While traditional marketing strategies saw the sales funnel as linear - consumers enter at the top and exit at the bottom - this is no longer the case. With the increased reliance on social media, and a rise in eCommerce and other technologies, it has become a lot easier for consumers to skip stages and enter the funnel at different points.
That’s why it’s so important to take a full-funnel, cross-channel approach to your marketing strategy. This kind of strategy considers every single touchpoint and the messaging you deliver at those points - the right message, to the right person, at the right time - meaning no matter where a potential customer is in the funnel, you’re there to encourage them along to the next stage.
What is a full-funnel, cross-channel marketing strategy?
The traditional funnel illustrates how leads move through the customer journey from awareness of your product or service through to purchase. The problem with thinking about the customer journey this way is that it’s way too focused on the purchase stage. The result is that businesses and marketers focus too much on conversion and too little on “courting”. You can’t just ask someone to marry you, right?
A full-funnel, cross-channel marketing strategy, on the other hand, is a much more holistic, customer-centric approach that enables you to target consumers effectively and provide a seamless and consistent customer experience at every touchpoint. It means creating funnels within each channel, rather than viewing channels as being segmented by funnel stages. For example, organic search can be utilised at all stages, whether your customer is at the awareness stage or has the intent to purchase, you can use this channel strategically to target a wider audience.
It involves tailoring your marketing messaging to customers at every touchpoint, and across every channel (for example, your website, social media, or email). This approach assumes the customer journey never ends. Even after conversion, a full-funnel marketing strategy enables you to continue nurturing customers post-purchase, increasing brand loyalty, repeat purchases and advocacy. It’s then this word-of-mouth, advocacy and repeat purchases that “refill” your funnel.
In action, the strategy involves curating content for your audiences across every digital channel - think brand, web, SEO, paid advertising, social media and email - and answering the questions or addressing the needs of consumers at different stages in the funnel - maybe they have a problem you can solve (a how to guide can generate an enormous amount of leads), need more information about your product (product reviews and case studies can provide this information), or just need an extra nudge to make the purchase (email marketing or paid advertising puts your brand front of mind). A full-funnel marketing strategy ensures you’re developing content that entices all consumers, whether they know nothing about your brand, are considering a purchase, or have been loyal for years.
Why you need a full-funnel, cross-channel marketing strategy
Without considering the full funnel and every marketing channel, it can be very easy to dismiss consumers at certain touchpoints or miss those who favour certain channels. A common pitfall is focusing too much on conversion and driving a hard sales push, and forgetting the people who are still in the awareness, consideration or post-purchase phase. With a full-funnel marketing strategy, you target individuals throughout the entire customer journey.
A full-funnel, cross-channel marketing strategy provides a measurable way to not only increase conversions, but also to reach consumers at other stages in the marketing funnel. And because it’s data-driven, you’re able to see what’s working and what’s not - enabling you to make calculated decisions that ensure you’re maximising return on investment across the different channels.
Benefits of data-driven insights
The key to success with a full-funnel marketing strategy is understanding the customer journey. And that comes from having data-driven insights into how people interact with your brand across different channels.
Reporting enables you to track your marketing performance and understand what’s working and what’s not. This is essential for optimising your marketing strategy and ensuring you’re getting the most out of your budget.
Some benefits of data-driven marketing insights include:
- Increased understanding of customer behaviour: marketing data can reveal a lot about how people interact with your brand. This includes what channels they use, what devices they’re on, what time of day they’re active and so on.
- Improved customer targeting: with a better understanding of your target audience, you can create marketing campaigns that are more targeted and focused. This leads to improved results, as you’re not wasting time or money marketing to people who are not interested in your product or service.
- Greater ROI: by understanding what marketing activities are working and which ones are not, you can allocate your resources more effectively. This leads to improved ROI as you’re not wasting money on marketing activities that don’t work.
So while the objective of increasing conversions and turning prospective customers into buyers remains, you also influence growth in brand loyalty and advocacy.
Implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy
The problem we see often with our clients is that they simply don’t have the capacity to focus on a full-funnel, cross-channel strategy. After all, marketing is rarely the core competency of their business, and while they might have people skilled in one or two channels, it’s unlikely they have the time or headspace to upskill across every channel. The result is a fragmented strategy and ad hoc execution.
With the assistance of an external strategic partner, it becomes much easier to implement and execute on a full-funnel marketing strategy. A partner that provides expertise in every channel is pivotal in being able to consolidate and drive a cohesive strategy.
The optimal partner will help you define your target audience, and identify which channels to use to reach them. They’ll also help you map out pain points along the customer journey, and how you can alleviate them. No two customer journeys are the same, so, developing brand personas will ensure you’re catering your marketing and customer experience to the needs of all potential consumers.
Don’t take uncalculated risks, make investments
The BlueRock Digital team are experts in developing holistic and customer-centric full-funnel, cross-channel marketing strategies. We’ll help you optimise your marketing so that every dollar your business spends becomes an investment, not a risk.
If you want to find out more about how we can help your business with implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy, get in touch below.
