A sales funnel is one of the fundamental concepts of digital marketing. The aim is to help move audiences through the various stages of the sales process, and to draw them closer to becoming paying clients. Most professionals utilise this strategic model to build their careers by implementing this unique concept in the world of business. Let’s have a better understanding of what a sales funnel is, and how to create one for your business.
What is a Sales Funnel?
Sales funnel is a marketing term for a journey laid out to guide potential clients through on the way to make a purchase. And as a vibrant business striving to succeed, there are multiple funnels you can use to attract potential audiences such as paid ads, social media, influencer marketing, SEO, content marketing, and many others.
The sales funnel comes in four different stages. Each stage represents the prospect’s mindset, from when they first learn about your product/service until they purchase (or do not purchase) your product/service. Each stage requires you to take a different approach with your messaging to guide prospects through the final decision.
The Awareness Stage
People are triggered by various factors. It’s either they have some needs that need to be satisfied or are looking for answers to some disturbing questions. All this prompted their search for a solution by searching keywords related to your business and discovering your site for the first time. And they learn more about the solution, product/services of your business. The audience may develop awareness from encountering your advertising, hearing feedback from friends or family, learning about your brand on social media, or on Google search.
Interest Stage
At this next stage, the prospect has gained insight into your product or services and has decided to evaluate it based on its level of interest. This is the moment the audience interacts with your content, website, and communication channels.
Ensure to create and publish great content that informs and educates the prospect, and try not to overtly sell to them. Let your content demonstrate your expertise and help the prospect make an informed decision.
Decision
At this level, prospects are willing to make the next move. They will dive deeper into knowing your prices and package options. And it is the best point where your business has to make really good offers. You may decide to offer free shipping, a discount code, or a bonus product when they place an order.
Action Stage
Action is the final stage of the sales funnel. It is where the prospect acts either by purchasing the product or signing a contract and becomes a client. Although the sales process is completed, do not stop there as your goal is to retain these customers to make future or ongoing purchases.
But if they do not make a purchase, do not be discouraged because you haven’t lost the prospect forever. There are several ways to keep them engaged and make them see the importance of your product or services. It can be demonstrated by creating nurture campaigns.
How to Create a Sales Funnel for Your Business
1. Identify Your Audience
The first step in the sales funnel is identifying prospects( Customer Persona). Collect as much information as possible about your prospects to better understand what their needs and wants are. The aim is to drive interested prospects into the wide end of your sales funnel. Remember you’re not marketing to everyone, which means you should focus on those key and most relevant selling points.
2. Grab the Attention of your Audience
After identifying who your prospects are, the next thing is to draw their attention to the product or services you offer. This means creating and posting informative and attractive content and putting them in front of the target audience. Make use of organic traffic such as Search Engine Optimisation, Social media traffic, referrals traffic, and direct traffic. Let your content be in different forms like infographics, videos, and more.
3. Build a Landing Page
You have succeeded in attracting the attention of the audience, now it’s time to direct them into the next step which is a landing page. This page communicates who you are as a company and your unique benefits with the express purpose of getting them to make a purchase, sign up for your emails, or take another action. At the end of your content, put a clear Call To Action button. Let prospects know exactly what you want them to do next.
4. Makes Use of Sales Funnel Fundamentals
Once your business succeeds in getting audiences’ emails, it would be hard to lose them. Try to create email dripping campaigns that will help keep them glued to your product or services. Provide prospects with valuable and engaging content. Avoid not to over-push your products into their faces, it might cause them to lose interest. Instead, commence by sending educational content before you proceed with your promotion.
5. Strike a Good Deal & Keep the Communication Flowing
At the end of your drip campaign, make an incredible offer, one that will be difficult for the prospect to ignore or turn down. Let your products or services be affordable. You could also go the extra mile to provide a product demonstration, a free trial, or offer special discount codes.
When you succeed in turning the prospect into a potential client, do not stay silent, but keep in touch with them with frequent content posts and attractive special offers.
6. Measure the Success of your Sales Funnel
A great way to measure the success of your sales funnel is to track your conversion rates. Evaluate to see how many prospects click the Call To Action(CTA). Try to ask and answer questions such as; are your contents capturing the attention of the targeted population? Are prospects trusting you with their contact information?.
Ensure to test every offer in the action stage of your sales funnel and compare the results of different offers. Measure and see how many purchases you are getting with your email nurturing campaigns and other marketing efforts. Also, evaluate how many existing clients come back for more purchases and how often they refer others to your company. With all this, you will be able to come up with sound solutions on how to better attract and maintain more clients down the sales funnel.
Work with the Best Digital Marketing Agent
Creating a sales funnel is not a simple undertaking. And following the process described above is not a day job thing but requires patience and skills. Your sales funnel can’t be perfect until you have the right tool to execute your marketing strategy. With Xanda, you’re guaranteed efficient and effective lead generation. Our sales funnel management helps with overseeing the customer journey, identifies and closes any leaks in the sales funnel. We also help capture leads, nurture them, and convert them into paying customers. So if you need assistance with creating a high-converting sales funnel, Xanda got you covered.