According to ClickFunnels, a company that has since processed over $13 BILLION dollars in transactions…
“What’s the difference between someone who is successful with ClickFunnels,
versus someone who is not…?”
It turns out to be…
…They ALL Built And Launched Their First Funnel.
But it’s not enough to just have a Sales Funnel template.
You are not just trying to get people to your Sales Funnel, but also converting them into paying customers.
In this article, we will look into the Sales Funnel Best Practices that will finally help you build and launch your first funnel.
Ready? Let’s start.
A quick look at the sales funnel
A sales funnel is a process of guiding prospects from the moment they first heard about your company to eventually buying from you.
It involves different stages along the way and each stage requires different tactics.
Sales Funnel Stages
The Sales Funnel stages each have their own purpose and goals.
- The Awareness Stage: This is where prospects become aware of your company and brand. This can be done through social media, content marketing, advertising, or any other form of branding.
- The Interest Stage: Here prospects learn more about your products and services and how they can help them. This can be done through informative blog posts, webinars, and other forms of content marketing.
- The Decision Stage: This is where prospects make the decision to purchase from you. This can be done through persuasive copy, sales funnels, and product reviews.
- The Action Stage: This is when prospects are ready to take action and become customers.
Sales Funnels Phases
According to Dotcom Secrets Book, explain that every customer journey in your sales funnels will go thru these seven phases:
- Traffic Temperature: There are 3 types of traffic, Cold Traffic that doesn’t know your business, Warm Traffic that kind of knows you, and Hot Traffic that already knows you.
- Pre-Frame Bridge: This is where you establish your message and what they can expect.
- Qualify Subscribers: This is where you find out who is the right fit for your offer. Join your list or move on.
- Qualify Buyers: This is about finding out who is ready to buy. Offer something valuable at a low cost.
- Identify Hyperactive Buyers: Present them with offers they can’t refuse.
- Age and Ascend the Relationship: Provide great customer service to ensure they come back for more.
- Change the Selling Environment: Sometimes it’s hard to sell in the same environment. Change it up and use more of an educational approach.
These phases are the illustration of a customer journey based on his years of experience in the field.
7 Best Practices for your Sales Funnel
Now we have done a quick refreshment about Sales Funnels, let’s go in-depth and see what Sales Funnel Best Practices can you implement in your Sales funnel.
Customer Persona
Creating customer personas is one of the most important parts of marketing and sales operations.
According to Harvard Business Review’s research, customer persona plays a key role in your strategy.
A customer persona is a semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer based on real customer data and market research.
Developing customer personas can help you better understand your customers’ needs, preferences, attitudes, and behaviors.
This information allows you to craft more effective funnel campaigns that are tailored to appeal to specific audiences.
Developing customer personas can be a helpful way to gain a better understanding of your target audience.
Here are some questions you can ask while creating your customer personas:
- What is their demographic information (age, gender, location, education, etc.)?
- How do they behave online and off?
- What are their goals and objectives?
- What are the problems that they need solutions to?
- How does your product or service fit into the picture?
- Where do they access information online (websites, blogs, social media)?
- What type of content do they respond to most positively?
- How much money are they willing to spend for a product/service like yours?
I personally use spreadsheets to create my customer persona.
If you plan to add developing customer persona in your marketing services I would suggest using tools like Creately.
They offer amazing visual tools so you can create and share customer personas quickly.
Your Irresistible Offer
Once you figure out your customer persona, you should know what they want and what is their pain point by now.
If you haven’t developed your customer persona yet, I suggest you do that first before proceeding with creating your irresistible offer.
Simply because you can’t create an “irresistible offer” if you don’t understand who you’re making it for.
What is an irresistible offer?
An offer that your customer can’t refuse.
It should be something that addresses their pain points, meets their needs, and offers them value in exchange for their time or money.
The more specific the offer is to your target audience, the better it will perform.
Try to think of creative ways you can sweeten up the deal to make your customer feel like they are getting a lot of value for their investment.
What is the next best thing they need to accomplish their goals?
Think outside the box to come up with something that adds value and solves their problems.
In Funnel Builder Secrets, they define an irresistible offer as something that is 10x the value of the price your customers are paying.
This could be anything from tools, services, or products that help your customers achieve their goals quickly and easily with great results.
Your Story
“30% whopping increase in conversions after adopting storytelling”.
go-globe.com
This is the kind of statistic you hear about storytelling being used in Sales Funnels.
Stories help you connect emotionally with your customers and engage them in a more powerful way than traditional tactics.
Your story should be built around your customer persona so that it speaks to their needs, wants, pain points, and goals.
It should be relevant and interesting to your customer persona, otherwise, it won’t be effective.
The story you tell should evoke an emotional response that leads them down the Sales Funnel.
Stories can also be a great way to explain complex concepts in a simple yet powerful way.
How to develop a story?
One of the most popular used storylines is the “Hero’s Journey”.
Hero’s Journey is a classic model used to create stories that resonate with people.
This storyline follows the hero’s journey of identifying a problem, going through struggles, and then solving it to get the end result they want.
In Dotcom Secrets book, Russell further explains how to develop this “Attractive Character”.
There is 4 type of identity for this character:
- The Leader
- The Adventurer/Crusader
- The Reporter/Evangelist
- The Reluctant Hero
In Sales Funnel Best Practices, storytelling is a must-have if you want to increase your conversion rates.
It should be incorporated into all stages of the Sales Funnel from the top to the bottom.
Your story should be consistent and make sense with each stage they go through in the Sales Funnel.
Your Hook
“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar”.
David Ogilvy
Headlines are the most important element of Sales Funnel Best Practices.
It is your customer’s first impression of what they can expect from you, so it must be captivating and attention-grabbing.
Your Hook is a short statement that outlines what is in it for them if they choose to take your offer.
It should be clear and concise and should address their pain points or needs in a very powerful way.
Your story will help you develop your Hook as it is the beginning of the journey for your customers.
Think of ways you can make them interested enough to take action.
You could use a statistic, an alluring question or phrase, or something that immediately grabs their attention and makes them curious.
Try A/B testing different headlines to see which ones perform the best for your Sales Funnel.
Remember – the headline is what will determine whether someone takes action or not.
So make sure to craft a Hook that will motivate your customer to take the next step.
In Copywriting Secrets book, Jim Edwards shares 4 ways to craft an effective Hook.
These are:
- “How to” Headlines
- “Ways to get what you want” Headlines
- “Mistakes” Headlines
- “Warning” Headlines
Don’t be shy to experiment with different words, phrases, and stories to create the perfect Hook.
Your Funnel Stack
The Sales Funnel should be designed in a way that encourages customers to keep moving through each step of the Sales Funnel.
This is known as your Funnel Stack.
Your Sales Funnel Best Practices should include testing different landing pages, offers, emails, and content pieces to see which ones are most effective at converting customers.
It should also include creating multiple Sales Funnels, so you can test different approaches to the same Sales Goal and optimize your Sales Funnel accordingly.
There is literally a funnel for each type of Sales Goal and customer journey.
Depending on your goal you can either create ascending or descending funnels.
Your Sales Funnel Best Practices should also include tracking key metrics such as conversion rates and time-on-page for each step of the Sales Funnel, so you can make adjustments if needed.
Having a clear understanding of your Sales Funnel will help you optimize it to maximize conversions and increase Sales.
Your Follow Up
“The money is in the follow up”
I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase before, and Sales Funnel Best Practices should include a strong follow-up strategy.
There are many types of follow-up that you can use to engage your customers:
- Automated emails
- Social media messages
- Phone calls or Text messages
- Retargeting
- Reviews and Referrals
Each type of follow-up should be designed to move your customer through the Sales Funnel.
You can use follow-ups to upsell, cross-sell, and increase customer loyalty.
Remember, a strong Sales Funnel is built on relationships.
In fact, “The Million Dollar Listing” star Ryan Serhant uses the same principle of building relationship first approach.
“Everyone you meet is a potential customer if you make friends with them first”.
Ryan Serhant
Ryan’s way of follow-up is this:
- The Follow-Up
- The Follow-Through
- The Follow-Back
What it means is that after you make the initial contact with your prospects, you must follow up with them.
Then, you should stay in touch with them on a regular basis.
Finally, give your customers an opportunity to reach out to you by offering something in return like discounts or special offers.
This will help build trust and loyalty with your customers and will ultimately help you increase Sales.
Your Funnel Optimization
Most people didn’t get it.
The truth is a funnel is not a money-printing machine… yet.
If you are lucky maybe you got it right the first time.
Remember the reason why some people succeed at using ClickFunnels and some people don’t?
It’s because those who succeed never give up trying and launching and finally perfected their Sales Funnel.
Thus, if your funnel flops the first time, don’t give up.
Test, Tweak, and measure the results.
Focus on user experience, A/B testing, and customer segmentation to optimize your Sales Funnel.
Once you find a Sales Funnel that works for you, scale it up and start making some serious money!
Bottom Line: Sales Funnel Best Practices
Creating a successful sales funnel is essential for any business wanting to maximize its leads and revenue.
There are many elements that go into making a great sales funnel, but it all starts with understanding the basics.
Let’s recap…
Sales Funnel Best Practices should include:
- Understand Who Is Your Dream Customer
- Create Your Irresistible Offer
- Create Your Story
- Capture Your Dream Customer’s Attention
- Create World Class Buying Experience For Your Dream Customer
- Follow-Up
- Optimize Your Funnel
Start by understanding who your target customer is and create an irresistible offer tailored to them.
Craft a story and use various techniques to capture their attention, then provide a world-class buying experience.
Don’t forget to follow up with key customers and optimize your Sales Funnel so you can maximize conversions and increase Sales.
