The Era of Website effectiveness is decreasing and no matter how good your design or how much money you put into your website, just waiting for people to find you and buy your product or service is not enough anymore. Luckily, just like how records were replaced by cassettes, that were then replaced by CD’s, the website is being replaced by the sales funnel.
By now you have probably heard the whispers and rumors about the term “Sales Funnel” and how it’s “like OMG the greatest thing ever”. Well, the rumors are true! Sales funnels are on the rise simply because they work.
Now, I understand that you might have heard the term sales funnel”, but do you really understand what it is or how it can “kill it” for your business?
Sales Funnel: What Is It?
Basically, your sales funnel is the journey that your customers take to make a purchase of a specific product or service through their customer lifecycle. In other words, it’s a sales process. There are typically 7 components of a sales funnel and we will only cover the first 3 in this article.
Step 1: Attract Traffic: Create 1 or more lead magnets to tap into PPC (pay per click traffic which can typically be Google Ad Words or Facebook Ads) which could look like this for a dentist: Front end offer ie: $59 Exam, Cleaning & Digital X-Rays!
Step 2: Capture Leads: Create a landing page specific to your offer to capture leads, set apts or get your phone to ring. The key here is to make sure your landing page coverts at as high a rate as possible. Most companies make several mistakes here by 1) sending their clicks to their homepage. This confuses people and they end up doing nothing 2) sending them to a page that has nothing to do with their lead magnet 3) not constantly checking to see what their conversion rates are and how to tweek and improve it. We like to use our heat mapping software which records the entire visit on video so we can later watch what a visitor actually does to improve conversion rates.
Step 3: Nurture Prospects: Once someone has opted in to your lead magnet, you need them to get to know, like and trust you over a period of time.. This is typically done via email with and different types of email sequences to nurture the relationship ie: New Prospect WOW Email Sequence. If a prospect opted in for a free teeth whitening lead magnet, you would want to send them examples of clients that have had great results with “Before and After” pics showing how happy they are and how they recommend you.
Sales Funnels- Good For Product or Service Based Business?
Both! Have you guys ever seen the Seinfeld episode where Jerry picks up the phone and he’s talking to a telemarketer? Well, Jerry is trying to get off the phone and he asks the telemarketer for his home phone number so that he can call him back at a more convenient time. The telemarketer said he couldn’t do that and Jerry snaps back with “Oh… because you don’t want me calling you at home. Now you know how I feel!” and he hangs up the phone.
Telemarketers can be annoying right, but believe it or not even telemarketers follow a very precise sales funnel to get you to buy, and what’s even more shocking is that it works.
You become a prospect when they get your number and depending on their method of getting your number, you can already be a lead. Say that you signed up for a free trial period of a product and provided your contact information, which to them means that you may already be convinced that the product is everything you hope for and want to buy it. Don’t you see? It’s a sales funnel that has roped you in and prompted you to make a purchase.
In The Age Of Smart…
Everything has to be smart nowadays. Smart cars, smart TV’s, smart phones…get the idea? Introducing to you (drum roll please) The Smart Sales Funnel!
How does this sound…your funnel packed into a single webpage that takes your visitors and targets them by specifically showing them features or information relevant to their place in your sales funnel? As Mr. Burns from the Simpson’s would say “Excellent” as he deviously tent taps his fingers.
By specific targeting, I mean sending custom email sequences to a specific audience, ads that retarget at a predetermined time, and an unlimited number of tactics to get people flailing their credit cards in your face.
Go On Take A Slice
Sales funnels in simple terms is like having the convenience of sliced bread and being able to keep taking slices without having to slice your bread every time. You will first have to teach the funnel how to bake and slice your bread the way you like it. However, once you set up your funnel right, you can run traffic to that funnel, sit back and enjoy that sweet bread!
Hard Work = Magic
The big thing to realize about sales funnels is that you can’t just snap your finger and expect your funnel to magically produce money for you. Just like everything in life, it takes hard work to see results, but once it’s all done you can breathe a sigh of relief and actually see it pay off. There is no better feeling than that!
Your Sales Funnel?
Hopefully after all of this you are beginning to understand the mechanics of a sales funnel and the exciting opportunities that can be discovered with an effective sales funnel. Remember however, that sales funnels are no walk in the park and professionals who have been doing this for years are always optimizing and updating their funnels to produce better results.
If you feel like you have been flushing your marketing dollars down the toilet in hopes it will attract more business, perhaps it’s time for a different approach? Cheers to you increasing your profits!