This article was updated 23rd October, 2024
Read time: 9 minutes
If you're a marketer, you'll know that your ultimate priority is lead generation.
In theory, it’s a simple concept. A visitor browses your website, fills in a form, and converts to a lead. With a little bit of attention, you can nurture these leads into paying customers.
Sounds straightforward, right? If only it were so easy.
From challenges with data accuracy and generating qualified leads to marketing burnout and ineffective tracking, the lead generation process is fraught with challenges and obstacles.
To get the most from your lead generation efforts, you need a structured approach broken down into each stage of the customer journey. Otherwise, you run the risk of disengaging your leads and losing them before they reach the finish line.
This is where the lead generation funnel comes into play.
In this article, we'll show you what a successful lead generation funnel looks like, and why this should be a crucial part of your marketing strategy.
What is a lead generation funnel?
A lead generation funnel is a systematic approach to turning visitors into customers. It involves guiding prospects through a series of stages, each designed to build interest and trust. Picture it as an inverted pyramid, split into three stages:
- Top of the funnel (TOFU): This is the ‘awareness’ stage, where visitors know nothing about you or your services. At this point, they're primarily searching for answers to solve the problems they face. Your goal here is to capture their attention by providing valuable content that addresses their needs and piques their interest.
- Middle of the funnel (MOFU): This is where leads begin to show interest in your company and are willing to engage with you. At this stage, they may start interacting with your content, which could suggest they are evaluating your solutions and considering how you can meet their needs.
- Bottom of the funnel (BOFU): At this stage, a lead is preparing to take action, whether it's with your business or a competitor, and are actively evaluating options and considering the best solution to meet their needs. For instance, they may request a free trial or schedule a video consultation to better understand your offerings.
How each stage of the lead funnel works
Understanding the distinctions between TOFU, MOFU and BOFU leads is crucial to ensuring customer engagement, so make sure you're tailoring the way you interact with and nurture prospects at each stage:
1. Top of the funnel
Here, your primary focus is to build brand awareness and capture the attention of your customers through engaging and relevant content. Therefore, you should focus on:
Attracting visitors to your website
There are a variety of ways you can bring in visitors to your website. Creating search engine-optimised (SEO) content that ranks highly for relevant keywords on search engines is one effective tactic to get your brand in front of your target audience. Social media and email marketing can also amplify your content efforts on other relevant channels that your customers frequent.
Educating them with trustworthy content
Your content and resources need to do more than just bring people to your website - they should also answer your lead's fundamental questions and provide solutions that can make their lives easier.
Converting them into leads
To convert these visitors into prospects, you'll need to go beyond sharing social media and blog posts. Creating valuable gated content with useful and relevant insights allows you to capture information on your visitors and classify them as leads. From here, you can move them to the next stage of the sales funnel.
2. Middle of the funnel
Once prospects have visited your website and been converted to leads, you need to keep the momentum going.
At this point of the lead generation funnel, you should focus on building trust and interest without slamming your foot down on the ‘sales’ pedal, as not all prospects will be ready to purchase your products or services just yet.
Instead, stick to the long game and focus on nurturing your leads with targeted messaging and personalised communications informed by their online behaviour and preferences.
Do this by sharing high-quality content that resonates with them, including practical assets such as ebooks, whitepapers, and webinars. These resources provide valuable insights and demonstrate your expertise, and help to build trust and engagement with your brand.
It's also important to maintain consistent and meaningful interactions. Regular communication (without spamming) will keep your business top-of-mind and reinforce the value you can offer, while personalised and tailored messages demonstrate that you understand their unique needs, fostering connection and trust.
Sharing case studies and instances of social proof can also further instil trust among potential customers. These real-world examples of your work can illustrate how your products or services have addressed similar challenges for other clients.
This not only builds credibility but also helps prospects envision the benefits they could experience by choosing your brand.
3. Bottom of the funnel
You converted your visitor into a lead and nurtured them with relevant, high-quality content. Now, it’s time to step up your offerings.
The content you provide here will depend on your business model and what you’re selling, but may include:
Free trials of your software or service
Offering potential customers a risk and commitment-free opportunity to experience the benefits of your product or service can help them recognise its value firsthand.
It also demonstrates your confidence, and as a gesture of goodwill can build trust with prospects, increasing the likelihood of a conversion.
Tailored demo walkthroughs
Providing a live, interactive demonstration of your product or service is an effective way of fostering engagement. A walkthrough gives prospects the opportunity to ask questions in real time, and lets you highlight the features that will matter most to each particular lead.
Consultations with your in-house experts
Your in-house experts will be closest to your product or service, meaning they can give even more personalised and in-depth insights into how a prospect can best make use of your offering.
It can also be an opportunity to address specific concerns they may have and highlight the benefits of your offering over that of your competitors.
Discounts or special offers for your product
If a prospect is in the consideration stage of the sales funnel, a discount or limited-time offer can be the incentive they need to make a decision. Special offers create a sense of urgency, while simultaneously adding another differentiator from your competitors.
How to build a lead generation funnel
Now that you have the tools to understand your target audience and the different journeys they take to purchase products or services in your market, it's time to set up a lead generation funnel that can continuously generate prospects for your business.
1. Identify your target audience
The first thing any marketing team should do when creating a lead generation funnel is hone in on exactly who their ideal customer is. This can be achieved by creating an ideal customer profile (ICP), a detailed description that outlines the characteristics of your perfect client.
The details listed in an ICP can range from demographic information, company size, budget and job roles to behavioural traits and specific needs or challenges that your solutions can address.
Clearly defining your target audience will help you tailor your marketing strategies to resonate with them more effectively.
This ensures that your messaging, content, and outreach efforts are aligned with the preferences and expectations of those most likely to benefit from your offerings.
2. Map out the customer journey
Once you've figured out exactly who your target audience is, you'll next want to understand how customers move through the sales funnel.
This is critical, because if you don't know the factors that make prospects move through each stage of the process, your messaging will be irrelevant and out of sync with their specific pain points and concerns.
To map the customer journey, start by gathering data through analytics, surveys and interviews in order to understand as much about your customers as possible. What are their media consumption habits like? Where do they go to get information? And what are their favoured communication channels?
Collecting this information can work in tandem with the creation of your ICP and ensure you're tailoring your communications with customers at each stage of the sales process. It will also give you visibility on where you're potentially missing out on leads and conversions.
3. Create content and drive traffic
Now that you've identified your ideal customer and mapped out their needs and preferences at each stage of the journey, you can create content that aligns with these stages.
TOFU content will be key here, as your goal at this point is to build brand awareness, attract visitors and offer genuinely valuable insights to your prospects.
To ensure your content gets eyes on it, make sure you're also driving traffic to your website and these pages by implementing SEO tactics and sharing content on your social media platforms.
4. Collect information and nurture prospects
At this point of the lead generation funnel, your prospects will be more deeply engaged in the decision-making process. As a result, they'll be willing to provide their details and information in exchange for MOFU content with valuable insights.
Make use of longer formats here packed with insights and proof of your brand's credibility. Putting these assets behind gated forms signifies the value of the content, and will allow you to filter down visitors to prospects that are genuinely interested in your services.
You can also collect information about them at this stage to ensure they align with the description of your ICP.
Once they've converted to leads, you'll need to assess whether they're ready to move to the next stage or if they need further nurturing. Your BOFU offers and content will come into play here.
5. Establish a sales pipeline
With all of the previous stages in place, you should be in a position to start generating a steady flow of prospects through your lead generation funnel.
At this point, you'll want to work closely with your sales team to establish an effective pipeline. This will ensure the transition from marketing to sales is seamless and that they receive a consistent experience.
Prime your funnel for success
The lead generation funnel isn’t a quick or predictable process - it requires patience, knowledge of who your leads are and an understanding of where they are in the decision-making process.
It can be a lot to manage. And, for businesses without the right data to lean on, the lead nurturing process can feel a lot like educated guesswork.
Intent data can be the missing piece of the jigsaw for lead generation. With the right behavioural analytics in your toolkit, you can tweak your content and create an effective lead generation funnel with confidence.
