An effective sales funnel in digital marketing involves various marketing tactics to drive traffic to your business and cultivate loyal customers who promote you. Digital marketing has transformed the way businesses interact with customers, making sales more plentiful and encouraging business growth.
It is quite possible to create an endless number of opportunities with internet marketing thanks to all the various platforms available. However, it is not uncommon for small businesses to feel overwhelmed and stress about how to proceed with all those options. Sadly, I see many local businesses that have never heard of a digital marketing funnel, let alone implemented one.
How Does a Digital Marketing Funnel Work?
The sales funnel is a process by which you bring your potential client closer to your offer, and ultimately the purchase decision, by taking automated steps such as automated emails, videos, articles, and landing pages coupled with a sales strategy that makes the sales itself.
It would help if you built your sales funnel to achieve a specific objective, for example, a customer purchasing a product or service from your company. Your digital marketing tactics will then fill your sales funnel with traffic allowing them to move from the top of the funnel all the way to the bottom. Here they will become paying customers and brand advocates for your local business.
In digital marketing, a funnel works actually like a series of physical funnels linked together in a chain.
Sales Funnel’s Phases
A typical sales funnel has several steps, each of which differs depending on the particular sales model. The most common way of segmenting a sales funnel is by dividing it into seven phases, including:
- The Awareness Phase entails the prospect becoming aware of a solution’s existence.
- Interest Phase. During this phase, prospects conduct product research to gauge their interest in a product.
- Evaluation Phase. This phase involves prospects or prospective companies examining competitors’ products and services as they approach a buying decision.
- Decision Phase. An agreement must be reached, and negotiation must start.
- Purchase Phase. During this phase, goods and services are bought.
- Phase of reevaluation. B2B sales are frequently associated with contracts that need to be renewed. During this phase, a customer decides whether to renew their contract as their familiarity with an offering grows; the customer will undergo a thorough assessment of the offering.
- The Repurchase Phase occurs when a customer repurchases a product or service.
Why Your Sales Funnel Needs Optimization?
The customers who are interested in your products have many choices. Regardless of how much you want them to choose your product or service, you can’t force them to. Your marketing strategy should instead be efficient. If you don’t have a tightly structured sales funnel, you are only guessing what prospects want.
You can achieve the optimization of your sales funnel in many ways. When consumers are moving from one point of the funnel to the next, it is essential to focus on where they are going. To begin, start at the very top of the funnel. Whether you create organic or paid content, you’re trying to get people to notice your brand and ultimately drive them to click on your call-to-action.
The content you are using may not be working, so try something else—for example, a stronger call to action or more valuable information for the reader.
The Key Ingredients for a Successful Sales Funnel
For an online sales funnel to be successful, several key ingredients must work together. Known as the three F’s, these key ingredients are essential for success.
- Fuel is the list of fresh and unqualified prospects first introduced into your sales funnel. These prospective clients will be attracted by a reasonable offer, a well-crafted and free lead magnet, and the promise that you will deliver quality content packed with valuable information. PPC advertising through Google or Facebook fuel a significant portion of the funnels.
- Foundation is where the real magic takes place. During your funnel’s foundation section, leads will spend the most time going through their buyer’s journey. You want them to learn about your product/service, get excited about your unique selling proposition, and ultimately be convinced to do business with you!
- Follow-up. It is not always about moving leads quickly from one step of the funnel to the next. It’s also not always the case that every lead is ready to purchase immediately. Following up is an essential part of the process. This part of your funnel aims to re-attracting leads that have left your funnel and reacquainting them with the sales process. In this stage, you must spend the bulk of the effort on retargeting ads and email marketing.
Useful Tips
Using the tools and strategies mentioned in this article, you can further assist prospects on their way through the buyer’s journey. Let’s see some examples.
- You can create awareness by giving out freebies (guides, checklists, pdfs) while applying the principle of reciprocity and consistency.
- Consistent blogging and social media posting show that you are always there while also establishing your presence (awareness).
- Incentives based on likeability and scarcity can push people to take action. When people like you or believe you are offering a limited commodity, they are more likely to pay attention to what you have to say.
- You will have more influence on prospects in the decision-making stage if they perceive you as an expert in your domain so that they will listen to you more. You can establish authority through case studies, webinars, and tutorials.
- Using social proof increases the likelihood that you will successfully close the sale during the action phase. You can communicate social proof by highlighting good PR, recommendations, and testimonials.
Conclusion
The first step to creating your own digital marketing funnel could not have been more straightforward. Digital marketing funnels are similar to actual funnels. If you want traffic to convert into sales, you need to funnel it upward into the top of the funnel. Usually, a goal is a sale, download of content, signing up for a discount, etc.
It takes time to create and optimize a sales funnel in digital marketing. But the only way to survive in a competitive marketplace is to acquire new customers. Join the One Funnel Away Challenge today and begin learning how to create the best possible funnel for your business.
