When you have an online business, generating leads and making sales are key. To achieve this, you at times need to lead your potential clients to the point of target; making sales. Therefore, as a business owner, you need a sales funnel to generate the leads. However, what is it and how do you create one for your business? Keep reading this guide to find out the answers to these and much more.
What is a Sales Funnel?
Buying products is a journey each client has to take. The main decision is on whether to buy or not. The series of steps taken by a consumer before buying a product or service is referred to as a sales funnel. What is it that guides the audience into becoming your customers? It is the sales funnel, and it goes deeper than making sales. With this, you can narrow down your target market. Therefore, at the end of the day, a sales funnel will help you focus on those who need your services or products; the clients who are fit for your offer.
Read: Personalized Marketing: How to Connect with Customers?
Notably, both the seller and the buyer in a sales or conversion funnel have different perspectives. According to the seller’s perspective, a sales funnel contains three categories; top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. At the top, the category of prospective buyers is broad. In the middle, you start narrowing down your target audience while at the bottom, you know which customers are your best fit; the ones you need to shift your focus to.
Therefore, a sales funnel helps the seller avoid lots of guesswork, know the group he can serve best and helps him filter through the funnel until he gets it clear who his ideal prospects are.
On the other hand, the buyer has a whole different experience. There are 3 different phases from the buyers’ point of view. The first one is the awareness phase, where the buyers know there is a problem that a product or service can offer its solution. Next, there is the consideration phase where the buyer evaluates the available solutions to discover which one best satisfies their need. The last phase is the decision phase where a buyer finally buys a product or service that they feel will be the solution to their problems.
Remember, you need a sales funnel to share the right message at the right time, create more leads that increase the sales, and even when you need to grow your business. How do you create a sales funnel? Let us find out.
How to Create a Sales Funnel
As a newbie in an online business, you might find creating a sales funnel quite a hassle and even time-consuming. The good news is that it is simpler than you might have thought or imagined. Irrespective of the online business you are in, the following stages can help;
- Create Awareness
Before you make the audience your customers, they must be aware of the service or product you offer, and that is why creating awareness is the very first step of creating a sales funnel.
You can use paid traffic by running ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or even Google. This is a fast and reliable way. On the other hand, you can go for organic ads through social media, search engine optimization, blog posts, articles, podcasts, or having a YouTube channel are other ways through which you can market your business. However, they take more time to pick up.
Must Read: 6 Best POS Systems for Small Business 2022
- Discovery
At this stage, you let your leads know what offer you have in store for them. Remember, this is where you build their trust in you and aim at getting the email addresses.
The visitors might be curious and want to know more. Therefore, to help them discover about you and your business, you can offer them a gift, a free sample or trial, a downloadable guide, an eBook, and any other lead magnet.
Importantly, choose the lead magnet depending on you, your business, and the target audience. Also, have a simple and short lead magnet. Let the audience know what it is, who should use it, and the expected results. Remember, their time and money are their investments here, so give them value through your lead magnet.
- Evaluation
This is where you nurture the new lead. Also, your main aim at this stage is t make them become your customer. An email funnel is effective to help both you and the buyer evaluate each other. Is your offer the perfect fit for the customer? Is the buyer your ideal prospect?
Remember, it is at the evaluation stage where you build the trust and create the relationship. Therefore, to have successful sales, acquire high leads, and have high conversion rates.
- Intent
This is where you bring in your intention; introduce your product or service to the audience. Marketing tactics that can help are; email funnels, retargeting ads, phone calls, building a community, conducting surveys or questionnaires, or having lead quizzes.
Remember, as you introduce the product to the audience, you shouldn’t force it on them.
Read: Marketing Technologies That Every Company Must Use
- Purchase
When you get to the purchase stage, the trust and relationship with your audience are solid. They know you, your offer, who it is for, and how it can benefit them. When the audience is ready to purchase, have a checkout page. However, keep in mind that not everyone will make a purchase.
Therefore, email follow-up sequence and retargeting ads can do well for the audience who is still unsure of whether to buy your product or not.
- Loyalty
Getting new customers isn’t easy. So, when you acquire a new one, retain them. Therefore, employ the right approach to maintain your existing customers and watch your online business scale.
The good thing about creating loyalty with your customers is that they will be repeat customers, give you referrals, and always be looking forward to your new releases or products. so, a complete sale doesn’t mark a complete journey. Whatever promise you make, ensure you deliver and offer value. Also, communication is important
Conclusion
Sales funnels help sellers know their target audience, generate leads, increase sales and even grow their e-commerce businesses. However, creating a sales funnel might be daunting at first but with the right steps, you can get it done. Remember, it doesn’t matter whatever online business you are in. you can follow the guide and see your business succeed.
Related articles you might be interested in:
Common Requirements to Open a Business Bank Account
