Conversion funnels are a fundamental concept in sales and marketing. In today’s world of AI-powered marketing and sales strategies, the funnel concept is more critical than ever. It guides how we drive interest, build trust, and encourage action at each stage of today’s buyer’s decision process.
In this article, I’ll explain what conversion funnels are and how they impact your customers’ journey. I’ll also share how you can optimize your funnel in 2026’s landscape by using modern tools and AI to convert more prospects into customers and ultimately create a better buyer experience.
Table of Contents
- What is a conversion funnel?
- Why Understanding Your Conversion Funnel Is Important
- Conversion Funnel Stages
- Conversion Funnel Analysis
- Benefits of Optimizing Your Conversion Funnel
- Conversion Funnel Optimization
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What is a conversion funnel?
A conversion funnel (often called a sales funnel) describes the stages of the buyer’s journey that potential customers pass through before completing a desired action (the “conversion”).
Picture an actual funnel: wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. At the top of a marketing funnel, you have a large pool of prospects who’ve just become aware of your brand. As they move deeper through consideration and into purchase, fewer people remain, until only the most qualified buyers reach the bottom and convert.
This shape reflects a typical reality: Companies always have more leads than paying customers, so the funnel narrows as interest turns into intent, and intent turns into action.
In practice, guiding people through a funnel means delivering the right content and touchpoints at the right time.
- At the broad top, you might offer educational blog posts or social media content to engage new leads and answer basic questions.
- In the middle, you provide detailed case studies or webinars to address prospects’ concerns and build trust.
- By the bottom, it’s all about making it easy to convert, think free trials, demos, or clear pricing pages to persuade a decision to speak with a sales rep or engage with a product trial.
If we do our job right, the experience feels seamless for the customer. That’s why every funnel should be designed for how your customers buy, not how you sell. As marketers, we’re essentially reducing friction at each stage so more people flow from that wide entry point to the narrow finish.
Before diving into how to analyze and optimize your funnel, we need to talk about an important aspect of this process: the customer journey.
The Customer Journey
The Customer Journey vs. the Funnel: It’s important to note that while the conversion funnel is a useful model, it’s a simplified, linear representation of the customer’s buying journey.
For example, one buyer might click a LinkedIn ad, read a blog article, download an ebook, talk to a sales rep, then purchase. Another might come via a referral, jump straight to a free trial, then buy after seeing value. The outcomes are the same, but their journeys differ.
So think of the funnel as the high-level map of stages, and the customer journey as the actual route each individual takes — which can loop and backtrack.
Today’s B2B buyers often engage with an average of 13 pieces of content before deciding on a vendor. Many touchpoints might influence a single purchase. As marketers, we need to be aware of these various entry points and paths. When we understand the common ways people discover us and move toward a purchase, we can meet them where they are and optimize those experiences.
In short: The funnel gives you a framework of lead-to-revenue, but the journey is what your customer actually experiences.
Why Understanding Your Conversion Funnel Is Important
Many marketers like to call the conversion funnel the “backbone” of marketing and sales. When you clearly understand each stage of your funnel, you gain insight into where potential buyers are dropping off and where they’re engaging.
Belinda Conde, SVP of marketing at Datos, told me, “[The conversion funnel] is massively important for many companies, but the top of the list for me right now is predicting and, therefore, scaling marketing-attributable revenue. Without historical funnel performance data (especially conversion rates at key stages), it becomes nearly impossible to model future performance accurately.”
Ryan Anderson, SEO manager at GFL Environmental Inc., added, “For a product or sales-led business, you are able to identify key drop-off points within the funnel to improve upon whether that is top of funnel (TOFU) or awareness, mid-funnel (MOFU) or consideration/intent, or bottom of funnel (BOFU) or action/purchase based intent.”
This clarity is even more crucial in today’s B2B environment. Many companies now run account-based marketing (ABM) programs, and 81% report higher ROI from ABM versus other marketing efforts.
ABM focuses your team on high-value target accounts, but it still relies on a well-defined funnel: You’re guiding those target accounts through awareness to purchase, just in a more focused way.
In fact, when marketing and sales teams analyze their conversion funnel together, they can pinpoint if problems occur at the top of funnel stage (not enough awareness or poor lead quality), the middle stage (prospects lose interest or don’t see value), or the bottom stage (deals stall at the final step).
By knowing where the funnel isn’t working, you can take targeted action, whether that’s refining your messaging, adjusting your outreach strategy, or improving the handoff between marketing and sales. The end result is a smoother process that aligns with how your buyers want to buy.
Pro tip: Don’t think of the funnel as just a marketing concept. It’s a tool for company-wide alignment. When I review funnel metrics with sales teams, it creates a shared understanding of pipeline health. We ask, “Are we not attracting the right audience up top, or are we failing to close them at the end?” That insight guides our next move.
Before we talk about optimizing, let’s ensure we’re on the same page about the funnel’s stages and some modern variations in today’s AI-powered marketing era.
Funnel + LOOP: A Smarter Way to Manage the Buyer Journey
Funnels help you see where prospects fall off. But today, buyers don’t move in straight lines. That’s why I like HubSpot’s new LOOP framework as a complement to funnel thinking.
LOOP is about expressing, tailoring, amplifying, and evolving in a continuous cycle. Each pass through the loop compounds what you’ve learned about your audience, making every next touchpoint smarter and more relevant.
When I work with SaaS startups today, I often run funnels inside loops: The funnel highlights friction points, while the LOOP ensures those fixes turn into system-wide improvements.
Conversion Funnel Stages
Marketing loves its acronyms, so you’ll hear terms like TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU thrown around. They simply correspond to the classic Top, Middle, and Bottom of the Funnel model. Each stage has a distinct role in moving a lead from initial awareness to loyal customer:
Top of the Funnel (TOFU) – Awareness
This is where potential customers first enter. They’ve just become aware of your brand or the problem you solve. Your focus here is to attract and inform. Common TOFU tactics include blog posts, social media content, search ads, or informative videos that spark interest and bring people to your website. It’s a wide net.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) – Consideration
In this phase, prospects know who you are and are weighing their options. They’re looking for deeper information and assurances that you can deliver.
Here you nurture the relationship: Think email newsletters, case studies, whitepapers, webinars, or product comparison pages. The goal is to educate and build trust, addressing any questions that arise as they consider your solution.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) – Conversion
Now it’s decision time. These prospects are on the verge of becoming customers. Your job is to remove any final friction and make it easy to say “yes.” Tactics include free trials, demos, pricing pages, consultations, or limited-time offers.
Essentially, show proof and reduce risk — for example, a clear ROI calculator or customer testimonials can push a wavering buyer over the line. At BOFU, even small improvements (like simplifying a checkout form) can have a big impact on conversion rates.
One thing to note: Customer loyalty and expansion (upsell/cross-sell) can be considered an extension beyond BOFU. Many funnels end at the first conversion, but in B2B, we often want that customer to stick around (for renewals, upsells, etc.), so you might see some models add stages for retention or advocacy.
I’ll touch more on retention later, but keep in mind that conversion isn’t necessarily the end of the relationship. It’s just the end of that initial funnel journey for net new businesses.
Conversion Funnel Examples
One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Funnel Models
Every business is a bit different, and over time, marketers have developed various funnel frameworks. In some cases, especially in complex B2B sales, the funnel can have more layers or look less linear. Let’s look at a couple of common models and one more recent twist.
Three-Stage Marketing Funnel
This is the basic TOFU/MOFU/BOFU we just outlined. It’s simple and works well for many scenarios. For instance, many B2B companies’ marketing model followed this classic funnel: Marketers brought leads in at the top, nurtured them in the middle, and sales closed them at the bottom.
In a fast transaction (say, selling a $20 T-shirt online), these stages might blur together quickly. In a longer cycle (imagine a $200,000 software deal that takes 6–12 months), you’ll have multiple touchpoints within each stage to gradually educate and convince the buyer.
The length or complexity of your sales cycle often determines how detailed your funnel needs to be. Longer cycles = more steps and content; shorter cycles = simpler funnel.
AIDA Funnel
One classic marketing framework that parallels the funnel is AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. It adds a bit of psychology to the mix.
First, you grab Attention (similar to awareness) through catchy content or ads. Then you generate Interest by demonstrating value (think: case studies, engaging storytelling). Next, build Desire — make them want your solution — by highlighting benefits, showing social proof, or personalizing the experience. Finally, prompt Action with clear calls-to-action, trials, or limited offers.
AIDA is essentially another way to conceptualize TOFU → BOFU with an emphasis on creating desire. It’s an oldie but goodie in marketing training, and many successful campaigns are structured around this formula.
Flipped Funnel (ABM Approach)
In account-based marketing, we sort of turn the traditional funnel upside-down. Instead of casting a wide net at TOFU and narrowing down, ABM starts narrow and then expands engagement within target accounts.
In other words, you Identify a set of high-value accounts up front. Then, you Expand your reach by involving multiple stakeholders at those accounts (engaging not just one lead, but also the C-levels, and others who influence the deal).
Next, you Engage them with highly personalized content and interactions tailored to that account’s needs. Finally, you turn customers into Advocates who refer others — essentially flipping the funnel into a megaphone, where a successful account can broadcast your value and feed new prospects into the top.
The flipped funnel approach recognizes that in B2B, one well-nurtured account can be more valuable than 100 random leads. It’s a strategy I’ve embraced as AI enables us to personalize outreach at scale.
Pro tip: ABM and the traditional funnel aren’t opposites so much as variations. Many organizations, including my clients, run both broad inbound funnels and targeted ABM plays in parallel for a truly full-funnel marketing.
AI-Enabled Funnel (Modern Approach)
An AI-enabled process layers automation and intelligence onto the traditional conversion path. Instead of moving through static stages, each step adapts in real time based on data and buyer behavior. At HubSpot, we call this Loop Marketing.
For example, I’ve worked with teams that used predictive scoring to surface high-intent leads earlier, then routed them into automated workflows that delivered contextually personalized content and timed outreach based on engagement signals. The result was a funnel that performed better and felt far more relevant, causing prospects to move faster because every touchpoint was tailored to their actions.
That said, implementing an AI-enabled Loop requires strong data foundations and a thoughtful strategy. The real key is knowing when to let AI handle engagement and when to hand off to a human touch. Getting that balance right prevents over-automation and ensures the experience feels both efficient and authentic.
Whatever model you use, the key is that each stage of the funnel has a purpose. Leads should always be moving somewhere: learning more, building trust, or getting closer to a decision. If you find a stage where nothing is really happening, or prospects are stagnating, that’s a signal to refine your approach at that stage.
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Conversion Funnel Analysis
So, how do we figure out what’s happening in our funnel? Funnel analysis is all about following the data trail that prospects leave as they move (or don’t move) through each stage. When I analyze a funnel, I’m essentially asking: Where are leads coming in? Where are they dropping off? And why?
By mapping traffic sources and user behavior at each step, you can literally visualize the flow of potential customers.
For example, you might discover that 60% of visitors who read your product page go on to request a demo (great!), but only 10% of blog readers ever click on your CTA (not so great). Or you might see a huge exodus of leads on a specific page, say, many of them sign up for a webinar but then never schedule a demo afterward.
These patterns highlight friction points in your funnel.
Here’s how I approach an in-depth funnel analysis:
1. Identify high-traffic, high drop-off points.
I begin by looking at the top entry pages and the points where prospects fall off.
Your website analytics and CRM reports are your best friends here. Check which pages or steps in the process get the most visits. Those are your high-traffic pages.
Now, find which have the highest exit or bounce rates versus those that successfully drive conversions (such as form submissions for a demo or free trial). For instance, if thousands of people visit your pricing page but almost no one clicks “Request a Demo” from there, that page is a bottleneck.
Key metrics I pull include:
- Drop-off (bounce) rates.
- Conversion rates.
- Number of leads generated on high-intent pages.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA).
I’ll often track these numbers over at least a quarter to account for normal fluctuations.
For example, I typically build a custom funnel report in HubSpot or similar platforms to visualize each stage’s fallout to quickly highlight where the steep drop-offs occur. There are also specialized analytics tools that can do this. The point is to pinpoint “leaks” in the funnel. Each leak is an opportunity to improve.
Pro tip: Don’t forget to segment. A page might have a 5% conversion rate overall, but if you segment by channel, you might find email visitors convert at 10% while social media visitors convert at 1%.
Those insights guide where to focus (maybe the messaging on that page is aligned with email traffic’s expectations, but not social traffic’s, so you could create an enhanced landing page for social-sourced traffic).
2. Discover where your best customers come from.
Not all leads are created equal. Some will drop out after one blog read; others will stick with you all the way and become loyal customers. Funnel analysis should uncover which sources and touchpoints are yielding your highest-quality leads.
Maybe you notice that a lot of your paying customers originally came from a particular webinar, or via a referral program, or through an organic Google search on a specific keyword. When you know where your most valuable prospects originate, you can double down on those channels.
Ask yourself: What is different about the touchpoint that brings in great leads that convert into sales pipeline? Does it set better expectations? Attract a more relevant audience? Provide more information up front?
For example, if you find that leads from a webinar consistently turn into SQLs, whereas leads from a generic ebook download often fizzle out, that’s gold. You’d then analyze the webinar and its audience targeting to understand why it’s drawing in the right people.
I’ve seen companies save a lot on customer acquisition costs by doing this. If social media ads produce cheaper, better leads than a trade show, you can shift budget accordingly and cut the underperforming spend. This is how funnel understanding ties directly to efficiency — you’re not just filling the funnel, you’re filling it with the right people.
Modern marketing platforms make this easier: Multi-touch attribution reports in modern marketing platforms can show you the common paths that converting users take.
3. Create a targeted optimization plan.
By this point, you should have a list of funnel weaknesses and strengths. Now it’s time to act on it with an optimization game plan. I typically prioritize the stages or pages with the largest drop-offs first — these are your low-hanging fruits for improvement.
I typically set specific goals for what I want to improve. For example, “Increase demo request conversion rate on pricing page from 2% to 5%,” or “Get 50% more leads from organic search next quarter.” Having clear goals will help measure if the changes work.
When planning optimizations, I typically change one major parameter at a time and measure the impact. This is because if you redesign an entire landing page and also change your ad targeting at the same time, you won’t know which change drove the improvement.
These controlled experiments, often via A/B testing, are how you iteratively build a high-converting funnel. In fact, 70% of marketers believe that A/B testing is essential for boosting conversion rates, and I’m definitely among that 70%. Testing takes out the guesswork and lets the data speak.
Benefits of Optimizing Your Conversion Funnel
Your conversion funnel is only as good as the strategies you use to build it. Without a solid strategy, your leads will quickly drop out of the funnel and will be reluctant to re-engage.
But what are the benefits of taking the time to optimize your conversion funnel?
1. Increased Conversions
An optimized conversion funnel leads to, well, more conversions. Take Ryan Anderson and his team. After optimizing their funnels, they saw improved conversions on their customer registration pages and MQLs.
“We removed barriers to conversion along our funnel, wherein TOFU users were having trouble registering in our funnel, becoming intent-based users, or MOFU, based on a frustrating form fill process,” Anderson said.
Here’s what he and his team did to improve their conversion rates:
- Eliminated large form-fill fields, which improved bounce and exit rates.
- Increased TOFU video content to garner more interest.
“This, in turn,” he said, “increased the amount of MQLs that entered our pipeline and MOFU prospects for us to service. Once our MOFU pipeline expanded, this increased our BOFU counts and conversion rates.”
I’ve seen similar outcomes in my own funnels. Sometimes, a small tweak (like a clearer CTA button or a better explainer video) at one stage can increase the percentage of people who move to the next stage. Those percentage gains compound down the funnel.
For example, improving a landing page conversion rate from 10% to 15% might not sound huge, but if those extra leads then flow through and 20% of them buy, you’ve effectively boosted sales without increasing traffic. Optimizing the funnel is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow revenue, because you’re not necessarily spending more on ads or content — you’re getting more out of the efforts you’ve already made.
2. Lower Customer Acquisition Costs
One of the biggest benefits of improving your conversion funnel is reducing customer acquisition costs (CAC). CAC refers to how much a brand spends to gain a new customer.
CAC is basically how much budget you burn to acquire one new customer. If you can convert twice as many leads with the same spend, you’ve effectively cut CAC in half.
For example, say you notice that leads coming from LinkedIn have a higher close rate than those coming from organic search. By investing more in LinkedIn and scaling back on an underperforming SEO, you divert budget to the channel that yields customers more cheaply.
I’ve done this rebalancing act many times. Once, our team found that a particular content offer was bringing in a lot of leads via PPC, but almost none became SQLs. Meanwhile, a webinar series had fewer leads, but a very high close rate. So we reallocated the budget from the former to the latter. The result was a notable drop in average CAC because we stopped wasting money on leads that weren’t converting.
It’s also worth mentioning the flip side: customer retention. A well-optimized funnel doesn’t just lower the cost of acquisition — by delivering a better experience, it can improve customer satisfaction, which leads to higher retention. Retention further lowers overall cost per customer by improving the customer lifetime value.
3. Better User Experience
Optimizing the touchpoints in your conversion funnel leads to a better user experience. When leads are pleased with their initial experiences with your brand, they’ll continue to move through the conversion funnel.
Website speed is a great example. A slow or clunky website can kill a funnel. Often, visitors will become frustrated with slow-loading pages on B2B sites, leading them to abandon the process entirely. If one of your key pages takes too long to load, a chunk of your audience is gone before they even see your offer. By optimizing technical aspects (like page speed) and usability (mobile responsiveness, easy navigation, etc.), you keep more users moving forward.
Another huge UX factor is relevance. When the content at each stage feels relevant to the user, they’re more likely to continue. Personalization plays a key role here. For instance, using what you know about a lead to tailor CTAs can dramatically increase engagement. HubSpot’s research found that personalized CTAs perform 202% better than generic ones.
I’ve leveraged this by creating smart CTAs that change based on whether a visitor is a cold lead, a warm engaged lead, or a customer. For example, the cold one might see “Download our Free Guide to [Industry Topic]” while a returning lead sees “Watch a Demo Tailored for [Industry].” This kind of tailoring provides a more relevant experience that guides leads through the funnel.
4. Higher ROI
When you improve conversions, reduce waste, and enhance customer experience, the natural result is a higher return on investment (ROI) for your marketing and sales efforts.
Let’s consider personalized marketing again, which is a big theme in optimization. By fine-tuning your messaging to different segments of your audience, you often see a disproportionate increase in results.
I’ve seen evidence of this in account-based marketing campaigns we run. When we tailor an entire campaign (ads, landing pages, emails) to a specific segment’s industry and pain points, the engagement and conversion rates are often exponentially better than a one-size-fits-all generic approach.
5. A Realistic Sales Pipeline
I asked Belinda Conde what she thought was the biggest benefit of a conversion funnel. She told me her conversion funnels help identify high-value leads and create more realistic pipelines tailored to a specific audience.
“The most significant benefit would be having a more realistic pipeline for marketing and sales. Last year, my team and I worked really hard to refine our HubSpot Lead Scoring logic to narrow down what really constitutes a valuable MQL. We needed to better profile leads that were genuinely aligned with our ICPs and map out all the implicit and explicit attributes that would demonstrate intent or engagement,” Conde says.
By tightening these criteria, they ended up passing fewer leads to sales, but those leads were highly qualified.
“That naturally led to a decrease in the number of MQLs in our pipe, but we ended up having a much cleaner and highly qualified funnel. Over time, we’re pleased with the results, and the conversion rates down the funnel are more realistic, allowing us to monitor any anomalies much more efficiently,” Conde says.
In other words, sales wasn’t wasting time on unqualified folks, and marketing wasn’t patting itself on the back for MQL volumes that didn’t translate into revenue. Both teams started trusting the funnel data more. The pipeline became a true reflection of likely sales, and that allowed better planning and resource allocation.
Conversion Funnel Optimization
We’ve analyzed the funnel and discussed the benefits; now let’s talk about how to actually optimize each part of the funnel.
In my approach, I treat TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU almost as separate funnels within the funnel, each deserving its own optimization strategy. The idea is to give each prospect what they need at that specific phase to keep moving forward. What motivates someone in the awareness stage is very different from what they need at decision time.
1. TOFU: Awareness
If you’re struggling at the top of the funnel, the issue is usually attracting the right new leads. This is where you cast your net, but you want to cast it in the right waters.
I usually start by evaluating all the channels bringing people in: social media, search engines (SEO and PPC), content marketing, referrals, events, ads, and so on. Which channels are driving the most traffic? And are those visitors remotely qualified or interested in what you offer? You might find that a niche webinar you hosted brought in fewer people, but they were exactly the kind of prospects you want. That’s a sign to invest more in that tactic.
Another TOFU tip: Refine your targeting and messaging, using AI. With AI tools, we can now create very specific or predictive audience segments, then even dynamically show the paid ads based on the buying stage this segment is in.
Action step: Identify your top 2-3 performing awareness channels and plan one new experiment to boost them further, like a new piece of gated content for organic traffic or a small budget increase on a high-converting ad campaign. Likewise, identify one low-performing channel to downsize or pause.
2. MOFU: Consideration
By the middle of the funnel, you’ve got people who know you and are considering solutions. Here, your mission is to keep them interested and answer their deeper questions. If you find prospects stalling out in MOFU, it means something is missing or misaligned in how you’re nurturing them.
Let’s optimize a few common aspects:
- Content depth and relevance. Prospects in the consideration stage crave information. They might be asking: How does your solution work? Will it solve my specific problem? What do others say about it? Typically, at this stage, I audit the content we offer to make sure we provide rich, educational resources like whitepapers, case studies, comparison guides, or FAQs that address those questions.
- User experience in MOFU. How easy is it for interested prospects to engage further? Can they navigate your site easily to find the info they need? If signing up for a newsletter or webinar is a key MOFU action, is that process smooth enough?
- Be proactive. Middle-of-funnel prospects are deciding whether to seriously consider you. This is a great time to showcase social proof (customer testimonials, logos of clients, reviews, case study results) and to address common objections. If price is often a sticking point, consider offering a quick ROI analysis or a testimonial about cost savings. If integration or implementation is a worry, have content that explains how you on-board clients or how it works with common systems.
Action step: Take one piece of mid-funnel content (like your product page or a case study) and repurpose it, e.g., a short-form video or a carousel for social sharing. Also, ensure at least one CTA (like chat, schedule a call, etc.) is visible on all key MOFU pages.
3. BOFU: Conversion
As the final stop for potential buyers, this is the phase to turn them into a customer.
Optimizing BOFU is about removing any last friction and capitalizing on the prospect’s intent.
Here are some common strategies I use to optimize this stage:
- First, scrutinize your conversion process itself. If you run an ecommerce or self-serve model, this means the checkout flow is your BOFU. Is it as short and simple as possible? Every extra field or step can hurt. Offering convenient options (like one-click checkout, PayPal, saved billing info, etc.) can boost completion. For higher-touch sales (like enterprise deals), BOFU might be the contract stage before closing the deal. Ensure that it is streamlined, too, by collaborating with your sales ops team.
- Next, consider what incentives you can provide. At BOFU, prospects might need just a tiny nudge or reassurance. This could be a free trial or a demo environment where they can play with the product (common in SaaS). Or a limited-time sales offer (e.g., usage credits).
Action step: Do a test run of your own BOFU process. If it’s a sales-driven close, review your proposal template or pricing page — add one piece of info or proof that addresses a common last-stage concern. If it’s an online checkout, go through it as if you were a customer and identify one thing to simplify.
Tailor your funnel to the customer.
If there’s one takeaway I want to leave you with, it’s this: Build your conversion funnel around how your customers want to buy, not how you prefer to sell. After years in the trenches of B2B marketing, I can confidently say that empathy for the buyer’s experience is the ultimate conversion optimizer. Every audience and market is a little different, so the best funnel for your business is the one that mirrors your customer’s decision process and solves their specific frictions.
By all means, lean on best practices and industry research (like the stats we discussed) — they provide a great starting point. But also pay attention to the signals your own users are sending you. Don’t force a generic funnel on an audience if it doesn’t fit. Tailor it to your business.
Even with all the AI and tools, the principle stays the same: Reduce friction, add value, and meet the customer where they are. If you do that, your funnel will naturally evolve to be effective.
In my journey from scrappy startup marketer to running ABM programs with AI, I’ve learned that no funnel is static. We tweak and optimize continuously. Markets change, buyer behaviors also shift (e.g., younger millennials and Gen Z entering B2B decision-making roles might prefer different content formats or self-serve options), and so your funnel has to adapt.
To wrap up, a well-optimized conversion funnel is a powerful engine for growth. It will help you attract more leads, convert them to customers, and boost your bottom line in a repeatable way. But the engine needs fuel — and in this analogy, the fuel is an understanding of your customer. Combine that understanding with a data-driven approach, plus a great experience, and you’ll have a funnel that converts and builds customer loyalty.
My advice: Find the funnel strategy that makes sense for your sales cycle and audience. Always be asking, “Is this making it easier for the customer to get value?” If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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