A sales funnel is a marketing strategy that develops interest in a product or service by using various steps and stages. The website, blog, app, or business is opened to the public and the customer begins to consume content. Through targeting advertisements, the website owner offers a free trial offer for the product or service at the end of each step. The customer will then be encouraged to purchase additional products because they have experienced success with previous purchases from this company.
Individuals can choose to do business with a company based on the reputation and trustworthiness of their prior experiences with that company. The typical pattern for purchasing a product or service is to start with browsing, evaluating options and visiting websites. Then the buyer enters the "Buy" phase where they make a purchase decision. However, customers want to make sure businesses can provide them with what they are seeking and offer value for their money. Therefore, they take part in an onboarding process that turns browsers into buyers.
Sales Funnel Definition
Sales Funnel is the marketing process of turning new prospects into paying customers. It is simply a way of attracting potential clients to your business by creating the best experience for them, from awareness through to engagement to purchase. Sales funnels are essential for businesses that must acquire leads and continuously develop sales.
Sales Funnel Process
If your company has been in business for a while, you may be familiar with the customer development process, but if not, it is simple: at every step of this process, businesses try to reach out to new customers in a way that will increase sales.
The stages of the sales funnel are (in order): Awareness and consideration; qualification; lead generation; followed by pre-test and test marketing. After that, you reach the final part of the funnel: making the sale.
Pre-launch Stage
The first step of a sales funnel involves awareness and consideration. In this phase, you need to attract as many potential customers as possible. You will do this by launching an advertising campaign that will increase your visibility and allow potential clients to know more about your brand.
Expert tip: Do not try to appeal to everyone; instead, focus on one group of people in particular. For example, if you sell cycling gear, think about setting your sights on men who have some interest in cycling or have a very specific bike model they're thinking of buying.
Qualifying Stage
Once you've attracted an interested customer, it is time to qualify this prospect to determine whether or not they are a good fit for your business. This could mean conducting a website survey and making phone calls to see if your potential customers are willing to buy a product that you offer.
Expert tip: Use every available channel that will help you attract and retain customers. For example, if you manage a business that sells kitchen equipment, you could use social media networks like Facebook and Twitter to increase awareness and make it easier for visitors to find the page where you have your products listed.
The next part of the sales funnel is lead generation, or in other words, you will be trying to find potential new customers. This is a step that could require a great deal of work on your part, but when it's done correctly, you can create a list of people that you want to contact for more information about the products or services that your company has to offer.
The final step of the sales funnel is pre-test and test marketing. Using statistics from an online survey and account tracking tools (many social media networks also provide this type of tool), it gives businesses more details about how effective their ads are and how well they are reaching their target audience. Although it is difficult to pre-test an ad campaign by yourself, you can find ways to track the number of clicks and sign-ups on your online store or blog. You can also check out your competitors; if their ads are performing well, you could use algorithms to analyze the way in which people interact with these ads for better results for your own ad campaign.
Expert tip: If you do not have enough money to run an extensive advertisement campaign, then consider using a pay-per-click service. Charge per click on the keywords that people type into search engines when they're looking for businesses like yours.
Why is Sales Funnel Important?
The sales funnel is the most important concept to understand. When a customer enters your funnel, they are at one point in the marketing cycle. Once they have entered your sales funnel, you need to guide them to the next stage in order to make a sale. If you lead them through all the stages successfully, you will turn them into a paying customer and progress them to become repeat and referral customers.
Understand The Sales Funnel Stages
The following are the stages of a sales funnel:
Awareness - It is the first stage in the sales funnel. The potential customers will have some sort of exposure to your product or services. You need to drive awareness to your sales funnel through online and offline marketing which includes search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, social media marketing, public relations, direct mail, cold calling or print advertising.
Information - The second stage in the sales funnel and it refers to learning about your products or services. This is where an individual reads some information or sees relevant ads or products on your website.
Education - The third stage in the sales funnel is where potential customers learn more about your product or services, potentially through a blog post, video, infographic, article, etc. Enabling them to make an informed decision on whether they want to purchase your product is the main objective. This is where you develop trust and trust is one of the main keys to selling. The marketing must show customers how your product or service will benefit them in real life.
Persuasion - The fourth stage in the sales funnel is where customers become convinced they want to buy your product. You need to persuade your potential customers that buying from you would be an effective decision. This can either be done with a sales page, website, brochure or through email marketing. The sales page is the most common way to persuade customers and it is the main objective of this stage.
The conversion - The final stage in the sales funnel is where the customer makes a decision to purchase. This can be achieved by showing them how easy it is to make a purchase on your website and that the payment options are safe and secure. Once this occurs, they will complete their purchase.
The Benefits of Sales Funnel
1. Sales Funnel Attracts More Customers:
Sales funnels help you attract more customers to your business. With the right strategies and tactics, you will be able to attract many customers using the sales funnel. This is because a well-structured funnel can turn visitors into customers with just a small effort.
2. Sales Funnel Is Easy To Use:
Sales funnels are easy-to-use and they can be very attractive for businesses of all sizes and niches. With the right funnel, you will be able to design your marketing strategy in such a way that you attract a lot of customers.
3. Sales Funnel Works for All Business:
On top of all this, there is no business which cannot benefit from sales funnels. A sales funnel can be used by a wide variety of businesses including e-commerce stores, B2B enterprises, and even SaaS companies.
4. Sales Funnel Is A Low-cost Marketing Tool:
Sales funnels are a low-cost marketing tool for all kinds of businesses. The great thing about this is that you have full control over your marketing budget and what you spend it on. Therefore, you can optimize your revenue channels and get the highest ROI from your budget.
5. Sales Funnel Increases Your ROI:
Lastly, sales funnels will help you increase your ROI over time. This is because they are designed to attract the right people who will convert into paying customers. Therefore, you will be able to optimize your ad spend, increase your sales and maintain high levels of customer retention.
Types Of Sales Funnel
1. Long Sales Funnel:
The long sales funnel involves a lot of steps and it takes longer for the conversion to occur. This type of sales funnel starts with many stages and then leads to one final stage where the sale occurs. The stages in this process are similar to the previous funnel which will be discussed below. The long sales funnel starts with an awareness stage and then slowly leads to an acquisition stage through to the conversion stage. The main difference between the two is that there is no repeat customer option in the long sales funnel.
2. Short Sales Funnel:
The short sales funnel is also known as a top-of-the-funnel marketing strategy. This type of sales funnel only contains three stages which are lead generation, lead nurturing, and lead conversion. The sales funnel allows the customer to start right at the top and then move towards the conversion in a very speedy and simple manner. This process involves the customer visiting the website, viewing advertisements, watching videos or reading blogs about your products or services. The main benefit of this sales funnel is that it saves you time and makes it easier for your customers to buy from you.
3. Long-Lifecycle Sales Funnel:
Long-lifecycle sales funnels are basically short sales funnels which are extended further down the funnel. This type of sales funnel will have many steps or stages and subsections in it. Again, you will have the lead generation stage, the lead nurturing stage and then the final conversion stage.
4. Hybrid Sales Funnel:
Hybrid sales funnels are basically long-lifecycle sales funnels which combine both the long sales funnel and short sales funnel options together. This type of marketing strategy involves creating a streaming marketing campaign where visitors are pushed to a subsequent product or service if they do not take any action on your first offer.
The 4 Simple Steps Of Funnel Building
1. Funnel Hacking - Research and analyze your competitors
First of all, you want to find out what your competitors are doing for their sales funnels. Therefore, you must hack into their funnel and analyze it in detail. This means that you must find out who they are targeting to market their offers to, how they are getting these leads and who they are converting them into customers.
2. Create an Offer - Restructure what you are selling and turn it into an offer
Next, you need to create an offer in your sales funnel that is better than any of your competitors. To achieve this, you want to restructure what you are selling and turn it into an offer that is enticing. For example, instead of selling just a product or service, you can modify the offer and sell it in the form of videos, courses or other digital products.
3. Build your sales funnel. After creating your offer, you need to make sure that your customers are brought on board. To do this, you need to create a sales funnel where they are able to see how they can get paid, how easy it is to buy and also how secure the payment options are.
4. Measure your sales funnel performance. In order to measure the success of your sales funnel, you must track its performance with all the metrics available in Google Analytics. You must also track the website traffic, lead generation and how many of your customers are converting into paying customers.
Real-Life Example Of Sales Funnel
1. eCommerce Sale Funnel
An eCommerce sale funnel is a multi-stage process which leads the customers from their initial awareness to the actual purchase. One of the main features of an eCommerce sales funnel is that it provides more than one path for customers to follow and results in more sales. The first stage of an eCommerce sales funnel is to trigger the awareness of the product. After that, you want to provide your customers with more information about your product so that they start considering whether or not they need it for themselves. Then, you need to provide them with even more information about the different benefits and features of the product. The next step would be for you to become an authority in this industry through blogging and social media marketing. The final step would be to continue building your customer base by emailing them regularly with new offers and updates about your company. This is a very effective sales funnel for companies who sell physical products as it allows for more conversions.
2. Book Funnel (Or Free & Shipping Funnel)
A book sales funnel is a very simple marketing strategy which will help you sell your pre-written book or digital product. The first step would be for you to write and publish a book, then you would want to promote it by telling people about it. The second step is for you to advertise your book as a free offer with a requirement of them leaving their contact information so that they can get the book in the mail from you. The final step of this sales funnel is for you to send your book to the customers who have left their contact information. This will help you track who has received and read your book which will make it easier for you to see any problems or issues with the sales process.
3. Product Launch Funnel (And Sales Funnels)
A product launch sales funnel is a multi-step marketing strategy which helps to increase the number of customers that you have in a very short space of time. In this type of sales funnel, you would be relying solely on the free traffic which will come from your blog or social media. The first step is for you to get people to visit your website and become interested in your product or service. The second step is to build their interest by giving them more information about the product, showing them demonstrations of it and giving testimonials from people who have used it. The last step of this sales funnel is for you to convert each visitor into a customer which will require a lot of hard work and time.
4. Continuity Sales Funnel (And Marketing Funnels)
A continuity sales funnel is a marketing strategy where your customers pay you month after month to continue using your product or service. To do this, you would want to market your product or service as a monthly subscription which requires the customer to make regular paying payments in order to continue getting it. This type of sales funnel is perfect for getting people in the habit of paying you money on a regular basis.
5. Event Sales Funnel (Or Funnel Building)
An event sales funnel is a type of marketing strategy where you are trying to promote your product or service to people by attending events in person, usually in the form of a seminar or speech. The first step would be for you to find an event which may be related to your business or industry and present there as an expert. The second step is for you to promote your business or product by giving talks about it. The final step is for you to create a list of people who attended the event and give out your business card with their details on it. This will help you start building a list of qualified leads who may be interested in buying your product or service so that you can sell them at another event in the future.
6. Bonus Funnel
A bonus sales funnel is a marketing strategy in which you are trying to get customers to buy more than one product or service from you. This is done by offering bonus products or service that the customer has to purchase to get the first one. This can be done by offering additional free services, free gifts, free material and more. The second step of this sales funnel would be for you to make sure that your customer knows about this and they do not feel like they are being double-dipped and being given poor value for their money. The final step would be for you to capture all the contact details of your customers so that they can be contacted again if they wish in the future.
7. Retargeted Funnel
A retargeted sales funnel is a marketing strategy which allows you to advertise your product or service to customers who have already bought it and are now looking to buy something else. This is done by creating ads which will show on pages that the customer has previously been on which include direct links to various products or services that you have for sale. The first step in this sales funnel would be for you to decide which pages are the best ones to target through your ads. The second step of this sales funnel is for you to create these ads and get them out there, then track the results so that you can see if they are effective.
8. Squeeze Page Funnel (Sale, Marketing and Lead Generation)
A squeeze page sales funnel is a type of marketing strategy where you want to get your customers to give you their contact information so that you can start building a list of qualified leads. To do this, you would need to create a squeeze page which students your visitors into submitting their email address and other details in order to receive more information about your product or service. The first step of this sales funnel is for you to create your squeeze page and give it a good headline that will capture the users attention. The second step is for you to make sure the squeeze page has a good call to action button that links straight to a landing page with more information about your product or service. The final step would be for you to create this landing page and get it online using various forms of traffic generation.
9. Social Media Funnel
A social media sales funnel is a marketing strategy which is used by marketing companies who are trying to get clients to join their social media networks in order to increase the number of leads. The first step of this sales funnel is for you to promote your business through various social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. The second step is for you to understand what type of people are on these networks which will give you good data to target them with advertisements. The final step is for you to create your social media ads and get them online.
Sales Funnel Softwares That You Need
1. Funnel Builder Software (All-in-one tools)
- Systeme.io (cheapest tool and you can get started for free)- Contactcreator.io (easy to use - they have a free version)- Click Funnels (more expensive but best funnels)
- Clickfunnels - ($97 per month or $297 per year + trial) - a good tool if you are not doing paid advertising and selling your own products. - A-oneline (you can get started for free)
- Kartra - ($79 per month or $299 per year + trial) - a good tool if you are not doing paid advertising and selling your own products.
2. Landing Page Builder Tools
- Elementor Pro (WordPress plugin)- Teachable (can get started for free)- Leadpages (can get started for free)- Unbounce - ($79 per month or $199 per year + trial)
- Aweber - ($15 per month or $149 per year + trial)
3. Email Automation + CRM
- Getresponse - ($15 per month or $149 per year + trial)
- Infusionsoft - ($199 per month or $1,999 per year + trial)
- Drip - ($49 per month + trial)- Mailchimp -($10,000 free email sends/month)- Awe.
4. Funnel Copy Generating Tools
-Jasper- ($49 per month or $399 per year + trial)- Hemingway- Free (good for a funnels with less sales)
Payment Gateways
- Stripe-
- PayPal
Best Marketing Sales Funnel Resources
1. Designrr
Designrr.com is a done-for-you design service that provides you with amazing website templates and professionally designed graphics at an unbeatable price. Their templates are sleek, minimalist, and easy on the eyes - all while being effective in creating optimized websites that help your business succeed online. So if you're looking to create a slick, professional website without having to spend a fortune on design services, Designrr is the site for you!
2. Canva
Canva is a free graphic design tool that has a huge collection of high-resolution, customizable images and templates. You can use Canva to create graphics that are perfect for everything from social media posts to website headers, email newsletters, and blog images. If you're looking for a simple way to create well-designed graphics without the price tag, Canva is an awesome option!
3. Typeform
Typeform is a cool new tool that allows you to easily create a beautiful and customizable form for your website or blog. You can use Typeform to quickly create forms for everything from e-mail signups and product orders, to surveys and contests. And it's easy to add a unique look and feel to your form, whether you're creating it through the web app or the free Typeform mobile app.
4. Wishpond
Wishpond is an easy-to-use marketing automation tool that helps you create highly targeted landing pages, run competitions, and collect leads. The best thing about Wishpond is that it allows you to connect all of your social media accounts and make it super easy for people to share your content (and enter your competitions) on their favorite social media platforms. If you're looking for a way to easily create lead generation forms, Wishpond is a great option.
From our own personal experience and experiences of many others who are in the same situation, when you think about it, who is it that is creating the least amount of value for your product or offering but can make all the difference to your sales. With a marketing funnel that allows customers to pay you for being referred and also allows them to pay for some additional services as well. A systeme.io loan manager is one of those referenced products.