Have you ever wondered what sets successful businesses apart from those organizations with lackluster performance?

It’s not even close to secret what makes a successful business. However, many owners of marginally performing companies neglect the importance of the digital marketing funnel. If they did, they couldn’t fail to understand its significance.

In the digital marketing funnel, you’ll find the following five steps: discovery, interest, concern, decision, and action. When a potential customer discovers your product or service, they will most likely be curious about it. Your product or service should satisfy their concerns, and once they’re concerned about your product or service, they will begin to consider buying it. Ultimately, they will be motivated to take the action of making a purchase. The discovery, interest, and concern steps form the first three stages of the funnel. Once you’ve gone through these stages, you’re closer to achieving a successful campaign.

Discovery

Discovery is the first stage of the marketing funnel. Prospective customers need to discover your product or service in order to move on to the next stage. With SEO and content marketing, you’ll be aiming to attract as many potential customers as possible. Your goal is to get as many people as possible to discover your product or service, whether that be through SEO, PPC advertising, or content marketing. As an owner of a marginally performing business, you might be thinking that creating more content is the answer to getting more people to discover your product or service. While that may be true, oftentimes, high-quality content doesn’t translate to immediate sales. Instead, you’ll need to use the other three steps of the marketing funnel to achieve your goals.

Interest

Once someone has discovered your product or service, they will be interested in learning more about it. Your product or service should satisfy their interests, and with enough information, they should no longer be interested in learning about it. For example, if you’re selling a bag for women, you might want to consider adding other types of bags to your product line. After all, women might be interested in buying a purse but not a handbag.

Concern

Once someone is interested in a product or service, they will begin to have concerns about whether or not they want to purchase it. These concerns might include cost, size, color, etc. If those are valid concerns for your target audience, consider adding more value to your product or service by providing better customer service or investing in more robust inventory. By doing this, you’ll be able to better satisfy your customers and prevent them from feeling anxious about making a purchase. As you get to know your customers’ concerns, you’ll be able to better direct your marketing efforts toward those areas of importance to them.

Decision

The decision step is when a person is convinced enough to make a purchase. For this step to be considered a successful one, you’ll need to ensure that the customers are making the right decision for them. To do this, you’ll need to consider their circumstances, such as current economic conditions or the state of the world as a whole. If customers are in a position to make a purchase right now, but they’re concerned about whether or not there will be an economic downturn in the near future, you’ll want to take that into consideration. For example, if you’re selling candles, but the wind is currently howling and it’s getting dark earlier and earlier each day, the last thing someone wants to do is spend money on candles when they could be using their electricity for light.

Action

At this point, a potential customer has decided to make a purchase. However, that doesn’t mean the job is done. Once you’ve gotten them to this point, you’ll need to ensure they take the next step to complete the purchase. This might include having someone walk them through the ordering process or having live chat available to answer all their questions. Sometimes, potential customers might get stuck in the decision step for days, wondering whether or not to make a purchase. By taking the time to ensure they complete the action step and see the results of their decision, you’re giving them the best shot at having a successful online marketing campaign.

If you want to see what sets successful businesses apart from those with lackluster performance, you might need to look at the way they use the steps of the marketing funnel. Consider utilizing the steps above to launch your own online marketing campaign, and you’ll be well on your way to success.