A model that illustrates how potential customers move from initial awareness toward consideration, conversion, and loyalty.
A simplified way to organize marketing around the stages of a customer’s decision process.
Short and sweet:
A model that illustrates how potential customers move from initial awareness toward consideration, conversion, and loyalty.
A simplified way to organize marketing around the stages of a customer’s decision process.
See also: Marketing Funnel, Conversion Funnel, Customer Journey
A funnel is the general model used to describe how a large pool of initial prospects narrows down at each stage until only a smaller group actually converts, visually resembling a wide top and a narrow bottom to represent that natural drop-off. Marketing funnels and sales funnels are closely related but sometimes tracked separately, since one focuses on generating and warming up interest while the other focuses on the more direct process of closing a deal. Looking at drop-off rates between each stage of the funnel is often the fastest way to spot exactly where a business is losing the most potential customers.
A thousand people might see an ad at the top of the funnel, but only a fraction ever make it to the bottom and actually complete a purchase, which is exactly why marketers track drop-off at every stage.
E-commerce dashboards often visualize this same shape as a shrinking series of bars, showing product views narrowing down to cart additions and finally checkouts.
A gym might map its own version of this staged path, starting with a free class trial, moving to a short-term membership, and eventually converting some members into a long-term annual plan.
