Introduction
Social media is one aspect of digital marketing that’s become a goldmine for brands.
The competition is now fierce — and brands think of the best strategies to attract and retain their target customers on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp business, LinkedIn, etc.
Creating a funnel is one of those strategies, and I’ll show you how you can go about it in this guide.
It's hard to convince a social media user who’s hearing about your brand for the first time to take action. You need a funnel that takes them from the awareness stage to the stage where they won't only make purchases but remain loyal customers and brand advocates.
What is a social media marketing funnel?
A social media marketing funnel is a path that facilitates and creates awareness about a brand on social media, generates leads and converts them to sales.
This funnel is deliberately structured to influence a user's behavior at every stage to ensure you achieve a set goal.
Why is a social media marketing funnel important?
The era of plastering your products and services on social media, hoping people will purchase, is gone. To make informed decisions, customers want to interact with brands and learn how products can solve their problems.
A social media marketing funnel takes your customers on a journey, letting them know at each stage that you understand their problems and have the solutions.
And it’s measurable. You can identify where users drop off the funnel and make adjustments.
Let's assume a user couldn't move past stage three. For some reason, they weren't convinced that you're better than your competitors.
A standard social media marketing funnel compromises of five phases:
- Awareness.
- Consideration.
- Action.
- Engagement.
- Advocacy.
Each of these phases works toward achieving a set goal. They complement one another in building a customer journey that can move users from the first to the final stage.
Let's see how each contributes to creating a funnel that can convert.
1. Awareness
This is the first stage of the funnel, where you let your target audience know you exist on social media.
Begin by identifying a common problem affecting your audience and create content that offers a solution to it.
One of the everyday actions social media users perform is using the search bar to look for content. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media platforms have search bars.
 |
You can optimize your content to show on search results with the help of professional SEO services. If a user consumes and finds it useful, you’ve created awareness. The next natural step is for them to follow your account to keep your content on their feed.
Keep in mind that the goal at this stage isn't to show off your products and services. You’ll sound pushy if you do and potentially scare them away. Continue to create and share valuable content to generate more awareness and build your brand in their minds. That's a way to have them stick to you and even forget you have competitors.
You can use different forms of content on social media to create awareness. For example, you can:
- Write blog posts using AI writing tools and share them on your social media accounts.
- Blog on social media (even without having a website). LinkedIn lets you blog directly from its platform.
- Create Twitter threads and use the 2200-character limit on Instagram to create valuable content.
- Consider going live on Instagram and Facebook. Real-time content lets your audience see the human behind the brand. All you need is a tablet with a good camera and internet. Your audience can join to interact with you.
 |
- Create “stories” on your different accounts. Instagram is especially popular for this. Here’s a step-by-step guide made by Scribe user Raymond Ukwenya that outlines exactly how you can make stories that boost your brand.
 |
Scribe top tip: Scribe is a step-by-step guide generator that documents any process (like the one you see above) for you! Just download the free extension. Scribe follows your process to write instructions with annotated screenshots.
You typically need photos, infographics and videos on social media, especially Instagram. A study found that 54 percent of marketers say that video content is more valuable for social goals.
 |
All of the examples above build trust and credibility. Use tools like Canva to create videos that can solve your ideal customer's problem on social media.
2. Consideration
In this stage, the ideal customer starts to consider your brand strategy as a potential solution to their problems. They reflect on the valuable content that attracts them to your brand, then investigate to confirm your credibility and why you’re better than your competitors.
It's easy for a user to get distracted and drop off the funnel since they compare you to your competitors. Provide detailed resources to keep them focused and build more trust.
Sharing webinars, testimonials or case studies on your social media accounts is a helpful way to keep leads interested.
For video testimonials, share them on your Facebook and Instagram stories; they’re the best place to capture a user's attention.
3. Action
Any user that made it to this stage has an interest in your brand and is a potential customer. It's up to you to prompt them to take action. But before that, analyze your content so far to see how users engage with it.
Focus on views, clicks on websites and landing pages. Social media platforms have analytics tools, but they aren't advanced. You may consider social management tools since you want detailed insight to help you make the best marketing decision.
 |
Any content you publish at this stage should promote your products and services to have users take action. Offer free trials and discounts as incentives.
It's fine to introduce strategies to continue engaging leads until they convert to sales. Use a social media chatbot builder like the one from SendPulse to trigger engagement and also guide a user until a purchase is made.
You can try paid campaigns to retarget users that previously engaged part of the funnel but couldn't get to the stage of taking action.
4. Engagement
Congratulations when a target customer converts to a sale! But it doesn't end there. You need to continue to engage the customer to keep them coming back. Many brands forget this, and before they can say "Jack," their competitors have snatched their customers.
There are ways to keep up with customers after purchase. You can create content that helps them get maximum value from your product. Or maybe send a personalized message updating them with new product features — chatbot messengers for social media can help here. If you use Instagram, make sure to respond to Instagram comments to keep your followers engaged.
For example, a customer who purchased through Facebook chat can get frequent messages with recommendations or asks on how helpful the product is.
Another strategy you can leverage to keep your customers engaged is the "show your work" challenge. It works like a charm, especially on Instagram and Facebook, where every customer will want to show their creativity and get exposure.
You can ask your customers to share a video, photo or link of how they use your product.
Jasper, an AI content tool, makes the best out of this strategy. It asks its customers to share their work weekly on its Facebook community for others to see.
 |
This makes customers feel like they’re part of the community and encourages brand loyalty.
5. Advocacy
Although making a sale and engaging a customer to remain loyal marks the end of the social media marketing funnel, you need to take it further. And that's the advocacy stage, where your customers move from loyal fans to brand advocates.
Advocacy is a form of advertising your customers do for you pro bono.
It's like word-of-mouth marketing, where a verified customer tells their friends and family how useful a product is.
You can ask your customers to use social media to review your products with their audience. Gather these reviews, document and share them with visitors at the awareness stage. Social proof is a great way to prompt them to take action quickly.
And as customers start to see how valuable your product is, they’ll likely start talking about you all on their own. For example, at Scribe we have an amazing user base who showcase their own guides on social media.
Since Scribe is a step-by-step guide generator, you can use the product to educate audiences, build a network and highlight their expertise.
And our customers use it to their advantage! User love is most powerful when it comes from the customer’s passion for the product.
Keep a healthy mix of organic and paid content. Brands with deep pockets for advertising often offer incentives to have loyal customers become their influencers and ambassadors.
You can collaborate with them to create content that serves as case studies to boost your brand’s overall credibility.
Shopify is an example of a brand that uses customers for advocacy.
 |
It asks store owners to share their success stories with Shopify. These stories are packaged as case studies with successful store owners as advocates.
Final thoughts on the social media marketing funnel
Having a social media marketing funnel is the best strategy to win customers to your business. Social media users are now informed and can easily spot brands that are desperately after their hard-earned money. You need to create awareness to tell the user that you understand their problem.
Then build trust and relationships for them to consider the solutions you offer.
I have shown how to go about it in this guide. Incorporating them in your customer journey won't only boost your sales. It will also create brand loyalists who can spread the good news about your products and services.
 |
Author Bio
Chuks Chukwuemeka is a freelance SEO content writer & strategist who helps SaaS brands boost their rankings on search engines. He’s the founder of Depreneurdigest, a marketing blog, and loves learning new things about SEO. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
