Understanding a sales funnel
A question you will often ask yourself in business is what’s the most effective way to get leads? Answering this question is all about understanding your prospect’s mindset, and this is why you need a sales funnel.
The sales funnel is the series of steps designed to convert a prospect into a buyer. It is a strategy that emphasises customer behaviour, caring for their needs at each step of their buyer’s journey. In other words, a sales funnel is the process of acquiring and retaining your ideal customer base. In digital marketing, this is done by using email, landing pages, social media, or other experiments.
The sales funnel in detail
Briefly described, a prospect goes through five phases: awareness, interest, decision, conversion, and finally delight.
The awareness phase
This stage is the introduction to the needs and pains of your prospects. Their recognition triggers the start of gathering information about a possible solution. Familiar sources of information can be:
- A Google search
- Asking questions or reading reviews online, like on Quora, Reddit, etc.
- Word of mouth and asking friends for recommendations
- Online or print ads
Best practices
At the top of the funnel, prospects are not yet informed of your product or service. Build awareness instead of trying to sell immediately. Make people recognise that they have a problem, and that your product or service is the solution to it. Showcase your expertise and the solution you are offering.
Just like engaging in conversation with a stranger, it is important to bring value, avoid being boring, and be understood. These are the stepping stones of building a deeper, meaningful relationship with your prospect.
For example, if you are organising a photography workshop for beginners, you can offer free ebooks with useful shooting tips to attract your target audience. This addresses their passion and sets you as an expert in your field. An ebook at this point may be an ideal trigger to transform their longing into a possible enrollment to the workshop in the later stages of the funnel.
Even so, awareness is nothing if people cannot find you easily. Build your online visibility with strong keywords of valuable content that is SEO friendly. If you want to invest in advertisement, make sure to track its results so you can improve upon it later.
The interest phase
Now that prospects are aware of your brand and solution, it is time to build their interest. At this point, they’re considering your brand but have not yet made a purchase decision. Give them incentives to guide them to the bottom of the funnel where they convert. Show your difference from competitors: what makes you stand out in the online crowd?
To get qualified prospects into your funnel and to the next phase, you need to analyse your target audience. Knowing your audience allows personalised content to come into the picture. Increase people’s interest by getting close and being worth their time. The interest phase is all about getting personal and creating an emotional connection. You can do that by providing personal insights or sharing motivational stories.
Best practices
Draw attention on the advantages of your solution while continuing to touch upon your audience’s needs. Create an opt-in form on your website where you can collect email addresses and any other information with permission, hence growing your mailing list.
Above all, make sure you get to know your audience: knowing is the first step to understanding. User research early on, and analytical tools later can help you in this aspect. Don’t forget to analyse the effectiveness of your efforts.
Use multiple marketing channels to reach as many prospects as possible. Regular consumer analysis will help you in providing them with tailored information. The content you develop, and the offers you share should be designed for your specific customer profile. Nurture the needs of your prospects so that the experience is relatable and targeted. Connect with trust, and strengthen it at each step.
Let’s come back to our example of a photography workshop for beginners. In the middle of the funnel, enable your prospects by introducing discounts or benefits like a split payment opportunity. Emphasise the workshop experience through informative newsletters. Such efforts work well to move prospects to the bottom of the funnel. As they realise the value of your solution, keep your content focused and direct.
The continuous sales funnel
The decision phase
Your prospect has made it to the bottom half of the funnel! Your strategic research and emotional investment is showing signs of bearing fruit. Make sure you have listened to your customers carefully in the preceding stages to identify what they want, and address their needs accordingly.
Best practices
Not everyone will reach this phase, so you may want to create a sense of urgency among your remaining prospects. Let them know what they might miss out on if they do not make the purchase. There are no scripted rules to creating the ideal funnel, but there are guidelines that can be really useful. Carefully estimating the timing of reaching out to your customer with the right message to further negotiate, or possibly even skipping the negotiations altogether, are the trademarks of an influential sales funnel.
If you’re running into issues where the customer is getting cold feet because of pricing, then you haven’t demonstrated the value to them well enough. You know your product or service has value — it’s reflecting that and integrating it into the customer’s life or business that can make them see that value as well. Neil Patel
The conversion phase
Yes, you have reached the final phase! By now, you have motivated your prospects to make the right decision by creating content that is apt and talks honestly about your product or service. Clearly, you have pointed out the salient features of your solution and addressed any question. Now is decision time: if your content has the right balance of facts and emotion, you have done well to convince them to purchase from you.
Best practices
Your message should excite your prospects and lead them to buy your solution. It’s important to understand that not everyone is willing to purchase immediately. Some people might need one more nudge, so make sure you still have some closing arguments in your toolbox. Use them strategically and make them enticing. This is why testing your funnel becomes very useful.
The delight phase, where it all begins
Congratulations, you have closed the sale! Enjoy your well deserved yet short lived effort, because once a prospect converts into a customer, your job has just begun.
Keep your customers engaged and maintain the relationship by providing a meaningful experience and stellar customer service. They might have purchased your product as a result of your conversion funnel, but you still need to live up to their expectations. Keep in mind that an engaged and satisfied customer is the best promoter of your brand. They can uplift your sales over time through positive word of mouth. Therefore, a nurtured experience can create a steady flow of opportunities to enhance your marketing in the future. Keep your customers happy, cared for, and involved so that they feel loved and appreciated. They will have a reason to continue giving good feedback about you, refer you to others and repeat their purchase.
Your customers matter most, nurture them
Modern day customers are well informed and demanding, they know what they want. They want to buy from genuine brands they can love and trust. Today’s customers weigh their options carefully. They not only want to know what they will get for their money, but also who they are buying from, and whether or not they can trust you and your brand.
When people share their e-mail address with you, it’s a sign they want to know you, your business, and your products better. And that’s when your work begins. Having this direct line is an opportunity to create a real connection, introduce yourself, and build rapport in order to turn them into trusting, loyal customers. It’s a tall order for any business. The good news is that a sales funnel is the perfect tool to achieve these goals: to connect, to build a personal relationship, to show them who you are and why you are the perfect match for them.
Well crafted sales funnels help reassure your prospects that their needs matter to you and your business, and that you are here to help. Have you considered creating a sales funnel yet? We hope so, but if you have more questions and need help, contact us directly. At graphility, we love creating sales funnels for our clients, crafting step-by-step systems that improve conversion every time. Let’s build the sales funnel that will improve your sales, and help you turn these customers into loyal clients.
Have you got your sales funnel all figured out? Which phase challenges you the most, contact us let us know.