While the digital marketing world is obsessed with the top and bottom of the funnel, it’s easy to forget about the crucial middle ground. The middle funnel is the bridge between brand awareness and conversion, and without it, your entire sales strategy could crumble.
What is the Middle Funnel and why is it a critical part of the marketing process?
The middle funnel is the space where prospects, already aware of your brand, need more information and confidence to move forward with a purchase. This is where the relationship is developed and credibility is nurtured. While the upper funnel focuses on generating awareness and the bottom funnel on closing sales, the middle funnel is responsible for guiding the prospect and preparing them for the final step.
“A good way to understand its importance is to imagine our marketing strategy as a ladder: the upper funnel is the first step, the bottom funnel is the last, but if the middle steps are missing, the journey becomes arduous and dangerous. Our lead is not going to jump into the void on their own, nor can we force them. Without those intermediate steps, there is no possible conversion into a sale.”
Tipping the Scales: The Dangers of Over-Focusing on the Bottom Funnel
In many sectors, there’s a worrying trend: too much focus on the bottom funnel. Companies invest heavily in actions that seek direct sales, neglecting the impact that the upper funnel has on brand creation and attracting new customers. However, without a solid foundation in the upper funnel, the ability to be known, chosen, and ultimately acquired is diluted.
The challenge is that, even if high brand recognition is achieved, without a well-structured middle funnel, the customer journey becomes discontinuous. The efforts of the upper and bottom funnels lose strength, as the prospect does not have the necessary information or confidence to take the next step. In other words, it’s like trying to climb a ladder with missing middle rungs: are we going to jump over that gap? The answer is usually no, or if they try, the jump is rough and costly.
The Implications for B2C and B2B Sales
Whether you’re selling to consumers or businesses, neglecting the middle funnel can have serious repercussions. Both B2C and B2B companies can suffer from a lack of focus on this critical stage of the customer journey:
- B2C: customers, without receiving the necessary intermediate information, may feel distrust or uncertainty at the time of purchase. Without a narrative that connects them emotionally with the brand, the purchase decision becomes less secure. “Did someone say storytelling?“
- B2B: here, decision-making is intricate. Without detailed product demos or content that clearly outlines the benefits and functionality, sales suffer. Businesses demand use cases, proof of concept, and testimonials to validate a product’s effectiveness. It’s that simple. Without these elements, closing deals becomes significantly harder and more expensive.
Strategies for Nurturing Leads in the Middle Funnel
How can we avoid that dangerous leap and ensure that our prospects feel accompanied at every step of the journey towards the purchase? The recipes may vary, but these would be some key strategies:
1. Empowering Content
Investing in creating content that empowers our leads. By offering webinars, ebooks, tutorials, and case studies, we help our audience better understand how our products or services can solve their problems.
2. Lead Nurturing Strategies
It is highly recommended to implement email marketing automation and remarketing campaigns to stay in touch with your leads. Through email sequences that provide value and delve deeper into your product or service offering, you can build the trust necessary to move towards conversion.
3. Product Demos and User Testing
Especially in the B2B realm, it’s crucial to offer product demos that allow prospects to see what we offer in action. These demos should be detailed, interactive, and tailored to the specific needs of each potential customer. The lead wants a solution to their problem: let’s give them access to a platform where they can interact and progress, while we analyze their behavior and estimate their level of affinity and potential for conversion.
4. Customer Testimonials and Success Stories
Leveraging social proof is key. Sharing customer testimonials and success stories can significantly boost trust and credibility, positioning our brand as the go-to solution.
“Beware! These 4 strategies are unlikely to be equally successful if implemented individually or in isolation, or if we simply forego any of them. It is the combination of these 4 actions that definitively builds a strategy that can (and should) lead us to consolidate that sales process”.
Let’s not overlook the middle funnel. It’s a critical stage in the customer journey.
The middle funnel is that crucial link that connects brand awareness to the final conversion. Without a solid strategy in this stage, the effort invested in attracting customers (upper funnel) and closing sales (bottom funnel) is compromised, making the purchasing process more difficult and costly.
Whether B2B or B2C, it is essential to recognize the importance of nurturing leads at every stage of the funnel. Many sectors, such as software, insurance, education, and automotive, still operate under a lead generation model. While we are all eager to convert, without investing in strategies to strengthen the middle funnel, the cost of acquisition will only increase (and conversion rates will likely decrease).
