When it comes to business terminology, a lot of people use terms interchangeably, thinking mistakenly that things mean the same experience. Take the customer journey and the marketing funnel; while they describe similar sort of movements through a process related to your business, they’re actually pretty different concepts.
Let’s start with the marketing funnel. A lot of people refer to this as the sales funnel, and it takes a look at a transaction or a building relationship from your point of view. It analyzes customers as they turn from knowing nothing about your business to perhaps becoming someone who turns into a real sale. There are various points along that journey and how you market to that individual or business changes, too. No two people come into the funnel the same way, and no two people finish the journey the same, either. How has the marketing funnel evolved and how does it differ from the customer journey? This graphic explains it.
