The Funnel: Cold, Warm, Hot

To sum this up with utmost simplicity, the marketing funnel consists of a cold, warm, and hot stage. The reason why it is called a "funnel" is that users have to flow through each stage from top to bottom.

Ideally, you would want users to follow through all the way down to the "hot" stage to be considered a success.

Still don't get it? Let's go through each part in greater detail.

Cold Audience

A cold audience is a group of users who have never seen your brand before and are completely unfamiliar with your concept. This audience usually takes more effort (and more ad-spend) to convert.

How do you market to cold audiences and move them down to the warm stage? For every platform you are advertising on, the success method will differ.

Here are some examples of creatives that will work well on Instagram & Facebook.

Instagram: Highly engaging image content, a good video with an initial hook in the first 3 seconds, good story swipe-up ads.

Facebook: Long-form story content, a short & engaging video, carousel ads.

Of course, this will only work if you are targeting the right audience. Make sure that you utilize a creative that is appropriate for your target audience and the product you are selling.

Getting a cold audience converted into warm is easy. All you need to do is to increase your brand's awareness. However, the next part isn't so easy.

Warm audience

A warm audience comprises of users who have seen your ad before but have not converted yet. Warm users are much easier to convert than cold users.

There are several ways to convert warm users, bringing them to the last stage of the funnel.

Retargeting campaigns: If you are actively running ads on multiple social media channels and do not have a retargeting campaign flow set up, boy, you are missing out. Retargeting campaigns actually perform up to 10 times better than a regular campaign.

Increased ad frequency: In the world of digital marketing, there are many rules in place. In this case, we're going to talk about the Rule Of 7. The rule of 7 basically states that prospects have to hear the advertiser's message at least 7 times before converting into paying customers.

Launching sales campaigns: Sometimes all it takes for your prospects to convert is a drop in price. Letting your warm audiences know that you are offering a discount may lead to higher conversions, but over-using this tactic will lead your customers to only convert when you are having a sale.

Hot audience

Now, this is where you want most of your prospects to be. I don't care if you can't handle your spice well, we're eating hot wings tonight.

A hot audience comprises of users who have converted one way or another. What we mean by conversions is if a user has taken action of any sort on your website. Be it fill out a form, added to cart, or purchased something.

A hot audience doesn't necessarily mean they are paying customers, not yet at least. If a user is already in the hot stage but not a "customer" yet, you might need to take a look at your entire sales process again.

Is it price? Is it your landing page? Is it your product itself? Try changing a few things and observing the results. All it takes is a little trial and error to find that sweet spot. Once you find that sweet spot, you'll get the ball rolling.