A look in to the funnel.

I often come across many queries (especially from SMBs / Start-ups / Growth hacking ninjas) who advocate only lower the funnel approach.

The point they make is, there are enough opportunities at bottom funnel and it doesn’t make sense to build the top line. It’s a valid point.

Unless, when you want to grow your business.

At an early stage of any brand, there are limitations like budgets, resources etc. It makes sense to create opportunities among in-market audience alone. But, after a certain point, you need to build an audience pool who are aware of your product. You need to warm them up towards your brand and you always need to be on top of the mind when they move in to purchase stage. This requires focused approach, sizable budget and patience.

One needs to remember that the bottom funnel media opportunities (like Google, Quora, Amazon) etc have high intent but limited scale, which leads to aggressive competition. And at the same time, brands that took the effort to build awareness have a high chance of success in the last mile stage. Hence its crucial to have a channel strategy that feeds new source of business in the top line (Display, video, social, ATL media) and optimize the bottom line (SEM, Quora, Amazon, last mile platforms in your domain. E.g. g2crowd and Capterra for enterprise software).

While all brands can’t afford to have a 360-degree media approach with large budgets, it’s easier than ever to reach a sizable audience that fits your TG profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, who can be potential customers when they move on in their purchase journey.

Monies you spend on your top of the funnel mediums might look like a cost in the short term, but it’s a great investment for the long term.

Image Credit: ICON POND

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