Sales funnel – what it consists of?

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Every sales funnel is different

Depending on a model, funnels may differ dramatically from each other. The amount of options you have is so huge that it becomes a major challenge to organize them. Some specialists claim that sales funnel gives you all the possibilities online marketing can offer. Let’s see what funnels consist of.

Social media accounts -beginning of sale funnels

Sales funnel usually begins on social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. It is hard to show valuable content there, but they can help you to build a brand reputation. Thanks to extensive possibilities of paid advertising they are, for the most part, responsible for generating traffic.

Google positioning

What people type into Google search bar is nothing else than questions. We can find answers for them on various websites. The more valuable the answer is the higher it appears in the search results. Then, the page can generate higher traffic. Therefore, all actions connected to positioning or Google Ads campaigns can be a perfect beginning of a sales funnel.

Affiliation

It is yet another element that could generate traffic for a sales funnel. Create your own partner program, where the members can recommend the brand in exchange for commission. Affiliate marketing is also a great as a way of generating leads.

Company blog

Blog is one of the best places for publishing valuable content. That makes it good not only for generating traffic, but also for warming it up. In order for the blog to do both, it should be filled with valuable content and function at least for a couple of months, so it is well positioned. If you don’t have that much time, just use the blog to heat the traffic up. Materials worth publishing on the blog:

  • Extensive educational articles

  • Guides

  • Case studies

Video Channel

Video materials are one of the most attractive forms of content, so it’s worth to use them. In sales funnels, video channel can function similarly to blog: it generates traffic and spark people’s interest in the brand. The example of valuable content, which can be put on video channel is a webinar or a course.

Landing page

Without a landing page, there wouldn’t be any sales funnel. It is a destined page, where you direct your clients with your marketing actions. Under this broad umbrella term, there are various types of pages, which provoke the client to take a particular action. They may differ from each other. For example, they can generate leads, or sell. Landing page may also be a particular page on your blog.

It is focused on one specific purpose. There should be no distractions, as they would decrease your conversion rate significantly. What does distraction mean? It can be any element that could divert a potential client’s attention from the action you want them to take.

But why would you direct your client to a landing page instead of company’s website? Because companies usually offer a broad range of products or services. Their websites are confusing and it’s easy to get lost on them.

A good example of such website is a platform of digital cable television company, which offers many different plans: family, sport, premium etc. If this company decides to do a marketing campaign, and direct the traffic to a generalcompany website, many clients will get lost while looking for the desired program. The number of finalized transactions would be really small, comparing to the amount of people who visit the website.

External destined websites can really help you. In this case the company can create as many ad campaigns as they have products in they offer. Every campaign has a dedicated page, which has all the information about a particular product. People, who click on the advertisement know exactly what to expect on the website, as they want to see the offer that interest them the most. Conversion rates are slightly better.

Lead page/Lead magnet

Lead page is a place, where your potential clients leave their contact information. Whereas lead magnet is a reason, why they want to share these information with you. In theory, it’s free, but actually it’s something the client receives in exchange for the possibility of contacting them in the future.

It’s a key element of every sales funnel, as it gives you the opportunity to build a closer relationship with the client. It could turn out to be beneficial to sales effects.

Obviously, the more substantial the lead magnet is the higher chance you have to collect leads. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be it’s only purpose. Lead magnet should also encourage the recipient to engage more with a brand and maybe to actually purchase something.

In order to achieve that effect, you can use a lot of engaging forms of lead magnet. The most popular ones are educational materials or discounts. But you don’t have to limit yourself to standard solutions. When you approach this task with an open mind, you have a higher chance to spark your client’s interest. Lead magnets which have the highest conversion rates are:

  • video courses,

  • ready-made templates/formulas,

  • demo versions (trials),

  • quizzes,

  • case studies,

  • coupons and promo codes.

Mailing

If the lead magnet works, you will obtain emails from your potential customers. The next step in your funnel is mailing, which means all the operations connected with gathering emails and running mailing campaigns. Since the moment you got the lead, this channel of communication has to be constantly used.

The biggest perk of email marketing is the opportunity to build a close, direct relationship with a customer. This effect can even be multiplied by customization of messages. Use the name of the addressee and their pronouns as often as you can. It will be easy to do in NetSendo.

Depending on funnel construction, mailing can be either more or less “aggressive” with sales offers. If your funnel is focused on providing content, mailing should function as a newsletter, where sales offers are rare or non existent. This way it’s easier to direct the traffic to the content that would encourage potential clients to take further steps.

However, if your funnel doesn’t form a long and extensive track, you can focus on presenting your offer in a mailing campaign. NetSendo offers you the feature, called message queue, and it would be the best for this purpose. This way you can create a series of offer emails, which will encourage to make a purchase by increasing the pressure. Standard message queue contains 4-5 emails, which should be sent in the right order and time intervals. It is recommended to send messages on first, third, fifth, seventh, and fourteenth day since joining.

Remarketing

Remarketing is a relatively new thing for a lot of e-commerce businesses. However, without this, it’s hard to build a successful sales funnel. In order to understand how it works, you have to answer the question: how many people decides to use the offer immediately after they first encounter it? It’s a very small number. They usually need time to make a decision about finalizing the transaction. That’s why remarketing is such an important part of funnels. It’s main purpose is to create opportunities for the clients to see the offer again and get familiar with a brand.

Remarketing is a type of advertisement, but it’s directed to the group, which take a certain action. Usually, it’s a visit on the company’s website. Based on this, you create a campaign, which appears on websites. It is the biggest advantage of remarketing. It appears, where you can find potential clients. This way, you can build the connection with your client without evoking negative emotions.

Sales page

Sugarcoating the offer

Sales page is nothing else then a site, where the client can finish the transaction. It is usually placed at the end of a sales funnel, however, it is not the end part. There could be a few of them in one funnel. It all depends on your offer and sales model. If you have a couple of products, you can put them in the message queue from the cheapest to the most expensive one, so the client could be guided through a range of sales offers.

In order for the site to function properly, it should meet specific criteria. Above all, it has to be clear and concise. The person who visits such site, has probably analyzed their decisions and doesn’t need a lot of information. If you want to recommend your product again, you should focus on aspects you didn’t mention before. In marketing, this term is called sugarcoating. It means that in the last step of the funnel, the client receives the information, which not only increases their motivation to close the transaction, but also leaves a mark on their consciousness. A great example of sugarcoating is buying a book with an author’s signature. The buyer finds out about the autograph from a sales offer page. This makes shopping even more satisfying. It also increases the chances that this person will buy something in the future.

Call to action

Excessive information about the product on the sales page can bring the opposite results to what you want to achieve. It’s all because of distraction. The purpose of a sales page is to guide the customer to a checkout and not to make them analyze the product, as they have already done that. The person who enters a sales page has probably made their decision or they are really close. So, you can highlight the benefits of purchasing, but don’t convince a person who is already convinced.

Another very important element of a sales page is CTA (call to action). When it comes to a sales page, CTA would be to proceed to checkout. In order to increase your chances to succeed, you need to put a couple of CTA buttons on the site. The absolute minimum is 2-3 spots that could take the client to payment gate. This could be explained by the client’s attitude. They don’t need a huge number of information, as they are already convinced. So one CTA should be on the top of the page, another one in the middle, and the last one at the very bottom.

 

Go to the entry to find out more: Types of sales funnels >>

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