Every sales funnel is different
Sales funnels can have various construction. In fact, we can say that there are no two identical funnels. Every offer and target group is different, and requires a different set of tools. However, we can assume that there are two types of funnels: classic and modern. Let’s take a closer look into them.
Classic sales funnel
The most popular sales funnel in Poland. The important element of this kind of funnel is valuable content, but obtaining contact details of your potential customers is far more important. In this model, shopping path is relatively short, and connection between the client and the salesman is really shallow.
Modern sales funnel
The most important element of this funnel is content. This is the thing the client sees, when they encounter a brand. It all starts with content. In effect, the whole path becomes longer and the transaction happens much later. The important part is remarketing.
Classic or modern?
Most e-commerce companies use the funnel in the classic version. This way they can count on relatively quick effects in the form of leads and possibly finished transactions. There is a common belief that even if one does not close the transaction at first attempt, they can push the recipient through mailing. Unfortunately, this concept becomes outdated, as people check their inboxes less and less frequently. In effect, email queue can turn out ineffective.
Using a model based on valuable content is a better idea. Generating leads happens after the client encounters your content. The contact, however, is superficial. Best case scenario – they read several posts or see a video. This way you can evoke positive emotions, before they even give you their email address. The result is the process of generating leads becomes much more effective.
Power of content
The biggest challenge in the modern type of funnel is preparing the right type of content. Right, means the type of content that sparks interest and solidifies the brand’s image in the mind of your potential client. The second factor is more important. Without it, all your effort can go to waste. Your content should help the client to understand, what your company does and how the product could benefit them. Of course, you can’t do that by pointing them to the pricing page. At this stage, it is only about establishing your company as competent and specializing in a certain field. It’s enough.
If your potential clients have such opinion on your brand, they would go back to you even if they are disconnected from your content. If they feel the need to, of course. The most important thing is that during this comeback, you don’t want them to be confused and to wander around. They should come directly to you. This is the good time to collect their email address. Of course, some people won’t come back to you. Don’t worry about them for now.
Generating leads on cold traffic
If the content was really valuable, and all the elements worked as they were supposed to, you can relax. The readers, who disappeared completely, probably wouldn’t become your clients anyway. You can notice it in classic funnels, where leads are generated on cold traffic. At this stage, there is no positive connection. In effect, when you send emails to them, they usually remain unopened. Such lead is useless and it’s not worth to waste time on it.
Of course, there are methods, which allow optimization of actions connected with cold traffic leads. One of them is systematically deleting inactive subscribers. Give them one or two chances to read your messages. Send them a reminder. If there is no reaction, you can give up on such contact. Another method is segmentation of your subscriber list. Remember that this group is not homogeneous. So it is recommended to divide it into subgroups, consisting of people, who have something in common. This way you can send customized messages to each group, to evoke positive emotions.
Remarketing as an alternative
The real problem in generating leads is different. It doesn’t matter if they were obtained from a cold traffic or a hot traffic. The fact is that people check their inbox less and less frequently, and this trend will be more and more prominent in the future. Communicators and storage platforms make things even worse. However, universality is a huge strength of emails and there is no doubt about it. If you want your sales funnel to work efficiently, you need to put the content, where it can be noticed.
Remarketing is an integral element of both classic and modern funnel. This way, despite low email opening rate, your audience has a constant contact with your brand. Remember, remarketing content should be diverse. This way you create numerous occasions for the potential customer to get interested in your offer again. The more engagement, the more focus on direct sales offer, when it comes to remarketing.
Summary
Every sales funnel model has to work efficiently in various conditions. In order to establish, which model would work the best for your business, you need to test different options. Divide your traffic generating budget into two sections and focus on generating leads and content. Change the proportions, depending on results. Remember that modern model offers gratification later than the classic one. Therefore, before you make a decision, take your time and observe the process.
Go to the entry to find out more: How to create a sales funnel in 5 steps [mini guide]>>
