WHAT IS A MARKETING FUNNEL ANYWAY?
If you’ve explored past MII content, or attended any of our recent webinars, you may have heard someone refer to “The funnel.” If you don’t know what that means, you’re likely not alone. Let’s talk about what a marketing funnel is, why you should consider this model as a strategy for your ministry, and how you can apply the marketing funnel to your ministry.
First, a marketing funnel is a model that represents the journey a person takes as they move from awareness to purchase, or a decision to act. Most people are familiar with what a funnel looks like, and the marketing funnel is a way of visualizing how your audience moves through the different stages of the decision process.
The marketing funnel is typically divided into three stages:
Awareness: This is the stage where people are first introduced to your ministry. They may have heard about you through advertising, social media, or word-of-mouth.
Consideration: This is the stage where people are starting to think about your message or service as a solution to their problem. They may be doing research, reading reviews, or comparing your message to other options.
Decision: This is the stage where people are ready to take action. They may have already decided to engage with your ministry by sending a message, or downloading some literature.
The marketing funnel is a helpful tool for understanding your audience and how they make decisions. It can also help you to track your progress and measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
Here are some of the benefits of using a marketing funnel:
It helps you to understand your audience: By understanding the different stages of the decision making process, you can better understand what your audience is looking for and what motivates them to make a decision to engage with your ministry.
It helps you to track your progress: By tracking the number of people who move from one stage to the next, you can see how effective your marketing campaigns are and identify areas where you need to improve.
It helps you to optimize your marketing campaigns: By understanding what works at each stage of the funnel, you can optimize your marketing campaigns to target the right people with the right message at the right time.
If you are looking for a way to improve your marketing results, then using a marketing funnel is a great place to start. Unfortunately, many ministries make the mistake of posting awareness content, skipping the Consideration phase, and move straight to asking people to engage, make a decision for Christ, or give up personal information to connect with their ministry. In this case, the marketing funnel is also a helpful picture that tells us what NOT to do. Rarely do people move from awareness to taking action. The process of engagement and making a decision to follow through on a call to action is a long one.
In fact, most of the content produced by your team should be focused on the segment of your audience that is Aware of your ministry and message, and currently in the Consideration phase. It wouldn’t be unusual for 80% of your content created to be targeting and speaking to those considering your message.
Here are some additional tips for using a marketing funnel:
Make sure your funnel is aligned with your persona’s journey: Your funnel should be designed to match the stages of your persona’s journey. This means that the content and messaging at each stage should be tailored to the needs and interests of your target audience.
Track your progress: It is important to track the progress of your audience as they move through these stages so that you can see how effective your funnel is. This will help you identify areas where you need to improve and make changes to your campaigns.
Optimize your funnel: Once you have tracked your progress, you can optimize your funnel to improve your results. This may involve making changes to the content, messaging, or targeting of your campaigns. Perhaps the greatest benefit of optimizing your funnel is that you’ll know when, and when not, to ask your persona to engage with your ministry. Asking for a commitment or engagement at the right time is critical for improving your team’s ability to reach people with the Gospel and move them into Discipleship relationships or online follow up.
