A sales funnel is basically the customer journey—from being an interested passerby to actually being a patron of your offerings. Every potential customer moves along a sales funnel, but not every business is tracking it in order to exploit its full advantages.
There are businesses who leave everything to chance—basically just put a product out there and use tried-and-tested ways to promote it. If this is what you are doing and sales are continuously turning up, then good for you.
However, if you are the business owner who is doing everything, their marketing department is telling them, and seeing no results, then a new strategy is needed. If you are just overwhelmed by the plethora of options you have to market your business and do not know where to start, then building sales funnel is a good place to start.
The main point is to lessen or totally eliminate the friction a customer faces when they want to learn about your product and purchase it. A successful sales funnel strategy will make the purchase process as easy and smooth for the customer as possible.
Here are ways you can effectively do this:
1. Define your target market.
You need to understand who you are talking to or who is most likely to land on your page. Only when you know what makes people curious about your products will you know how to effectively craft your sales funnel.
This is also vital for all marketing activities, so make sure this is a fundamental step you have already taken in the branding of your product/service. This decision will affect your communications until it’s refined.
2. Empathize with your customer.
This is the moment you call on the most human faculties of understanding and empathy. Get into your customer’s mind and see how they see your business (coming from an unknowing point of view).
Try to be impartial as you assess each step a customer takes as they navigate through your site. You want to make sure your content and design:
- Gives them vital information
- Makes and keeps them interested
- Gives them the assurance to want to buy the product.
Is everything easy, from the navigation to the adding to the cart to the payment options? If there is even one step that may be a bit too confusing or unnecessary for your customer, eliminate it, or improve on it instantly.
Remember that everything else comes much easier these days, and attention spans are harder to hold. People are less patient. One small step that makes it harder for them, or that they deem inessential, could take them away from your site and go look for an easier alternative.
3. Use the best or most applicable sales funnel for your needs.
There are lots of sales funnel examples to choose from. It really depends on what you are willing to offer, what data you wish to collect, and which one you have the resources to produce. Check out the best option for your needs and proceed with implementing it on your site.
The application of these methods can be fluid and can change from time to time. The most important thing is that you assess your analytics, measure your uptake, and assess whether a particular method is working for you.
If it is not (or if midway you feel like you should try something else), then go ahead and do that. It’s all a process of trial and error, so see which one fits and answers your needs the most.
