Table of Contents
Why is the sales funnel important?
Companies use sales funnels to look at where customers will likely drop off and to stop this from happening. You should, once you’ve created it, have a clear visual representation of your customer’s journey. Not every customer journey will exactly follow this, but you should still keep it as a guideline.
The information you acquire from a sales funnel should be used for the following purposes:
- Look for potential bottlenecks: Think about where customers are likely to drop off, or where they are, and then consider what you can do to change this. For example, you might offer a product discount at some point if you feel it’s necessary.
- Personalize your marketing: You should use different marketing messages at each stage of the funnel, depending on the action you want leads to take next.
- Think about conversion rates: Look at your current conversion rates and determine where you need to make changes. If you don’t have this information yet, set up a funnel and analyze it.
- Look at your overall ROI: You should use sales funnels to consider your overall ROI and where you might need to make adjustments to your strategy. Look at what’s influencing customers and ask for feedback.
Why do you need a sales funnel?
You need a sales funnel because it provides a structured way to understand and manage your customer’s journey, from initial awareness to final purchase. This helps you identify bottlenecks, personalize your marketing efforts, and ultimately increase your conversion rates.
Without a sales funnel, your marketing and sales efforts might be scattered and ineffective. A funnel gives you a clear roadmap to guide potential customers towards a purchase, ensuring no opportunity is missed.
• Predicting revenue: You should roughly know how many customers will convert and then how much money you can expect to make based on this.
• Marketing channels: Look at which marketing channels you should focus more of your energy on to find and convert leads.
• Connections: Think about how you should connect with your audience via the sales funnel.
What are the sales funnel stages?
Sales funnels normally have four main stages, with slight variations occasionally:
- Awareness: This is the early stage when customers hear about your brand. They might become aware through word-of-mouth, social media, a blog post, or search engine ads as some examples.
- Interest: Prospective customers will look at your website and visit different pages. They might do this multiple times before moving on to the third phase.
- Decision: Customers will compare your product with others and then think about whether they want to buy it.
- Action: Often associated with purchasing, but also sometimes means a trial period. The action could also be something else, such as following your page or signing up for a newsletter.
• Stage lengths will vary from industry to industry. It will also depend on your products and total sales cycle.
How do I optimize my sales funnel?
You need to assess your data over a long period of time before you can optimize your sales funnel and refine over the long term. You should also try different methods in each funnel, such as various types of content marketing.
You may also need to add or remove different funnel stages, depending on what you find. Consider where your conversion rates could potentially improve and implement these adjustments before measuring them once more.
Personalize your messaging: Tailor your content and know who you’re creating for. You might use sales messaging in your emails compared to a blog post, for example.
Leads: Use different content marketing strategies, such as retargeting ads, to be more visible to your leads.
Split testing: Try different websites, content types, and messages.
What tools do you need to optimize your sales funnel?
To get better results from your sales funnel, you should consider using the following software:
- CRM software: Look at customer interactions and understand your customers’ data. You can also get hot/cold scores with some CRM tools. CRM examples are Salesforce and HubSpot.
- Email marketing: Use email software for campaign automation and audience segmentation. Tools include Mailchimp and ConvertKit.
- Analytics software: Look at where your website traffic is coming from and view other metrics like bounce rate. Examples of software are Google Analytics and Matomo.
- Marketing automation: Use automation for tasks that you perform regularly. Examples include Zapier and Marketo.
What is the difference between a sales funnel and a marketing funnel?
Below is a brief explanation of the differences between sales and marketing funnels:
- Marketing funnel: This is about lead generation, rather than converting customers.
- Sales funnel: Focuses on the conversion stage. At this point, leads already know about your product or service.
You should know this subtle distinction so that you use the right strategy and messaging where needed.
What is the difference between a sales pipeline and a sales funnel?
Sales pipelines and funnels are two different things, and this is how:
- Sales pipeline: The steps taken by a salesperson to convert a prospect, along with how many leads have been acquired.
- Sales funnel: Looks at the customer journey and how users should interact with your brand prior to purchasing.
Conclusion
Sales funnels are one of the first things you should learn when building a business. It involves different stages, and the messages you portray will change through each aspect. Think about how you want to convert customers and what they are likely to interact with throughout their journey.
You should use sales funnels with marketing funnels and sales pipelines. Pick software that meets your needs and test-iterate until you find a solution that works for you.
