The Creative Marketing Funnel: How to convince, convert & retain your customers instantly.

I am sure you would have heard about the traditional digital marketing funnel, right? Anyways, here’s how it looks like.

Just by looking at it, don’t you think the funnel is too long?

I mean, there’s nothing wrong with the funnel, but by the time a prospect enters the funnel from the top and reaches to the bottom, they’ll be like,

The process is just too long. Both businesses and customers need a better way to interact with each other.

So is there any hack to reduce the size of the funnel?

Well, that’s exactly what the creative marketing funnel is all about. Check it out!

If you observe closely you will notice that Stage 2 and Stage 3 of a normal digital marketing funnel is nonexistent in the Creative Marketing Funnel.

That’s because the role of a creative marketer is to make conversions in less than 2 interactions and the presence of those 2 stages will only prolong the process.

So how do you magically lead people to sales from the attraction stage itself?

Read on!

Stage 1: Attract with a bang

Remember this,

“Nobody likes being sold to, but everybody likes to buy”

In the attraction stage, your goal is to communicate “the end benefits” to your audience. Your content should help them to get to know you first, and put them in the center.

The ease of attraction depends on the success of your creative content. And the main idea of your content should be to pull your customers in.

All you have to do is identify problems that cause your audience to be unhappy, worried, or concerned and provide solutions to those problems with your content.

No matter how creative your content is, it needs a kickstart to be up and roaring! To get that initial traction you will need to do some pushing in the form of paid ads and shares from family and friends.

Most creative marketing campaigns have used this mechanism. Though some creative content work on a self-start basis, it’s always safer to give it that initial push.

Stage 2: Conversion: Make them an offer they can’t refuse

The ultimate goal of a creative marketing funnel is to convert leads into paying customers and move your prospects from evaluation to conversion.

Now that you are in your target audience’s radar and they are probably considering to buy your product, equally they might also consider your competitors too. So, how will you win the competition?

This is where tripwire marketing can come to your aid. This term is more popular in the ecommerce world, where companies might offer a first order discount, free delivery, “pay for shipping only” offer.

Make a low-cost, relatively painless and, most importantly, an IRRESISTIBLE offer for your target audience, so that they instantly forget everything else and hit the “Pay now” button.

Stage 3: Retention: Create a loyal following

Customer retention is crucial. What’s the point in spending to attract new customers, only to lose them after the first interaction?

These days, customers demand a more engaging and personalized experience, and companies must respond accordingly to nurture them into advocates.

Here are a few ways to create a loyal fan base for your company:

Find out what your customers want and don’t want

You can ask these questions directly to your customers. Having an entry survey and exit survey in place will give you a lifetime of insights as to how you can improve your product, your service and your overall offerings.

Get inputs from your customers

Involving your customers in future improvements is a great strategy to make them feel valued.

Even we at Animaker encourage our support personnel to get ‘feature requests’ from our users. This has played a crucial part in Animaker’s growth story as well.

Create incentives

A loyalty program is a no-brainer, but surprisingly, 66% of small businesses don’t have one.

Amazon provides a great example of a loyalty program with their Amazon Prime subscription, which offers free shipping and other perks for an annual membership fee.

Now that you know the three core elements of a creative marketing funnel, let’s look at the funnel in action!

DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB — A CLASSIC EXAMPLE

Dollar Shave Club is a company that provides customers with Men’s grooming equipment on a subscription model.

Recently, it was acquired by Unilever for a whopping 1 billion dollars!

Let’s analyze how they grew BIG in such a small time frame.

The ATTRACTION STAGE — VIDEO WENT VIRAL

Dollar Shave Club made a killer entry into the scene of Men’s Grooming Industry with a mere Youtube Video. See it for yourself:

The video starred the CEO Michael Dubin himself. It was a perfect blend of humor and attitude and caught everyone’s attention. What’s even better is that the whole video was shot at a humble budget of just $4500.

THE CONVERSION STAGE — RAN OUT OF INVENTORY

Everyone who saw the video had an instant connection with it. And almost all of them went on and placed their orders. It is reported that their website crashed and they ran out of inventory within 6 hours!

They probably had one of the best conversion rates in the history of Digital Marketing!

Moreover, they promised monthly delivery for just $1each. It was probably the best offers ever!

THE RETENTION STAGE — PART OF THE CLUB FOR LIFE

After seeing the video, even if you really don’t want to buy razors, you’ll feel like buying one just to be a part of the club!

They literally made their customers feel that they were part of an awesome club!

These are guys who are not just delivering razors. You are also paying for the delight that comes with every interaction you make with them.

This is what the first shipment will contain:

1. A really cool box

2. A playful welcome note

3. Shaving stuff

4. Instructions on how to upgrade

5. Their monthly newsletter — “The Bathroom Minutes”

Apart from all these, Dollar Shave Club also started a “Sponsor Your Thing” campaign by giving free publicity to their customers in their monthly newsletter.

The company gets 50–60 applicants every month, out of which they choose the best one for this. This is a very creative way to convert customers into evangelists!

So what are your thoughts on the creative marketing funnel? Let me know in the comment section below!