Imagine you’re walking down the street and a stranger stops you: “Hi, would you like to buy this watch for 500 euros?” You’d probably walk around them or pick up the pace. Yet this is exactly how many companies sell online. They launch an ad and send someone who has never heard of them straight to a page with a “Buy now” button. In this article, you’ll learn how to build a marketing funnel that gets to know the customer first and only then sells to them.
Why people don’t buy right away
A visitor who sees you for the first time doesn’t know you, doesn’t trust you and often doesn’t even know yet whether they need your solution. That’s why most people don’t buy on their first visit. They compare, put it off, need time.
Without a strategy, you lose these people for good. They leave your website and never come back. A marketing funnel is a way to stay in touch with them until they’re ready.
What a marketing funnel is
A marketing funnel (or sales funnel) is the path you guide a customer along, from the first “Who are you?” all the way to “I’ll take it” — and ideally on to the next purchase. It’s called a funnel because there are many people at the start, and their numbers gradually shrink. The ones who stay are those genuinely interested in your offer.
To make it more concrete, let’s take an example: you sell ergonomic office chairs. Let’s walk through the individual stages.
Stage 1: TOFU — getting attention
TOFU (top of the funnel) is the stage where the customer doesn’t know about you yet. They have a problem but don’t know the solution. Your job here isn’t to sell but to help.
- Goal: get people to your content.
- Tools: blog posts, short educational videos, social media posts, podcasts.
- Example: Instead of an ad saying “Buy our orthopedic chair,” you promote the article “5 reasons your back hurts when you work at a computer.”
People click because their back really does hurt. They’ve just entered your funnel.
Stage 2: MOFU — trading value for contact details
MOFU (middle of the funnel) begins the moment someone is on your website and knows you exist. If they leave now, you lose them. You need their contact details — and nobody hands those over for nothing. You have to offer something valuable in return, a so-called lead magnet.
- Goal: get an email address and consent to further communication.
- Tools: a downloadable guide or checklist, a short email course, a quiz with a recommendation, a discount on the first purchase.
- Example: At the end of the article, you offer: “Download the free PDF: Office exercises that relieve back pain in five minutes a day.”
The person enters their email and gets the guide. They’re no longer a stranger but a lead — the contact of a potential customer. For inspiration on which lead magnets work today, see our article on types of lead magnets.
Stage 3: Building trust (nurturing)
This is the stage many companies skip. They have an email address, so they immediately start sending offers. Mistake. Now is the time to build a relationship — ideally through an automated email sequence that runs on its own. Think of it as a few dates before the big question.
- Day 1: an email with the guide and a short story about your company — why you care about healthy sitting.
- Day 3: a tip on how to position your monitor so your neck doesn’t hurt. Pure value, no selling.
- Day 5: the story of a customer whose new chair helped them (social proof).
At this stage, the customer starts to realize that you understand their problem, and they begin to trust you. We explain how to set up sequences like this in our article on email marketing automation scenarios.
Stage 4: BOFU — an offer that makes sense
BOFU (bottom of the funnel) is the moment of decision. The customer knows you, has received useful advice from you and trusts you. Only now is it time for an offer that’s the logical answer to their problem.
- Goal: a sale or an inquiry.
- Tools: a sales page, a limited-time offer, a bonus, a guarantee.
- Example: “We hope the exercises helped. If you want to solve the problem for good, we have a chair for newsletter subscribers with free shipping and the option to try it at home.”
Why does it work now? Because it’s not a cold sale — it’s the next step in a conversation that’s already happening.
Stage 5: Retention — it doesn’t end with the customer
The biggest misconception about funnels is that they end with a purchase. A large share of profit actually comes from repeat purchases and referrals. So your funnel keeps going:
- Onboarding — an email with instructions on how to assemble the chair and set it up properly.
- Upsell — a few weeks later, an offer for an accessory, such as a footrest (an upsell means offering an additional or higher-tier product to an existing customer).
- Reviews and referrals — a request for a rating and a discount for a friend they recommend.
The first weeks after a purchase decide whether a customer comes back. Read more in our article on customer onboarding.
Don’t just build a website — build a system
A website is a business card. A marketing funnel is a system that works even when you don’t:
- while you sleep, ads and content bring in new people,
- while you’re at lunch, your website collects contacts,
- while you’re on vacation, automated emails build relationships.
The winner isn’t whoever has the prettiest logo but whoever has the best system for turning strangers into loyal customers.
How to start: your funnel on one sheet of paper
- Write down the problem your customer is dealing with before they even know about you.
- Come up with one piece of content that helps them with this problem.
- Prepare a lead magnet they’ll gladly give you their email for.
- Write three to five emails that build trust without pushing.
- Put together an offer that follows logically from them.
- Plan what the customer gets after they buy.
- Set up tracking so you can see where people drop out of the funnel.
Frequently asked questions
Does a small business need a marketing funnel too?
Yes. A funnel doesn’t have to be complicated — one useful article, one lead magnet and a few automated emails are enough. Even a simple system like this will help you stop losing people who aren’t ready to buy yet.
What’s the difference between TOFU, MOFU and BOFU?
TOFU is the top of the funnel, where you get the attention of people who don’t know about you. MOFU is the middle, where you get contact details and build a relationship. BOFU is the bottom, where the offer and the buying decision come in.
How long does it take for a funnel to start working?
You can get your first contacts right after launch if you drive traffic to it. Fine-tuning the emails, the offer and the ads, however, takes several weeks to months before you find out what works best for your customers.
Does a funnel work for services too, not just online stores?
Yes. For services, the lead magnet might be a checklist, a calculator or a free consultation, and the offer a meeting or a quote. The principle is the same: help first, then sell.
Let’s build your funnel together
Sounds complicated? It doesn’t have to be. The most important part of most funnels is the emails that work for you. If you want to design and set up automations from the lead magnet all the way to post-purchase emails, check out our email marketing services — we’ll turn your website from a bulletin board into a salesperson.
