If you search Google, there are 88,800 thousand images for the marketing funnel and 38,100 for the marketing hourglass depicted. All having a little different twist going from the Duct Tape Marketing Know, Like and Trust to the Awareness, Consider, Prefer and more. All of them depicting a systematic way to go from initial contact to buy and many of them adding the referral and repeat stages. I believe a systematic way to manage your marketing should not be an option but a fundamental of marketing. However, with this many options can there be a system?
In previous blogs, you have heard me mention that one of the main culprits is variation and the lack of proper segmentation. We think of segmentation both in a horizontal fashion and a vertical. Horizontal will typically result in segments such as: Direct, Internet, Distributor, Joint-Venture and so on. The vertical aspect of your Marketing Funnel is the image on the right depicted below. This funnel allows you to assign different products to each process stage in the hope of maximizing efforts.
However, if you attempt to improve your Marketing Funnel, how would you go about it? Being a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, the Marketing Funnel bears a close resemblance to the DMAIC process of Six Sigma. Not that I am trying to replace the marketing funnel with DMAIC, but it certainly would not hurt to analyze the resemblance to improve our marketing process. And if you know anything about Lean Six Sigma, the one thing we will attack is variation. However, just using some generic definitions of DMAIC and relating them to the Marketing Funnel can create some interesting observations.
Define
Purpose: Identify the clients, their needs and requirements.
Deliverable: State the need of the client (CTS) and the problem
Measure
Purpose: Quantify Process Performance
Deliverable: Determine baseline process performance
Analyze
Purpose: Identify, Verify and Quantify Root causes
Deliverable: Statistically linking input with output
Improve
Purpose: Create the Solution and Validate
Deliverable: Optimizing Process Operating Conditions
Control
Purpose: Document and Standardize Process
Deliverable: Meet Critical to Quality(CTQ) consistently (Involvement)
Looking at your Marketing Funnel from the DMAIC viewpoint is not that far-fetched, is it?
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