How to Create a Sales Funnel
If you’re running an online business, you probably know how insanely hard it is to convert a visitor to a paying customer. Due to today’s low trust and intense competition climate, it takes more than a great product to generate sales.
However, it is painful to record a low ROI after developing an incredible product coupled with some excellent marketing campaigns. The solution to this pain is a sales funnel, and it comes in five stages that help you warm up a cold prospect into giving your offers consideration.
When you use a proven technique, the conversion will be exponential. In this article, you’re going to learn some of the sales funnel stages and create one that brings results. Before proceeding, what is a Sales Funnel?
What Is A Sales Funnel?
A Sales Funnel is a marketing strategy that aims at turning cold prospects to paying customers by funneling them through five stages. Just like a funnel, the opportunities are often massive at first. But before reaching the final step, they pare down to a small group of highly targeted individuals.
The endgame is not to make a sale, but to create returning customers with a lifetime value. By having the customer’s journey cut down in stages, you can determine your offers when they are likely to impact.
Sales funnels are in four stages, known by the acronym AIDA. It details the journey of a prospect until they make a purchase and become a lifetime paying customer.
AIDA: The Four Stages Of Sales Funnel
1. Awareness
This stage is sometimes referred to as ‘attention,’ and the reason is that you need to create attention for your offers to get interested prospects. It deals with the promotion and getting your offers or business in front of the target audience. At this stage, the candidate learns about your products and services, and then determines if to interact or perhaps, pass.
2. Interest
Here, you’re striving to create a bond with the customer by learning about their goals and problems. When you understand what your ideal customers need, you can create products that appeal to them. How you often attract them to show interest in your offers is through the contents you make.
3. Decision
At this stage, the prospect is warming up to take up your offers or solutions. In other words, they are paying more attention to your requests. This stage is also known as ‘desire,’ since they are coming around to the idea of making a purchase.
4. Action
It is the final stage, and it involves the prospect finally making some purchase of your offers. Other times, they might not make any purchase. But if they have signed up for your newsletter, you still have the opportunity to follow them up and resell.
How To Build A Sales Funnel
Creating a sales funnel isn’t as hard as you may have imagined. This section will guide you on the things you need to set up first for the best result. Remember, success in this marketing strategy lies in monitoring and tweaking some elements to fit your business.
Are you ready to create your sales funnel? Let’s begin!
1. Know Your Audience
The more you know your target market, the better and more effective your sales funnel will be. Remember, your offer isn’t for everyone; instead, people who are a good fit for what you sell. When you understand your customers and what they want, you wouldn’t struggle to get them to take action.
Before you begin, it is essential to create a customer profile. Consider their age bracket, geography, income, and even personal interest. The more you know your target market, the more effective your sales funnel.
2. Get Their Attention
When you have adequately defined your ideal customer, finding ways to get your business in front of them becomes easy and fast. The way sales funnel work, you first need to create attention like the first stage of sales funnel suggests.
There are many ways to get the attention of your target audience. You can take the organic route, or perhaps post your content across all your platforms. If you have some bucks to spend, you can run ads on social media, big websites, or blogs.
If you’re running a B2B, LinkedIn will be the perfect place to promote your offers.
3. Create A Landing Page
When you post your content across your platforms or run ads, it has to take prospects to someplace. Typically, a landing page featuring a can’t-miss offer often performs well. If people coming into your landing page are low, focus on getting leads than sales.
The purpose of a landing page is to direct a prospect into the next step. In that case, ensure that your call to action is bold enough. That way, they don’t miss your offers. The goal could be downloading a free eBook, or perhaps watching some instructional video.
Whatever be the case, ensure that the call to action is just one. Having numerous buttons begging to be clicked can be a turn-off.
4. Create An Email Drip Campaign
When you have gotten leads, getting them to take action or purchase your offers can be made possible with email marketing. However, don’t do this too often to avoid coming off as spam. You have to engage them regularly, but not too often. Sending your leads at least two emails per week is much better.
Through your email campaigns, you can determine what they want to learn, buy, or what problems they want to solve. At the end of your drip campaign, make them an incredible and irresistible offer. If your content is impressive, it will inspire them to take action.
Conclusion
One rule of thumb to always follow is to keep in touch, both to your old and new customers. Continue reaching out to them, thanking them for their patronage. Once in a while, you can offer some discounts and coupon codes that make them lifelong fans of your brand.
