What is a Funnel?

A marketing funnel helps illustrate the buying process of a potential customer from the first contact with a company (e.g. website visit) to the effective purchase.

The analogy of the funnel comes from the fact that the number of potential customers decreases with each stage of the customer journey. The marketing funnel thus helps determine how many potential users need to be in contact with the company, in order to have enough remaining buyers in the sales funnel by the end of the process.

As visible in the image below, the funnel can be divided into four main categories; namely Attract, Engage, Convert and Delight. 

Furthermore, such a funnel can be supported with the means of marketing automation in order to drive potential customers from one stage to the next without having to invest large amounts of manual effort.