Brand of Brothers
A podcast about the world of branding. From tone to typography, we explore how logos happen, what makes advertising successful, and why this all matters.
Brand of Brothers
Fun With Marketing Funnels
🎙️ Fun with Funnels: Mastering the Marketing Funnel from TOFU to BOFU | Brand of Brothers
Welcome to another episode of Brand of Brothers with Doug Berger and Johnny Diggz, where we’re breaking down the layers of the marketing funnel—from top-of-funnel (TOFU) to middle (MOFU) and bottom (BOFU). If you're in marketing, branding, or just funnel-curious, this is the episode for you.
🔥 In this episode:
- What is a marketing funnel—and why should you care?
- The role of the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) (no, not Insane Clown Posse… well, maybe both)
- How awareness campaigns work using display ads, billboards, OTT streaming ads, and even cold outreach like direct mail
- Why engagement and intent signals matter when transitioning from TOFU to MOFU
- How conversion campaigns turn leads into customers—and customers into advocates
- Real-world insights on running campaigns via Hulu, Roku, YouTube, and more
- The importance of nurture marketing and post-purchase reinforcement
đź’ˇ Whether you're a brand strategist, startup founder, or a CMO refining your sales funnel, this episode offers actionable insights and some good laughs.
🎧 Listen now to understand how to:
- Attract your ideal audience
- Engage them meaningfully
- Convert with confidence
- And retain them through nurturing and advocacy
Presented by Remixed, the full-service branding agency that helps companies craft, launch, and grow brands that convert.
🎶 Music by PRO.
đź“Ť Find us at BrandShowLive.com
📱 Follow us: @BrandShowLive on all socials
đź‘Ť Like, share, and subscribe so you never miss a funnel-full episode!
Welcome to the latest in installment of Brand of Brothers. I'm Doug.
Johnny Diggz:And I'm Johnny. Today we're gonna have some fun with marketing funnels.
Doug Berger:All right, let's get to it.
Johnny Diggz:Fun with funnels, marketing funnels. Tell me what a marketing funnel is, Doug.
Doug Berger:Oh my, you're putting me on the spot, aren't you? Yes. So when it comes to marketing funnels, you have the top of the funnel and these are people who tofu that is, we don't have to do that. Okay. Um, you know, I don't like those. So anyhow, uh, yes, the top of the funnel or tofu, uh, for those in the know, um, is. Where you're pouring your leads into, right? So who are your leads? Your leads are anybody and everybody that matches your ideal customer profile or insane ICP. Insane Clown Posse. Yes. Insane Clown Posse. Your ICP. Um, and so. That is where your awareness campaign begin. Lemme pause
Johnny Diggz:you right there. You mentioned ICP. Yes. What can we dive into that? What, what does that mean?
Doug Berger:What is ideal? ICP, your ideal customer profile. Um, that is everything from geography. And demographics, right? So how old are they? What gender are they down to? Psychographics. So what kinds of things are they into? Um, and, and you're gonna find that you have audiences that have overlaps between, um, what their, their philosophies are and what their, their consumer habits are, along with. Um, where they are from a generational point of view.
Johnny Diggz:Okay. So how, how the, sorry to divert you there, but to go back to the, to top of funnel, the tofu. Mm-hmm. Um, so you, uh, you use your ICP, which presumably you've derived from your marketing. Messaging brands, messaging brands. Yeah.
Doug Berger:Your messaging BrainScape will absolutely, uh, identify your audiences
Johnny Diggz:and, uh, and so then you, I, I guess you figure out messaging to get, attract this, this audience. So, but are the, are, are these people that
Doug Berger:are looking for you? Not necessarily, they don't know, necessarily know that they're looking for you. Um, so your, your, do they know that they have a need? Not necessarily. Again, right? So, uh, it, it, let's say that you make jackets and someone doesn't realize that they need a jacket, but then you start marketing to them. That you have this jacket that has some special features, right? Maybe it has lot of
Johnny Diggz:pockets.
Doug Berger:It maybe, and maybe it also has, uh, the capability of keeping you warm, right? And pockets And it, and it, so it's wearable, right? So it's, when I say wearable, I mean like the wearable tech that you push a button and it heats up. Um, so yeah, you could. You could start marketing this product that people are unaware of or, or feel like, oh wait, you know what? That's an upgrade from the jacket that I currently have. Um, so these are are individuals that, that you would target because they buy jackets. They wear jackets. So now you have a jacket that you want to get in front of them.
Johnny Diggz:How do you. What, how do you, what, what methods do you use to, uh, get the top of funnel messaging out there that you have jackets?
Doug Berger:So what types of campaigns, I believe is what you're asking. Yeah. So at the top of funnel. Um, that those are your, uh, this is your awareness generation campaign. Um, so that could be display ads that you put on social media. That could be a billboard, a literal billboard that you put on, uh, the side of the highway. Um, and then there are some. A little bit more questionable routes where you begin doing what I refer to as spamming people, like, uh, cold
Johnny Diggz:email campaigns. Yeah.
Doug Berger:A cold email campaign would would be, or, uh,
Johnny Diggz:or, or postcard Mailings.
Doug Berger:Yeah. Postcard. So. Postcard mailings become a little bit tricky in, uh, that awareness campaign component, uh, because really postcard campaigns at that point, uh, depends on what you're doing, right? So if you are just doing a, a, a vast mailer and you're using a USPS's every door direct, uh, for those that are listening, uh, United States Postal Service has a, a particular postcard, uh, service. Uh, it's not even limited to postcards, but basically, uh, it'll send it to neighborhood codes. Um, and so you, so you
Johnny Diggz:just say blindly send it to everybody Exactly. Without any, without any filter.
Doug Berger:So that would be an awareness campaign. And of course, when you're doing postcards, really a anything and everything, your goal is for it. Transcend into a conversion campaign. So you can actually do targeted direct marketing or direct mailers that are, uh, set as conversion campaigns. At that point, you're almost in the middle of the funnel because you've already identified your audience and you've. Worked with them previously, like you've touched them. When I say touched them, that means that they've seen your ads or, or gotten involved with your brand, but have not become a, a customer.
Johnny Diggz:Um, so we've already moved to middle of funnel. Uh, now the, yeah,
Doug Berger:you did that when you mentioned postcards. Oh, okay. Sorry.
Johnny Diggz:Um, but so. Do you wait, does, does somebody have to interact with your marketing to get to the middle? How do you, how do you transition from that top of funnel to a middle of funnel type of, of a campaign?
Doug Berger:So, there are a couple of schools of thoughts here, but the school of thought that I subscribe to is that in order to become a, a middle of funnel, uh, individual. Or as some might say, mofu, um, that they, in, in my opinion, they need to have engaged with your brand, but not necessarily, well, definitely not have purchased, uh, something from you, whether that's a, a product or a service.
Johnny Diggz:Um, now, but you change your messaging when you are targeting this audience.
Doug Berger:Yeah, because they already have a, they already have a certain level of brand awareness, but they don't necessarily have enough information that warrants them to, uh, to become a customer.
Johnny Diggz:So at top of funnel, you're sort of what, uh, educating about what you do. You're just sort of giving a like, hi, I'm a, I'm a realtor. Sure, but you're not necessarily talking about, well, I deal with these specific types of properties, or,
Doug Berger:I, I would say that you can get that granular right, because you are, you're wanting to pre-qualify your audiences. You, it, you have that I, that ICP, that Insane Clown Posse and so you wanna make sure that those particular individuals are, are targeted and. Simultaneously filtering out the riff-raff, right? So you, you don't want to be, if, if you are, if you are, uh, selling a jacket, you don't want to be selling a, uh, a, an adult sized jacket to a, uh, a, a a a. 10-year-old. Right. So you don't, you don't want your commercials in front of them and there are ways of making sure that that doesn't happen,
Johnny Diggz:so you don't want to be buying. Oh. So, um, it's wasted air time. Right, right, right. So you just brought up, um, so you're talking, you know, sort of, uh, commercials and. Uh, like streaming type ads, that's,
Doug Berger:that's certainly an option. Right. Okay. Uh, so streaming ads we refer to as OTT are over the top. Okay. Um, and so OTT might happen, uh, on Apple tv, Roku, uh, YouTube, uh, it even happens on cable stations, so it doesn't need to be a, a special box. It can be a, a normal set top box. Um, but yes, uh, it generally speaking, um, that is part of an awareness campaign.
Johnny Diggz:Um, and do you guys do that?
Doug Berger:Does Remix do that? Yeah.
Johnny Diggz:Yeah.
Doug Berger:Um, so that's where it gets a little bit complicated. The short answer is yes. Um, but the long answer is we partner with, uh, with production companies. We do the pre-production and the post-production, and, and we are on set for actual production. But we never hit the record button.
Johnny Diggz:But what about, um, the distribution? Like, do you, do you make deals with Hulu?
Doug Berger:So, well, no one makes direct deals with Hulu. Uh, so what you do is you use a, a resource, uh, there are a number of these resources out there. Uh, ordinarily you would work with a, a third party that is, uh, part of the subscriber networks. There are DIY models. Um, there are different services out there. Uh, uh, one in particular. Uh, it that. It, it, it requires a, a minimum monthly spend of like a thousand, maybe more dollars per month. Um, and, uh, and, and you can go in and you can choose which stations you appear on, and you can also target your audiences.
Johnny Diggz:So when we get, so now we're in the middle of funnel, we changed our messaging slightly. We assume that they know who we are, what we sell. Yeah. How do you, how do you, how are, are these people on your mailing list? Like what,
Doug Berger:what, what It could be any number of things, right? So if they came to a, a landing page and they completed a form and in order to download a, a, a white paper or to get a coupon, all of the sudden they are middle of funnel. So they're gonna start receiving emails. Um, if they, uh, if they, they allowed us to do SMS messaging, we'll send text messages to them. Um, and of course, uh, we will begin connecting the dots, right? So if we have their name and we have their email, chances are good, we can get their address. So we'll start sending them targeted postcards and letters in the hopes of converting them into a customer.
Johnny Diggz:And so, let me guess, top of funnel, middle of funnel. You have a bofu,
Doug Berger:we do have a bottom of funnel. Um. And so that bottom of funnel, these are your people who are either ripe for the picking or have already converted. Um, and so you're reselling to them, right? So you've already purchased this one jacket. Guess what? We have a new one that not only does it keep you warm, you can also keep your phone charged. Mm-hmm. Right? And so all of a sudden we have this really cool jacket that. You're gonna be interested in because, and how do we know that? Because you already bought our previous jacket.
Johnny Diggz:Is this where you would market, um, uh, referrals or, uh, try to get them to 100%, make a
Doug Berger:review? 100%. All of the above. Right? So your goal, of course, is to turn your customers into advocates and evangelists. And, because when. I buy something that I think is fantastic, and I see that, for example, you're cold. I'll be like, Hey, check out this jacket I got. It's pretty snazzy, isn't it? And all of a sudden you are buying that jacket and both of us are hanging out in the bottom of the funnel with that company. So
Johnny Diggz:can we end there? We could. We could, but I'm gonna make you go a little further because I want to understand. Um, so this, I would imagine, because I've been around the block a little bit, that this cycles into something else because you, that, that's not the end of your customer relationship. I imagine that there's, uh, you know,
Doug Berger:more Yeah. We call it a nurturing campaign. A nurturing,
Johnny Diggz:okay.
Doug Berger:That's
Johnny Diggz:what
Doug Berger:I was
Johnny Diggz:looking for. Yes.
Doug Berger:At, at, at this point. I mean, are you still in the funnel? Um, so the, the, the short answer is yes. Um, because you're always, you're always in the
Johnny Diggz:funnel.
Doug Berger:Yes. You're, you're always trying to make sure that people are aware of your existence, and since they've already interacted with you, they already know what they're getting. And since they know what they're getting, then it just makes sense to them to be able to use someone who's reliable.
Johnny Diggz:There's, there's a term, um, like some kind of like reinforcing the, like making you feel good about your purchase. Um, that giving you that sort of. Y you're in sort of feeling
Doug Berger:and, and, and yeah, to that end, right? Like after you've purchased things, I'm sure you've experienced this and you're like, ah, curses, but they send you a 20% off coupon for your next purchase. Or they go one step further and go, Hey, if you give this to a friend, we're gonna give you both 50 bucks, right? Um, and, and so that's all part of that continuity.
Johnny Diggz:So top of funnel. Middle of funnel, bottom of funnel,
Doug Berger:right Top of funnel awareness, uh, middle of funnel engagement, bottom of funnel conversion. Sounds right.
Johnny Diggz:Well, I think that's a great place to stop and, uh, and convert some audience members. Make sure you subscribe,
Doug Berger:like, and subscribe. Thank you for tuning in to Brand of Brothers. Big thank you to our presenting sponsor, Remixed, the branding agency, along with production assistance from Johnny Diggz, Simon Jacobsohn, and me, Doug Berger. We can't forget music by PRO. Speaking of not forgetting, remember to do that like and subscribe thing and find us at BrandShowLive. com and follow us on the socials at BrandShowLive.