By Henry Brown
Each of the stages in a sales funnel will have a huge impact on your consumer behavior. You need to know yours intimately because if you don’t, you may not be able to achieve the results you desire, which will work against you in the long-term. If you want to help yourself, you need to take the time to follow this guide to creating a successful sales funnel.
What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is the process someone goes through to become a customer for your company. If you look at a brick and mortar funnel, you will soon see that the people who are at the top of your funnel are the ones who choose to walk into your store. A percentage of them will then see something on a shelf, and investigate. This is the next step of the funnel. The final step would be if they then select an item and checkout. This step concludes the last stage of the funnel. The same process plays out for every company in some ways. SaaS investors will often stress the importance of a good sales funnel.
Why are sales funnels important?
Understanding your funnel can easily help you to identify any holes. This is when your prospects drop out and they never convert. If you do not know your funnel, then you can’t begin to optimize it. If you are ready to take that next step, simply take a look below to find out more.
Analyzing your audience’s behavior
The more you know about your audience, the more effective your funnel will become. When someone comes onto your site, you have to look at what they are doing. How much time do they spend on your pages? How far down do they scroll? If you can explore options like this then you will soon find that it is easier than ever for you to not only help them to find what they need, but for you to also capitalize on any strong points your site may have.
Capturing the attention of your audience
The only way your funnel is going to work is if you are able to attract people. This means that you need to put your content in front of them. You can take the organic route here if you want, which is to spread posts across your channels and to also post tons of content. You also need to diversify with videos, infographics and anything else of the sort. Of course, you can also go down the paid ads route here if you want. The ideal place for you to run your ads will largely depend on your target audience and where they hang out. If you are selling B2B then it may be a good idea for you to choose LinkedIn as your solution, for example.
Build a landing page
Your advertisement or your content has to take your prospects somewhere. Really you want to direct them to a landing page where they cannot miss out on an offer. These people are still quite low in the sales funnel, so you need to focus more on capturing the leads as opposed to pushing the sale. You also need to make sure that you have a bold call to action. This will tell them what to do, whether you want them to download a free e-Book or whether you want them to watch an instructional video.
Drip email
Market to all of your potential leads through email. You have to make sure you are providing amazing content here on a regular basis if possible. One or two emails a week should be more than enough here. At the end of the day, you want them to learn from you and you also want them to overcome any obstacles that may be required. Once or even twice a week should be more than enough here. You can then build up the scale and take things to that next level over time. At the end of your campaign, you can then make an incredible offer. This is what will inspire your leads to act, so keep that in mind as much as you possibly can.
Keep in touch
Don’t forget about the customers you have right now. Continue to reach out to them. Even though you may be focused on your sales funnel right now, you have to make sure that you thank them for the purchases they have made, and you also need to put the work in to offer them additional discount codes too. This will help you to keep them in your sphere and it will also help you to really give them the support they need to be loyal to your service.
Why optimizing your funnel is important
Your prospective customers tend to have a lot of options out there. You want them to choose your own services or products if possible, but you cannot force this. For this reason, you have to make sure that you market as efficiently as you can. If you do not have a tight or an optimized sales funnel, then you are just really guessing what your prospects are about and this can cost you a sale. If you do not optimize your funnel, then you may find you end up struggling overall and this is the last thing that you need. You may even find that you find it very difficult to bolster your sales even though you are investing every effort into your funnel.
If you want to make sure that your sales funnel is the best that it can be, then you have to make sure that you invest a good amount of effort and that you also keep in mind that you are never going to have a perfect process. Funnels require a continuous amount of improvement for them to remain effective. If you are willing to put in the work then there’s no reason at all why you shouldn’t be able to come out on top.
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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.
