To grow your business, you must identify your sales funnel as part of your digital marketing efforts.
Not sure what a sales funnel is? Check out our breakdown explanation of the four stages:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Decision
- Action
Simply put, a sales funnel is the journey a consumer takes from being a prospect to a paying customer. It’s critical in regard to customer conversions and driving sales because it requires you to better understand how customers find you, why they find you and why they stay or leave.
About 68 percent of companies have not identified or attempted to measure their sales funnel. You do not want to be part of that 68 percent.
The following are seven reasons why you should use a sales funnel to help fuel your digital marketing efforts.
Attracting new leads
A sales funnel with the right content will inevitably attract new leads to your business.
Of course, the question then becomes: What’s the right content?
That depends on your business, your industry and the type of leads you want to attract.
Think about what you’re an expert in and what problem(s) you solve for your customers. Your content should be valuable to your target audience and answer a question or problem that they have. Format-wise, this can be a downloadable ebook, an online quiz, etc.
The key is that you capture at least everyone’s email when delivering the content they want. That way, these prospects are now in your funnel for you to nurture and build a relationship with.
Streamlining your marketing
Ever feel overwhelmed with all the things you could be doing with your marketing? A sales funnel helps keep you focused on what should be happening to both attract leads and convert them into sales.
It’s not necessarily about making your marketing easier, just more effective. You’ll experience fewer missed opportunities as well.
Focusing on the right leads
Unfortunately, not all leads will turn into customers, but creating a sales funnel will help you identify which leads to pursue.
This helps you use your time and resources working on the sales leads that have potential rather than spending too much time on the leads that will just never convert.
One way to do this is by including an initial phone call or email survey for new leads. Doing so will help you better understand your prospects and determine who is more serious about buying your product or service.
Sorting and ranking your leads
On that note, an online sales funnel can help you sort, evaluate and rank your prospects.
Not all leads are created equal.
Knowing who requires immediate attention and who needs long-term nurturing, for example, will help prevent any missed opportunities for conversions. Of course, there will be still others who are just a poor fit in general and should garner too much of your time.
Building trust and relationships with leads
Not everyone will make their decision to purchase from you immediately or even quickly. A sales funnel featuring multiple points of contact over a determined period of time is critical for conversions.
The idea is to regularly share your content with them that will educate and build a relationship with them over time until they are ready to finally make their purchasing decision.
People buy from companies that they trust.
Increasing your conversion rate
We all want to see more of our leads turn into paying customers. Understanding your prospects’ journey to ultimately making a purchase is the way to convert more leads.
It’s about thinking through the eyes of your prospects, what they need, meeting them where they are and building that relationship of trust that earns you that sale.
An overall average sales funnel conversion rate of most industries is about 3 percent. That might not sound like a lot, but take a quick look at what your conversion rate is without a sales funnel (if you know). At least 3 percent is a good starting place for a goal. You can always build up from there.
Better forecasting of your sales volume
We’ve already mentioned the unfortunate reality that not all leads will convert to customers. Digital marketing is definitely a numbers game.
However, this doesn’t mean that a buckshot, capture-all approach is what it takes to be successful.
Measure how many leads your sales funnel is capturing and how many convert.
Understanding that conversion rate will help you more accurately forecast your sales volume, which is an important part of running your business and managing your digital marketing effectively.
