Understanding the Marketing Funnel
Think about the totality of your marketing efforts like a funnel; you want your audience to move through the funnel to take your desired action, i.e., support you financially. The physics works the same: the liquid flows from the top of the funnel through the opening into the desired container. In this case, the funnel is your sphere of influence, the liquid is your audience, and the container is your career. The more effectively you move your audience through the funnel, the more opportunities you can create.
You can break it down into more specific areas, but for our purposes of thinking more strategically about your marketing strategies, let’s look at the basic breakdown of the funnel:
Top of Funnel (TOFU): The top of the funnel is the “Awareness” or “Discovery” phase. Here, it’s all about getting your name out there, whether that’s through PR, live performances, advertising, playlisting, etc. It’s the broadest reach of your audience, engaging people passively beyond your existing following. It’s the people who read an album review, come across a song, or see an ad but may not have any connection to you—yet. You’re focusing on getting the people who don’t know you or your music oriented to your brand and increasing their familiarity.
Middle of Funnel (MOFU): Now you have a fan who is familiar with you as an artist and they move into the middle of the funnel which can be broken into two parts:
Connection: The initial point of interest and when they want to learn more about you. It’s your first impression and presence. It’s why you connect your platforms and links, write engaging bios, have professional imagery, and so on. Here, your job is to provide clear and concise ways to connect with you further beyond whatever brought them to this point.
Engagement: The next step comes in the form of follows, email signups, joining exclusive communities, etc. They’ve discovered you, and now they want to stay invested and interact. This phase is why personalized engagement is so important, they want to engage with you, so engage with them.
Bottom of Funnel (BOFU): This is the “Conversion” Phase. Your fan has moved through these stages and is now a full-fledged supporter. They have been following you, and now they’ve bought a ticket to your show, pre-saved your album, bought your new merch, donated to your crowdfunding campaign, or whatever action you wanted them to take to support your career.
But it doesn’t end there.
The Post-Funnel (Superfan) Phase: The final stage of the funnel is usually referred to as the “Retention & Advocacy” Phase. You’ve converted them into fans; now you want to keep them and get them even more invested in your work. For example, offer them limited runs of merch, create free or subscription communities, or give them exclusive looks into your upcoming project. “Superfans” can make a large financial impact and provide sustainability as they cycle through the conversion phase. Beyond purchases, superfans stay deeply connected through exclusive spaces that make them feel like insiders - whether through private communities, VIP experiences, or direct engagement. They’re also some of your best promoters, cycling more potential fans into the top of the funnel.
You can learn more about “superfans” here.
Final Thoughts:
In more professional terms, the funnel is a visualization of the customer journey. But here’s what’s interesting about your field of work: how you define the customer journey depends on the revenue stream or activity we’re talking about. We can also use it as a tool to think about how we push fans to take desired actions that are not revenue-based. While you’ll find all sorts of explanations for one kind of product or another, we can adapt the concept of the funnel to apply to a variety of revenue activities in your entrepreneurial music career because there is a multitude of ways you can (and should) be making money as an artist.
Unfortunately, it’s not a cylinder. The number of fans tails off as they move through, right? The key is to provide ways to easily move from one stage of the funnel to the next. More people will hear about you than be interested; more will be interested than engaged; more will engage than convert, but you can retain with far more success. The width of the bottom opening of the funnel has a lot to do with how much “liquid” gets through. This is why we want to create more avenues for fans and “superfans” to support you. So often, I see artists create rather large funnels with openings that only allow for a drip. Increase the ways you monetize your music, and you can increase your revenue.
Now, let’s recap:
Thinking about your fan’s relationship to your music and brand in terms of the marketing funnel can help you:
keep them engaged,
build sustainability,
and know where to focus your efforts.
All of these come with their own benefits and challenges, but this strategy gives you more of a chance than waiting around on that one viral song or post to get your project off the ground.
Thinking about your marketing efforts strategically is one thing, it’s another to put it all together and execute the plan. Wherever you are in the process—planning or execution—Commune can help.