Sales and marketing are two things that go hand and hand and are crucial aspects of keeping your business afloat. Since they’re commonly used together, a lot of people might even think the two words are interchangeable. But that’s not the case. 

Marketing is something you do in order to drive sales for your business. It casts a broader web across your company as opposed to sales, which usually make up specific areas of your company. 

For example, marketing can be used to advertise a product, boost traffic, and increase customer loyalty all at once. Sales can be used to describe how you get a customer to buy your product (usually through marketing), how much you make on specific products you’re selling, and how many people bought into your loyalty program (if you have one). 

You can see just how closely related these two terms are which can make it difficult for people to understand the difference between a sales funnel and a marketing funnel. Think of a funnel as certain steps a prospective customer goes through before they make the decision to purchase your product or services. Now that you know what a Funnel is, let’s look at the difference between an Ecommerce Sales Funnel and a Marketing Funnel. 

Sales Funnel

Alright. Let’s talk about the Sales Funnel first. You’re a potential customer who is interested in buying a product from a company. Maybe you saw an advertisement online or on television and now want to purchase the product with your hard-earned money. 

A sales funnel is the part of the funnel that takes prospective customers from the marketing half that we’ll talk about in a little bit and converts them to purchasing customers. Consistency is key when you’re using a sales funnel as it’s important that your sales funnel links each stage, awareness, interest, decision, and action together. 

Awareness is the part of the sales funnel that brings in prospective customers and makes them aware of your product or business. Interest is next and it’s where your prospective customers begin to research your products. They might even start comparing your products to your competitors. This is where you earn their trust.  For more ways to earn customer trust, click here. 

Next is the decision stage, which is when a customer will decide if they want to buy your products or not. Action is last, it’s when a customer purchases your product or services. 

The great thing about a sales funnel is that it boosts sales, earns customer trust through the interest stage, and identifies problems with your product or sales that you didn’t see before. For example, if your customers aren’t getting past the interest stage, then something is wrong. It’s time to reevaluate your product, pricing, or marketing materials.

Marketing funnels

Marketing funnels are closely related to sales funnel. This funnel describes the journey of converting prospects or leads into customers. A marketing funnel helps teach prospects about your product and company while also helping you understand and visualize their journey as customers. It makes coming up with marketing strategies a lot easier. 

Marketing funnels include lead generation and lead nurturing, and the actual funnel itself has several stages customers go through, just like the sales funnel. Lead generation is when you create awareness around your product or brand. Think social media campaigns, online ads, and content marketing. Lead nurturing is the next part, where you create a relationship between your prospects and your company. 

There are six stages to a good marketing funnel and they’re similar to your sales funnel. There’s the first part of the funnel called the Awareness stage which is where you generate your leads through different marketing ploys such as social media ads, mailing info, television ads, etc. The next stage is called, interest and it’s where you give your prospects information about your product, company, and brand. This helps with lead nurturing. 

The third stage of the funnel is a consideration where prospects receive even more information. Sometimes this can be through automated email ads or online brochures. The fourth stage is called intent and it’s when a potential customer places your products into their cart on your website or when they show signs of actively purchasing your services. Maybe they started filling out paperwork to acquire your services. 

The fifth stage is called evaluation, and it’s when your prospect makes the final decision to become customers and purchase your product or services. Think of this as the part where either your prospect will enter in their credit card to purchase your product directly from your cart or, they’ll put everything back and leave your website without committing to the sale. If they decide to go through with it, they’ve entered into the last stage of the funnel which is called purchase. 

Spotting the difference

While the two funnels are very similar since they both help increase sales through recognition and use marketing tools to aid them throughout each stage of the process, they still have their differences. 

The process that l helps guide prospective customers from the marketing stage and convert them into customers is the sales funnel whereas a marketing funnel converts a lead to a purchasing customer. Another difference is that a sales funnel maintains consumer interest, whereas the marketing funnel creates interest. Also, the marketing funnel concentrates more on company image and recognition whereas the sales funnel concentrates on the product and services. 

As you can see, the marketing funnel and sales funnel are both important tools to have under your belt in business. Both help you earn prospective customers’ business and trust in different ways. One helps you create prospective customers and turn them into actual purchasing customers while the other concentrates on making more sales. Both are important to running your own successful business. 

I recommend using both in your business so you can make sure you have all your bases stacked. Hire professionals to create you your own marketing and sales funnel so your business can continue to thrive.