Explain the significance of a marketing funnel and how businesses can optimize each stage to improve conversion rates.

The marketing funnel represents the customer journey from awareness to purchase. Optimizing each stage involves attracting potential customers (top of the funnel) with broad-reach content, nurturing leads (middle of the funnel) with targeted information, and converting prospects (bottom of the funnel) through personalized offers and incentives. Analyzing funnel metrics and addressing drop-off points help improve conversion rates and drive growth.