Using a funnel is part of every successful digital marketing strategy. Communicating effectively with your target audience during the customer journey will increase brand awareness and boost sales.
To help you get all the benefits...I'll cover each of the digital marketing funnel stages and share some examples.
I'm Evan, the founder of a Boutique Marketing Agency. Talking to SMB owners daily, I'm used to keeping things simple. So don't worry...By the end, you'll know how a sales funnel works.
What is a Digital Marketing Funnel?
A digital marketing funnel illustrates the journey of your target audience, from discovering your brand to becoming paying customers. Online marketing channels make the funnel dynamic and adaptable to consumer behavior.
Speaking of that, these are the best digital marketing channels for small businesses.
It's more efficient than a traditional marketing funnel, which focuses on broad awareness and lacks real-time feedback from new and existing customers. The digital marketing sales funnel also has fewer stages with different names.
And that's what I'll talk about next.
A Marketing Funnel with 3 Stages
As opposed to the full-funnel marketing approach, the digital marketing funnel has only 3 stages (top, middle, and bottom).
I'll cover those and show you how I transform our target audience into actual customers utilizing the correlation between branding and SEO.
Then, we'll look at more examples.
Top of the Funnel (TOFU)
TOFU is all about awareness. At this stage of the digital marketing funnel, potential customers are just discovering your brand. They might not even know they have a problem your product or service can solve. Your goal here is to attract as many site visitors as possible.
You can achieve this through content marketing, such as educational blog posts or social media updates. The idea is to provide value without pushing for a sale.
My article 3 Reasons Why Digital Marketing is Important Nowadays is a good example. I talk about the changes in consumer behavior and compare traditional advertising to digital marketing without promoting our services.
It captures the attention of business owners just starting to show interest in online marketing. To move readers down the funnel, I've added a link to another article titled Why Digital Marketing for a Small Business.
Those already considering digital channels for their marketing strategy will become our leads.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)
MOFU is where you start nurturing your leads. While this is still a consideration stage of the funnel, your potential customer is ready to explore their options. You aim to build a relationship and demonstrate how your business offerings can meet their needs.
That said, the content for this stage of the digital marketing funnel must be solution-oriented.
For this purpose, I have two important internal links in the above mentioned article.
I direct readers looking for social proof to the detailed case study of one of our clients. It's a success story about the growth of a small home service business.
I also recommend my How a Boutique Marketing Agency Works for Your Business article. Although it's a general guide, it mentions our processes and has links to client testimonials.
When you create content for the MOFU stage, you must establish your expertise to move leads closer to making a decision.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)
BOFU is all about conversions. It's the purchase stage of the funnel where your marketing efforts should focus on closing the deal.
Your job is to make the final push that convinces leads to choose your product or service. You do this by highlighting compelling reasons that make people confident in buying from your brand.
I've done this on the Ernst Media blog with an article discussing the Reasons and Benefits of Outsourcing Digital Marketing.
The content includes client video testimonials and shows why businesses of different sizes and industries have chosen to work with us. Of course, I've linked to it from the other two articles mentioned in the MOFU section.
Using the 3 digital marketing funnel stages, you guide potential customers from awareness to conversion...But you don't always have to do it that way.
My article on Digital Marketing Outsourcing targets SEO keywords known as transactional. These are used in search engines by people at the BOFU.
Understanding SEO and search intent allows you to capture leads at any stage of the funnel.
Examples of Digital Marketing Funnels
As promised, I'll show you two more funnel marketing examples. One with search engine optimization and the other with social media ads.
These will help you avoid one of the common mistakes in digital marketing...Targeting an audience that's too broad.
By the way, if you want to learn how SEO and Social Media can work together to supercharge your small business's online presence...check out this article.
SEO Marketing Funnel for E-Commerce Website
Let's say you run an online business selling eco-friendly products focused on using less plastic.
At the Awareness Funnel Stage (TOFU)
The goal is to attract people just starting to think about sustainable living. You need an article that focuses on educating and increasing brand awareness.
Your title may be: "10 Simple Ways to Start Living a Plastic-Free Life"
The content should provide valuable tips and introduce folks to your brand without pushing for a sale. Of course, you can add links to your products at the bottom. However, most visitors won't purchase at this stage of your digital marketing funnel, but they'll remember your brand.
So, if you promote your business with Google Ads, for example...When those people search for Plastic-Free Products at some point, your ad will stand out.
At the Consideration Stage (MOFU)
You'll target people aware of the benefits of plastic-free products and looking for more information before buying.
Your title may be: "7 Great Plastic-Free Products for a Sustainable Home"
The content should focus on reviews and may include products of your competitors. Your offerings must be at the top of the list, with more detailed information to help people see the value.
At the MOFU marketing funnel stage, visitors are more likely to buy. If you do a good job highlighting your products' benefits, chances are they won't go all the way down the list.
At the Decision Stage (BOFU)
Your article must focus on people ready to purchase. You need to target search queries with clear buyer intent.
Your title may be: "5 Plastic-Free Products to Buy Now and Help the Environment"
Well-optimized landing pages and customer testimonials will help you to increase conversions. You can also offer discounts to people signing up for your newsletter. Then, you can transform satisfied customers into repeat customers using email marketing.
B2B Digital Marketing Funnel for Social Media
Here, I'll use a company selling project management software.
Since you already understand the digital marketing funnel stages, I'll just show you examples of remarketing with social media ads. For B2B, your best option would be LinkedIn, though Facebook ads are also worth it.
TOFU - Attracting New Prospects
Ad Headline: "Struggling to Keep Your Projects on Track? See 5 Tips for Better Project Management"
Purpose: It leads to a blog post that provides valuable tips and subtly introduces the software as a potential solution.
MOFU - Nurturing Interested Prospects
Ad Headline: "Compare the Top 5 Project Management Tools for 2026"
Purpose: This one targets people who interacted with your previous ad. It leads to a comparison guide highlighting the features and benefits of different tools, with yours being the first.
BOFU - Converting Prospects into Customers
Ad Headline: "Ready to Transform Your Project Management? Try Our Software for Free"
Purpose: This one targets people who engaged with your previous ads and visited your website. It leads to a user guide, encouraging people to experience your software firsthand.
To achieve optimal results with your digital marketing funnels at the lowest cost, you need:
- Custom-Tailored SEO Strategy for Your Business
- High-Quality Content Matching the Search Intent
- Effective Social Media Campaign Management
And That's Where We Can Help!
What Funnel Conversion Rate to Expect?
Not long ago, the guys at DataBox surveyed business owners to determine what they consider a good digital marketing funnel conversion rate.
The participants were a mix of service and product-based businesses, with a 77.8% to 22.2% ratio. As you can see in the graphic, the majority said that anything between 3% and 5% is satisfying.
I agree with that, although at Ernst Media, we aim to do better with client's projects.
Are you a small to medium-sized business owner already using online channels in your marketing strategy? If that's the case, evaluating performance will allow you to optimize and achieve better results.
My article on the 5 Most Important Digital Marketing KPIs will help you.
Founder of Ernst Media. Fifteen years running paid search and paid social for small and mid-size businesses, and still the person who builds the audits by hand. Writes here about what actually moves accounts.