DinwenduA sales funnel is a series of processes that a lead goes through before making a purchase decision. Only a small percentage of those who take the initial step and enter the funnel will make it all the way to conversion.
Consistently guiding your prospects through the funnel from the beginning to the end can boost your conversion rate and, as a result, your revenue.
A sales funnel can be shown in a variety of ways, with the number of steps a lead takes varying based on the sales model. The premise stays the same, though: at the top of the funnel, you want to let a lead know you exist and that you have a product/service to sell; at the bottom of the funnel, this lead, who is already knowledgeable and committed to buying your product, converts.
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Sales funnel stages
Here are the most commonly defined stages of a sales funnel:
People must be aware of you before they will consider purchasing from you. To get your brand out there, spend time on content marketing, email outreach, social media campaigns, SEO, and online advertising at this stage.
Interest: This step raises awareness to a higher level. Once someone has heard of your company, you must pique their interest. You must persuade them that you can provide something they require, even if they are unaware that they require it. Drip campaigns, social media campaigns, and useful content like ebooks and videos are essential. Many potential customers abandon their purchases at this point, so it’s critical to position your product as a solution to their problems.
Consideration: At this point, the prospect is gathering as much information about your solution and competitors as possible to determine whether you are the best option and whether they want to buy from you, if at all. Again, providing videos, how-tos, testimonials, reviews, trials, and even webinars will increase the likelihood that they will proceed to the next step.
You’re almost there, and you don’t want to blow this opportunity. Only about 5% of prospects who start with awareness make it this far. This is where you offer trials, demos, new customer discounts, or anything else that will entice prospects to add your product to their cart and checkout.
Purchase: You accomplished your goal! Now, give your customer personalized attention by sending helpful emails, providing excellent customer service, and sending out regular newsletters (aka nurturing them), so they don’t feel abandoned after the sale and continue to buy from you. Good customer onboarding will not only help you reduce churn, but it will also help you improve your customers’ CLV by acquiring loyal brand fans.
Consider any previous online purchases you’ve made, whether on Amazon or elsewhere, and you’ll see how you went through all of these steps before making a purchase.
Sales funnels follow the natural flow of human behavior, but as you can see, you can do things at each phase to encourage clients to move on to the next. These processes apply to any type of business, including goods, services, SaaS, and a variety of other business types.
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Why is analyzing your sales funnel important?
Analyzing your outcomes at each phase can reveal where you’re making mistakes and losing important leads.
If you’re having trouble generating leads in the awareness stage, you might seek to boost your SEO and content marketing.
If consumers are abandoning the deliberation stage, work on the material that outlines your solution and explore how you can differentiate yourself from the competition; testimonials and case studies are very effective at this stage.
Look into how you organize your onboarding if you aren’t receiving enough repeat sales, despite the fact that you know your product performs well.
How to convert better
There are various methods to move from awareness to consideration to decision, but there are a few fundamentals to remember.
Recognize that you are not marketing to everyone at all times. You’re targeting a certain group of people who are interested in your product. A customer persona is a fictional character who has distinct requirements, desires, and pain points. Analytics can provide a wealth of information about the individuals you want to contact, allowing you to create buyer personas and define your target audience accordingly.
Your content must be relevant to your target audience and their stage in the funnel. A lead at the interest stage doesn’t want to go through a demo in the same way a person at the decision stage may not need an ebook. Prepare content for each stage and distribute it accordingly.
Don’t slack. Make sure your landing page is welcoming, your UI/UX design is great, your content is well-written, and your customer care team is prepared. Most importantly, make sure your product is at its best. You want it to be attractive and understandable.
Creating and maintaining a sales funnel is not easy, but it is necessary. Take the time to improve and fine-tune it to get more sales, retain more customers, and nurture brand fans.
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How to Create a Sales Funnel Fast!
You’re stoked now, right? You want to create a sales funnel now—and fast. Don’t worry. It’s not as difficult as it might seem.
Step 1: Analyze Your Audience’s Behavior
The more information you have about your target market, the more effective your sales funnel will be. You’re not trying to sell to everyone. You’re marketing to folks who are interested in what you have to offer.
Create a Crazy Egg account and begin taking photos. These user behavior reports assist you in keeping track of site activity and determining how users interact with your site.
What do they do when they click? When do they start scrolling? What percentage of their time do they spend on each page? All of this information will aid in the refinement of your buyer personas.
Step 2: Capture Your Audience’s Attention
Your sales funnel will only operate if you can get people to enter it. This entails getting your material in front of the right people.
Take a natural approach and publish a lot of material on all of your channels. Use infographics, videos, and other sorts of content to diversify your content.
Run a few ads if you’re willing to spend more money. Where you should run such adverts is determined by where your target demographic frequents. LinkedIn advertisements may be the best option if you’re selling B2B.
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Step 3: Build a Landing Page
Your ad, or other content, needs to take your prospects somewhere. Ideally, you want to direct them to a landing page with a can’t-miss offer.
Since these people are still low in the sales funnel, focus on capturing leads instead of pushing the sale.
A landing page should steer the visitor toward the next step.
You need a bold call to action that tells them exactly what to do, whether it’s downloading a free e-book or watching an instructional video.
Step 4: Create an Email Drip Campaign
You may market to your leads via email by offering outstanding content. Do it regularly, but not too often. It should be enough to send one or two emails per week.
Prepare your market for the sale by educating them first. What is it that they wish to learn about? What barriers and objections must you overcome to persuade them to purchase it?
Make a fantastic offer at the end of your drip campaign. That’s the type of material that will motivate your prospects to take action.
Step 5: Keep in Touch
Don’t forget about your existing clients. Rather, keep reaching out to them. Thank them for their purchases, provide more coupon codes, and invite them to follow you on social media.
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