The term “Marketing Funnel”, “Sales Funnel”, “Conversion Funnel” and many more variants are often used interchangeably because many of their concepts overlap such that over time they are often thought of as one, and there is certainly no right or wrong to this.
However, we at InAwe Media love to delve deeper into the details. We like to think of the marketing funnel as a gamut of overlapping concepts that interact with one another, just like an ecosystem. Over the years of study and real-life execution, we have formulated our own version of what is a Funnel is, and how we can apply it to any business.
But first, some history… The Funnel concept actually dates all the way back to 1898, when Elias St. Elmo Lewis proposed Awareness > Interest > Desire > Action or AIDA. It just amazes us that the same concepts and core principles have remained intact even after years of evolution.
Funnels = Ecosystem
Depending on what stage the customer is at, they fall into different parts of this ecosystem. How we think of a funnel is that of an Ecosystem. Picture this… it looks just like a raintree!
At the Top Of Funnel (TOFU), we see the rainclouds, which eventually fall as raindrops on the leaves. Rain is absorbed by the leaves and into the Middle Of Funnel (MOFU), the branches and top half of the tree trunk. Finally, imagine the Bottom Of Funnel (BOFU) as the final part of the journey as the water flows through to the bottom of the trunk and down to its roots where it nourishes the soil. The nourished soil then produces even more trees and the cycle repeats!
We have split this complex funnel ecosystem into three distinguishable parts: 1) Digital Marketing Cloud; 2) Raintree Funnel; and 3) Trees Profit Multiplier.
Conclusion
We hope this sets the stage for what’s to come, as we delve deeper into the Funnels Ecosystem. In the next post, we will be touching on the Digital Marketing Cloud and how we as digital marketers strive to optimize the top of the funnel.
Editor’s note: This post is Part 1 of a 4-Part “Funnels” series which covers the theoretical concepts about marketing funnels, our own interpretation of Funnels and how it can be implemented into real-life businesses to improve conversions.
