Marketing Funnel is a list of psychological stages a prospect (potential customer) would have in relation to your brand/product. It can range from awareness, consideration, evaluation, decision, to loyalty.

For example, if you’re a car dealer selling minivans, you may not be targeting young students or young professionals, as they may not relate themselves to buying a mini-van. Until they are expecting a baby, they may become aware of the need of buying a bigger SUV/van instead of a regular sedan or a compact car. They started to do some research and found that all car brands carry a SUV/van for them to select, including Honda Odyssey, BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer, or a Dodge Grand Caravan. From a marketing sense, this would be your target persona who started to have desire and then become aware of your brand/product. They then move on to start considering the type of features and functionalities they’d need as a family and with a new baby. They’ve moved into the “consideration” stage. Once they figured out a few must-have features & functionalities and the budget/price, they started to come down to a short list of brands that fits their criteria. They went to the dealers for test drives. They’re now at the evaluation stage.  Finally, after rounds of consideration and evaluation, they’ve come to a decision with a brand and started with the negotiation phase. Ultimately, they are able to negotiate a good price to buy the car they wanted, and become a customer of the brand. If they’re satisfied with the car they bought, they’d start telling other friends and families about how good the car is. This is when they entering into the loyalty stage.

For any purchasing decision we make, either it’s a b2b or b2c product, we all go through such process to come to the best product we’d buy. As a marketer, it is very important to provide value aligning to every stages, so you’re maximizing the potential of a target audience to become your loyal customer.