The new marketing funnel and micro-moments

You, the marketing professional, are surely already familiar with the old marketing funnel. At the top of the funnel is awareness, followed by engagement, purchase, and retention.

Traditional marketing practices are built around this funnel. A potential customer enters at the top of the funnel, becomes an interested consumer, and subsequently a loyal customer. However, new digital marketing tactics have emerged and to build a relevant marketing strategy in 2021 you need to pay attention to two key factors: the new marketing funnel and the concept of micro-moments.

The new marketing funnel

The funnel has evolved! The new marketing funnel is not just about capturing leads and making sales, and it no longer ends at retention.

But before preparing any marketing strategies, it is important to remember some points that were already necessary even working with the old funnel, such as:

• Understand your customer’s problems. It is from this point that you will be able to strategically position your potential customer in one of the funnel phases;
• From the moment in which you manage to position your potential customer in one of the phases of the marketing funnel, it is time to create a connection between him and your brand, and show him how you can solve his problem;
• Content is the fuel that moves customers through the stages of the funnel. For your content to be effective, you must ensure that it offers your customers a personalized experience. To do this, you will have to collect data about them.

The new marketing funnel looks more like an hourglass, where potential customers can appear at any stage.

The goal of the new marketing funnel is to nurture potential customers through a unique omni-channel experience for each buyer. They can now enter and exit the funnel at any stage, making the old linear-only funnel movement obsolete.

The stages of the new marketing funnel

• Recognition/discovery (awareness): this is when you should invest in brand awareness strategies and show the market what your company offers;
• Engagement: understand and share exactly what customer problems your solution can solve;
• Consideration: position yourself as the solution to the trouble spots, focusing on key benefits, differentiators, and competencies;
• Purchase: nurture your new customer with content throughout the buying process;
• Adoption: provide your customer with onboarding tools, additional resources, and everything they need for an effective relationship start, preparing them for a long-lasting relationship;
• Retention: establish an ongoing relationship and share knowledge with your customer. Involve the client with your brand;
• Expansion: connect with and learn from your customers. Discover new solutions and methods to help them achieve success.
• Advocacy/defense: when customers start advocating your brand in word-of-mouth relationships it is a sign of success. This leads new prospects to the recognition stage of your funnel journey.