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How to Build a Sales Funnel
Whether you're a manufacturer distributing cars across B2B industries or an ecommerce selling stock to B2C consumers, a sales funnel is the bread and butter in your marketing strategy.
But let's get cracking with definitions, shall we?
What is a sales funnel?
Simply put, a sales funnel (also quipped as a sales process or a sales revenue) is a marketing term that allows salespeople to follow a visitor (let's call them prospects) on their journey to buying a product or a service.
If you're scratching your head still wondering what a sales funnel is, imagine an actual funnel. Pouring your ingredients from the top, you watch them as they flow toward a defined destination — your bowl. Something similar occurs in the sales world. An influx of visitors comes through from the top, but, unlike the real-life funnel, there's no guarantee that, upon entering your funnel, people will reappear from the other side and fulfil your end purchase goal.
The 4 Sales Funnel stages are commonly known by the acronym AIDA:
Awareness
Interest
Decision
Action
Note that not two prospective customers are the same, and the above steps may vary depending on the business' vision and consumer behaviour.
The idea is schematised by a funnel, seeing that many potential customers embark on the journey in the initial stages (e.g. Awareness and/or Interest), but only a slice of the Sales Funnel pie actually buy what you’re selling. According to a survey, without sustainable relationship-building with your leads, a staggering 79% of all marketing leads are never converted to sales.
Most marketers apply the specific system to communicate their marketing endeavours across a series of channels.
Breaking down the different sales funnel stages
A sales funnel is not a mere roadmap of your marketing campaign(s). Nor does it promise an overnight business breakthrough. Most of the times, it entails advanced sales technology for lead nurturing, while it takes months of coding, integration, testing and tracking for your efforts to pay off; from automated email systems to landing page applications, credit card processing APIs and a hella lot more which I'll touch on in a minute.
A strategically configured and properly executed sales funnel helps businesses move prospective browsers into qualified leads and paying customers so that to scale their ROI. Failure to go along with the steps, however, could bring a downfall with the blink of an eye.
Let's dig deeper in the sales funnel stages:
#1 Awareness
This is where the prospect first encounters your brand and offering. Consider this stage as the handshake with your ideal client. It feels awkward and icky at the beginning — so, you need a good icebreaker to spur them straight into checkout.
If you want to thaw cold leads, make sure that when the potential customer finds out about your products/services, they become aware of their pain point and the viable ways you offer in order to resolve it. 70% of buying habits heavily rely on human psychology, and they're designed to fix a specific problem. This is a stroke of awareness for you as well, so get to know your audience and shape your sales and marketing model accordingly.
This might become a right-place-and-time scenario to whip out those bank cards and turn leads into returning consumers.
#2 Interest
Here's when prospects are actively researching in pursuit of the best solution to solve their issue. This moment can be performed via social media, an email newsletter signup, word-of-mouth referrals, eBook downloads, an organic or paid online search, and so forth — the number of opt-in types and rates is infinite.
Are you just going to stand and stare? No, once you've peaked their awareness, you should also pique their interest. To do so, you'll have to kick the content writing engine in motion and make their goals achievable! It’s your time to lace your product or service with a high-converting copywriting wrapper, given that 95% of consumers go for a vendor that navigates each stage of the buying process with content. (In case you need a copywriting connoisseur or someone to fill you with fiery tips on how to craft your own copy, I'm here for you).
Warning: if you want to score more leads and accelerate your revenue, don't be too pushy with your offerings. Your prospects haven't finalised their decision yet and appearing to salesy at this stage can be off-putting.
Structure your content around the information your potential customers need. There are email warming sequences that come in the form of customised, value-packed and relatable brand stories, even as product reviews that showcase the benefits of what they're about to add on their shopping basket rather than just a list of features.
The chances of prospects procuring goods from you at first glance and website visit are miniscule, especially if they've just discovered you. For this reason, you might want to breed trust and form strong bonds with them. Your positioning is subjective, but your storytelling and messaging must be consistent and transparent throughout the “pitch”. Your backstory and character flaws are connected with how well you're able to “hook” in your prospects to drive discussion and ignite mass action.
#3 Decision
This stage of the sales funnel is when the prospect is all set to make that purchase. Beyond the storytelling and copywriting substances of your marketing concoction, your potential buyers will want to taste your credibility. Social proof is a must-have at this point, so you better secure some feedback, testimonials and client reviews.
The principle of authority that Robert Cialdini described in his 1984 bestseller, Influence, is particularly compatible here. Are there respected people in your community that endorse your product, say a 10k Instagram influencer? Scientific research that backs it up? Are you yourself a trusted source in your industry? All these factors contribute to your brand image and online presence.
Since prospects are torn among 2-3 options — yes, your competitors included — it's your opportunity to put an offer out there (packages, free shipping, discount codes, vouchers, free trials, etc) that's irresistible enough to make them crave for your offerings.
#4 Action
That is the very bottom of your sales funnel (we're moving in descending order close to reaching your business “bowl”). This stage is what determines the success or failure of your campaign, as your prospect's input is what's desired here. It’s important to state that your interaction with the customer must exceed the act of buying. In order to retain those recently-obtained customers, you need to follow up by expressing gratitude for their purchase, inviting them to share constructive feedback or posts of them using your product or service with branded hashtags, making your brand available for support, etc.
How to build an effective sales funnel
Now that you've got the What of sales funnels clear in your head, let me introduce you to the How, i.e., how a sales funnel works. Practice may differ from theory, thus DO NOT skip this section. Understanding your audience is one of the greatest gifts you can make to your business or brand, so don't take it lightly.
Identify your target audience
As I've mentioned earlier, heterogeneity prevails when it comes to the way each customer will react to your offers. Conduct your research to grasp their motivations, objectives and insecurities.
If you keep feeling lost, anchor the preliminary phases of your research in the following points:
How can my product or service become their problem-solver?
What's their preferred social media channel(s)?
What are 3 things that intrigue and interest them?
What annoys them about online and in-store shopping?
Formulate client avatars / buyer personas
You can mould diverse buyer personas and target your campaigns for the segments of your customers. You can elicit different client avatars from extensive research which relies on the following questions:
What's their incentive for buying from you?
What encourages them into purchasing your stuff?
How are they going to use the product once they buy it?
Drive traffic
If people are unaware of your products or services, there will be neither sales nor income. Simple as that. Consequently, you need to implement various lead generation and digital marketing strategies to attract users to your website, some of which may be:
Engage with your audience
Your lead generation initiatives will mean nothing if your content falls on deaf ears. With you making an effort and actively interacting with your customers or clients, they'll learn about your product and services. To achieve so, you can:
Produce top-notch content that brims with value
Tap into video (showcase the human(s) behind your brand with live streams, get-to-know quizzes and behind-the-scenes)
Reach out to influencers and ask them to review and provide tutorials of your offers
Broadcast your content across social networks
Execute email marketing campaigns (e.g. a newsletter) to promote your latest blog posts
Convert Browsers into Buyers
Lead conversion is the final stage of the process during which time the visitors convert into paying customers. Ensure that their journey toward buying the product or service is not a maze by:
Keeping the number of form fields to a bare minimum
Reducing number of steps for reaching the checkout
Single-click options for sign-in and/or sign up
Parting words
A sales funnel is a living proof of how much of a smashing success companies can be with their marketing endeavours, grabbing the attention of prospects and, ultimately, seal deals with sales. It illustrates the roadmap of a campaign's lifecycle necessary to make a conversion whether it's awareness, triggering interest, or influencing the decision-making and action-taking. It’s all about offering value — the best possible treatment all prospective customers aspire to.
So what you're waiting for? Let it all sink in and get those sale figures to soar high!
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