You may wonder why almost every business is indulging in creating funnels. If you are undecided about sales funnels yourself, this article will help make up your mind. Part of the reason sales funnels have become so successful is the ability to conduct analytics, and you make decisions based on them. You are probably doing things wrong if you feel your sales funnels are not performing.
As a marketer, you may find yourself being cynical and overconfident in your marketing processes. You should note that a sales funnels always have more room for improvement and there is still another customer out there you could enroll. Thus you should always ponder on the question, how can I improve my sales funnel?
Here are 21 mind-blowing stats about Sales Funnels you probably didn’t know about.
1. Salespeople Have No Clue Where To Start
According to 31% of marketers, prospecting is the hardest part of the job. As a result, they have no clue what the first step in marketing should be.
As a result they set up a feeble funnel or end up not making a sales funnel at all. You should note that your first goal as a marketer is to create awareness of your products or services. It would help if you went through tutorials on how to build a sales funnel should you find yourself in this category.
2. Decent Sales Funnels Increase Your Growth Rate
Salesforce carried out a study and uncovered that 79% of leads never mature to become sales or subscriptions. The same study attributes this to the fact that 68% of businesses fail to identify their sales funnels and measure it. The absence of a proper guide for your leads makes it hard to turn them into sales. Have you identified a sales funnel for your business yet? How often do you measure it?
3. It Would Be Best If You Prioritized On Lead Conversions
The priority of 69% of marketers is to convert leads to customers. A 2018 Hubspot survey confirms this. It would help if you had a good sales funnel oriented on establishing the needs of a prospect by doing follow-ups. You should include converting leads as the core objective of your funnel to avoid wasting time and marketing efforts. This brings us to our next stat, which is a way you could use to convert leads.
4. It Is Important That You Do Follow-Ups
A nurtured lead will 47% more purchases as compared to non-nurtured leads. This margin is notable, and ignoring it would slow down the growth of your company. How should you do follow-ups? Follow-ups involve answering clients’ queries, sending emails, and generally making yourself available.
It would help if you did follow-ups because 96% of the people who visit your website are yet to make up their mind on a purchase. They may forgo a purchase on their first visit, but proactive communication ensures they visit again. They may end up making a purchase sooner or later.
5. Persistence And Consistency Is Key
44% of marketers despair after a client rejects them the first time. It would be best if you tried to avoid falling in this category. It would be best if you tried to pitch your products and services at least five times. Your sales funnel analytics will let you know how many contact attempts you have made. You should avoid giving up unless you have tried multiple times.
63% of your customers will start to believe you once you reach out 3 to 5 times. It would help if you adopted consistency in your branding practices. Customers appreciate the regular blogs, newsletters, and social media posts. This consistency will fuel their trust in you. How persistent and consistent are your practices?
6. Quick Response
30% -50% of sales are claimed by the salesperson who responded first. Sales funnels support automation, which can help you react quickly to the client’s information. An example is an email autoresponder. If you are yet to set up an autoresponder, what are you waiting for?
7. Define Your Target Audience
Marketing blender uncovered that 73% of customers are frustrated by content that does not relate to them. You will inspire customer loyalty if you offer useful and relevant content. The material may be in the form of blogs, ads, products, etc. How well do you appeal to your customer’s interests?
8. Outgrow Your Telephone Marketing And Do Not Over-Rely On Ads
You will limit your marketing and growth opportunities if you rely on cold calls. Only 2% of these calls bear appointments. What’s more, the appointment is just a meeting rather than an assured sale. It would help if you considered using telephones as a follow-up strategy rather than setting it as your core marketing strategy.
PageFair deduces that the number of devices that block ads is continually growing. In 2017, over 142 million people had blocked ads. Ads should also accompany other marketing strategies to provide a notable significance.
9. People Love Videos
Google notes that 70% of researchers and B2B buyers use videos to guide their purchasing path. The rate at which videos are being appreciated in funnels is high. Videos let you showcase product demos, host live chats, and showcase How-To videos. How many videos are in your funnel?
10. Blog Regularly
Blogs will help you stamp SEO authority. Google users hardly ever visit the second page to view search results. Quality and useful content bring your customers back for more. Let me let you in on another secret! Search Engine and users value long blog posts of averagely 1000 to 2000 words. They are considered to be more informative. How often do you put out blog posts? How long are your blog posts?
11. Let The Vital Information Come First
People spend an average of 37 seconds to read an article. This means you have a total of 37 seconds to inform your customers and to help them make up their mind. It will help if you put to get your point across early in your content, preferably in the first paragraph.
12. Email Marketing Has A Credible ROI
MarketingBlender carried out a study on email marketing in 2017. They compared email marketing to telephone marketing.
Email marketing provided twice as many returns on investment. The rate at which people open sales emails is 24%. This translates to 24 people for every 100 emails you send. Do you have an email list yet?
13. Keep Your Emails As Brief As Possible
You would be bored with long emails. So will your customers. Make sure you limit your emails to about 50 to 125 words. Within these words, get your point across quickly and clearly. People tend to lose attention while reading long emails.
14. Use The Right Keywords In Your Emails
Did you know there are ineffective words in email marketing? Mashable did a study and found some of these ineffective words to join, confirm, speaker assistance, invite, and social. You could opt for words such as connect, apply, and payments. What kind of keywords do you use?
15. Your Emails Need Proper Casing And Punctuation
Emails written in all caps have a 37% response rate. Other well-written emails have a 50%response rate, according to Boomerang. People consider using all caps as shouting. They rarely appreciate such email as they will feel as though you are shouting at them. How do you punctuate your emails?
16. Use Positive Language
Chorus analyzed over 500,000 sales conversations. Words like absolutely, certainly, definitely among others instill positivity in the communications and on the customers. What’s more, avoid negative language even in your blog posts. Try to use an active voice to relate and engage your customers better.
17. Your Funnel Needs Social Media Integration
Business with social media access registers a 57% return on investment. Other forms of marketing register a 26% return on investment. About 3.2 billion people around the globe are on social media. They discuss many subjects there, including brands, products services, and trends. You will be able to identify their needs, keep up with trends, get feedback, monitor your competition, etc. How many social media platforms does your business have access to?
18. Your Company Needs Social Proof
Social media will help confirm the identity of your company. 55% of buyers use social media word of mouth referrals to make purchases. Your service and products will receive testimonials on social media, and this goes a long way to influence buyers.
19. Request For Referrals
When one of your customers refers their friend, their chances of making purchases increases by four times. It has also been uncovered that 91% of customers are willing to refer their family and friends. Surprisingly, just 11% of salespeople request their customers to give referrals. It would help if you considered using incentives to generate more referrals. How often do you request referrals? What incentives do you offer for referrals?
20. Create More Opportunities To Attain More Goals
As a business, you have set objectives either on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Hubspot finds that 72% of companies with less than 50 opportunities in their sales funnel barely meet their sales and revenue objectives. How many chances does your funnel have?
21. Keep Your Current Customers Satisfied
As you focus on generating more leads, remember to retain the ones you have already obtained. Getting new customers is around 6-7% costlier as compared to maintaining the ones you already have. You should make your sales funnel as versatile if possible. Some of the measures you could use to keep customers are offering referral incentives, discounts, and coupons.
Final Thoughts
The growth of your business depends on how good your sales funnel is. It would help if you took some time to shape your funnel to make it better. One of your core business objectives is to convert leads. You will have an easier time turning the leads you have rather than getting new ones.
Telephone marketing is not as common or popular as it was before the internet. However, it would be best if you considered its contribution to your sales funnels to be able to address all types of customers.
It would be best if you focused on growing your email list when it comes to email marketing. It has significantly more ROI as compared to telephone marketing. Your business needs a social media presence. Social media presence will give your business a social identity, and customers get to refer you to their friends and family.