For generations sales where completely direct, there wasn’t any need to build hype or a process before selling. People say a product, and with a tiny bit of marketing, the conversion was done. Fast forward to this decade and things are completely changed. Consumers now need to know a lot more about the product before making any step towards conversions and because of the oversaturation of the various sectors conversion might not even happen.
As conversions became difficult building a process before conversions became essential. That process is called a sales funnel!
What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is the process that every customer goes through before making any conversion. The funnel is a complete analogy that represents well every step towards conversion as the top of the funnel in the early stages. Where your chances of conversion are second to none and the bottom is where conversions happen.
Understand that a lot of people are at the top of the funnel but almost none are at the bottom. The better optimized and drilled your sales funnel is more costumers will be at the bottom.
The sales funnel will look something like this:
Stages of the sales funnel
The sales funnel as 4 stages which one with is a specific role in the conversion process. But only when fused together with each other they work well.
The first step is awareness
As the word says at this stage people get aware of your business, they notice you. Is important that people notice you in a good way, many businesses get stuck at this phase because their first impression isn’t good enough and people automatically fade way.
Make sure that your website loads fast and that is optimized for mobile as the majority of costumers notice you there. Your social media also needs to be on point, no messy post organization or bad posts, that will reduce the chances of the users going to your website to 0.
The second step is interesting
This is arguably the stage of the sales funnel where is required the most value. Here the consumer already noticed you “liked” what he saw and now is trying to investigate a bit more about the product.
For example, now that we get on your site he is looking at your content, your texts, your service in general. The quality needs to be on point attractive texts. Good blog posts and catchy CTA will for sure make the difference coming to the next stage.
The third step is called the decision
Where the consumer already liked what we say and is paying close attention to what he is looking at. Every detail is counting, they are reading closely about the product or service so he decides on whether or not he is going to buy it. Make sure that you don’t have any mistakes or errors on your website by using page insights so that nothing will interrupt the sales funnel.
The final step is the action
Here is where you convert. Now that the customer is fully aware of you and thinks that you are the solution to his problem. He makes the conversion and you end up a happy man…well it is not exactly that. There is an extra step that isn’t directly mentioned in the sales funnel essentially to his success.
Retention
So you thought everything is done, if it was like for example: subscription plans, you immediately be extinct as there was no one coming back again.
After customer converts your marketing needs to be even better for him to turn you into a reliable ally for is problems. You can keep a customer interested by using:
- Blog posting
- Emails
- Special offers
- Personal assistance for any problems
Every step that you make to keep the customer as close to the brand as possible you are winning.
Conclusion
We understand that you might have one final question:
“What platforms and formats are associated with each state”
Well, for the first two steps you can use social media. Everyone is there and if you do it right, use good strategy, chances are you get a pretty significant response.
For the third step you can give a special offer, everyone tends to make the decision if something seems even better, so trowing a special offer in the mix might be a great idea.
For the last step you can, for example: use easy payment methods. No one likes having to go throw 10 pages before getting what they want, so ease up the process.
Go build your sales funnel and see your conversions fly!
