In B2B marketing funnel -everything I know as a marketer

If it feels like the concept “B2B Marketing Funnel” was there forever, they are not far away.

In 1898 advertising pioneer Elias St. Elmo Lewis Creates the AIDA modelLay the basis for the funnel we use every day. While the idea of ​​selling something to someone is as old as humanity, the modern funnel frame helps to standardize and improve the experience of a buyer.

What does it take to build a funnel? And how do you know that it works? Let us connect and find out other marketing experts.

Table of contents

What is the B2B marketing funnel?

The B2B marketing funnel is a framework in which the journey that a business-to-business buyer takes for the purchase of a product or service. There is a structure for the marketers about how they understand the needs of their target groups and then position content and experience in order to meet these needs.

As a rule, sales to companies usually need a lot more time, requires complexity and includes more buyers and sellers than consumers need. You may see that a funnel with larger consumer purchases such as cars or living space takes shape. But people don’t often meet in committees for weeks to buy paper towels or beef wood meat.

With a B2B sales process, you manage more user requirements and contact points. That is there Marketing Funnel Framework helps to standardize the approach of a company.

It defines certain phases and the activities that potential buyers promote in every phase. Over time, data and feedback will help you optimize your funnel to provide convincing purchase experiences – and to close more offers.

B2B marketing funnel statistics

• The B2B shopping committee grew to an average of 11 members in 2024 – with a few up to 20 buyers or more. ((The drum)))
• Over 43% of the marketers found that the focus became more important on customers and their experience with their brand last year. ((Lifting spot)))
• 34% of the marketers say that millennials (28-43 years) are the most difficult audience with marketing content. Directly behind them is z. (Lifting spot)))
• Top marketing trends are currently being examined (Lifting spot)))

• Use of social media DMS (direct messages) for customer service.
• Creation of content that reflects the values ​​of your brand (e.g. social responsibility)
• Users generated content.
• Brand content set by industry experts or equipped with experts (e.g. blogs, videos, media with first -hand experts from your brand).

• 90% of the marketers state that their experiences are at least somewhat personalized, with a moderate or serious increase in sales due to personalization. ((Lifting spot)))
• E-mail marketing is still the highest performance channel for 42% of the B2B marketers, directly behind personal events and webinars. ((Content Marketing Institute)))
• The e -mail marketing rules the top, with 34% of the marketers using it in their strategies. ((Lifting spot)))
• Website/blog/SEO (search engine optimization) returns the largest ROI for more marketers. ((Lifting spot)))
• 67% of the B2B marketing teams state that they most frequently produce first-class content. ((database)))
• 65% of B2B buyers say that short forms such as blog posts and infographics are most committed. ((Demanding report)))
• 56% of the marketers say that their biggest hurdles when measuring the content of the content are the difficulty of tracking the ROI to content efforts and the exact persecution of customer trips. ((Content Marketing Institute)))

B2B Marketing Stadiums

The artists’ names may be different, but the intention is the same: a path for a view that changes to sold by unknown. Let’s see what happens in every step of the way.

I asked several marketers to weigh here and to share the most common pitfalls of marketers in funnel design and use.

Top of the funnel (level of consciousness)

You may see this phase “Top-of-Funnel”, “Tofu” or “Consciousness”, but everything is the same. This level marks the beginning of the trip of your prospect with the marketing of your company.

Tofu’s goal is to help the leadership, to recognize that you have a problem and deal with the solution to this problem.

Managing content teams, for example, usually means managing a series of hyperlinks and floating deadlines. Perhaps you have used a table or a super long Google document. Marketing content should show that this pain exists and explain why you can fix it for these stressed teams.

Remember: In a B2B marketing funnel, several buyers work together in a company. You need a few different appeals to reach buyers, to live the pain, to cope with the pain and to spend money to solve the pain.

Middle of the funnel (consideration level)

In the middle of the funnel (Mofu), leads rate various providers, compare solutions and search for educational content. You want to know your options and find out the best for your business.

The goal of Mofu is to stand out from the competition as the best option For your buyer. That doesn’t mean just saying that you are “the best”. Rather, it is about showing that you are able to solve your problem.

Eugene MischenkoPresident of the E-Commerce & Digital Marketing AssociationThe feeling that the moped content often misses this problem-solving brand.

“A common mistake is to provide targeted, value -oriented content that match the needs and decision criteria of the prospect,” said Mischenko.

Mischenko notes that marketers either bomb potential customers with excessive advertising modes or neglect them as a whole, provided that the initial lead magnets or the sales talk is sufficient to deport them to the funnel.

“This can cause separation and leave potential customers without the information they need to make a well -founded decision,” says Mischenko.

It is the balance between too much and too little that Mischenko warns marketer to judge deeply.

“The key to coping with the challenges of the middle funnel is the understanding that this phase of education, building trust and orientation requires the needs of the prospect,” he said. “The provision of tailor -made, revealing content and the maintenance of a consistent, non -disturbing communication is of essential importance for the moving prospects for a confident purchase decision.”

Sai -sathicA B2B marketing manager at ConsAsightsShare a similar feeling.

“The key to understand that B2B buyers need evidence-based calming and personalized support during the evaluation. The success results from the mapping of content and interactions to certain concerns about the buyer, the maintenance of a consistent commitment without overwhelming prospects and the provision of clear values ​​that meet your business goals. “

Sathish notes that it leads to an educational process for better results: “By concentrating on educational content that deals with certain pain points and offer tools with which potential customers can build internal business cases, marketers can be valued from a bottleneck Transform powerful conversion drivers. “”

Bottom of the funnel (decision level)

At the end of the funnel (Bofu), the leads narrow their options and look for proving that they make the right choice. Your marketing content should offer you satisfaction in your selection and help you to make final decisions internally.

Noel GriffithCMO from Reluctantsays that marketers can come in front of themselves in this phase and can remain vigilant with the needs of the prospects.

“Many marketers assume that a lead, as soon as a lead reaches this point, takes the heavy lifting and they only concentrate on closing the sale. The error is to neglect persistent objections or to deliver the final calming prospects that need for meals, ”said Griffith.

According to Griffith, the decision -making phase is not just about striving for the conclusion – it is about providing clarity and trust. “By adapting the front and offering personalized support, you can convert hesitation into obligations and achieve stronger results at the end of the funnel,” says Griffith.

Clarity’s offer helps you to convert leads and equip the sale in order to complete the business and convert potential customers into customers.

Purchase and storage

The sale usually takes care of closure offers and the processing of negotiations, contracts and procurements. However, marketers can support this process and provide content to promote the relationship as soon as the deal is completed:

• Intended materials to start the relationship on the right foot.
• Quarterly best practices webinars with which customers can optimize their use.
• Case studies on premium functions to enable the sale to Upsell customers.

While customers may not go through the marketing funnel again, they can transform them into branded lawyers who work for their product for others.

How to create a B2B marketing funnel

Are you ready to put your marketing funnel into operation? Let’s go through the steps you need to get started.

Step 1: Learn more about your buyer and your trip.

If you don’t know who wants to buy your product or service, how do you go to market? A well-constructed marketing funnel can attract all kinds of people, but if they pack the wrong amount, they waste time and money.

Start define yours Buyer personality. It differs from a B2C person in which they explore demographic data such as age and income level or interests. However, understanding your buyer at the company level becomes the key so that it works:

• In which industry are you? And how much income do you achieve?
• What are your pain points? What harms your business?
• What challenges can you solve directly?
• Who makes the final decision? And who informs this decision?

Chat also with sales and customer support team members. Find out which frequent objections and questions arise during the sales cycle. This information checks your persona development.

Step 2: Create your funnel.

With a purchase audience in hand, you must outline the process that the buyer is subject to during your purchase trip. The most important phases in this process become the map that forms your funnel.

Most of the time you will find that this trip collapses in Tofu, Mofu and Bofu. Define from there, as you know when a lead moves to every funnel segment. For example, a lead that downloads a research report and visits its price is probably ready to change in Bofu and a sales talk. These “marketing qualified leads” (MQLS) are a large part of the measurement of the funnel success.

Step 3: Make the right content.

The average B2B buyer participates 3-7 marketing content Before you even speak to the sales team. You have to get these buyers the right information at the right time to achieve an influence.

What does that look like in marketing funnel? Usually the content collapses like:

• TOFU – Blog posts, LinkedIn Thought Leadership, videos that focus on consciousness (who we are and what we do).
• Moped – Webinars, case studies, white papers, comparison leaders and e -mails.
• Bofu – Price sites, testimonials and interactive elements such as ROI calculators.

Timing is important. If your buyer is starting his journey, he will probably not go through a one -hour webinar in part of your solution. Be thoughtful if you deliver these items; Don’t overwhelm them, but don’t go.

Pro tip: We call this process “define your contents cadence”. Take a look at our contribution to the content frequency to set up your.

Step 4: Create your sales strategy.

You can have the best blog post ever. But if it is not the focus for your buyer and the focus, it is useless. You need a strategy to adequately distribute your content.

Part of this process is to define your marketing channels. Our latest studies show that short-term video channels such as Reels and YouTube shorts, influencer marketing and SEO remain the most important target channels. B2B marketers also focus on their websites, blog channels and e -mail newsletter.

Also evaluate your separation between organic and paid options. SEO starts organic search traffic, but since AI changes the way Google and other search engines distribute content, it is worth thinking about paid advertising – especially about Tofu content. Google ads and LinkedIn displays are two great places for B2B marketers.

Step 5: Setting up lead tracking and automation.

Will these strategies work? How do you know? Before you fire your first piece of contents, prepare for the monitoring of your funnel.

With a CRM tool (Customer Relationship Management) you can track leads in your funnel and see where you get stuck. Each tool should offer you important key figures such as traffic, lead conversion rates and costs per acquisition (CPA).

Think about how to use automation to do this more effectively. For example, you can plan a sequence of e -mails that can be sent to an interested party if you give an e -mail address. Don’t bomb them (I saw sequences to reach Dozens of e -mails), but give them enough useful information to choose the next step.

Pro tip: Drift Kings Media is free Lead management and tracking software Helps you with the organization, prioritization and inclusion of prospects of a place.

Step 6: Aligning marketing and sales.

Hopefully you have had helpful discussions with sales about the pain points and objections to increase buyers. But the orientation does not end there – in fact it started.

Marketing should deliver high -quality leads and sales should complete offers. The orientation of the goals, strategies and tactics of each department can lead to this 24% faster growth rates and 27% faster profit growth while strengthening your teams. How do you align yourself?

• Work together with the definition of MQLS and sales qualified leads (SQLS), so that everyone agrees when a lead is warm and ready.
• Share data with CRM dashboards where any lead interactions can see.
• Find every 2-4 weeks to refine your processes. Treely meet earlier and scale back as your funnel reached.

Communicate where the lead flow gets stuck and consider the options. For example, sales can receive colder leads as expected. Marketing can create more Mofu content to exchange stories and hire potential customers for sales.

Step 7: Optimize your funnel.

You will take the best first guess if you build your funnel. However, times change, buyers change and the assumptions will be wrong. You have to use data and feedback over time to refine your stages, content and distribution methods.

Suppose your webinar series does not lead to sufficient product -demo requests. Maybe your webinar is not convincing enough. Or maybe there is not enough follow-up with the participants. Go to this process like a scientist: hypothesis, testing and ittery.

Pro tip: HubSpot can help you follow this information and make well -founded decisions to optimize. See our latest video for a common challenge: Riding lines with blogs.

Example of B2B marketing funnel

How about an example? In this case, we will use my content consulting business and the funnel that I run to reach business buyers.

First and foremost, I focus on creating content, professional writing services and contents of content, using a background in B2B tech. How do I achieve people who need my services?

audience

I work in B2B, so my target group includes companies that need high quality content. This not only writes long -formed content, but also supporting agencies that offer content as a service.

Based on this, I researched various industries and industries for market opportunities. Then I determine what services you want and how I reach you:

Let us assume that we have a prospect: a B2B Saas company that wants to scale content production internally. Note that a B2B SaaS company is probably involved in some decision-makers:

• The person who is most responsible for content, like a marketing director.
• Your boss, like a VP of Marketing or a CMO.
• And possibly, possibly her Boss, the CEO.

How do you go through my marketing funnel?

Level of consciousness

I have to draw all these decision -makers’ attention to my services and arouse their interest. In the level of consciousness or tofu, I do this with content such as:

• An optimized blog post about content as a service.
• A LinkedIn contribution that emphasizes the main points of my blog and expands with additional research.
• An episode of my short form video series about the common mistakes that make people in the management of content production.

I followed the traffic and social media commitment to see who is committed and how deeply they are committed.

Consideration phase

As the potential customers notice, they want to know more. You also want to see if I know my things.

For our sample B2B SaaS prospect, content could be in this phase:

• A case study that reflects how outsourced content saves a different tech company money and time and at the same time achieve better results.
• A subscription to my two -week e -mail newsletter in which I share blog posts and content tips and tricks.
• A live issue and answers in which I go through a common pitfall.

Sometimes I see content overlap between the tofu and mopy levels. The prospects do not always have a clear awareness of their challenges, and it takes additional content, production and time to see them.

I also follow metrics such as e -mail openings and clicks and meetings that are booked to see what clicks on people.

Decision -making level

As soon as I have sparked your interest and showed you what I can do, I have to win you. This can happen in different ways:

• A free consulting meeting to check and improve a lackluster piece of contents.
• A calculator for the development of a custom price package.
• Testimonials from other B2B -Saas buyers who share how I help their business grow.

I will often start with a small project like a series of blog posts before I expand into larger services. Services for the retainer are usually also suitable for my business.

Of course I observe (very carefully) conversion rates and suggestions. I would also like to see where the pricing ends so that I can adjust the prices accordingly.

From there it is about closing offers and making customers happy with high quality work. This puts me on maintaining customers and expanding my services in good time.

Mastering the B2B marketing funnel

I think the funnel is here to stay, even if tactics and channels change. While you can come across different names or segmentation, the purpose remains the same. Your customer goes his way. It is their job to show and lead them. Use the B2B marketing funnel model to serve as your Guide to this.