If you have a new product to sell, you need a powerful sales funnel. This post shows you how sales funnel works and everything you need to know. Most people think that a good product sells itself. But that is not true. There are a lot of things you need to do to sell your product.
First of all, know this for a fact; If you want to sell your product, you need to build a powerful well-crafted sales funnel.
If you've ever been curious about how sales funnels work, then this post is for you. Most likely, you are looking out to sell to customers at different phases of the customer's journey. This is where the sales funnel becomes an irresistible instrument.
What is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is a multistep process that starts with a potential customer and ends with a sale.
A successful sales funnel will guide your prospects from not knowing about you to becoming customers who buy from you again and again.
It is an instrument in marketing that can be used for digital or physical products and services, but it's typically most effective for tangible products since customers like to physically touch and see what they expect to buy.
Sales funnel is a proven marketing tool that allows you to generate revenue from your existing website traffic, provide information about your products and services in an organized way, boost customer loyalty and increase brand awareness.
An effective sales funnel will guide your customers in making a purchase decision. It is also known as the conversion funnel due to its shape which looks like a funnel. Usually, it starts with an offer, then moves on to collecting email addresses, moving your prospect through multiple offers and finally converting them into paying customers.
How Sales Funnel Works?
The sales funnel is a process that has been around for decades. It is a proven system to get customers from the top of the funnel to the bottom.
At the top of the funnel, you have prospects who are unaware of your use of the product.
In the middle, you have active users who are aware of your product but are not yet convinced that they need it.
At the bottom of the funnel, you have repeat customers who are aware of your company and are convinced that they need to use your product.
How can a business get people from the top of the funnel to the bottom?
There’s no magic bullet for getting lots of new customers, but there are many ways to make it easier for new prospects to learn about and purchase your product.
A sales page is an important part of any marketing campaign, but your goal shouldn’t be to get people to buy your product. It should be to educate them about the benefits of your product, to build a long-lasting business relationship.
Once they see the value in what you’re offering, they will convert on their own.
The best way to get lots of leads is with a free PDF report. People love free stuff, and they want to know what’s in it for them before they invest their time in one, releasing their emails, then further receiving mails from you.
Remember, the purpose of a sales page is not primarily to make a sale but to get leads nurtured to the point of trusting you, your product and/or services.
How To Use Sales Funnels to Grow Your Business?
According to Salesforce, about 68% of companies have not attempted to measure a sales funnel, or make attempt to identify how best to take advantage.
The same survey shows that marketing leads of up to 79% don't convert into sales.
What does this mean?
I'd say that without a sales funnel, it’s near impossible to convert leads into sales.
But there is something you need to know.
In growing your business, you want to ensure that you make your visitors or customers take specific steps that lead to conversion or sales.
There are stages of sales funnels you should ensure.
Stages of Sales Funnels
The AIDA model of a Sales Funnel consists of four (4) stages: Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action stages. There are other models regarded as Old and New kinds of Sales Funnel.
Awareness Stage.
The first stage is awareness. It’s where you introduce your product or service to potential customers. This is where you want to capture the attention of your potential customer and drive them to the beginning of the funnel.
You do this through content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), advertising, social media marketing, word-of-mouth and other forms of online marketing like using existing email lists via free or paid services like GetResponse, or Aweber, to drive them to new opportunities.
Although this can be the most difficult stage of your sales funnel to handle because you’re just getting started and you may not have a large following or any credibility yet.
This stage is where you toss your net the broadest, it's the widest part of the funnel at the very top. You're contacting potential clients and directing them to your website. To build these relationships, it's better if you have a solid online marketing strategy in place.
This could be as a result of social media posts or targeted advertising, or because a potential customer found your website through an internet search.
Two things happen when a member of your target market visits your website.
1. They are experiencing a problem and are seeking a solution
2. They know what they want, and when, but may not know how to.
Most times, they might be intrigued but not totally committed to completing the task. But what really counts is that they've arrived on your site and have the opportunity to go through the awareness stage of the sales funnel.
A lead magnet can be used as the initial hook to draw a potential target to your website. It might be a captivating idea, an intriguing offer, or simply a well-placed website in their search results.
This stage requires lots of creativity. You can also try different methods until you find something that works best.
Interest Stage.
The next stage after the Awareness stage is the Interest stage.
This is where potential customers become aware of your product or service and are interested in learning more about it.
At this stage, you want to make sure that your sales page and follow up emails are doing their job. If you’re using a sales page, then this is the stage where you want to get people to take action and buy.
At this point, you need to provide them with information that will help them decide whether they want to buy your product or service.
Every new visitor to your platform should have the immediate purpose of extending their stay or initiating further conversation.
Perhaps they've given you their email by signing up for a newsletter or one of the free trials of a service you're offering at the entrance stage.
Or perhaps they've given you their email by signing up for a newsletter or one of the free trials of a service you're offering.
This is your chance to enhance the relationship by telling your company's narrative.
Give them a captivating story about your business and its principles, but don't give them everything at once.
Ideally, you should cultivate this brand relationship over time by sending emails or posting on social media, consistently.
You get the idea.
For this, you’ll need to know what your audience is interested in. While preparing what to sell, you want to sell to people who must pass through the interest stage as that could lead them to a positive decision to buy or seek your service.
You can use a tool like SurveyMonkey to find out what interests your audience.
Then, once you have your freebie, you can offer an incentive to download it. This could be a free pdf version of your freebie, a free short class, or even a coupon code to save $10 on your product. ‘
By offering an incentive, you are increasing the chances that more people will download the freebie or at least request the product and service.
Desire Stage.
Desire comes after interest in the sales funnel.
At this point, you show prospects how you can help them benefit from your product or service, and how this can grow their business or perhaps address a major problem they're having.
You want to position yourself in respect to your competition at this point and demonstrate to prospects how you vary from others in your sector. This is when you should begin to form strong bonds with the possibilities. You must ensure that you are delivering something interesting to potential clients at this stage.
This is where you make the prospect want to buy your product.
But hey! Don't push too hard here!!
You have to do this by giving them a taste of what they will get if they buy your product. By continuing to develop a relationship with the prospect, exhibiting your worth to them, they're likely to desire your product.
Continue to fill your sales funnel with marketing benefits. You want to make sure that you give them the best deal possible so that they are willing to buy your product.
Action Stage.
The fourth stage of the sales funnel is a decision. This is where the prospect has finally decided to take action and buy.
This can be a long process, and you want to make sure that you are there with them every step of the way. The longer it takes for them to make a decision, the more likely they are to make a decision that is in their best interest.
Remember, you can’t rush them. You have to let them do it at their own pace.
The funnel, of course, does not end when the customer is ready to buy or complete the transaction.
The initial sale should, in theory, represent the start of a long client relationship. This is the point at which your clients make their first tangible investment in your brand. You should show your gratitude by providing excellent service and remaining engaged.
Customer retention and long-term business success are greatly aided by making customers happy and ensuring that they feel heard and cared for. Customers who return on a regular basis are the foundation for long-term success.
So what should you do if they take too long in taking a final decision (action) in the sales funnel?
In my opinion, this is when you begin to look at adding some level of creativities; creating more captivating not desperate titles, compelling results from action takers reports, etc.
Using Clickfunnel to tripple your efforts
Although there are several other instruments you could use to build a powerful sales funnel, in this section, I will introduce you to ClickFunnel.
It works best in my opinion for every type of sales funnels.
With Clickfunnel, you can quickly Create Beautiful Sales Funnels That Convert Your Visitors Into Leads And Then Customers.
Just think about it, you can have a sales funnel that will bring in customers and also make you money.
Clickfunnels is one of the best sales funnel software out there.
With Clickfunnels, you can create landing pages, sales pages, lead capture pages, and even squeeze pages to help you generate more leads.
All of these features are included in the Clickfunnels pricing plan. You can start with a free trial for 14 days. If you want to continue with the Clickfunnels pricing plan, you will have to pay $97 per month. However, if you want to continue with the free trial, you can do so for 14 days.
Read Also: How to Write Powerful Sales Copy using AI
Features to expect from Clickfunnel
Email integrations: Send email campaigns from your Clickfunnels account. Send email campaigns from your Clickfunnels account.
Page Builder: Create beautiful landing pages with the drag and drop editor. Create beautiful landing pages with the drag and drop editor.
Lead Capture: Capture leads from your website and send them to your autoresponder. Capture leads from your website and send them to your autoresponder.
Marketing Automation: Send automated emails based on user actions. Send automated emails based on user actions.
Email Marketing: Send bulk emails to your subscribers. Send bulk emails to your subscribers.
Social Media Integration: Integrate with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Integrate with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Analytics: Track the performance of your website and marketing campaigns.
There are loads of other features aside from the ones mentioned above. You can check out the full list of features here.
What is the difference between marketing funnels and sales funnels?
Although the phrases “marketing funnel” and “sales funnel” are often used interchangeably, they have some significant differences.
The most significant distinction is in their journey maps, which depict a prospective customer's development.
A marketing funnel is a model that describes the customer journey from awareness to purchase. As the sales funnel, they are used to help you focus your marketing efforts on the most relevant customers at each stage of their journey.
Usually, it is a linear process that describes the entire actions of a prospect.
Prospects, or potential customers, will enter at the top of the funnel through either awareness or interest. As they move down the funnel, prospects will become more qualified until they reach the bottom where they are ready to be sold to. A sales funnel is a similar concept but with a few additions.
The first addition is the need to build trust. In a sales funnel, you want to make sure that your prospects are comfortable with you and trust you before they will buy from you. This is why building relationships is so important in this stage.
The second addition is the need to qualify your prospects. This is where you ask questions that will help you determine if they are a good fit for your product or service. Here are some examples of qualifying questions:
Do you have a need for this product or service? How many people would be using this product or service?
How much money do you make per year?
Do you have a budget for this product or service?
The third addition is the need to qualify your prospects. You must qualify your prospects so that you know they are a good fit for your product or service. The best way to do this is to get them to agree with you on the benefits of what you are offering them.
You can do this by asking them questions such as:
What do you like about what I am offering?
What would you say to someone who was thinking of buying this product or service?
How would you describe the benefits of this product or service?
and so on…
Final Thought
Sales funnels are an essential part of any digital marketing strategy.
They help you reach more prospects, convert more visitors, and close more sales. It’s never too late to set up a funnel that will make your life easier in the long run or improve your current sales funnel.
I hope this guide has given you a solid understanding of sales funnels and how they can be used to increase your business’s profits.
If you need any further assistance with your sales funnels, we are available for consulting services.
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