Crafting the Marketing Funnel Slide [A Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- May 2
- 6 min read
While working on a go-to-market presentation for a client named Max, he asked a question that many smart marketers instinctively wonder about but few voice aloud:
“Where exactly does this funnel slide fit into the narrative?”
Our Creative Director responded:
“Right where the stakes meet the solution.”
As a presentation design agency, we craft thousands of presentations every year. They come in all shades—investor-facing, customer-facing, team onboarding—but one consistent stumbling block appears across the board: the marketing funnel slide. Not because the concept is flawed, but because the execution almost always misses the mark.
Most funnel slides feel like a forced diagram. A necessary evil. A placeholder for jargon. But when done right, this single slide becomes a narrative hinge. It doesn’t just show the path from awareness to purchase. It shows how the audience wins at every step of that path.
This guide will walk through how to craft that kind of marketing funnel slide: the kind that sells, aligns, and rallies.
The Real Purpose of the Marketing Funnel Slide
Forget the textbook funnel. The goal isn’t to prove that the team knows what TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU mean. The real purpose of the marketing funnel slide is to build strategic confidence.
Stakeholders look at that slide with one burning question: Can this team systematically turn strangers into loyal buyers?
That’s it.
When the marketing funnel slide shows up too early, it reads like premature tactics. When it shows up too late, it feels like an afterthought. And when it’s packed with numbers, channels, and acronyms—but lacks a story—it fails to do what it's meant to do: frame belief.
At its best, this slide is not a report. It’s a turning point. It earns trust by mapping out how the company gets its unfair share of attention, nurtures it with intention, and converts it with precision.
Teams that get it right don’t just explain their marketing approach. They narrate a journey that the buyer actually wants to take—and show that they’ve engineered every step of that journey with care.
Crafting the Marketing Funnel Slide That Actually Works
Step One: Start With the Tension, Not the Tiers
Most funnel slides kick off with awareness. Big mistake.
The starting point isn’t where the buyer hears about the product. It’s where the buyer feels the problem. That’s the moment of tension. That’s where urgency lives. That’s where the story begins.
A strong marketing funnel slide reframes the top of the funnel not as a media placement, but as the ignition point of belief.
Here’s how it shows up in great decks:
Not: “We drive awareness through paid and organic channels.”
Instead: “We meet frustrated marketers right as attribution breaks down—and pull them into a world where clarity exists.”
This shift may seem subtle. It’s not. It moves the slide from tactical to strategic. From process to narrative. From channels to choreography.
Buyers aren’t widgets moving down a pipe. They’re people navigating uncertainty. The top of the funnel isn’t the beginning of a campaign. It’s the beginning of hope.
Step Two: Don’t Map the Buyer Journey—Map the Buyer Evolution
The best marketing funnel slides don’t just show how traffic converts. They show how belief builds.
In weak decks, the funnel is a static set of stages:
Awareness
Consideration
Decision
Classic. And flat.
In great decks, the funnel shows a transformation:
From confused to curious
From skeptical to interested
From cautious to committed
Each layer of the funnel represents a mindset shift. Each action the company takes is designed to create that shift.
Which sounds more strategic?
“At the MOFU stage, we send email nurtures.”
Or: “We turn passive interest into active engagement by giving buyers language to name their problem—and a framework to solve it.”
One reads like a checklist. The other shows mastery of influence.
A powerful marketing funnel slide shows that every touchpoint isn’t just filling a stage—it’s flipping a switch.
Step Three: Show the Engine, Not Just the Map
Investors and executives aren’t just interested in what the funnel looks like. They want to know what makes it move.
This is where most slides get vague. They throw up logos of tools (HubSpot, Google Ads, LinkedIn), but fail to explain why those tools matter.
The best slides do three things here:
Reveal the logic behind the mix“Our funnel is designed around a high-consideration, low-frequency purchase. So we optimize for fewer but more informed touches.”
Show what’s proprietary“We’ve built a zero-click content strategy that lifts demo conversions by 38 percent.”
Call out feedback loops“Signals from BOFU behavior feed back into TOFU messaging within 48 hours, keeping campaigns real-time and buyer-led.”
The engine matters more than the map. What matters even more is proving the team knows how to tune it.
Step Four: Make the Funnel About the Buyer—Not the Brand
This is the fatal flaw.
Too many funnel slides are company-centric. They talk about “our campaigns,” “our metrics,” “our lead gen.” That’s useful for an internal review, not for a narrative that moves hearts and wallets.
Flip the perspective.
What if the funnel slide showed how the buyer succeeds—at each stage?
Try this:
TOFU: “This is where they realize the old way is broken.”
MOFU: “This is where they start to see a path forward.”
BOFU: “This is where they make a confident leap—and know they’re not alone.”
Now the funnel becomes a journey they want to take. The company isn’t the hero. The buyer is. The company is the guide.
That subtle reframing changes how the slide is perceived.
It’s not “Here’s our pipeline strategy.”
It becomes: "Here’s how we create real value before a single dollar is spent.”
That’s the kind of thinking that earns belief.
Step Five: Kill the Clipart
No funnels with gradients. No arrows in six colors. No 3D shadows.
Design should do what strategy does: get out of its own way.
Great marketing funnel slides are clean, tight, and unmistakably focused. Use one shape. One direction. One job per stage.
Think of each layer as a promise.
Don’t say “Email Nurtures” unless the slide also shows the result of that nurture.
Don’t say “Retargeting” unless the team can explain how it changes minds, not just impressions.
Every design element should clarify the buyer’s transformation—not decorate it.
And above all, the funnel should feel like one seamless experience. Not a clunky set of disconnected tactics. The best designed slides collapse time. They make the journey feel inevitable.
Step Six: Connect the Funnel to Revenue—But Not the Way Everyone Does
Yes, the funnel slide needs to connect to revenue. No, that doesn’t mean dumping conversion rates and CAC data in a tiny font.
It means telling the story of how belief turns into behavior, and behavior turns into results.
A strong funnel slide doesn’t try to prove impact with data alone. It shows how the strategy leads to velocity.
This is where most teams over-index on metrics and under-deliver on clarity.
Try this instead:
“We optimize for buyer confidence, not speed. That means higher initial CAC but 3x LTV within 12 months.”
“This funnel aligns with our enterprise motion—longer nurture cycles, fewer leads, higher ACV.”
“The funnel is designed to delay the pitch until the buyer already believes. That’s why our close rates double industry averages.”
Tie the funnel to outcomes—but do it in a way that shows strategic intent, not just reporting.
Step Seven: Show Evolution
A funnel that’s not evolving is dying.
Smart teams use the funnel slide not just to show what exists—but what’s coming next.
“Our funnel is now focused on single personas. Q4 expands to multi-stakeholder journeys.”
“We’re introducing self-serve trials to reduce friction in MOFU.”
“AI signals will let us adapt messaging based on behavioral triggers, making each stage smarter.”
This does two things:
It shows the team isn’t static.
It positions the company as constantly learning from the market.
The funnel isn’t a snapshot. It’s a strategy in motion. Treat it like one.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.