Lead Funnels: What Are They and How to Create Them

Growth. That is the primary goal of virtually every business that has ever existed. Whether the goal is to grow the number of employees, increase leads, elevate the number of partnerships, or simply improve brand awareness…

These goals all point towards one main objective which is growing revenue. 

This is exactly what lead funnels do. 

Lead generation funnels guide your potential customer to the point of sale. Once a customer is acquired, they then move on to different stages in the lead funnel. Detailed funnels include around four to six different stages, sometimes more, depending on what kind of business you are running. 

Standard lead funnels consist of three main categories that are often broken down into more specific stages: TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU. 

If your lead generation funnel is created the right way, it can promote huge jumps in business growth.The smoother the transaction process is for your customers, the more likely they are to actually make a purchase. The more purchases that are made, the more your company grows. 

What Is TOFU, MOFU, & BOFU?

These terms stand for top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, and bottom-of-funnel.They are the three general stages of any lead funnel and/or sales funnel. 

Funnels can also be broken down into smaller and more detailed stages, however, all funnels are based on these core categories.

TOFU: Top-of-funnel stage. This is often referred to as the awareness stage.

MOFU: Middle-of-funnel stage. This stage is where the customer considers your product.
BOFU: Bottom-of-funnel is the end goal. This is where your customer makes a purchase. 

What Does A Well-Designed Lead Funnel Consist Of?

1. Awareness: Potential customers become aware of your business. This can be something as subtle as scrolling past an ad on social media or watching a TV commercial long enough to remember your business. 

2. Interest: The customer shows signs of interest in your product, like clicking on an advertisement, or engaging with your business in some way.

3. Evaluation: The part where your customer judges your product and will shortly make a decision on whether to purchase or not.

4. Action: The point where the customer takes action and makes a decision on whether to buy your product or not. 

5. Sale: The customer purchases your product.

Tips To Create An Advanced Lead Generation Funnel

#1 Encourage Customer Interaction

One creative thing that can be done is to promote customer interaction. One can do this by adding a feature like a personality quiz or other fun activities. 

Interactive activities like a personality quiz are a great way to make the topic unique to the customer.

This can promote higher interest levels in the customer because you are personalizing it towards them, instead of making it about your business. Nothing is more appealing than having something tailored specifically for you before you buy it. 

Take Starbucks customizable drinks as an example. 

There are thousands of different combinations you can create when ordering a drink. A frappuccino or latte can be made exactly the way you like it… Assuming the barista makes it correctly.

This is one of many reasons why Starbucks has been such a successful coffee chain over the years — Personalization.

#2 Have A Solid Call To Action 

Having a good CTA is important when dealing with a potential customer. Without any call to action, the customer may be hesitant to make any decision at all.

CTA’s push the customer to take some type of action, whether it be a subtle email capture, or something as direct as making the sale. 

For example, you can have a banner at the top of the screen asking a customer for their information to register/sign up. 

Pop-ups or an email capture are some other things that can be added. 

Customers who are willing to give you their emails are often much more interested in your business than those who are not.

#3 Be As Responsive As Possible 

There is a general rule in sales that the faster you respond to a client, the more likely you are to close the deal. The longer a customer has to wait for a response, the more interest they will lose. 

If you don’t have a team able to respond immediately when a customer reaches out, you can invest in some automated messaging strategies.

#4 Use Lead Magnets 

Lead magnets are free items or services that are given away in exchange for contact details or something similar. 

Examples of the things that can be given away are promotions like free trials, free shipping, a special discounted offer, etc. Some studies suggest that lead magnets are not as effective as businesses once thought, since customers show interest in the free items only, rather than in the businesses themselves.

However, lead magnets are still a great way to generate leads and move them down your lead funnel.  

#5 Qualify Different Leads 

Determine which leads have a higher likelihood of making a purchase and focus more on closing the sale with them instead of less interested customers. Some areas that can help qualify leads are their budget, demand, and level of urgency.

You should be able to determine whether or not the customer can afford your product, gauge their level of interest, and determine if now is the right time for them to make a purchase.

#6 Create Good Content

One way to generate high-quality leads is through your organic website traffic. Maybe the most common way to build site traffic is through creating excellent content in large amounts. 

Over time, your traffic can increase solely based on the articles you write. The best part about this type of traffic is it’s typically 100% organic, and organic customers are more interested than non-organic customers. 

Have you ever deliberately searched for a site? 

Chances are you were highly invested in their product or service, and as a result, you were much more likely to purchase something. Although building organic traffic can take tons of time, there are still some things you can do to speed up the process. For example, creating high-quality content with AI tools can help writers publish articles significantly quicker.

Instead of taking 4-6 hours to write an article, using the right AI apps and writing tools can enable your writers to complete them in less than half the time.

Make sure to carefully edit your AI content though, since it will sound unnatural and robotic if you just copy and paste directly onto your website.

Writing tools like ChatGPT will almost never sound natural unless the content is edited before you publish it.

#7 Build Awareness Creatively

One of the most crucial stages of any lead funnel/sales funnel is the awareness stage. It sets the first impression of your business with the customer. Most often, brand awareness is associated with finding new customers, but it also plays a significant role in retaining old customers.

One way to make your audience aware of your business is through brand storytelling. We’ve all heard stories of humble beginnings from famous CEOs or founders of relevant companies.

Take Mark Zuckerberg, for example. He started his company Facebook working out of his dorm room at Harvard University. He didn’t start out as a billionaire CEO, or a super-wealthy businessman. 

With his story about how Facebook started, he gives the impression of a regular college kid, making him relatable to your average person. Mark’s story is a good example of storytelling since it brings out the emotional side of people making them feel more connected to a brand. 

Or, you can create awareness in other ways like having a new store press release. If you have a store or physical location, this is a highly effective way to build awareness. A new store opening press release is a brief public announcement to introduce a new store location to the market.

This can create tons of recognition throughout the community and help move local customers further down your lead funnel. 

#8 Analyze Less Interested Leads 

Keep track of data for your leads who aren’t showing much interest. Some businesses will even ask their customers for more information as to why they are not interested. 

This gives you an understanding of what you can do better to target the right people in the future. Capitalizing on the feedback that they give can improve the efficiency of your lead generation.

Different Types Of Leads That Your Funnel Can Generate

The art of generating leads is not a complex thing… Yet it’s not exactly simple either. 

There are two different types of leads a business can generate: inbound and outbound leads. 

• Inbound Leads: Inbound leads are customers who come to you. Some examples could be customers who came to you through referral or word of mouth, or a lead who clicked on your business through social media. Usually, inbound leads have a much higher closing rate than outbound leads and are more ready to buy. 

• Outbound Leads: Outbound lead generation involves taking the product to your customers. This can be done through things like cold calls, cold emails, or mailing out applications for a program or product. 

Lead Funnel Vs Sales Funnel. What’s The Difference?

It’s a general rule that a funnel is supposed to move a customer closer to purchasing a product. However, all potential customers are a little different, and they’re often all at different points in a lead funnel.

Lead generation funnels deal specifically with customers who have never come across your business, and the goal is to move them into the sales funnel. On the other hand, a sales funnel is often associated with returning customers who have made purchases with your business before. 

So, a sales funnel deals with returning customers, while a lead funnel does not.There are many similarities between lead funnels and sales funnels, but those are the main differences.

What Does A Well-Designed Lead Funnel Consist Of?

Awareness: Potential customers become aware of your business. This can be something as subtle as scrolling past an ad on social media or watching a TV commercial long enough to remember your business. 

Interest: The customer shows signs of interest in your product, like clicking on an advertisement, or engaging with your business in some way.

Evaluation: The part where your customer judges your product and will shortly make a decision on whether to purchase or not.

Action: The point where the customer takes action and makes a decision on whether to buy your product or not. 

Sale: The customer purchases your product.

Take Your Business From Nothing To Something

Having a good lead funnel can have exponential effects on the growth of your business. I have personally seen newer businesses struggle, and then completely thrive once they utilize a well-designed lead or sales funnel. 

Every online business that is selling a product or service has some form of lead funnel.

However, only a small amount of them actually have effective lead funnels that produce high-quality leads. Across the internet, there are thousands of examples of optimized lead funnels that have increased revenue for the company using them correctly.

Numbers don’t lie — Once you utilize an effective lead generation funnel, you will see a significant difference in the growth of your sales. 

Author

Matt Pierce is an SEO specialist and blogger from California. He is the founder of MattsWorld101.com, a website about tech and electronics.