The idea behind this sales funnel process is that people are more likely to take action when they have been given attention (i.e., someone has noticed them), shown interest (i.e., someone cares about their needs) and created desire for what they’re selling (i.e., made them want it).
This means that marketers should first grab your attention with an advertisement, they should then pique your interest in order to get you to learn more about their product and finally they need to create a desire for the product so that you will buy it.
Without going through each of these steps, most website visitors are unlikely to purchase what is being offered.
- Do Your Research
- Identifying Your Target Audience
- Craft Your Irresistible Offer
- Create Your Landing Page
- Deliver Your Offer
*REPEAT
The Basic of Effective Sales Funnel
What is the AIDA Method in Sales Funnel Design?
The AIDA method, or Attention-Interest-Desire-Action, is a sales technique that can be used to increase the likelihood of making a sale.
It was developed by E. St. Elmo Lewis and popularized by John Caples in the 1920s.
Types of Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is a specific sequence of steps that are designed to guide prospects through the sales pipeline by tailor-made a customer journey.
A typical sales funnel starts with awareness, moves on to interest and desire, followed by action.
There are three general types of sales funnel stages thru the buying process:
- Top of the funnel
- Middle of the funnel
- Bottom of the funnel
The Top of the Funnel
It is the first stage in the sales funnel stages.
This stage is all about getting attention from potential customers.
The marketers have to grab people’s attention in order to move them down the funnel to where they are investing their time, money and energy.
This can be done by different marketing efforts including advertising, PR, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing and more.
The Middle of the Funnel
The middle of the sales funnel is where marketers should be creating interest in order to get potential customers involved in what they’re selling.
This could be done through sales funnels like lead generation or product demonstrations.
It could also be created by offering discounts on products or services, creating a following on social media sites by sharing interesting content and offering freebies.
The Bottom of the Funnel
It is the final stage in the sales funnel. This stage is all about action. It’s where people are ready to buy what you’re selling.
With the help of sales funnels, marketers should be creating a clear Call To Action (CTA) in order to get people to take the final step towards making a purchase.
Sales Funnel is an essential tool for any online business or offline business. You can not ignore this if you want to grow your business and make more money.
This process helps you make more sales, gives your business a greater chance of succeeding and it takes out the guesswork regarding marketing online.
Potential customer are more willing to purchase if they have been given proper attention during each phase of the sales funnel stages.
How to Create Content for Each Stage Of The Sales Funnel
The goal of the sales funnel helps get the right information to the right person at the right time. But, what sort of material should we produce for each stage of our sales funnel?
Here’s a quick rundown with some suggestions.
Top of the funnel (Awareness Stage and interest stage)
Here are the the most common practice:
- Blog
- Social Media Post
- Webinars
- Video Marketing
- Workshop/Challenge
Blog
Blog post is a way to get people’s attention, educate them about an issue or about your company, introduce them to your business, and get them to take action.
Blog post is another great marketing strategy for search engines.
Read More: What Is A Blog?
Social Media Posts
Using tools such as Facebook to raise awareness of your brand and product.
Social Media can be reward-full if done right…
…if done wrong you may be suck into a vortex of non-stop scrolling…
Read More: What Is Social Media Marketing?
Webinars
Webinars are a great way to create desire among your prospects by offering them something of value that they can’t get anywhere else.
Read More: The Perfect Webinar Review
Video Marketing
Video content is an excellent way to connect with your audience and demonstrate the use of your products or services in a tangible, interactive and compelling manner.
It will help to create interest and desire among your prospects for that specific product or service.
Read More: Affiliate Secrets 3.0 Review
Workshop/Challenge
A workshop or a challenge is a great way to get people interested in your business and what you have to offer.
The workshop or the challenge should have easy-to-follow instructions on how they can take the next step.
Read More: Your First Funnel Review
Middle of the funnel(Interest Stage)
Case studies
Case studies that provide insights into how you overcame certain challenges.
Case studies are powerful in the sense that they make your business seem more credible to others.
For instance, if your business is a legal firm, potential clients may be eager to hire you after reading the details of how you helped someone in their area.
Product Comparisons
The purpose of product comparisons is to show people what they’re missing out on if they don’t buy your product.
Product comparisons also help you stand out in your market because it’s a no-cost way to attract people.
It’s essential to ensure that the comparison is factually based and not skewed in order to best cater for consumers.
Lead Magnets
A lead magnet, also known as a CTA can be used to attract prospects.
Lead magnets are typically things that are valuable enough to compel people to give you their email address so you can send them the magnetic resource.
An example of a popular lead magnet is an e-book, free video, free samples or free shipping depends on your niche.
Bottom of Funnel(Decision and Action)
At the bottom of the funnel, it’s all about action.
It’s where people are ready to buy what you’re selling.
Call To Action
A CTA is always what you want people to do, whether it’s signing up for a free trials or buying your products.
Some may offer a free consultation call with sales team.
Irresistible offer
Your offer is one of the most important elements of a successful sales funnel.
You must be able to master the art of offering something so appealing that they can’t refuse it.
Your offer must be relevant, targeted, and valuable to your target audience.
Recommended Recourse: Greg Jeffries’s Domination Labs Infinity
How to design a sales funnel?
Step 1: Research
One of the key element in designing a sales funnel is understanding what is working in the market.
One of the way to ensure a successful sales funnel is understanding who is the market leader in your niche.
You must understand how their sales process works and adopt their sales and marketing strategies into your own company.
The only way to accomplish this is to go through their sales funnel and acquire their goods or services.
You don’t have to go far till they offer you the most popular package. You need to understand how they convert cold leads into warm ones.
The most essential thing to know is what their offer includes.
Step 2: Your Audience
The first step to designing a sales funnel is understanding your audience.
The way to do this is through a proper market research.
You can use public records, past clientele and studies done by competitors.
Market research will help you understand the demographics for your potential buyers, which in turn will help you locate them more efficiently.
One of the ways to find your customer avatar is by identifying their profession.
You can also ask yourself some questions about who they are, what they need, and what they want.
It’s also helpful to identify their gender and age range.
You can use these parameters to narrow down who your target audience is and make your market research more specific.
The best way to design a custom sales funnel for your business is by understanding who you’re trying to sell it to.”
Step 3: Your Offer
In order to craft an irresistible offer, you need to understand what your potential buyer’s needs.
You need to know their day-to-day struggles and the products or services they buy.
You must analyze how they make a purchase decision and what goes on in their head during these moments.
If you know these factors, it will be easy for you to come up with a perfect offer that is going to catch their attention.
The capacity to address a certain problem for a particular individual is one of the most important features of great offer.
Step 4: Your Landing Page
A landing page is the initial web page that is presented to your prospects when they have been enticed by your offer.
It is not enough to have a landing page; you need to understand how good it is before proceeding.
The only way to properly measure this is through conversion testing and A/B testing.
When people come to your website and then leave before doing anything, it means that your landing page isn’t doing its job.
You need to either “convince” them more or make the sign up process simpler for them.
The elements of a creating landing pages are:
+ A powerful headline
+ Relevant messaging (Addressing the pain point)
+ Clear benefits and features offered
+ Clear CTA with clear instructions on how to proceed
+ Strong value proposition
+ Social proof (testimonials, case studies, etc.)
+ Trust elements (e.g., security logos and guarantee)
If you want your sales funnel to be successful, it’s essential for you to understand these factors before designing or developing it.
Here are some tips that will help you design a good sales funnel:
+ Use storytelling as a way to engage your audience.
+ Make sure that you are using different media to convey your message.
+ Keep the number of unnecessary elements on your pages to a minimum.
+ Be consistent throughout all of your content and designs.
Step 5: Delivery
It is imperative that you deliver what you have promised your audience.
One way to do this is by providing testimonials from those who have been through the process and came out satisfied.
Get as many as possible for marketing purposes.
A clear indication of a reliable business is one that has a track record of delivering on its promises.
You can use reviews from prominent organizations or endorsement from industry leaders to assure prospects about your company’s reliability.
The best way to ensure a successful transaction is by following up with your prospects and responding to their queries in a timely manner.
Step 6: Follow up
Once you’ve got a paying customer, it’s important to keep in touch with them.
This is paramount when it comes to startups because often times the biggest barrier they face is getting people to just try their product.
It can be hard to convince someone to give up their credit card or phone number without any guarantee that the product will be good.
A good way to keep in touch with them is through email.
You can use newsletters or autoresponders to periodically send your customers relevant content and updates about the business.
While these things seem like a lot of work and you might be eager at this point to start designing and developing, it’s important that you take some time out to do market research and come up with an email marketing campaign.
Without this, it will be extremely challenging for you to succeed in your online business venture.
Step 7: ROI Analysis & Tracking Metrics
This is an integral part of sales funnel.
You need to be aware of which parts are working well and which ones aren’t in order for you to improve your sales funnel.
This information is what will help define your offer, value proposition, etc., based on the way customers behave when they’re on your website.
One of the best ways to gather this data is through landing page optimization.
If you’re using landing pages, it’s important that you test out all of your offer elements to see what works best.
You can do this through tools like google analytics.
Most CRM software have their backend support for you to keep track on your own funnel.
Step 8: Inspiration
As mentioned at the beginning, sales funnels are everywhere.
Here are some great sales funnel example for you to use as a reference:
- Traffic Secrets Book Funnel(2-Step Tripwire Funnel)
- Your First Funnel(Video Sales Letter Funnel)
- Funnel Hacking Secrets Webinar Funnel(Automated Webinar Funnel)
- 5 Day Lead Challenge(Challenge Funnel)
- Affiliate Bootcamp(Summit Funnel)
- Lead Funnels(Sales Letter Funnel)
Step 9: Get Started Today!
It’s important to start building your sales funnel today if you want to be successful in your business.
A good sales funnel will help you get more paying customers.
It’ll also allow you to determine which offers are working best for your audience.
Remember that sales funnel important for you to capitalize valuable opportunities to on your target market in acquiring new customers and serving existing customers.
Sales funnel is exactly what you need in acquiring more prospects.
Go through the steps mentioned above and build a sales funnel for your business today!
Sales Funnel Design: Final Thoughts
Now that you know the basics of sales funnel design, it’s time to put them into practice.
Remember, the goal of a sales funnel is to take a potential customer on a journey through your marketing funnel, from the top ( awareness) to the bottom ( purchase).
If you can do that, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful sales funnel.
Just like Russell Brunson always says:
“Model what works and you’ll never have to worry about marketing again.”
Russell Brunson
When it comes to funnel who is the best to model?
The answer is simple: Russell Brunson.
He is the co-founder of ClickFunnels, a software company that allows you to build sales funnels in minutes.
He is also the author of three best-selling books:
If you want to learn more about how to create a sales funnel, I highly recommend you check out Russell’s books.
You can also find more information on his webinar where he shares his 3 steps in Funnel Hacking his way to success.
Register for his webinar here.
Now it’s your turn: Get In The Game!
