You have been using a sales funnel ever since you started your business. You may or may not have been aware of it. You have more control over it if you are aware of its existence. You may be running a funnel with physical advertising for lead generations. I have to call upon you to evolve into digital marketing.
What Is A Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel defines a buying process you set up to find and guide your customers to product and service purchase. A sales funnel is made up of the stages a customer will go through to appeal to their interest so that they may make a purchase or generate a lead.
The funnel aspect is explained by comparing the prospects and the buyers. You have more prospects than buyers. The funnel helps you narrow down the prospects to buyers by guiding them via a series of websites and actions.
Sales funnels have also existed in the traditional marketing format. For instance, if you own a salon or a music store, you may set up a billboard which will cultivate interest and people may discuss it leading to potential leads. The leads may be turned into walk-in visits and inquiries.
Sales mature among the leads, and eventually, the sales turn into a strong customer relationship.
Why Sales Funnels Are Becoming More Common
Businesses owners now realize the importance of optimizing the customer journey through the stages of a sales funnel. Web Optimization brings out the best in a sales funnel. It has become more of a necessity for companies to own a website in the current age. At minimal cost, you can target your audience to boost the rate at which you make sale conversions.
Have you ever wondered how an online platform you bought a product from still sends you emails? You have probably wondered where they get the time to draft the specific email. The answer lies in the perks of having a digital sales funnel. The emails you get are from autoresponders programmed to send those emails and do sales follow-ups. This has made business much easier for business owners as they can keep an open communication line with the customers.
Digital modes of payment have become a trend in the financial sector. Did you know that digital payment can be part of a sales funnel? It completes the cycle that starts when an ad generates your interest to the point where you registered your email, and now you decide to shop and pay for the product. A sales funnel integrates all the marketing and sales functions through a series of websites and features.
Sales funnels are getting popular by the day. I am sure you have thought of automating some of your business processes to minimize cost and monotony. Sales funnels will automate your marketing at low cost and growing conversion rates. How do they do it? Let us take a look at how Sales Funnels work!
How Does A Sales Funnel Work?
Sales Funnels work in stages. There are many terms and stages to describe a sales funnels process. You may use four stages, however, to familiarize yourself with it. We can use someone who visits your website to describe the process. He or she will access your website either via social link or search. The person will assess your content. You get to offer them a chance to use their email or phone to sign up and have access to more content.
You may call this person a prospect. Should the prospect decide to sign up, you can reach them via the contact they provided. He or she has now evolved to a lead. You should use this opportunity to offer special lead offers such as discounts, coupons, or more information. Some will eventually end up buying your services or products. The number of prospects is more significant than that of the buyers.
We can deduce four stages from the process above.
The 4 Stages of A Sales Funnel
We can say that the stages describe your customer’s thinking process. They include Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. Each step demands different actions from you as a marketer. Let’s go through each stage to help you determine your actions and how you will set up your funnel.
1. Awareness
A sales funnel starts with your customer stumbling across your content. A Facebook post or a Google ad among many other things may have attracted their attention to your business. They will end up doing their research about your business and products. In some cases, they end up buying immediately. In this stage, you must ensure that your content and products will interest them enough to visit again. This brings us to our next stage.
2. Interest
At this point, your customer wants to know more about what you are selling and how it benefits them. You would be wise to provide help in informing them rather than trying to sell. You want to guide your customer to an informed decision. You need to earn their trust as an expert first. You will put off potential buyers if you start selling products immediately.
3. Decision
Your customer is now ready to buy at this stage. Customarily, your customer will start to weigh their options. This is your chance to win them over with a sweet deal. You may put it in from of discounts, bonus, free shipping or any other offer you can formulate. You should try to make it as irresistible as possible yet considering your costs and profits.
4. Action
Congratulations you have won over your customer. At this point, they make a purchase. However, it is not yet time to celebrate. You need to put in place a measure that will ensure customer retention. Make follow-up calls, offer tech support, and request for customer feedback. They will appreciate the extra service, and they may generate more leads. You will also learn more about your customers’ needs from their feedback. You will improve your product over time, and you will attain proactive Customer Relationship Management.
Why You Need A Sales Funnel
You need consistency in your marketing and sales. Funnels save you the time you take to chase a sale. Instead, it focuses on attracting customers. A funnel casts a wider net to attract customers. The ads you post on social media or other platforms have the potential and reach more people.
You will come to understand and love the fact that targeting marketing is used in funnels. For example, your ads will be influenced by the demographic setting, culture, trends, etc. you will be able to generate a lead faster as compared to chasing a sale. You will be monitoring your progress at every stage of the sales funnel. You will study your customer behavior at every stage of the funnel.
You will be able to take action to appeal to the customer’s interest at every stage. You will need to initiate customer input and engagement to discern their interests. What’s more, your customers trust you more when you are consistent and offer valuable and credible content.
An Example Of An Effective Sales Funnel
As we noted earlier, Sales funnels exist in both physical and digital form. We are going to look at an example of both to get a mental picture of what a sales funnel looks like.
1. A Physical Sales Funnel
Let’s say you own a shoe store. Your sales could look like this.
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- You put up some shoes on display. People can see the shoes as they walk by the sidewalk. One customer gets interested.
- The interested customer will walk into the store and ask for a better look at the shoe and makes a price inquiry.
- You talk to the customer and discuss the leather or make of the shoe. You could offer a discount should they take two pairs.
- Your customer is satisfied with the shoe and brings it to the check-out counter.
- The customer takes the shoe home and seeks reaction from his family and friends.
- Eventually, a friend or family may drop in to take a look, and this may turn into a prospect or sale.
2. A Digital Sales Funnel
For this illustration let’s say you still own the shoe shop.
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- You can go and create ads for the latest shoe trends using ClickFunnels and post them on Facebook.
- Your post gets shared, and someone gets interested.
- He or she decides to search your products and business on google.
- They get more information about the latest shoe trends and looks up your store.
- They sign up with their email to make a purchase.
- They eventually make a purchase which you will ship to their doorstep.
- Your autoresponder will initiate contact with the person, do follow-ups, and notify them about the latest deals in the store.
How to Create A Sales Funnel
The deal with sales funnels gets sweeter. You may now build your funnel with templates and guidance. You do not need to be a coding or design expert. Thanks to ClickFunnels, you can have a funnel set up and running in a matter of minutes.
ClickFunnels is an online software where you can integrate all the features of a funnel on one platform.
It supports autoresponders, billing methods, ad creations, etc.
What You Need To Build Your Funnel
You will need to add many integrations to your funnel to increase its functions and efficiency. Your funnel will need a member’s area, content, opt-in pages, email autoresponder, order forms, sales pages, etc. You have an array of choices.
ClickFunnels integrated the various components and functions of funnels on one platform. In the past, you had to try to put various tools in synch, and this was taxing. Some of them include split tests, autoresponders, landing page software, membership software, and multiple coders and designers.
You save money and time by using ClickFunnels as you have these tools and features integrated into one easy to use interface. You will not have much use of a website if you run your funnels through ClickFunnels.
Types of Funnels That You Can Build with ClickFunnels
1. Lead Generating Funnels
You can create lead generating funnels if you intend to enlarge your email list.
2. Sales Funnels
You need these sales funnels to make sales. You may include, products, services, one time offers, upsells or down sells. The goal of this funnel is to generate or increase profits.
3. Webinar Funnels
You need such a funnel if you host webinars. The funnel will help promote your webinar and will increase registrations.
4. Online Courses
ClickFunnels also lets you run an online course. You will be able to generate leads and boost registrations to your course.
5. Membership Sites
Memberships are a source of recurring income. Such funnels will lead you to source for registrations. Your customers will need to renew the membership periodically.
How Can You Get Started?
ClickFunnels kicks off your marketing and sales journey with a 14-day free trial. You get to choose between two payment plans as you sign up. They are:
1. The Basic Plan
You can choose a basic plan for your business if it is in its early stages or is a small enterprise. ClickFunnels lets you create 20 funnels, but limits you to 100 pages and lets you host a maximum of 20,000 visitors using this plan. You are charged a monthly fee of $97.
2. The Etison Suite
You should opt for this package if you are running a company or corporation. ClickFunnels offers an unlimited number of funnels, an unlimited number of pages, and your funnels can host an unlimited number of visitors. This package also features actionetics, affiliate program integration, and you can integrate three billing methods.
ClickFunnels is determined to get you informed on funnels before you start building your own. They will offer you an email funnel that is already made and a t-shirt after you watch a tutorial. ClickFunnels has put together many short videos to help you learn quickly on how to create your funnel. They offer a quick and clear way to navigate your funnels and the ClickFunnels platform.
Creating A Sales Funnel With ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels has categorized the types of funnels into three. You get to select the type of funnel you wish to establish to begin setting up your funnel. You can choose either to Collect Emails, Sell Your Product, or Host Webinar.
We can use the procedure for making a Collect Emails funnels to learn how to make one. You need to create two types of pages on this funnel; an opt-in page where your clients will sign up with email and a thank you page. You will also need to name your funnel.
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- You can choose to use a template to build the funnel, or you may opt to build it from scratch. If you use a template, it is much easier, and you will consume less time. We will use the templates since they come highly recommended.
- You will input your logo, wording, and images once you settle on a template. You have very many template options and themes to choose from.
- Create the thank you page. Your customers will be redirected to this page after they sign up.
- You will need to connect your autoresponder with your opt-in and thank you forms. It will enable you to send follow up emails and reach out to your clients with offers.
- Monitor your funnel with your account.
Why Do You Need to Optimize Your Funnel?
Optimizing your funnel is meant to ensure that you get the best results from your funnel. Split testing helps you determine what feature of your funnel works better. You will measure the conversion rates of messaging, web design, and aspects of a web page.
A landing page is an element that is frequently put through a split test. You should start by making two landing pages with different content. Split tests will determine the landing page that is likely to generate more conversions. You should ensure that the differences are minimal.
Split tests are useful in several ways. You can benefit from them in the following ways.
- You will be able to grow your conversion rates when you run a split test on your landing page.
- You will increase the level and frequency of customer engagement. If you update your landing page often and include new deals and products, you will be able to keep your customer interested.
- Split tests will increase the value of your products. Your customers will develop trust in your brand, and they will be able to generate more leads and make more purchases.
- Split tests only focus on specific aspects. Thus, they pose minimal risk to your products and services as they focus on the best way to articulate and display them.
- Split tests are simple to run and decipher. You will use funnel metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, bounce rates, etc.
I hope that this article has answered most of your questions about Sales Funnels. A sales Funnel is a vital aspect of your business that has the potential of turning it around in a positive direction. A sales Funnel is a process that starts with a prospective business relationship and ends in an actual business transaction. With the information above, you now understand what a sales funnel is and the important role it plays in your business.
I’ve been using sales funnels in my business for year and they have made me million. Using a well structures funnel will help you increase sales and make more money!