How to Build a Lead Generation Funnel in 7 Steps

The key to building your sales pipeline isn't attracting more casual prospects. It's connecting with more qualified leads and guiding them toward a conversion.

A well-designed funnel helps nurture leads from discovery to action so you can close more deals. Learn how to build a lead generation funnel, with tips and tactics for each stage.

What is a lead generation funnel?

A lead generation funnel is a method that sales and marketing teams use to attract prospects and convert them into paying customers.

This type of funnel focuses on connecting with prospects, collecting their contact information, and then adding qualified leads to the sales pipeline. It simplifies the sales process, guiding leads from awareness to conversion more efficiently.

A lead gen funnel aligns with the buyer's journey. But instead of reflecting the customer's point of view, this funnel is from the perspective of sales and marketing.

Marketing and sales teams collaborate on lead generation. Marketing handles the first three stages before handing off qualified leads to sales for the final two lead funnel stages.

It's considered a funnel because of its shape. The first stage includes the largest number of prospects. Then, each subsequent stage filters out unqualified prospects, leading to progressively smaller groups of potential customers.

Stages of a lead generation funnel

A typical lead gen funnel has five stages. Let's walk through explanations and tactics for each stage.

Discovery stage

The first stage of the funnel happens when prospects initially become aware of your business. This is your team's chance to introduce the company's solutions to potential buyers.

To capture prospects' attention, marketing teams use tactics like:

• Using search engine optimization (SEO) to rank content at the top of search results and drive organic traffic
• Creating paid social media campaigns (e.g., LinkedIn or Facebook) to connect with new prospects
• Running search ads to reach prospects as they look for solutions

For example, here's a pay-per-click (PPC) ad by Livestorm. It's designed to introduce our webinar platform to prospects as they search for software to host live or on-demand events.

Interest stage

During the interest stage, prospects begin to dig deeper into potential solutions. They want to learn more about solutions that address their pain points and help them reach their goals.

To educate interested prospects, marketing teams use lead nurturing tactics like:

• Creating lead magnet content that provides added value, such as ebooks or research reports
• Sending email marketing campaigns that highlight the value of your product or service
• Hosting webinars that help establish authority in your industry and invite real-time interactions

For example, here's a webinar that Livestorm hosted in partnership with Chopcast. The live event walked viewers through strategies to repurpose webinar content, helping to build trust and credibility.

Appraisal stage

At the appraisal stage, prospects start to seriously consider products and services. They actively compare options and look for data that qualifies the value that potential solutions provide.

To help with the evaluation process, marketing and sales teams step up their lead generation efforts by:

• Producing case studies that feature real customer results and testimonials
• Personalizing email campaigns that share relevant data and customer results
• Publishing comparison pages that show how your solution measures up to the competition

For example, Livestorm's webinar software comparison page invites leads to compare our solution to more than a dozen competing products. This landing page provides data to help leads evaluate their options.

Decision stage

At the decision stage, leads are finalizing their research and getting ready to make a purchase. They often need to finalize pricing or have lingering objections that they want to address.

To guide leads toward a decision, sales teams often use these customer acquisition tactics:

• Offering a limited-time incentive, such as a discount
• Providing free audits to show leads how to meet their goals—and how your solution can help
• Hosting on-demand product demos or personalized live walkthroughs

For example, Livestorm hosts an on-demand demo that potential customers can sign up to watch at any time. Our sales team also offers personalized content via a live demo, which you can book from our homepage.

Action stage

When leads reach the action stage, they're at the end of the customer journey and ready to convert. They want to finalize the offer, sign the contract, and start using the solution.

To close the deal and set customers up for success, sales teams use these tactics:

• Sending confirmation email campaigns that clearly outline steps to get started
• Onboarding new customers via one-on-one training sessions
• Checking in with new customers and answering questions on an ongoing basis

7 Steps to build a lead generation funnel

Follow the lead generation best practices below to set up a successful funnel.

1. Identify your ideal customer profile

First, get clear on the type of leads you want to attract. Define your ideal customer profile (ICP) by clarifying factors like their:

• Industry
• Location
• Company size
• Annual revenue
• Pain points
• Goals

The easiest way to uncover these factors is to look for common themes among your top customers. Analyze customers with the highest ROI, greatest lifetime value, or longest relationship with your business to determine where to focus your marketing and sales efforts.

2. Map the buyer's journey

Next, sketch out the journey that your customers take as they research solutions and make a purchase. You need to know the kinds of content they typically consume and the calls to action (CTAs) they respond to as they go from awareness to conversion.

Review analytics for your social media, email, content marketing, and advertising campaigns. Identify the best fit touchpoints that generate the most value and prompt leads to take the next step in their buyer's journey.

3. Define your lead gen offer

Once you know the types of content that work best for your target audience, decide on the main offer for your lead magnet funnel. A strong offer should solve your prospects' problems and provide enough value that they're willing to provide their email address in exchange for access.

For example, you could develop an:

• Original research report with data that leads can't access anywhere else
• Exclusive webinar featuring important thought leaders in your industry
• Email course that teaches leads how to master a new skill

4. Develop content for your audience

Now you're ready to create your lead magnet and attract new leads. Depending on the format you choose, this step may involve producing a downloadable asset, developing a course, or organizing a webinar.

But keep in mind that the lead magnet is just one aspect in your approach to building a funnel. You need valuable content for each stage. Use your knowledge of the buyer's journey and the marketing and sales lead funnel to inform the content you create for every remaining step.

5. Collect contact information

As you create content and develop the funnel, lead generation tools become essential for collecting contact information and building a sales pipeline. These powerful tools make the process much easier:

• Website visitor identification tool like Leadfeeder, which can help you assess buying intent
• Lead capture tool like Leadpages to collect email addresses and manage lead magnets
• Customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Pipedrive to manage leads

6. Hand off leads from marketing to sales

After leads have gone through the first three funnel stages (discovery, interest, and appraisal) they may be approaching a purchase decision.

But instead of qualifying leads solely on how they move through the lead funnel, pay attention to the data. Plan to hand off leads based on their buying signals—which may include their engagement patterns, intent data, or conversations with sales.

To simplify your lead generation process, use sales tools like your CRM to manage leads. Set up a lead scoring system so you can automatically hand off leads once they're qualified.

7. Connect with leads and close the deal

Create a reliable system for sales to connect with qualified leads and close the deal after the handoff. Depending on your sales process, this final step typically involves sending an email or making a phone call to directly reach out to leads and make the sale.

How to measure and optimize your lead funnel

A sales funnel isn't a static strategy. Instead, it's a dynamic approach that you should aim to refine over time.

To identify areas for improvement and optimization, measure your results carefully. Focus on these metrics:

• Engagement rate: How engaged leads are with touchpoints across your website, social media profiles, and email campaigns
• Lead conversion rate: How frequently prospects become leads by downloading a lead magnet, signing up for a webinar, or booking a demo
• Lead-to-sale conversion rate: How frequently leads make a purchase and become paying customers
• Sales cycle length: How long it takes from the first contact with a prospect to a closed deal
• Customer acquisition cost: How much you spend to acquire each new customer

Livestorm for webinar lead generation funnels

Designed for B2B lead generation, Livestorm makes it easy to create a webinar funnel so you can share exclusive content, build authority, and nurture leads in real time.

From live events to automated webinars, Livestorm lets you connect with leads around the clock. And Livestorm integrations can simplify your funnel by syncing webinar data with your CRM and marketing automation tools.

Get started in minutes. Sign up for Livestorm and start testing our webinar platform at no cost.