eSales Funnel Marketing Strategy 101

A marketing sales funnel is a visual representation of the process of converting the public into leads, then sales prospects and ultimately into buying (and repeat) customers through the following 4 ordered stages and corresponding strategies. The process is called a funnel because the number of people converted to each subsequent stage is always less than at previous stages. It therefore represents the marketer's job of nurturing and converting as many leads into customers as possible, thereby widening the bottom.

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1. Lead AWARENESS of you and your product - Top of the Funnel
   
   


2. ENGAGEMENT (INTEREST & DESIRE) for your product (previously, this was considered 2 steps, Interest and then Desire)  - Middle of the Funnel
   
   


3. Sales prospects is most likely to take ACTION to buy your product  - Bottom of the Funnel
   
   


4. Customer satisfaction that motivates a RELATIONSHIP of repeated sales. For instance, the first funnel may be a 'break even funnel' that uses 'splinter' or other less expensive introductory 'tripwire' products to hopefully graduate customers to enter subsequent sales funnels for main products. Ideally, several sales funnels work in conjunction with each other at converting leads. For instance, the webinar sales funnel is typically designed for re-targeting leads (ie potential customers) that earlier sales funnels did not convert. Another noteworthy example is the hour Glass Sales Funnel in Retention Marketing. It is a matter of 'not leaving money on the table'.

1. AWARENESS

Your lead:

• is completely unaware of you or your product

You aim to:

• get the lead's attention. That's it! (Do not aim to get immediate sales, especially of your main product. Your lead is unlikely to be ready for that step.)
  
  
• research consumers

Your response is to:

• use advertisements to be informative as a means of introducing you and your product. Examples: free infomercial gifts, blog posts or write as a guest on the blogs of social media influencers
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• collect email addresses for mailing lists (often with the use of pop-up windows)
  
  


• use interruptive advertisements to psychographic target market via Google Search, Facebook pages, etc. Interruptive ads refer to ads that appear while your potential customer was doing something else, like looking at a YouTube video, looking at photos on Facebook, reading a blog post, etc 
  
  


• use Search Engine Optimization / SEO techniques
  
  


• provide Twitter hashtags. For instance, you may encourage user-generated content using hashtags through order confirmation emails to your paid customers.
  
  


• do cold calls
  
  


• do publicity stunts
  
  


• Landing pages that answer common questions that eventually lead visitors towards the buying decision. For instance, if the product is a new or bit technical, you can introduce information that explains how the product is a customer solution. Also use an effective squeeze page as the landing page for this stage. As with any squeeze page, this page serves a clear and single purpose. In this case, that purpose is to get contact details of your potential customers in exchange for some freebie.  
  
  
• Generate social proof that validates you as a current and respected authority. Use elements like a compelling Facebook page.

have a compelling 'About Us' page. The website is the key platform for this stage of the funnel.


• take it easy! Do not try to sell your main product to this crowd of people as yet ... as this may prove a costly exercise with marginal benefit because conversion at this stage has a very low rate. Do not expect to generate high or any profit at this early stage. Examples: fire sale priced products.  
  
  
• test your strategies to see which single element must be kept or dropped
  
  
• Other events include tradeshows

2. ENGAGEMENT (INTEREST & DESIRE) - GROOM CUSTOMERS

Only some leads from the earlier stage will return. This is to be expected. The fact that potential customers responded in some way (like offering their contact information) is a primary conversion from the general public into 'leads', ie people in the early stage of demand generation (or even at the further, sales-ready level). To cultivate sufficient interest and desire for your product, you must essentially nurture / groom your leads. Consequently, this stage is likely to require several interactions to convert potential customers further.

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Your lead / prospect (ie potential customer)

• has some knowledge of you and your product
• is already interested
• may invest in your business but only to a limited extent, especially if your core product is a high ticket item that involves much prior consideration called 'involvement' in Marketing
  
  
  
  

You aim to

• arouse interest and desire
• emotionally arouse leads
• arouse interest to buy something
• engage with the consumer's buying process by providing the information he / she needs.
• groom leads
• focus on the needs and interests of your audience in all of your touches. For instance, the appointment of your new CEO adds not value to the experience of your leads.
• prevent your leads from forgetting you. For instance, do not generate a lead and then fail to make subsequent contact until several months afterwards by which time they may have completely forgotten who you are.

Your response is to:

• Deliver at least 5 'nurturing touches' (ie forms of contact with your leads). Research suggests that conversion occurs after at least 5 touches. Prepare at least 6 instances of the following 'touches'. Use Social media (like Instagram 101 and Facebook Groups) to nurture your leads.


• Have compelling store reviews or product reviews. The growth of this stock may be encouraged through various marketing strategies like email marketing. Example include order confirmations that seek reviews from already converted customers as a means of instilling trust and desire in newer leads.

• sell smaller versions of your core product.
  
  
• Automated or manual email sequences. You may use automated emails or dedicate a specific after-hours time to manually nurture leads through emails.
  
  
  
• Ebooks
  
  
• Guides
  
  
• Follow up calls
  
  
• Product demo videos
  
  
• YouTube 'how-to' videos

• Suggest the next step of your lead. Without being pushy, this may simply involve a message like 'for more information, please contact us via ....'


• test your strategies to see which single element must be kept or dropped
  
  

3. ACTION

Your sales prospect  (ie qualified potential customer)

• signals an interest in buying. Example: he asks about prices and other terms.
  
  
• is more likely to buy (than at stage 1) because he already has awareness and desire
  
  

You aim to

• make most of your profit
  
  
• invite the potential customer to buy your core product (or take some other action that will eventually lead him to that action)
  
  

Your response is to

• have compelling sales pages as landing pages for potential customers at this stage of the funnel. A sales page is a single page with an unambiguous call to action, ie a call to buy a single product.
  
  
• make it as easy and quick as possible for customers to find precisely what they need. There are several website design features that facilitate this. Among these features include allowing your prospect to use multiple simultaneous filters. See how to set up multiple filters in Shopify.


• send sales letters, preferably in video format


• make person-to-person contact with live chat that efficiently targets leads at the buying intent stage of the sales funnel
  
  
• extend engagement with trouble tickets

• give your prospect achievable expectations in anticipation for the next step, ie repeated sales. This involves providing as much reliable product as possible on your sales page
  
  
• prepare the means for customer service that will at least meet the expectations of your niche
  
  
• convert customers into advocates by encouraging them to provide reviews, post about products and other forms of consumer generated content on social media. 


• test your strategies to see which single element must be kept or dropped

CONTENT RELATED TO SALES FUNNELS

• Tentpoling within the sales funnel
• Autoresponder Email Marketing
• Webinar Sales Funnel
• Hour Glass Funnel for Retention Marketing. Do not leave money on the table after customers get to the bottom of the sales funnel.
• Facebook groups, a great retention marketing tool in the hour glass sales funnel
• Live Chat for the buying intent stage of the sales funnel
• Facebook pages can be used in the Product Awareness stage of your sales funnel (see above). You can have a different Facebook page for each of several hobby or other somehow related interest that your target market has.
• Buyer / Purchase funnel
• Understand the difference between leads and sales prospects
• Sales funnels may be consulted by anyone in an organization to get a quick insight into conversion rates of leads and prospects. However, sales pipelines are more hands on task-centric tool for the sales team.
• Social media 101 - the means for engagement
• Instagram 101
• Facebook Groups