they are, but what they're looking for.

Classified as "Learners," ToFu visitors to your website are in learning mode. They're researching, checking out the different solutions to their problems, and getting a lay of the land. These visitors are very rarely ready to purchase and the best way to scare them away is to push them with salesy information.

Want to attract more ToFu visitors? Provide helpful, relevant information about the problem that they're facing. They're reward you for it.

ToFu Marketing Tip:

Prospects in "Learning Mode" tend to fall into the Top of the Funnel. They're typically interested in solutions for their problems and may not have even considered that your product can even help them yet. Focus on attracting them with relevant keywords and blog content.

MoFu: Middle of the Funnel

If you think we eat tofu for lunch, you'd surely suspect that we invested our own secret code when "MoFu" gets through around our office.

MoFu in inbound marketing refers to the middle of the funnel.

The visitors who make up the middle of the funnels are the ones we like to call, "shoppers" and they represent 10% of your overall website traffic. With their research in hand and a clear idea of what they need to solve their problems, the shoppers are all about scoping the options. They're looking for more specific information about products and services, even if they aren't ready to spend today.

While it does happen, we don't expect MoFu visitors to close the same day they find us. Pushing them to make a purchase before they're ready annoys them, they want the space to make up their own mind. Give them everything they need to make the most educated decision by providing valuable offers in exchange for their information. Keep in touch with them, they're one step closer.

MoFu Marketing Tip:

Prospects in "Shopping Mode" tend to fall into the Middle of the Funnel. They're typically focused on researching their solutions and will begin comparing options. The prospect is looking for confidence in the right solution, they will be researching reviews, and be interested in learning more about how your product will help them. Focus on converting them with case studies, calculators, and blog content focused toward connecting solutions to problems.

BoFu: Bottom of the Funnel

In most situations, being at the bottom of the barrel is never a good thing- but when talking about leads, the bottom is where it's at.

BoFu in inbound marketing refers to the bottom of the funnel.

With less than 5% of your website visitors fall into the bottom of the funnel, the "buyers" are the most rare of visitior, but also the more profitable. They've done all of their research, they're comfortable in their decision, and with their credit card in hand, they're ready to spend. Make signing up, ordering, or contacting you easy for these visitors- they're on a mission.

As tempting as it may be to ignore the rest and go right for the BoFu visitors, the reality is that everyone has the potential to be a BoFu visitor for you. By spending the time to create content, offers, and build the relationship with all of your visitors: you'll nurture your prospects into leads and those leads into happy customers.

Want to learn more about how to use the inbound marketing funnel to design your new website or outline your new marketing strategy? Let's talk!

BoFu Marketing Tip:

Prospects in "Buying Mode" tend to fall into the Bottom of the Funnel. They're typically focused on sizing up the quality service your company can offer along with the value you provide. The prospect is looking for you to reinforce the value of your product/service. Focus on converting them with product demos, samples, free trials, consultations or even the opportunity to buy now.

Inbound Marketing Sales Funnel.

The Foundation of your Modern Marketing & Sales Strategies 🚀