A marketing funnel is a conceptual model that illustrates a customer’s journey from becoming a mere prospect who got aware about a brand to becoming an actual purchaser of goods and services offered by the brand. 

The model depicts multiple stages of customer engagement with a brand i.e. the various phases a customer goes through before he/she finally purchases products from the brand. Organizations utilize marketing funnels to understand their customers' needs at each stage and thereby optimize their marketing efforts accordingly in order to enhance conversion rate.

A careful analysis of the marketing funnel enables organizations to ascertain what must be done in terms of timely attuning marketing strategies so as to influence prospective clients at various stages to ultimately become paying customers. In other words, the funnel helps marketing teams plan and measure efforts to attract and convert leads into full-time customers by means of advertising relevant and engaging content.

At present, there exists no universally accepted model of the marketing funnel. Certain organizations prefer to keep their model simple via implementing the 'TOFU-MOFU-BOFU' strategy which refers to the top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel as disparate elements, while others prefer the 'AIDA' model which stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action.

NotifyVisitors allows you to conveniently create and granularly configure marketing funnels by means of including custom events such as 'Add To Cart', 'Order Place' etc. and via adding filters at various stages of the funnel. In this article, we explain how you can create marketing funnels through the NotifyVisitors dashboard.

Procedure to create a marketing funnel

The process to create a funnel is delineated as follows:

1. Navigate to NotifyVisitors Dashboard > Analytics > Funnel.
2. Click on the 'Funnel List' dropdown.

From within the dropdown list that appears, select the 'Create New Funnel' option.

3. Upon doing so, the page will refresh and the 'FILTER' section will automatically reset to its default state, so that you may begin configuring your new funnel. At this point, you would also notice that the 'Create New Funnel' option is no longer available in the 'Funnel List' dropdown.

• To create a 'new funnel' or your 'first funnel', simply configure its stages in the manner described henceforth:

4. Within the 'FILTER' section you would notice that there exists a date picker module titled 'Select Date'. Via this module, you can specify the time period for which you intend to create a funnel. Specify the desired time frame for which you wish to create a funnel.
5. Under the date picker module you would notice a subsection titled 'Step: 1' containing an event selector module, an 'Add Filters' button and an 'Add More Steps' button.

This particular subsection namely 'Step: 1' represents the first stage of your marketing funnel. You can add as many stages to the funnel as you like, such as 'Step: 2', 'Step: 3' and so on, by clicking on the 'Add More Steps' button (check the screenshot provided below).

For instance, suppose from the 'Select Event' dropdown, you choose the 'Product View' event for the first stage of your marketing funnel. Now, let’s say you intend to include data exclusively of people belonging to the United States, who viewed products on your brand’s official website, within the first stage of the funnel. Then, in order to do so, you can proceed as follows:

1. Click on the 'Add Filters' button. Upon doing so a new row with three consecutive dropdowns would appear on-screen (screenshot provided below). You can configure the filter through these dropdowns.

2. Click on the first dropdown and select 'Country',  next click on the second dropdown in the same row and select the 'Include' condition and finally from the third dropdown select the country’s name i.e. 'USA'.

3. In case you wish to delete a filter then you can simply click on the delete button present at the extreme end of the row (check the screenshot provided below).

Following the process described above, you can add as many filters as you like at any stage of the marketing funnel. You can include filters based on geographical location, traffic source, operating system, browser type, app version, platform, user device’s model, web page URLs, timezone etc. Kindly note that you can delete any stage or step of the marketing funnel altogether simply by clicking on the 'Delete' button (screenshot provided below).

Here onwards, we will continue explaining the process of creating a marketing funnel by means of an example. For 'Step: 1' or the first stage of the marketing funnel, select an event titled 'Product View' from the 'Select Event' dropdown (for step nos. 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, kindly check the gif provided below). 

6. Next click on the 'Add More Steps' button in order to create the second stage of the marketing funnel. For this specific stage, select an event titled 'Add To Cart' from the 'Select Event' dropdown.

7. Next, click on the 'Add More Steps' button in order to create the third stage of the marketing funnel. For this specific stage, select an event titled 'Checkout Update' from the 'Select Event' dropdown. This specific stage filters or collects data of only those customers who completed the checkout process after adding products to their online shopping cart.
8. Next, click on the 'Add More Steps' button once again in order to create the fourth stage of the marketing funnel. For this specific stage, select an event titled 'Order Fulfill' from the 'Select Event' dropdown. This specific stage will filter customers who actually purchased products after checkout.
9. Once you have configured all the stages of the funnel, click on the button titled 'View Funnel' in order to have a look at your temporary or unsaved marketing funnel.
10. Review and check your unsaved funnel for any flaws or configurational mistakes. In case you find that your marketing funnel has been configured correctly, then in order to save the funnel within your NotifyVisitors account’s database, simply click on the button titled 'Create Funnel' (gif provided below).

11. After clicking on the aforementioned button, enter an appropriate title for the funnel in the pop-up that appears next and then click on the 'Create' button present within the same pop-up, so as to successfully create and save the funnel in the software's database.

Edit a marketing funnel

While configuring your funnel, in case you forget to include a certain stage in its flow and thereby wish to include it later or while modifying a pre-existing saved funnel, you intend to include new steps in it, then you can easily do so via the 'Add Step' button.

In other words, you can add a new step between any two previously configured consecutive stages of the marketing funnel by clicking on the 'Add Step' button (present adjacent to the 'Delete' button which is available for every stage). That is to say, each step or stage of the funnel (except for the last one) has its own 'Add Step' and a 'Delete' button.

Upon clicking on the 'Add Step' button of a specific stage, a new blank step (configurable from scratch) will get created or inserted right below that particular stage (check screenshot for illustration).

You can modify your marketing funnel any time i.e. alter the events at various stages, add new filters, reconfigure previously added filters etc. However, in order to have the newly configured changes get reflected in the funnel, you will have to click on the 'Save' button. Once a funnel is saved, it can be accessed anytime from within the 'Funnel List' dropdown.

Delete and rename a marketing funnel

Within the 'Funnel List', adjacent to the 'title' of each and every saved funnel, there is a tiny 'Delete/Bin' button/icon. You can permanently delete any specific funnel via clicking on its respective 'Delete' button. Once you click on the button, a new pop-up will appear on-screen prompting you to confirm your decision to permanently delete the funnel.

In case you change your mind and decide not to delete the funnel, then simply click on the 'cross' icon in order to retain the funnel within your account’s database, otherwise click on the 'Delete' button present within the same pop-up to confirm the deletion.

Additionally, you can rename a funnel, by selecting it from within the 'Funnel List' dropdown and then clicking on the 'Rename/Pencil-shaped' icon present next to its name. Upon clicking on the 'Rename' button, a pop-up titled 'Edit Funnel Name' will appear on-screen. Enter the desired funnel name in the field provided and click on the 'Update' button present within the same pop-up, in order to successfully rename your funnel.

Preview a marketing funnel

The software automatically creates a preview of your marketing funnel. With a mere glimpse at the generated preview, you can instantly gain knowledge of the percentage and number of users at each stage of the funnel. 

Additionally, the software automatically calculates the 'Average Time' and the overall 'Conversion Rate' using the data available within the funnel. The purpose of the preview is to visually convey important statistical data so that you can determine whether your marketing strategies are effectively yielding the desired results. 

In other words, by quickly analyzing the data provided in the funnel’s preview, the marketing experts of any organization can easily fathom and decide whether there exists a need to attune or adjust the prevailing marketing strategies in order to advance conversion rate.

This is how you can create marketing funnels in NotifyVisitors and check their previews in order to easily ascertain whether your organization’s marketing strategies need to be overhauled or whether they require immediate revisions.