How to Create a Sustainable Marketing Funnel

It wasn’t until I was about four years into business that I even knew what it took to create a marketing funnel. Before then, I was just annoying people on Facebook and hoping clients would book just because I was posting pretty pictures and willing to work for a low price.

Side note, sometimes I get memories on Facebook from when I just started my photography journey, and I’m like “how did I think that was pretty work?!”  As creatives, we probably all feel this way right??  I hope I’m not alone.

Anyway, eventually, through a lot of trial and error, I created my own marketing funnel that now consistently books my photography clients on my schedule without any real work from me.

We don’t know what we don’t know.

I look back at those memories and roll my eyes and just forgive myself for not knowing how to find the right clients because we don’t know what we don’t know. Please don’t get frustrated if you’ve found yourself doing what I did 8 years ago, which was posting a ridiculously large amount of photos and praying someone will book.

By the way, if you’re tired of trying this and that and hoping something sticks, I have really good news.  My coaching program is a step-by-step, personalized to your business playbook to a marketing plan that works.

The Sustainable Marketing Funnel

So what is a marketing funnel?  It’s a way of breaking down a client’s journey from awareness to purchase.

You’ll see the marketing funnel above, but let me give you an overview.

Exposure is the initial introduction to a business. Some examples would be socials, organic search, referrals, ads, trade shows, etc.  Once the client has been exposed to you, they move to the Discovery phase.  The discovery phase is where leads consume content and learn more about a business or product.

The consideration phases similar to the discovery phase.  They are consuming content and learning about the company or product, but they are thinking about taking action.

I’m sure we all know what conversion is, but if not, it’s when the lead turns into a client.

Great customer service, communication, and happy customers create loyalty, which also creates referrals. When a client refers someone to a business, that referral drops back into exposure and begins the funnel themselves.

How does this apply to your business?

If you set up your marketing funnel completely and focus towards your ideal client, it’s a long term and sustainable strategy.  Like we talked about on this blog post though, consistency is key.

You can’t expect your strategy to work if you aren’t consistently putting yourself and business in the right places.

Do you have a strategy to get clients from exposure to referral?

I want to invite you to my masterclass March 25, 2021 at 11PM CST.  It’s all about how to transform your side hustle into a profitable and automated business.  We talk about the five steps to an automated business and we talk about how the marketing funnel applies to those steps.

If you aren’t already, be sure to follow me on Instagram where I go live every Wednesday morning and talk about all things business, marketing, and automation!