Marketing Funnel or Marketing Ocean

Posted on Feb 2, 2022 |


Question for you, what is a marketing funnel? You most likely have an image in your mind. Some multicoloured graphic wide at the top, narrow at the bottom; a funnel right?

Marketing Awareness

Why do marketers make if complicated…WAIT! I don’t quite believe in a ‘marketing funnel’. Why? Well, in my experience with client’s businesses I’ve NOT noted a smooth linear process.

What I do believe in is this model:

  • Awareness
  • Consideration
  • Purchase

After that, encouraging customer loyalty so they become evangelists for the brand.

SEO for SME Image 1

Word-of-Mouth Power

What is the glue that holds that together? Word-of-mouth. If you approach digital marketing with an open mind and you understand that people are not fish then you’ll get somewhere.

People (here I go again) are going to be customers and people are going to talk about you. Marketing online is not a linear process. It’s not neat. People online are very savvy, exposed to so much advertising and are rather jaded with it all.

Bubbles of Interest

So, don’t think in neat patterns. See the Internet as an ocean. What you are doing is creating bubbles of interest, bubbles can be search traffic (you’ve created content of interest and meets their intent), email lists (vital), social, video, partnerships and collaboration also form these bubbles.

Your job is to create these bubbles of interest, they’ll collide with a person. Before you know it they’ve seen, read, experienced your message, the so called ‘7 touchpoints.’

SEO for SME Image 2

Analytics Tells 1 Story

Don’t believe everything in your Analytics. There is one report to view and that’s to do with funnels. It shows the journey or in the jargon of analytics ‘conversion paths.

You’ll see what is supposedly working. Anyway, it’s worth noting even though it’s not going to tell the whole story. Google likes to show that paid advertising is REALLY working.

Digital Growth Process

Don’t think funnel. Think ocean. Think about an organic process to make this happen. A process that can lead to digital growth like the one we have.

An overview
This is how Conversion Detectives goes about that process with a tested methodology:

3 Phase Process

  • Growth Audit & Deduction
  • Research, Actions & Testing (That’s right R.A.T)
  • Refinement Cycle

A Bit More Detail of the Process

  1. Business Research Meeting (the business in the now and where they want to go).
  2. Growth Audit (over 200 elements and optionally competitor research)
  3. Deduction Report (either as an Action Plan or a full on S.O.S.T.A.C marketing plan)
  4. Research, Actions & Testing (Details, hypothesise and testing / panel data)
  5. Refinement Cycle (regular meetings, analysis so the approach is part of the business)

So, get a methodology, think in terms of an ocean and create word-of-mouth. Think in simple terms; Awareness, Consideration, Purchase. DON’T complicate your thinking.

Think people, people.

One more thing, don’t make people think.

Talk soon,

Jim Signature

 

 

About Conversion Detectives
Conversion Detectives is a full service digital marketing agency in Hertfordshire.
We find the best quality traffic for your website and convert more of that traffic into sales or sales leads.

Services
Digital Marketing Strategy | Creative Content Marketing | Email Marketing |
Lead Generation | Content Strategy | Social Media Marketing |
Video Marketing | SEO (Basics) | SEM |
Shopify Marketing

Understanding Digital Marketing10 emails, 10 suggestions & 10 actions