Marketing Funnel Example

Your company needs a growth system, not a bag of tricks. With some upfront work and the right tools, you can build a marketing funnel that:

Captures the interest of cold leads at a cost you can control
Introduces new leads to your product with a drip campaign
Builds a stream of sales with behavior-based marketing automation

Contrary to what most people believe, doing this won’t even take much of your time. And once set up, it’ll even run in the background…automatically. This post walks through a marketing funnel that ties together AdWords, a welcome drip campaign, and behavior-based marketing automation. Let’s hop in.

1. Capture the interest of cold leads without breaking your budget

There are a million and one ways to attract traffic to your website. For this post, we’ll focus on an essential part of the modern marketer’s toolkit: Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a great way to find profitable traffic. The costs can add up if you’re not careful, but you can automate rules to improve bid management and keep your expenses in line. Here are the ingredients you need:

Google AdWords account
An existing Google AdWords campaign with a ready set of keywords and ad copy
Cost-per-click (CPC) target based on customer lifetime value (LTV)

The automated rules feature enables you to pause ads for keywords based on conversion and cost targets. Follow these steps to get set up, they’ll only take you a few hours. **Step 1. **Log into your Google AdWords account. Step 2. After adding keywords and ad copy, select the campaign you want to automate. Automate campaign **Step 3. After choosing what campaign to automate, click on the “keywords” tab, check all the keywords in the campaign, click “automate,” then click “pause keywords when…” Step 4. **Set “apply to” to “all but removed keywords in all campaigns.” You’ll see a broad range of options under requirements, but focus on “Performance > Avg. CPC (in %)” and “Conversions > Conversions (in $).” AdWords automated rules As a rule of thumb, set the conversions dollar amount to 35% of your customer lifetime value (so if your LTV is $50, use $17.50). This sets a cap on ad spend for keywords that aren’t performing. Once you’ve automated your AdWords spend to profitably acquire new leads into your database, it’s time to set up an automated drip campaign to introduce them to your product.

2. Introduce new leads to your product with a drip campaign

Too many companies try to close the sale right after sending a welcome email. It’s like asking someone to marry you after they just said yes to a first date – relationships just don’t work that way. Warm new leads up to buying with a drip campaign sequence using something like this…

Day 1: Welcome email
Day 3: Get started email
Day 5: Founder email

Here’s what this looks like as an Autopilot journey: Free trial journey example

Day 1. Welcome email

Remind the lead what they signed up for, and re-iterate that you’re always here to help. Help Scout does a great job of this in its welcome email. Help Scout welcome email The company includes links to its login page, help docs, and demo scheduler, with four friendly faces at the bottom. “We’re here to help!” looks handwritten, and makes people feel good about reaching out if needed.

Day 3. Get started email

New users need guidance. Point them in the right direction with a getting started email, like TradeGecko does… Tradegecko getting started email The email gives users a 1-2-3 process to getting started. New signups aren’t left to figure it out on their own, but instead know the exact next steps to take, which is key to a solid onboarding experience.

Day 5. Founder email

This is a personalized plain-text email sent from your founder. It’s perfect for adding a personal touch to your communications, and gathering feedback on user barriers. Here’s TradeGecko again… Founder email example Cameron mentions upfront that he’s the TradeGecko CEO and co-founder. This draws people in who because its a message from the head honcho. He thanks the user for signing up, and asks them why they signed up. Any replies are a customer feedback goldmine and a user engagement win. The above three-email drip campaign is just an example flow. Some companies do a different order, combine the emails, or send a completely different sequence. Tailor your flow to your leads and business. To make your life easier, use these SaaS trial email templates from Autopilot and from my own personal template vault.

3. Build a stream of sales through behavior-based marketing automation

Behavior-based marketing automation is more advanced than time-based sequences, but drives disproportionate results. The key is to send email, text, and direct mail in response to events a user completes or does not complete. Take a SaaS free trial for example. What are the events that reveal a trialist is serious about solving their problem with your app? Which events, once completed, typically drive conversion? Build your automated messaging around these moments. Here’s a running list to help you brainstorm:

User has not logged into your app at all, so send a “Here’s what you can accomplish” email with a login invitation
User has not uploaded a task/published a journey/completed important event, so send a “Hey, take this next step” nudge email
User clicks through an email to read a customer story, so send a “schedule a demo” invite
User reaches the end of their free trial, so send a “upgrade now” email
User doesn’t upgrade after a free trial (even after a reminder), so send a customer feedback survey to learn why

Implementing these automated nudges like these leads to a better customer experience and ultimately more sales. For example, SaaS company Hint Health saw a 10% increase in sales engagements after setting up behavior-based marketing automation.

Bringing it all together

To recap, build this marketing funnel example by…

Capturing the interest of cold leads with AdWords, using automated rules to keep your spend in check
Introducing new leads to your product with a drip campaign
Closing the sale with behavior-based marketing automation

This post just scratches the surfaces on all three pieces. There’s a ton more ways to capture leads, set up drip campaigns, and score sales. But if you’re just getting started, this is the perfect place to start.