Have you ever wondered how brands consistently sell their products and services?

When you’re selling something - whether a cookie, car or software - it might be easy to get that first sale from your friends, peers or network. But how do you generate and sustain regular revenue in the long run?

As with anything, steady sales and successful businesses don’t happen overnight. The key to making consistent sales is a sales funnel.

WHAT IS A SALES FUNNEL?

A sales funnel is a step-by-step process that allows you to turn your prospects into customers. Each stage in the funnel takes your prospect one step closer to your offer and a buying decision through a series of marketing actions like automated emails, videos, articles and landing pages that will do the selling for you.

The sales funnel is one of the most fundamental concepts in sales and marketing. The top of the funnel signifies the goal of every business — to generate as many leads as possible — while the narrow bottom reflects how many of those leads are converted to customers by the end of the sales process.

Sales funnels are everywhere, even if you don’t realize it. A customer walks into a huge department store and sees a rack of shoes on clearance. He or she goes nearer the rack, eyes a few prospects, and fits a couple of pairs - now they’re at the next step of the funnel. Then the customer selects one pair they can’t resist and walks to the counter to check-out. They’re at the last step. If all goes well, they finish the purchase and reach the bottom of the funnel.

LEVELS OF THE FUNNEL  - THE AIDA METHOD

Stages of a sales funnel can vary, but a traditional model follows these phases:

AWARENESS

In the awareness stage, your goal is to reach out to as many people as possible and let them know that you exist. Ask yourself, “What can I do to make people aware of my business?” This is the moment where you first catch a consumer’s attention, probably through some ads, video, content marketing or a social media post. In an ideal scenario, consumers purchase straightaway. Unfortunately, life doesn’t usually work that way.

INTEREST

Once people become aware of your brand, you want to continue to nurture their interest. Get your potential customers to be interested in learning about the benefits of the product and how the product is right for them. This phase is all about knowing and respecting what the user wants. You want to avoid being too pushy as this could push away some customers. The goal here is to establish your expertise, help the consumer make an informed decision, and offer to help them in any way you can.

DECISION

Your customer is ready to buy and decide. He or she might be considering two or three options and hopefully, consider you. This is the phase to put forth that irresistible offer. Give discounts, bundle deals or free shipping. Providing exclusive, urgent, and limited-time offers make the offer more compelling, too.

ACTION

Finally, the last stage! The customer acts and your task is to convince them to transact with you. If your previous three stages are well executed, then selling should be easy. Your customer will already want to buy your products or services. Once the purchase is done, your customer becomes a part of your business’s ecosystem.

BUILDING A SALES FUNNEL FROM SCRATCH

A healthy sales funnel will move someone from the top to the bottom relatively easily. But to do that, you need a strategy. Don’t worry. It’s not as difficult as it seems.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

It all begins with defining your target audience and taking the time to know them well. Always remember this basic marketing concept: you’re not marketing to everybody. You’re marketing to people who will potentially buy your product. Figure out and evaluate your audience’s behavior. What catches their attention? What makes them click that button? How much time do they spend browsing pages? All these details will be vital in all the success of your sales funnel and all your sales and marketing strategies thereafter.

POSTING CONTENT ON ALL YOUR PLATFORMS

Your customers need to learn about your products or services. Not only that, you have to constantly engage your audience by creating and promoting content on all your platforms. Diversify with infographics, videos, and other types of content.

BUILD A LANDING PAGE

Your content efforts won’t be enough on their own if you don’t take your prospects somewhere. Ideally, you want to direct them to a landing page. The key here is to focus on lead generation instead of closing a sale.

LAUNCH AN EMAIL CAMPAIGN

Drive traffic to your landing pages or website by launching a series of emails. Design an email campaign that tells a story and addresses your customer’s pain points. Be careful not to spam them, though. Do so regularly, but not too frequently. Seal your fantastic emails with compelling call-to-action that will inspire your customers to act.

CONSISTENTLY REACH OUT

Your work doesn’t end when the customer makes the purchase. In fact, you are restarting the funnel stages all over. The experience a customer gets after making their first purchase can make or break your business. The best way is to stay in touch with them by offering customer support and soliciting feedback. Also, thank them by offering loyalty programs to reward them and strengthen your relationship.

WHY IS A SALES FUNNEL IMPORTANT?

The perfect sales funnel strategy doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to improve insights, rebuild game plans, and refine your targeting. It entails hard work but it is crucial for the survival and growth of your company.

Your sales funnel remains the backbone of your business. It sounds like a lot of work but know that the payout is worth it.

If you’ve never created a sales funnel before, don’t worry. The more you practice, the better you’ll get. Integrate your sales funnel strategies with existing marketing tools from IgnitePost. With our system designed to send fast, easy, personalized handwritten notes from your existing marketing or CRM tools, you’ll be creating that sweet spot between digital and personal.

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