How to Build Sales Funnels which create a Pipeline of leads - Boosting Your Sales and Profits
Interested in making sales?
Want to convert visitors and readers into customers and sales ?
According to research, 74% of online companies claim that converting leads to customers is their first priority. If you want to learn how to engage more visitors, generate more leads, and make more sales, then learning how to build a sales funnel should be your first priority.
If you feel you are doing everything to improve your conversion rate, but still people do not seem to be buying and you are not getting the sales that you desire, it is time to take a deeper look into your sales funnel skills.
The problem is, creating a sales funnel isn't always easy, otherwise, with learning the nuances of the various funnel building software, to tracking, traffic, and so on. Sure you may have downloaded a PDF lead magnet on how to Build a Sales Funnel, but you should always build your Sales Funnel with the end in mind. A well-designed sales funnel doesn't happen overnight, it takes time and involves constantly adjusting to achieve the results and ROI that you want. An automated Sales Funnel is your 24 hour Sales machine.
Keep on reading to learn how to build a sales funnel that rewards you for your time and investment, interested in building a steady stream of sales?
Let's get started!
What Is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is a marketing term for the journey that your prospective customers/buyers go through on their buying or engagement route to purchasing. Each step of the way is a process that filters out the non-interested browsers, those who may require additional info, to the real-deal interested purchasers.
The problem with many sales funnels is that they are ‘leaky’ with holes, losing sales and people's interest along the way and failing to work visitors through your product services ladder.
Instead of a strategic sales funnel strategy that includes all or any of the following;
Customers understanding of your services and offers, demographics, lifestyle, etc
Failing to personalise the user journey throughout the various funnels steps
Using segmentation to advise, make offers and trigger autoresponders to related offers
Utilise email marketing CRM tools - missing vital opportunities for upselling, gamification etc
Lack strategic use marketing ‘triggers’ and ‘tagging’ visitors, subscribers, and customers and therefore lose a subscriber. Why? Failing to speak to them about relevant topics, products, or services at the approximate time, or progressing to a cycle
Fail to quiz or evaluate the users understanding of services and products
Fail to Re-Engage subscribers at their current point-point and therefore use ‘blanket’ marketing messages
Fail to pipeline prospective warm leads to customers
Retargeting webpage visitors, or current customers with pixels via campaigns
Working with strategic joint venture partners
Does not fill the ‘gap’ for your personas need after dealing with their initial pain point
Get lost in the internet echo chamber email unopened black hole (guilty!)
Failing to utilise metrics and analytics to build Data-driven marketing campaigns
Waste costs of acquiring the leads but speaking to leads or providing content which may be a mismatch for your Customer persona
Not communicating with your audience enough
Failing to ask your audience what they actually want..
We have all been there and are guilty of perhaps at least two of the above if you are running an online Business.
Just like any physical funnel (a shop or store), a sales funnel narrows in the middle as visitors move through it, helping you to target buyers more specifically.
The Four Stages of a Sales Funnel
Every sales funnel has four main stages as they move a potential buyer from awareness to actually making a purchase right there on the spot. It is easy to remember the funnel by the acronym "AIDA", which stands for awareness, interest, decision, and action.
Awareness
Awareness is more like the content or broadcast which attracts the potential buyer's attention. This could be done via tweeting, sponsored advertising posts on Facebook, Instagram, Google search suggestions (yes there are ways to use search suggestion in your strategy !), and so on.
Usually, this broadcast contains some kind of information on how your product or service will help solve the problems of the prospective customer. In this post, it is important to relate to their problems by sharing a moment of vulnerability and how you feel their pain.
Interest
By the interest stage, the potential customer is at the point where they are expressing an interest and they may conduct some research about your service, comparing your services or products to your competitors, and debating their options.
At this point, you want to establish the fact that you are the expert in this field and you have the experience and knowledge to solve their problems. You may want to give away some free information to give a sneak peek on how you can help them.
Decision
The decision phase of the sales funnel is when the customer is about ready to make their purchase, and probably debating between a few plausible options.
At this moment, it is imperative to make your best offer to them. This could look like a free extremely valuable-based training, bonus offer, a limited-time discount code, free shipping, or something else so tempting that they won't take the risk of not purchasing right then and there.
Action
Of course, this is the part of the sales funnel where the potential makes the decision to purchase and becomes your customer. They have signed contracts, made the purchase, made the booking, moved from expressing interest to booking an appointment, and exchanged money for your services or products. Congratulations!
However, the biggest misconception and mistake with this stage is that it shouldn't end here. There is another important part of the sales funnel, retention.
The Key to Customer Retention
According to research, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over any other form of advertising.
You can keep them engaged by creating content such as:
Special offers or referral codes and discounts
Gamify and offer incentives and rewards
Product usage guides
FAQ’s
Follow up emails
One time offers of 1:1 support
Surveys
By keeping your customers happy, you can turn them into advocates for your brand, because nothing sells more than a happy customer!
Curate Your Content For Each Stage Of the Funnel
As the potential buyer moves through the different stages of the funnel, it is essential to have your content value centric geared towards keeping them educated, informed literally hooked and nudging them towards the next stage of the funnel.
The first stages of the funnel (awareness and interest) can be awareness activities such as blogging, guest post contributions, contributions to podcasts, blogs, vlogging, advertising ( more on this in subsequent blogs). The more valuable content that you have to share, the more awareness you will have and you are providing value for your readers .
By promoting your best content and encouraging people to share them, you are guaranteed to have more people interested in what products you have to offer.
The second stage, interest, is best done with special offers or "lead magnets". This could be something such as a free course or guide, anything that shows that you have the answers to their problems.
The last stages (decision and action) are a perfect time for a well-curated webinar, masterclass or even event. For an example webinar, you want to help solve some of their problems and give away some information that they will not be able to find anywhere else.
If someone signs up for your webinar, you are already in their mind for purchasing your product or services, so make sure you have a strong call-to-action at the end.
Learn More About How to Build a Sales Funnel That Actually Sells
There is so much detail in learning how to build a sales funnel system that it cannot simply be covered in this blog post.
Thankfully, we have a sales funnel clinic process, which includes all six steps of the client ascension process and is guaranteed to help any business to increase your sales, visibility and leads.
Whether you are a sales team requiring corporate training or a solo business owner, feel free to contact us for more information.
