What Is A Funnel & How To Create A Powerful One?
Are you trying to understand what a funnel is and how it works? Then you are in the right place. We know it might look hard to create one by your own, so you can market your products. So, we wrote this article to help you understand what a funnel is, how it works, what components you should have in it, and the most common mistakes people make. Reading this article, can help you create your own successfully, so you get more sales.
A funnel is the set of steps a visitor needs to go through before he can reach the conversion. A funnel includes several stages, which the visitor goes through in order to convert into a lead, a customer, or even a loyal fan of yours. Depending on the purpose of the funnel, the type of conversion differs.
Let's see an example of an e-commerce funnel. At every funnel there are some stages a visitor has to follow in order to purchase a product. Here’s how it works:
- He has to visit the website,
- He has to research for a product and view it,
- Then, he has to add this product to the cart,
- Finally, he is going to purchase it.
Between these steps, there are some additional actions that the visitor can take. However, not all of these matter for the purchase funnel. For example, a visitor might view the contact page, but it is not considered as a part of the funnel.
As we said above, there are various stages of a funnel. In short, we could classify these in Awareness, Interest, and Decision stages. Similarly, we could call them top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. Below, we explain in simple terms how a funnel works.
A lead becomes aware of your brand's and your product's existence, and possibly he visits your website. At this phase, the awareness stage begins. There are many inbound marketing techniques that companies use, so they create awareness. If you want to know more about these, then we recommend you read our article What Is Inbound Marketing & How Does It Work?
So, now the lead is aware of the product, and he is interested in buying it or a similar one. Hence, here starts the consideration stage, or the middle stage of the funnel. This lead decides to research about this product and its similar ones. He browses your site to find all the information he needs. Then, he searches on Google about other similar products. He gathers the information he needs to decide from whom he will purchase it.
Finally, he decides to buy it from that person who is making the best offer. Here, the decision stage takes place. If your funnel is optimized properly, then it is most likely he closes the deal with you. If not, the best funnel will win this one customer.
This was an example of how a funnel works. However, funnels are not only used to gain leads and sales conversion. You can create educational, email capture, gather your audience's characteristics and information, tracking your website visitors' moves, and launch of new product funnels, etc.
Funnel Stages - Buyer's Journey
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Now that you are aware of how funnels work, it is time to understand how each stage work. Understanding this, can help you create and optimize effectively one by your own. Before we go through the funnel stages, let us talk about one crucial issue that many people do wrong.
Many people do not understand that they should treat each type of lead differently. Therefore, these people nurture their lead almost with the same manner, no matter if they are still at the top or the bottom of the funnel.
In order to explain this, we will refer to a particular example. So, let's say you have two leads. One at the awareness stage, and one at the bottom of the funnel. If you give both of them a discount coupon, the outcome differs.
The lead at the top of the funnel will possibly abandon your funnel, as he won't see the value of your offer. This is pretty logical to happen. To explain, since this lead doesn't know who you are, or your products, he will treat you like a marketer who's only purpose is to sell.
However, when you give that discount to the lead at the bottom of the funnel, then he will seal the deal.
So, you need to comprehend that treating all of your leads with the same content can't help you convert them in customers. Even more, this tactic might make them dislike your brand and your tactics. The chances a lead to convert from the very first stages of your funnel are few. Most leads need nurturing before they become customers.
So, now that you comprehend that each stage needs different tactics and content, we can explain the stages, and what you shouldn't do at every stage.
Awareness Funnel Stage
The awareness stage is full of people who doesn't know yet who you, your service or products, and your brand are. Therefore, you will need to educate this people about these. Moreover, the haven't recognized their problem yet, and they are not aware of how your product can serve their problem.
The most common mistake most sellers make is to believe that at this stage people are ready to purchase. Here, you shouldn't try to sell your products to them. Instead, you should try to make them recognize their problem. This way, you will be able to display them your product, smoothly.
Moreover, you shouldn't try get tons of leads. You should try to appeal the right leads, who align with your ideal buyer's persona. So, before setting up your funnel, make sure you have identified who your target audience are. This way, you will know better how to treat these people, and eventually your conversion rate will increase.
What is the right content for the awareness stage?
The content you should use at this stage is videos, tutorials, blog post, and guides. In fact, at this stage your content should be educational. So, people will get familiar with you and your brand.
Here, you should, also, start building a relationship of trust between you and them. To achieve this, you need to offer them value for free. Communicate with them about issues they might face, and how you are actually related.
Consideration Stage
At this stage, people have recognized their problem, and they are willing to solve it. So, they are looking for solutions, that satisfy their needs. They are going to find out more about your service or products, to find out if it fulfills their needs. However, they are not ready to commit a purchase. They are not even sure if your product is what they need. So, they will research for other similar products, too, in order to compare them.
They seek to find the best solution for them. So, you need to convince them that this solution is your product.
Many people think that there are not much they can do at this stage. This is their mistake. If you have offered your leads a lead magnet, or somehow you have captured their emails, then the game is easy. You can offer them additional information about your products through emails. You can, also, share with them a personal story, so you enhance the trust between you two.
The truth is that there are many tactics you can follow at this stage. But to apply them you need to communicate with them. Your purpose here is to stand out from your competitors.
What content should you use at the consideration stage?
At this stage you can apply inbound marketing tactics. Some of these are offering eBooks, case studies, worksheets, and FAQ's. If you offer some of these, then you can prove your potential clients that your product is the solution they are searching. Prove these people that your products are beneficial, work properly, and that they are the best offer they can get.
If you want to learn more about the tactics you can apply, we recommend you read our article 11 Awesome Inbound Marketing Examples To Hack Now!
Decision Stage
At this stage, you leads are ready to commit the purchase, and convert into clients. They are ready to choose the best solution for them. Now, your target audience knows all the information about each product, which serves this purpose, out there.
The most common mistake sellers make is to offer extra value to their prospects. Usually, they don't bother to communicate with their leads to drive them safely to purchase. Many site out there don't even offer a customer's support chat-bot.
Here your potential customers still need nurturing.
What content to offer at the decision stage?
The best tactic you should follow is to display an easily accessible page with customers' reviews. So, ask your satisfied customers to right testimonials about your products. Ask them to include their business field, the issue they had, and how your product served this well.
In additional to these, to enhance this stage, offer your leads case studies, tutorials, product demos, and free trial. Offering a product warranty, can increase your chances to make them purchase, too. Keep in mind, that if you identify a lead who is ready to purchase but not your product, then offering a discount coupon or code can affect their conversion positively.
Though people have decided their next move, offering these will convince them even more that your offer is the right choice, so they don't change their mind the last minute.
Why Are Funnels Beneficial?
Funnels are beneficial because they can help you convert leads into clients with ease. Though, to do that, you need to track and optimize your funnel. For example, you can track them with Google Analytics, if you are operating your funnel by your own. After tracking it, you can get a report about its effectiveness. Identifying the problems that might occur from stage to stage, and solving these, can help you get a highly converting funnel. This way you will stop losing customers.
Let’s take a look at SaaS funnel as an example. Here’s how it works:
Photo source: Myk Pono
So, if you manage to track and identify at which point of all these steps you loose your leads, you can apply proven tactics to fix your funnel. If you want to know how to optimize such a funnel, then we recommend you read our article How To Optimize And Improve Your SaaS Sales Funnel?
How Google Analytics Funnels Work
An easy way to create funnels is either with a funnel builder, like ClickFunnels, or Google Analytics. As for Google Analytics, when creating a funnel you need to know some things.
- It’s a basic funnel, and it provides you some data, but you don't get a deep look of what is going on in your funnel. So, if you are looking for some expert knowledge is might not be ideal for you.
- You can't go back and see your former funnel stages tracked data. Once you create your funnel, you’ll only be able to see the funnel going forward as the data comes in.
Components You Need When Creating A Funnel
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As we said above, you should treat differently your leads at each stage of their journey. So, it is time to talk about the elements you need to create a funnel.
Lead Magnets
A lead magnet is something you offer for free to your leads in order to make them exchange their contact information, such as emails.
Lead magnets usually are offered at the awareness stage, and it is a great way to push your audience into your funnel. The purpose of creating and offering a lead magnet, is to educate your leads, offer them value, and and get their email addresses, so you can market them directly.
When creating your lead magnets, you should make sure, that with these, you deliver the right message to your audience. Your lead magnet's content should be relevant to your product, so leads can get use of it, and get convinced about your brand's authority.
Tripwire
A tripwire is a great tactic to get your audience engaged, and eventually converted. However, it is not suitable for all the types of funnels. A tripwire in marketing is usually a product for which you charge only a few money, but its value is great. Take as an example Russell Brunson's books. He offers them for free, but he asks his audience to pay for the shipping cost.
However, if you think you can offer a low priced tripwire and get the job done, then you are wrong. If you choose to take this path, then you won't see your conversion rate to increase.
Landing Pages
In most cases, salespeople host their tripwires and lead magnets in a landing page. A landing page is the place where your leads will firstly land, so you can gather their email addresses, and personal information.
There are many platforms in which you can build your landing pages, but they are not all easy to interface. One of the best options to build these pages is ClickFunnels. The landing page or funnel builder you should choose to invest, should offer features like to duplicate easily your funnel and A/B testing.
To help you decide what builder is the best for you, we recommend you read our article Best Sales Funnel Builder: A Guide To Help You Pick The Best One!
Core Offer
The core offer is what you ultimately want your prospects to buy at the end of their journey. You may offer different core offers, depending on your target audience's needs or characteristics. However, the purpose or the same, to market and sell your products through your marketing funnel.
The best case scenario, when you introduce them to your core offer, is to have convinced them about your brand's authority, value, and credibility. If you manage this, then they will just grab the offer right away.
Thank you pages
When creating your landing pages, remember to create thank you pages for your customers. This should be where they land after they commit their purchase.
In your thank you page, you should lead these people to access other valuable content in your site, such as videos, social media channels, blog posts, or relevant products to the one they bought. This way, you can motivate them to get into a new buyer's journey for another product of yours.
Don't forget to inform your customers right away that you have received their order, and to send them right away the shipping information about their product. If you don't mind to do that, they might feel the got scammed, which is not good for your authority.
Email Automation
As you understand, no funnel exists without email marketing. It is crucial to have created an email marketing strategy, that is optimized to align to your funnel, and reinforce it. Of course, you should send these emails automatically to your audience.
For instance, in your email strategy, you should incorporate a welcome email to send when these people register at your email list for the first time. Then, you should communicate with them through emails, so you can offer them additional value or education about your core offer. Finally, when they are ready, you should introduce them to your core offer.
If you don't know how to build your email strategy, then we recommend you read our article Email Marketing Strategy: Tips To Create A Successful Campaign!
Of course, you should keep communicating with them, even if they have bought your product. Retaining a loyal customer is easier than gaining a new one. By this, we recommend you to treat and nurture your customers, so they purchase again from you, either by offering them an up-sell or a down-sell through emails, or by letting take their time and come back to you for their next purchase by their own.
Now that you know how a funnel works, what its, and what its components are, it is time to build your own. Identify your target audience and start building your own right away. Keep in mind to not make the mistakes as we mentioned above, so you get a highly converting marketing funnel.
Before creating your funnel, we recommend you read our article Digital Marketing Funnel: 12 Secrets To “Hack” & Create A Great One!
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