You are making lots of sales here and there this month, but almost no sales next month. Why? You are not adopting the sales conversion funnels as you should.
What is A Sales Conversion Funnel?
A sales funnel is a process that can be used as a marketing strategy for boosting the growth of your business. It allows you to approach potential clients with an offer that introduces them to your brand and creates a relationship with them, which ultimately leads to a sale.
Sales Funnels are a series of steps that lead you from the first point of contact to the ultimate conversion. Sales funnels can be applied to any industry and have been used by companies across the board, from real estate agents to e-commerce stores.
What is a Sales Funnel Approach?
A sales funnel approach is a method of planning and defining objectives for each step in the sales process. It aims to make your marketing campaigns more targeted, streamlined, and measurable.
Implementing your strategy using this framework will help you achieve better results from your marketing efforts.
The sales funnel is one of the oldest and most common structures used by businesses to convert potential customers into actual paying customers.
What are the 4 Stages of Sales Funnel?
To successfully sell your product or service, you must have a firm understanding of the sales funnel. A sales funnel is the path that potential customers take from becoming aware of your product or service to the moment they make a purchase or don’t.
There are 4 main stages of a sales funnel. Each stage represents a different degree of commitment from the buyer.
AWARENESS
INTEREST
DESIRE
ACTION
#1 Awareness– Before people will consider buying something, they need to know about it, i.e., be made aware of its existence. The Awareness Stage is all about getting your name and business out there, so people know who you are and what you do.
In the awareness stage, you want to capture your prospect’s attention and interest so that they will continue moving through your sales process.
#2 Interest– If they’re made aware of your product’s existence, you need to create enough interest in it that they want to learn more about it and eventually try using or buying it.
You’ve been able to show the prospect you have a solution to their problem, and now they want to know more about how it works.
In order to compel your customers to purchase from you, it’s not enough for them to know about your offering. They must also be interested in making a purchase from you.
-It is essential to know exactly where any prospect is in the sales funnel at all times. This allows you to tailor your outreach and tactics to their needs. It also helps you create an effective strategy that will provide maximum conversions.-
#3 Desire– At this stage, prospects are ready to buy. They haven’t bought it yet because they want to compare your solution with other options.
Prospective customers want to make sure your offering is the best one for them.
You can build trust by sharing testimonials from people they may know and whose opinions they respect.
Make an offer that’s too good to refuse. Tell them how you can solve their problem and put their minds at ease about your solution.
#4 Action– This is the very end of the sales funnel where customers act. Don’t assume that the consumer will take the actions you want him to take. You must guide the consumer through the sales funnel, providing valuable content at each stage, nudging them to take action.
It’s important to offer guidance in this situation so you can help consumers move through to the final step, which is the conversion.
How to Create a Working Conversion Funnel in 7 Steps
Sales funnels are an essential part of any business. If you want to make the most out of your marketing budget, you need to set up a sales funnel.
You need to plan ahead and create a series of steps that will take each customer through your sales funnel at their own pace.
This way, you’re reaching them with relevant information at every stage of the process instead of bombarding them with too much information at once.
Creating a sales funnel is the foundation of digital marketing. It’s a process that helps you to reach your target audience and convert them into buyers or raving fans.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Sales funnels are tricky! They’re confusing and overwhelming. How can I create one for my business?”
1- Know your audience
You have a target audience, but it’s mostly not enough. You have to create buyer personas to fully understand what needs and what pain points they have.
A buyer persona is the profile of a business’ potential customer. It is created through a long research and evaluation phase and represents the ideal buyer of that business.
A customer journey is a series of interactions that a customer goes through when making the decision to purchase your products. It also includes all the touchpoints they have with you, including your website, blogs, social media profiles, and more. Each customer experiences their own unique journey that may differ from others.
The key to creating an effective sales funnel is knowing your audience well.
2- Set a goal
The main goal of most marketers is to increase conversions. However, they often fail miserably due to a lack of direction and focus. For instance, they might just do a bunch of A/B testing without any clear idea about what they want to achieve or even if their page works properly in the first place.
What is your current situation? What is your ideal situation? What can you do to reach your ideal situation?
3- Set objectives for each step of the funnel
After you set an ultimate goal, assign each step of the funnel objectives. You have to have a clear purpose for each of the steps. You may want to collect emails at the beginning of the funnel and increase your conversions at the end. Be sure you track these stages’ success rates. That way, you will know exactly where to focus your efforts. You can track these numbers by using Google Analytics or any other tool to track conversion metrics.
4- Create an optimized landing page
A landing page is a web page that is designed to persuade visitors to take immediate action, such as downloading a file, signing up for a newsletter, or buying a product.
Landing pages are focused on one thing and one thing only – conversion. They are often simple in terms of layout, design, and content.
Landing pages are most likely the first time the prospective customer interacts with your brand. An optimized landing page should include:
- A powerful and catchy headline
- Clean and simple layout
- A clear call-to-action button
- Trust building proofs such as testimonials
A landing page is a web page that you create for your product or service. It should have a form on the page where prospects can enter their information, such as an email address, so you can continue to communicate with them.
5- Drip campaigns
Now it’s time to give something to your prospective customers since they already gave you their email addresses. In that phase, your prospects should be in their decision stage. You should use an email drip campaign to reach out to them. Drip campaigns are a series of automated emails sent to people who take a specific action. You can choose how many emails to send for any given action and the rate at which to send them.
Your lead list is a valuable resource, so you should treat it as such. By providing great content regularly but not too frequently, you will establish yourself as a reliable source of information within your niche and build trust with your leads.
You have to ask yourself some questions before sending drip campaign emails. Does your product and/or offering serve their needs and wants? What do your prospective customers want to learn about your product or service?
Make an undeniable offer at the end of your drip campaign. That offer will lead your prospective customer to act.
Your offering may be a special discount, or maybe it can be a product demonstration.
6- Encourage users
You’re coming to the end of the funnel. Keep in mind that your primary goal in creating this funnel is to increase your conversion rate. Therefore, you want your customers to take action. You have to encourage them to buy your product or service.
If you let them go back and aren’t able to keep them on track, then it will be a great loss for you.
- This stage of the funnel is where you try to complete each cycle, so make your CTAs enticing.
- You have to make them feel like your product has the best features and benefits that will solve your customers’ problems.
- Make sure you make your purchase process simple and easy to navigate. If they want to make a purchase, they must be able to do it smoothly.
- Add testimonials on your webpage, on your landing page if possible. 91% of people trust online consumer reviews. You have to add the most engaging, positive comments to your testimonials to encourage your prospects.
7- Keeping up with your customers
Don’t forget to reach out to your existing customers! They are the people that were willing to try your offering in the first place, so continue reaching out to them instead of trying to find new ones.
Be sure to show that you are thankful for your existing and loyal customers for their purchases. You can give additional coupon codes and special prizes to them.
Measuring the Success of a Sales Funnel
Sales funnels help businesses understand and measure their customers’ journey as they progress through the customer lifecycle. They provide a visual representation of where a company’s prospects are in their buying process, what the most effective marketing assets are for each stage, and how to improve customer engagement.
Sales funnel analytics can be used to identify where a prospect is in the sales process and alter your approach if they’re falling behind.
Why Should You Improve Your Sales Conversion Funnels?
Every business needs a sales funnel. The process of creating leads, nurturing them into prospects, turning them into leads, and finally selling your products or services to them is what every business must go through in order to be successful.
You know that your products or services are great. You’ve put a lot of effort and time into developing them and believe in their value. But you can’t just say, “this is the greatest product/service ever, so buy it!” to prospective customers. There’s a lot of fish in the water. You have to stand out.
Without an optimized sales funnel, you would just guess what your customers want.
- An optimized sales funnel allows you to appeal to your customers’ needs, so you can provide the right products and services.
- When you do not have a sales funnel, it is hard to guess what your customers want. If you guess wrong on what they want, then there is no way for them to get back in touch with you.
How to Optimize Your Sales Funnel
The sales funnel is a critical part of the sales process that many companies overlook. A sales funnel is used to determine which customers are ready to purchase at each step in the buying process, track their progress, and tailor marketing content for each customer so they are more likely to convert.
A/B Tests :
A/B test your landing pages and your email campaigns. A/B testing can make a big difference in conversion rates over time, and it’s worth the investment of time and resources. Try to reach the best possible result by optimizing your landing pages and offers.
Keep track of your results :
Be sure to follow up on your efforts. You are creating value from the top of the funnel to the end. Make sure your efforts are not going to waste. If one piece of content doesn’t work, try something else. For example, if you post a link and it doesn’t get any clicks or shares, don’t give up! Try posting text-only versions of the same link to different groups.
Have a solid social media presence :
In this day and age, it is almost impossible to have a business without social media. In fact, many businesses thrive by having a strong presence on all social media platforms.
Social media allows brands to connect with their audience in a way that was not possible before the digital age. It enables them to have a two-way conversation instead of just one-way marketing. This can yield better results for your business because it makes you seem more human and approachable.
Conclusion
When you think of your conversion funnel as an evolving process, it is easier to understand that your customers want and need change as well. To keep up with them, you must adapt your goals and funnel strategy accordingly.
The sales funnel is the most valuable tool in your business. If you understand how to use it, you can create a never-ending stream of leads and clients. Used correctly, this tool will help you achieve more revenue and results than any other marketing strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a sales funnel approach?
A sales funnel approach refers to each step that people take to become your customers. Your goal is to understand those steps and make it easier for those people to become your customers.
What are the 4 stages of sales funnels?
The 4 stages of sales funnels are awareness, interest, desire, and action.
