It can seem as if a lot of terms related to business refer to the same things but if you dig deeper, the subtleties are necessary and important. Let’s take the marketing funnels and the customer journeys, to start with.
A lot of people confuse them and think that they’re the same thing, but in reality they differ in important structural ways.
Let’s start with the former term, which is sometimes also known as the sales funnel. This takes a look at how marketing works, but not from the customer’s perspective.
Instead, the marketing funnel is the company’s journey through sales. It’s probably familiar and feels natural, because it’s been around for so long. Things start at the top with leads, who come into your view in all sorts of ways, some with more knowledge than others.
And it gets smaller as you move people through that funnel from leads (sometimes throwing them out entirely because they’re not interested or not a good fit) through a sale and beyond.
It’s a broad way to approach how you do business and what types of touchpoints you have with customers and potential customers.
So how does this differ from the customer journey?
This graphic helps you understand the differences.