Why full-funnel marketing is key to profitability

How often have you seen ads that promise a single tool or platform as the ultimate solution to all your marketing challenges — guaranteeing quality leads and sales while saving you time and money? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. No one consumes media in a vacuum, so why limit your marketing to one channel?

Focusing on the platform with the highest ROI may seem efficient, but it ignores potential customers at different stages of their journey. A broader, full-funnel strategy that drives prospects from awareness to conversion can lead to even better results.

The myth of a quick fix

When sales are slow and immediate results are needed, it’s easy to fall for promises of a certain number of leads each week. These tangible numbers seem like the perfect justification to continue your investment. However, you soon realize that these contacts are not what you need. Instead of creating valuable opportunities, you waste time educating, pitching and following up with leads that either disappear or aren’t qualified.

Your marketing could do some of this hard work, cutting down on the hours spent chasing down bad leads. Even when one tactic gets off to a strong start, it’s difficult to sustain that level of growth without other components supporting it. A mix of organic, paid and core work can deliver better results from all channels.

The top-of-the-funnel dominance fallacy

We all want to be number one in search results, our brand in the lights on billboards, our commercials winning awards and prime spots on air. But these positions feed our ego more than they bring results. While mass marketing has its benefits, not every brand is for everyone.

Brand awareness is a vital component of the marketing funnel, but it can be the biggest drain on your budget. Even though a Super Bowl ad may reach more than 100 million viewers, how many will buy from you? Your advertising dollars are better spent on building brand awareness in more targeted ways.

Even top-of-the-page search rankings can be deceiving in their effectiveness. If your clicks, leads, and sales aren’t matching your high rankings and impressions, it’s time to adjust your strategy, targeting, and possibly messaging.

Dig deeper: How to use conversion data to improve your top-of-funnel marketing

Disadvantages of bottom funnel optimization

The opposite answer is to focus exclusively on bottom of the funnel tactics since the ROI is usually much higher here. However, if nothing fills that part of the funnel, your lead source quickly dries up. As the cost per acquisition continues to rise, you’ll spend more money in the long run. How to fix inefficient consumption?

Embrace the power of the marketing funnel

Full funnel marketing solutions can deliver a much higher ROI rather than single-channel approaches because they meet users where they are on their journey. Users jump from app to app while streaming media on smart devices, then jump to social media to get advice from friends. A full-funnel strategy gives you the means to guide customers along the path to purchase, with multiple touch points tailored to customer preferences.

Each stage of the funnel feeds the remaining stages. This is why targeted brand awareness is critical to successful conversion campaigns. WITH search ad costs is growing rapidly, the need for upper funnel solutions has also grown. Strategies that include upper funnel tactics increase the effectiveness of customer acquisition campaigns, resulting in a lower cost per lead than SEM alone.

Dig deeper: 3 ways to optimize your marketing funnel to increase revenue and leads

It is important to adhere to the following when implementing a full flow approach.

1. Know your audience

Understand who you are advertising to, what they think and how they behave at every stage of the purchase journey. You’ll better determine which media channels they’re more likely to use at each touchpoint. You will also be able to tailor your messages to suit their preferences.

2. Nurture relationships

Don’t ask the audience to do too much at once. You want users to buy, but if they just find out you exist, you still need to build a trust factor like knowledge before they spend money. Foster a relationship with valuable content that highlights your authority and trustworthiness.

3. Set up event tracking

Set up tracking for every stage in the funnel, not just sales. That way, you can better understand well-performing channels and the customer journey. Your analytics can help you quickly identify areas for improvement so you can effectively implement the changes you need.

Analytics are imperative to proving the effectiveness of your new strategy, so test your events before and after campaign launch. If your event tracking is configured correctly, you can retarget the audience you gather at different points in the funnel.

A multi-channel approach for long-term success

While it’s tempting to look for one perfect marketing solution, sustainable growth comes from a well-planned, multi-channel strategy. Effective marketing is a diverse ecosystem of tactics, strategies and messages that meet your potential customers where they are. Each channel in an end-to-end marketing plan enhances the effectiveness of the others; if one stops, the others suffer.

Be patient as you build your flow. Initial planning and setup is key, so consider the time and resources required. This will require more than a one-channel solution, but the resulting increase in qualified leads and sustainable growth will prove to be well worth the investment.

Dig deeper: Why marketers should focus on growth loops rather than funnels in customer journey orchestration