Sales funnels are like stepping stones to get someone from merely knowing about your business to converting them into loyal customers. It is a guided path that you create to guide prospective customers by familiarizing them with your product or service. After which they will decide whether or not they want to give you any business and buy your products. It is a tool that is designed to turn visitors into customers. The prospective customers follow a series of steps that lead them to take action in the end.
There are five parts of a sales funnel. They are: awareness, interest, conversion, retention and referrals. Below we have discussed what each of these steps involve. Knowing each of the steps in depth will give you a better idea on how to engage with prospective consumers and convert them into loyal customers for your business.
1. Awareness.
The first stage or part of a funnel is awareness. It is the part at which a company is informing or spreading information about their products/services. It makes potential customers aware of a company’s existence/brand. This part is where companies create content about their company and products on blogs and websites. Blogging generates interest along with awareness. It is a strategic way to engage your audience by sharing content. Use of right keywords to optimize content. Promote posts on social media by using influencers and boosted posts. At this stage it is important to get all of your marketing messages right. No matter which marketing channel you use, it is important to make sure that all the content follows some uniform pattern and tone. The marketing messages you give out will eventually play a role in how your customers identify your business or your brand.
2. Interest.
When a prospective customer is at this step, he/she is showing an interest in looking for solutions. Yourales process.
3. Conversion.
At this point, potential customers are going to make decisions. The objective at this stages is to convince customers to purchase or acquire your product or service.
It is a lot easier to convince your audience at this point because now they are paying close attention to your offers and benefits. Create a demand for your product/service through webinars, calls, sales packages etc.The potential customer converts into a customer as he/she is purchasing your product/service.
4. Retention.
You have to maintain a relationship with your final customers through email or social media in order tokeep them hooked to your business. Remember that customers have a lot of options in the market, so you need to put in efforts to keep your customers. Keep your customers hooked onto your social media handle by posting relevant and informative content. Create video tutorials or ‘how to videos’, to keep them engaged. Offer discounts to loyal customers. These loyal customers vouch for your company’s product or service. Continuous sale of products and services are afloat.
5. Referrals.
If you provide your customers with excellent products and customer support, referrals are to follow. Loyal customers promote your brand and product to their friends and family. Your company can increase referrals by creating vouchers for customers who refer their friends. You can also offer a 5-10% coupon discount for customers who refer their friends and for friends who have been referred to the company. Selling to current and loyal customers is cheaper and easier than a new customer. Permanent satisfaction is definitely a goal to aspire for.
Measure how effective your sales funnel is by testing to check which tools work better at each stage. Improving different tools to gather information and provide insight is vital. Trying to use all available tool, will only lead to you using out your budget. Make sure you research and check which ones work for you. Focus on on the ones that work at each stage of the sales funnel. Use tools to identify parts that are performing poorly and fix them. Small changes can lead to remarkable improvements in the effectiveness of your sales funnel.
These steps will help guide you to understand a sales funnel. It is a vital part of the sales process in a company as it has monetary benefits. All you have to remember is that the a big community of customers are on top of a funnel and the final output/sales comes at the bottom. As the customers move from one step to another, the path gets narrow until the final stage, which is the sales process stage.
This Is really true, Although getting sales is not easy for beginner, but it’s definitely worth the stress because at the end you’ll look back and smile. I’m glad you posted this, thanks so much