Even though the term “sales funnel” is known predominantly by marketers, it is a crucial part of e-commerce websites that sell and not only. If you own a business, you’ve heard this phrase before. You shouldn’t necessarily know or understand all the details of how it works – but this is only an issue if you consider yourself a marketer (in this case, you have some serious learning to do).
If you’re a one-person company, then, in this case, you have to make sure your sales funnel works and generate new customers for your business. But most companies are at least small teams. Therefore, you should have at least one marketing specialist who can handle this insidious beast.
Nevertheless, this article isn’t meant to berate you for not knowing how to use a sales funnel. Let’s take a look at exactly how a sales funnel works on a website. First and foremost, it is at the moment you start creating your company’s website that you need to start building your sales funnel. Oh, but you don’t have a website, you say? Don’t be nervous – this may work to your advantage. In this case, you won’t have to re-do your site to create a proper sales funnel but instead will start constructing it from scratch. But if you do have a website and it doesn’t generate as many leads as you need, then you might need to make some particular changes to it. In this case, you should find and hire reliable, reputable website companies that are able to sort out issues and fix them for you.
But, before you hire a web design agency, you have to make certain that its team has a successful record creating websites that convert visitors and sell products. The thing is that the market has a lot of outstanding designers and web design companies that create sites with both amazing graphics and seamless navigation. Still, many can’t create sites that are effective sales tools. Therefore, you should look for a web design company that has a deep understanding of how to incorporate a sales funnel into a site seamlessly, yet effectively. Moreover, if you want to make certain that everything works fine, you must have at least some basic comprehension of how sales funnels work.
Sales Funnel Basics for Dummies
When you hear the phrase “sales funnel,” it doesn’t refer to one particular element. The sales funnel is a set of abstract concepts and real elements that help your quality leads become paying customers. Every single part of your website, including graphics, content, front-end design, back-end design, etc. – all of these things is the building blocks of your site’s sales funnel.
If you decide to look up the term on the Internet, it gets confusing quickly. There are just too many interpretations of the term. But, in this article, we are reviewing this dimension of your business in terms of web design. And from this perspective, your sales funnel functions as a set of steps that your website visitors take from the moment they land on your site until finally closing a deal or making a purchase.
An effective sales funnel converts your leads into customers. That said, many companies have sales funnels with multiple levels of conversion (a lead becomes a customer, who then becomes a loyal customer, etc.). If you understand how you can maximize your conversion rates, you can create a more successful sales funnel. Therefore, the web design agency you hire to create your company’s site must have a deep understanding of how sales funnels work and how to incorporate them into websites.
There are some essential aspects that your web design company will have to cater to during the web design process to secure an effective sales funnel. Now, as we have already mentioned above, a sales funnel is a set of things. Unfortunately, we will not be able to review each single sales funnel component, but we are going to take a closer look at some of them below.
Handling an Email Follow-Up
At some point, a visitor to your website will stumble upon a contact form. Regardless of whether they make purchases after providing their contact details or not, they are still going to receive an email follow-up. Normally, the first message you send them delivers the opt-in the user wanted to get in the first place. There could be distinct sequences for buying customers and non-buying visitors, or they could all be included in one email sequence.
The goal here is to cultivate a relationship with the user. Therefore, emails have to be written perfectly. Either the web design agency you hire should have a spectacular copywriter on its team, or you should hire one so that your email copy is impeccable. These email follow-ups have to provide additional value that complements the initial opt-in and, while at the same time, directs the user to the next logical steps.
Making a New Offer
The new offer can be another service or a new product. It is the next step that the prospective customer should logically take after accepting the free offer. Also, the new offer normally costs more than upsell.
Narrowing and Repeating
At every stage of the funnel, the number of users interacting with it will decrease, thus making that part of the funnel narrower. And this is how the sales funnel got its name. The website has to be designed to continue winning new clients for the company at every stage. Some of them will become your loyal customers, while others will stop dealing with you altogether. But, you will always have an influx of new visitors that will follow the same funnel, and the entire process will repeat again and again. The better the web design agency’s understanding of the sales funnel, the better the results will be for your business.
The Importance of Sales Funnels
In a nutshell, sales funnels must generate an income for you as a business owner. Well-developed funnels can provide an incredibly efficient way of solving market problems. At the same time, they ensure a constant flow of income. You can say that good sales funnels help build successful companies by solving customers’ needs.
Being a business owner, you can take a look around your niche and check out your successful competitors’ websites. A lot of companies have a multilayered series of steps in their funnels with 10, 15, or even more stages. In other words, there is seemingly no limit to the number of steps you can include in your funnel.
Closing Thoughts
As a business owner, you have to understand one particular thing regarding sales funnels: they are effective only when you have high-quality content on your site. If a sales funnel doesn’t succeed in converting new clients or stops leading prospects somewhere in the middle, this may be a sign of poor content quality, or some of the funnel’s elements are positioned incorrectly.
When it comes to digital marketing, sales funnels are crucial. Speaking of web design, it is a close relative of digital marketing – company sites are the primary source of traffic, leads, customers, and sales. This makes it clear that your website is not just a pretty business card with some cool perks posted online. Your site has to be a powerful marketing and sales tool that provides your audience with relevant solutions. And considering all of the above, the web design agency you hire should be able to provide you with more than just design services. It has to be able to make your site function properly by creating relevant and high-quality content that provides vital information to your potential clients. This ultimately helps to lead your prospects to make purchases from you.
