Marketing funnels and customer journey maps are both important frameworks that reveal how to focus your team’s energy for maximum impact. While orgs should implement both, it’s important to remember that they aren’t the same thing. 

In this article, we’ll break down marketing funnels and customer journeys, explaining their differences and why both are such useful tools that impact your bottom line. Plus, we’ll share templates to get you started! 

What is the marketing funnel? 

The marketing funnel provides a useful way to visualize the sales process. It breaks down each step, from awareness of the product to purchase. It’s one of the oldest concepts in business and is used in nearly every industry and company, in some shape or form. It includes three elements, but sometimes they are broken down into additional steps. As a potential customer gets closer to purchasing, they move further down the funnel. 

Top of funnel

The top of the funnel is the first step in the sales process, which is when you capture the eye of potential customers—ideally a large audience. Whether this occurs through blog articles, social media posts, influencers, or something else, it’s ideal for grabbing the attention of consumers and making them realize they have a problem or a need that your product may fix.

Middle of funnel

Once leads know about your product, they move to the next level of the funnel. This is where you can provide a variety of resources and content for them to research and compare features, like webinars, guides, or limited trials. 

Bottom of funnel

The bottom of the funnel (and the narrowest part) focuses on conversions. Once customers have considered different options, it’s time to convince them to choose yours. Case studies, product demos, and more would fall into this category, but it’s important to note that more resources are generally needed at the top of the funnel than at the bottom. This is because you have to cast a large net at the top of the funnel to capture the interest of potential customers, while someone at the bottom of the funnel is already familiar with you and your product. This means the resources you offer at the bottom of the funnel can be more narrow and tailored to your product. 

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is similar to the marketing funnel, but it highlights the customer’s specific touchpoints throughout the process, from when they first learn of your brand to making a sale and beyond. Because it pinpoints each interaction, from reading an FAQ page to requesting information and more, the customer journey is typically less straightforward and longer than the marketing funnel. 

It can also be more difficult to track because it’s often nonlinear. In fact, customers often loop back around and repeat steps. But continuously perfecting customer journey marketing helps ensure your marketing and sales teams are focused on the proper methods of distribution and lead generation. 

Stages of the customer journey

While the customer journey is less straightforward, it generally contains five basic steps:

1. Awareness: This is when a customer first learns about your company and product. Sponsored ads are often a key element of this step for many organizations.

2. Consideration: This encompasses the steps a customer takes to learn more about your offerings and compare them to what else is available. They may browse your website, examine your product pages, and more. 

3. Purchase: After they’ve done their research, customers can make a purchase. They select the product they want and initiate payment. 

4. Onboarding: Onboarding is often a standardized training process for many apps and software products, but it can also encompass simply trying the product out to determine whether or not you’d like to keep it. 

5. Advocacy: If the customer is happy with their purchase, they may recommend it to friends, leave a review online, or engage with the brand’s social media. It’s easy to forget about this part of the customer journey, but it’s crucial for driving more sales.

Marketing funnel vs customer journey map

Marketing funnels and journey maps work well together, but they’re two distinct tools with different purposes. 

Focus

While customer journey maps focus on the customers themselves, marketing funnels are more business-centric. 

Structure

The marketing funnel is much more linear, and while the stages can be broken down, they’re still generally well-defined. In contrast, customer journey funnels are more flexible and even cyclical. 

Purpose

Customer journey marketing provides insight into the customer’s perspective to uncover opportunities for improvement. The marketing funnel focuses on driving customers through the funnel and toward a sale.

Metrics

The success of the marketing funnel is all about conversion rates and increasing sales, but the success of customer journey marketing is more about customer satisfaction scores and the length/quality of their experiences in learning about and purchasing your product.

Using marketing funnels and customer journey maps together

Successful companies should adopt both marketing funnels and customer journey maps. When implemented effectively, they’ll work together as complementary tools to propel sales and drive more positive customer experiences. 

Customer journey maps can serve as a reality check for the effectiveness of your marketing funnel. While they obviously won’t look identical, they should be similar enough to be related. Your marketing funnel should fit into the journeys your customers are taking. Comparing these two can help you improve your customer's experience and land more sales overall. 

Create both marketing funnels and customer journey maps in Lucidchart

Lucidchart can help you create marketing funnels, customer journey maps, and much more. With dozens of features that allow you to customize and optimize templates, plus collaborate on them with your team, they can become valuable documentation for your org.