From open to conversion: How to create a seamless email marketing funnel

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach potential customers and convert them into loyal clients. However, simply sending out a few emails is not enough to ensure success. To create a successful email marketing campaign, you need to create a seamless email marketing funnel that leads your subscribers from opening your email to converting them into customers.

In this article, we’ll explore how to create a seamless email marketing funnel that drives conversions.

The marketing funnel has three stages

The traditional funnel model starts at the top and goes down to the bottom, where your potential customers become actual customers.

The three stages are:

• Top of the funnel (TOFU)
• Middle of the funnel (MOFU)
• Bottom of the funnel (BOFU)

Preparation for your funnel

Before starting with the email marketing funnel, we suggest ensuring that you have done the following:

1. Define Your Goals

The first step in creating a successful email marketing funnel is to define your goals. What do you want to achieve with your email marketing campaigns? Is it to generate more leads? Increase sales? Boost brand awareness? Once you have defined your goals, you can then create a strategy that aligns with them.

2. Build your email list

The second step is to build your email list. We encourage you to take time to learn how to build a list from scratch. This involves collecting email addresses from your target audience, either through a sign-up form on your website, through social media or through other lead-generation tactics. It’s important to focus on building a high-quality email list rather than a large one. This means that you should aim to attract subscribers who are genuinely interested in your products or services and who are more likely to engage with your emails.

3. Segment your audience

One of the keys to creating a successful email marketing funnel is to segment your audience. This involves dividing your email list into smaller groups based on shared characteristics such as demographics, interests or behaviour. By doing so, you can create more targeted and personalised emails that are more likely to resonate with each group of subscribers.

So now let’s see how to create a successful email marketing funnel in the three stages.

Stage 1: Top of the funnel

At the top of the funnel (TOFU), people first discover your brand and interact with it. They may not have much knowledge about your product or service at this stage. The main goal is to create content and marketing materials that increase brand awareness.

Introduce your brand

To make a strong impression on new visitors, consider crafting a landing page specifically designed to introduce your brand, service or product. This visual representation can effectively communicate essential information and key features, helping potential customers understand what you offer. By focusing on concise and engaging content, you can pique their curiosity and encourage further exploration of your offerings.

Ensure that the landing page highlights the unique value proposition of your brand and addresses the pain points or needs of your target audience. We also advise that you make it visually appealing by incorporating attractive design elements, compelling imagery and clear calls-to-action to encourage visitors to take the next step in their customer journey.

Create a compelling lead magnet

Create a compelling lead magnet that will encourage people to sign up for your email list. A lead magnet is something of value that you offer to potential subscribers in exchange for their email addresses. This could be an e-book, a discount code or a free trial of your product or service.

Craft a compelling welcome email

Once someone signs up for your email list, the first email they receive should be a welcome email. This email should thank them for signing up and introduce them to your brand. It’s also an opportunity to provide them with valuable content that establishes your expertise in your field. To make this process easier, you can set up a predefined workflow template to automate your welcome email.

Stage 2: Middle of the funnel

​​Once potential customers have interacted with your brand in a meaningful way, they transition into the middle of the funnel (MOFU). This stage indicates a deeper level of engagement, such as subscribing to an email list, following your brand on social media or signing up for a webinar. At this point, you have an opportunity to nurture these leads and build a relationship with them.

Nurture your leads

After subscribers have opened your emails, it is important to nurture them through the funnel by providing them with more valuable content and encouraging them to take the next step. This might involve offering a free trial, a discount code or an invitation to a webinar or event. The key is to keep the engagement going and build trust with your subscribers.

Keep them engaged

The middle of the funnel is a great time to showcase case studies, testimonials and customer success stories that demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of your product or service. By providing social proof, you build credibility and trust, further motivating prospects to move closer to conversion.

Listen to them

To gain deeper insights into visitors' perceptions and experiences with your brand, consider inviting them to participate in a survey. This survey serves as a valuable tool for uncovering the drivers that attract people to your brand, the hooks that keep them engaged, and the barriers that may hinder their engagement or conversion.

By collecting feedback through a well-designed survey, you can gather valuable data and qualitative insights. Ask questions that delve into their motivations, preferences and pain points related to your brand or industry. Understanding what drives their interest and what holds them back can help you optimise your marketing strategies and refine your offerings.

We encourage you to take a moment to learn more about how to create a user-friendly survey in Mail Blaze. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Stage 3: Bottom of the funnel

The bottom of the funnel (BOFU) represents the final stage where prospective customers are meant to convert. Having already captured their attention, built trust and nurtured a relationship, it’s now important to focus on converting these prospects into loyal customers.

Have clear calls-to-actions

Incorporate clear calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your marketing materials, website, and communications to guide prospects towards conversion. Whether it's urging them to make a purchase, schedule a demo or request a quote, make the desired action easily accessible and enticing.

Emphasise why they should choose you

Emphasise your unique value proposition (USP) and highlight the specific benefits customers will receive by selecting your product or service. This could include features that solve their pain points, exceptional customer support, competitive pricing or exclusive offers.

Make sure feature and pricing comparison charts are easily accessible, well-designed and understandable for potential buyers.

Personalise, personalise, personalise

Personalisation is key in the bottom of the funnel stage. Leverage the data you’ve gathered throughout the customer journey to tailor your messaging and offers specifically to each prospect. By demonstrating that you understand their individual needs and preferences, you can significantly increase the chances of conversion.

Top tips

1. Optimise for mobile devices

With the increasing use of mobile devices, it is important to optimise your email for mobile devices. Ensure that the email is mobile-responsive and that the design and content are optimized for small screens.

Make sure that when you test your emails you are also testing your campaigns on a number of mobile devices.

2. Use automation

Automation can help streamline the email marketing funnel and ensure that the right message is sent to the right person at the right time. You can usese automation to send targeted messages based on the recipient's behaviour and preferences.

3. Measure and analyse

Measuring and analysing the performance of your email marketing funnel is crucial to its success. Use analytics to track open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and other key metrics. Use this data to refine and improve your email marketing funnel over time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, creating a seamless email marketing funnel is essential for businesses that want to maximise the impact of their email marketing campaigns. By defining your goals, building a high-quality email list, creating engaging content, segmenting your audience, nurturing your leads, and converting them into customers, you can create a successful email marketing funnel that drives results for your business.