What is a lead generation funnel?
You’ve probably heard of a sales funnel. This is the journey a customer takes from their first encounter with your brand all the way to becoming a customer. There are four stages of a sales funnel:
Your lead generation funnel is essentially the top of your sales funnel and encompasses the “awareness” and “interest” stages. It’s a collection of assets (ads, content, videos, etc.) that are designed to introduce new people to your brand and convince them to hand over their email addresses.
An example of a lead generation funnel could be:
- A blog post that answers important questions about your niche and introduces your audience to your brand.
- Retargeting ads that target those who viewed your blog and send them to a landing page.
- A landing page that encourages people to submit their email addresses in exchange for free training that helps them solve a problem they’re having.
A lead generation funnel doesn’t contain a sales pitch—it prepares people for the pitch. After someone’s gone through your lead generation funnel they’ll be familiar with your brand. You’ll have also proven yourself by already solving one of their problems. That way, when you finally offer them a paid product or service, they’ll be much more likely to take you up on it.
Breaking Down the Stages of a Lead Generation Funnel
Every successful lead generation funnel follows a clear, intentional structure designed to guide potential customers from first touch to final conversion. Understanding each stage helps you craft the right message at the right time—boosting engagement, trust, and ultimately, sales.
Here’s a closer look at the four essential stages of a lead generation funnel:
1. Top of Funnel (TOFU): Awareness
Goal: Attract attention and build awareness.
This is where your audience first discovers your brand. They may not know they have a problem yet—or that your solution exists. Your job is to educate, entertain, or inspire, and draw them in.
Tactics:
- SEO-driven blog content
- Social media posts and videos
- Lead magnets like checklists or guides
- Paid ads that spark curiosity
- Webinars or short educational content
Leadpages Tip: Pair a helpful blog post with a content upgrade (like a downloadable resource) and a high-converting landing page to quickly grow your list.
2. Middle of Funnel (MOFU): Interest & Consideration
Goal: Build trust and nurture leads.
Now that your audience is aware of your brand, it’s time to deepen the relationship. They’re exploring their options and weighing different solutions—including yours. This stage is all about providing value, demonstrating credibility, and positioning your offer as the best fit.
Tactics:
- Email nurture sequences
- Case studies and testimonials
- Comparison guides
- Free tools or templates
- Webinar replays or workshop invites
Leadpages Tip: Use a landing page to host a webinar or offer a free consultation, then follow up with email automation to keep the conversation going.
3. Bottom of Funnel (BOFU): Decision
Goal: Convert interest into action.
At this stage, your leads are nearly ready to buy. They just need a final nudge or reassurance to cross the finish line. This is where you bring in urgency, clarity, and confidence to help them take action.
Tactics:
- Free trials or demos
- Limited-time offers or bonuses
- Personalized sales pages
- Success stories and detailed FAQs
- Direct sales calls or live chats
Leadpages Tip: Create a distraction-free sales landing page that clearly outlines the benefits, includes a strong call-to-action (CTA), and minimizes friction at checkout.
4. Post-Funnel: Retention & Advocacy
Goal: Turn customers into repeat buyers and brand advocates.
The funnel doesn’t stop at conversion. Delighting your new customers can lead to referrals, testimonials, and increased lifetime value. Keep them engaged with continued support and value.
Tactics:
- Onboarding emails or video walkthroughs
- Customer-only offers or loyalty programs
- Satisfaction surveys
- Invite-only communities
- Request for reviews or referrals
Leadpages Tip: Use post-purchase thank-you pages and upsell opportunities to maximize value and continue the customer journey.
How to build a lead generation funnel
Now that you know what a lead generation funnel is, it’s time to build your own. Follow the steps below to start generating leads and growing your pool of potential customers.
Step 1: Define your ideal customer
Before you create your funnel, you have to figure out who you’re targeting. This will determine the type of content you’ll need to attract the right audience.
If you have an established business, dig into your data to see who your typical customer or client is. Answer the following questions:
- Are they generally younger or older?
- Are they predominantly male or female?
- What are their interests?
- What are their goals?
- What problems are they struggling with?
If you’re starting a new business, do some research. Study your competitors to see who is interacting with their social media. Look at their ads to see what type of people they’re targeting. You should be able to make an educated guess about who you should target.
Create a profile of your ideal customer and keep them in mind while building your funnel to ensure everything is geared toward their wants and needs.
Step 2: Create brand awareness content
Before you ask someone to become a customer, you have to ask them to become a lead. And before you ask someone to become a lead, you need to introduce yourself.
So, once you figure out who your ideal customer is, the next step is to create some content that will get their attention and serve as an introduction to your brand. This content won’t have any call to action (or if it does it will be a fairly soft one, like following you on social media). Instead, the goal of this content is simply to educate your audience and provide value.
Draw on your research from step one to create content that your ideal audience is likely looking for. A good place to start is identifying a problem they’re having and then developing a piece of content that answers their questions.
Some examples of brand awareness content include:
- Blog posts
- YouTube videos
- Social media posts
- Podcasts
Consider this content the foundation of your lead generation funnel (and sales funnel). It might be tempting to create more conversion-focused content first, but by building a library of educational brand awareness content you’ll set yourself up for success later on.
Step 3: Develop one or more lead magnets
A lead magnet is a piece of gated content that requires users to submit their email address in order to access it.
The thing is, most people aren’t going to hand over their email address for no reason. Sure, they might have read one of your blogs or watched one of your videos, but they still need a little incentive before they invite you into their inbox.
That’s where the lead magnet comes in. If you have a piece of content that solves a problem they’re struggling with, they’ll be much more likely to submit their contact information.
Some examples of lead magnets include:
- Checklists
- Ebooks
- Webinars
- Templates
- Resource lists
Think of your brand awareness content as a way to answer your audience's initial questions and your lead magnets as a solution to their problem.
For example, let’s say you want to help people create a content calendar for their business. You could write a blog post about your process for planning your content for the year. Then, you could offer them a template they can use to create their own content calendar (in exchange for their email).
Your brand awareness content might not always tie in perfectly with your lead magnets, but you get the idea. Start by giving them the information they need to get going, then offer them a tool to speed up the process and make it easier.
Step 4: Build a landing page
Next, you’ll need a landing page to host your lead magnet. This is known as a lead capture page, as the main goal of the page is to collect leads for your business.
If you’re new to building landing pages don’t worry—there are plenty of landing page builders available that make creating pages easy, even if you have no experience with coding or web design. For example, Leadpages offers over 200 professionally-designed templates and a Drag & Drop Builder that allow you to launch your page in a matter of hours.
Here’s what your landing page will need in order to be successful:
- An enticing headline. Use your headline to highlight the specific problem your lead magnet will solve and the benefits it provides. Be as specific as possible to grab the attention of your ideal customer.
- Powerful imagery. The images you choose also have a big impact on your conversion rate, especially your hero image. Use pictures to show the benefits of your lead magnet.
- Social proof. Include testimonials from current customers, logos of past clients, and any other proof you have that your products and services do what you say they do.
- A strong CTA. If you want someone’s email address you have to ask for it. Ensure your call to action tells visitors what they’ll get and why they should submit their email.
- A lead capture form. Your form can either appear on your landing page, or it can pop up when someone clicks your CTA button.
Take the time to perfect your landing page. Your lead magnet might be extremely valuable, but without the right pitch, it won’t be successful.
Step 5: Connect your landing page to your email marketing platform
You might be wondering what to do with all those email addresses once you get them. If you’re a Leadpages user, your leads will be automatically stored in your Leads Library. Here you can sort, filter, and delete leads as you please.
However, to make it easier to follow up with your leads you’ll want to connect your landing page (specifically your lead capture form) to your email marketing platform. Most landing page builders make this easy. For example, Leadpages seamlessly integrates with MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, and all the other leading ESPs.
Once you connect your email marketing account with your Leadpages account, you can configure your lead capture form to send any emails you collect straight to a mailing list within your email tool.
Step 6: Create an automated email sequence to nurture your leads
While this step isn’t necessary for collecting leads, it’s a good idea to set up some sort of automated email sequence before you “turn on” your lead generation funnel. Having this in place will allow you to build a relationship with your leads, establish authority in your niche, and guide them toward making a purchase.
The process will differ slightly depending on the email marketing platform you’re using, but essentially you’ll create a mailing list for the leads you collect with your funnel. As soon as someone lands on that list, they’ll receive a sequence of emails you’ve pre-written. These sequences generally include five to seven emails, with one email being delivered each day.
The key to an effective email sequence is to start by providing value and then slowly work towards the sale.
Here’s an example of an effective lead nurture sequence:
- Introduction/link to your top resources to get started.
- A blog post related to the lead magnet they downloaded or a potential problem they’re having.
- An invitation to a webinar or free training event where you’ll be demonstrating your product or service.
- A special offer that’s only available to subscribers.
- A reminder/last chance email where you restate your offer and close with a strong call to action.
The great thing about this is that you don’t have to worry about manually following up with every lead you get. It will all happen automatically so you can focus on other areas of your business.
Step 7: Drive traffic to your content
With all the pieces of your lead generation funnel in place you’re ready to spread the word and start driving traffic to your pages.
Here are some of the top traffic strategies for you to consider:
- Search engine optimization: SEO takes a while to make an impact, but it’s also the best long-term strategy (and the most cost-effective). Your lead capture pages will likely be too short to rank for keywords, but if you have brand awareness content that generates organic traffic you can use pop-ups and alert bars to direct people to your landing pages.
- Social media: Share your content across your social channels. If you don’t have a large audience, or simply want to expand your reach, consider using social ads to boost your traffic.
- Search ads: This is a good option if you want to appear in searches for your desired keywords but are too new to be ranked for them organically. Just make sure to choose keywords closely related to your products and services to maximize your ROI.
- Retargeting ads: This is a great way to introduce people who have been exposed to your brand awareness content to your lead magnets. Use these ads to target people who have visited your website and blogs.
Depending on your budget, experiment with a few different traffic sources to see which ones yield the best results.
Step 8: Monitor, test, and refine your lead generation funnel
Even when your lead generation funnel is launched and traffic is flowing in, your work isn’t over. If you want to maximize your results you need to keep an eye on things and pinpoint any areas where you can improve.
Some of the stats to watch are:
- Traffic to your pages. Is there a way to increase your traffic? Are your traffic sources working as intended?
- Landing page conversion rate. Anywhere from a 5% - 15% conversion rate is considered average. But don’t be satisfied with average. Consider performing A/B tests to optimize your page.
- Lead to customer rate. How many of your leads are turning into customers? Consider altering your lead nurture sequence if this number is too low.
The best lead generation funnels are constantly evolving, so continue to monitor every stage and come up with new ideas to improve the experience for your audience.
Advanced Strategies and Segmentation Techniques
Once your lead generation funnel is up and running, it’s time to level up. By adding segmentation and optimization strategies, you can dramatically improve your conversion rates, reduce lead waste, and turn more visitors into loyal customers.
Here’s how to take your funnel from functional to high-performing:
Lead Scoring to Prioritize High-Intent Prospects
Not all leads are created equal. Lead scoring assigns value to each contact based on their behavior, engagement, and fit—helping you prioritize those most likely to convert.
Examples of lead scoring criteria:
- Pages viewed (e.g., pricing, demo)
- Content downloads
- Email open/click rates
- Industry or company size (if applicable)
Why it matters:
By identifying sales-ready leads earlier, you can tailor your follow-up efforts and shorten the sales cycle.
Leadpages Tip: Connect your landing pages to a CRM that supports lead scoring (like HubSpot or ActiveCampaign) to track engagement automatically.
Segmented Email Nurtures Based on Behavior
Instead of sending the same email to everyone, use segmentation to tailor your messaging based on where leads are in the funnel or how they’ve interacted with your content.
Smart segmentation triggers:
- Which lead magnet they downloaded
- Which product page they visited
- Whether they attended your webinar
- Past purchases or form responses
Tactics to try:
- Send educational content to new leads
- Offer case studies to mid-funnel prospects
- Share time-limited offers to hot leads showing buying signals
Leadpages Tip: Use form fields or quiz-style lead magnets to capture segmentation data upfront—then feed that into your email platform for smart automation.
Retargeting Campaigns for Funnel Re-Entry
People who visit your landing pages but don’t convert aren’t lost—they’re just not ready yet. Retargeting lets you re-engage these warm leads with personalized ads and content that aligns with their interests.
Retargeting ideas:
- Show a BOFU offer ad to someone who viewed your sales page
- Serve testimonials to someone who downloaded a guide
- Promote a free trial to someone who abandoned your pricing page
Leadpages Tip: Use the Meta Pixel or Google Ads tag on your landing pages to track visitors and create custom ad audiences based on funnel behavior.
Progressive Profiling for Deeper Insights
Avoid overwhelming new leads with long forms. Instead, collect just enough info at first, then ask for more over time as trust builds.
How it works:
- First touch: Ask for name + email
- Second interaction: Ask about company size or goals
- Later: Ask for phone number or timeline
Why it works:
You get better conversion rates on your forms while still gathering rich lead data over time.
Start building your lead generation funnel today
Leadpages offers you the tools you need to build a high-converting lead generation funnel. With the Drag & Drop landing page and website builder, professionally designed templates, and integrations with leading email marketing platforms, you can have your funnel up and running sooner than you think.
Try Leadpages free for 14 days to start generating leads and customers.
5 Ways to Get Better Leads With Data Enrichment
Learn how to unlock smarter data, generate better quality leads, and convert more of your leads to paying customers.
