Step by Step Guide to Optimize a Powerful Marketing Funnel
I have been getting a lot of emails and messages from readers of this blog asking about marketing funnels.
They were asking:
‘Do I really need a marketing funnel?”
“What exactly are marketing funnels?
“Are marketing funnels really needed because I have had success without it?”
“Is it just a fad because I never heard of a marketing funnel until the past couple of years?”
What they didn’t know is that if they were selling a service or product, 9/10 times they are using some sort of marketing funnel. It may not be 7-10 stage marketing funnel, but it is a marketing funnel.
Even if they are simply putting an ad on Facebook, get a lead from that ad, and close that collected lead.
That’s a marketing funnel.
Now that example may not be as thorough as some of other, but it is a marketing funnel.
So What Exactly is a Marketing Funnel
Basically, marketing funnels are several stages that turn piques of interest into a finalized sale. The process of moving the potential customer through this sales process looks like a funnel. Hence the name, marketing funnel.
Depending on the product or service sold, the marketing funnel can be done in at least 3 stages. No matter how many steps you choose your funnel to be, it usually follows the same process. Sometimes that process can be really short or really drawn out.
Below is a 6 step marketing funnel:
Create Awareness: This step is to make your potential customer aware of what you are attempting to sell. This will usually always be the first step your customer takes.
Lead Gathering: This is the most important step. This is when you get lead information, especially emails and phone numbers. Without this info, there is no way to communicate directly with them.
Education: This step in self-explanatory. You would want to educate them during this step. Of course, there has to a means to get that education to your leads, such as email campaigns. You are looking to ease leads into what you can offer.
Push Your Product: Now that you have been easing leads into what you have to offer, now you are pushing your main product or service; you are looking to close leads. Continue educating also, but with a more focus on your main product or service.
Assist: Answer any questions or concerns your audience may have. Also you are looking to continue to close any additional leads that were closed in Step 4.
Support: During this step, you are looking to provide great customer service to your leads, even ones that did not purchase.
What is the Point of a Marketing Funnel?
When you are building out your marketing funnel, you need to have a grasp and understanding of your end goal. By knowing what results you want to achieve, you will know how to structure your marketing funnel.
And vice-versa, if you don’t have a structured marketing funnel in place, you may realize that your results may not be consistent, your inventory may have been stagnant, and success may not have been defined for your business. By having a sales funnel implemented, your quotas, inventory, and success will be much clearer than it was before.
So before you even start thinking about marketing funnels, you first have to know what end result(s) you want, then you would want to setup a platform for your business to work from.
If you were to establish a funnel prior to these things, you will not have direction for your marketing funnel. And, you definitely will have mixed results if there’s no aim for the funnel.
The point of a marketing funnel is to keep the sales process in line with your goals and marketing efforts.
Now we can talk about marketing funnels.
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Stage 1: Create Awareness
Now that you have your goals and a platform for your business in place, it is time to discuss the first stage in the sales funnel: creating awareness. Keep in mind that the marketing funnel stage is just to bring awareness to your potential customer.
You are not going for the kill, yet. You just want to provide valuable information that they can use.
Put Out Content that Can be Utilized by Your Potential Customer
So what can you do to create awareness? The answer is creating content that valuable and ready-to-use by your audience.
You could create valuable content by way of blogging, by creating dialogue on social media or by posting beautiful info-graphics. Either way, you put out valuable content with the intent of piquing interest of your potential customer.
Content marketing is not the only way to pique interest. Sometimes you have to think outside of the box and be creative to create awareness for your product or service.
Stage 2: Lead Gathering
You put out great content that has caught the attention of a potential customer. What next?
Your next mission is to get some kind of contact information from the lead, preferably, an email and a phone number.
You would hope that they will just give you that email, but we all know that is not so easy to get.
So, you will need some type of lead magnet in place. This is the true introduction into the marketing funnel.
Lead Magnets in Exchange for Contact Information
The easiest way to create a lead magnet is to have some type of give away in place. Everyone wants something for free, so this is an enticing lead magnet not to pass up.
You can offer these freebies on your blog, social media platforms, podcasts, etc. The catch is in order to get those freebies, there has to be an exchange of their contact information.
Webinars are very popular right now. Let’s see how offering a free webinar can be used to get their email address:
You create a Facebook ad offering a free webinar. Someone that was looking for that particular training so happens to see your ad. In order for that lead to participate in your webinar, they had to sign up by giving some basic info about themselves, including their email. They sign up and give their information. They attend the webinar and learn. You have their contact info to continue them in the marketing funnel.
There are so many other ways to utilize lead magnets; you just have to think outside the box.
Stage 3: Education
You have their email address and potentially you have a paying customer on your hands. How do you keep them moving along the funnel? Should you attempt to close the sale at that moment?
Not quite! You still want to nurture the relationship and build rapport. You still want to provide free content that's helpful to them.
You’ve started providing valuable content by way of info-graphics, podcasts, etc. in the last stage. Continue doing so, but focus more on email marketing while still providing the valuable, meaningful content.
Cultivating a relationship is just as important as closing the sale. That is why this step is so important. So do not neglect this step.
It is essential to curate content that not only build trust, but also curate content that still continues to educate for FREE!
Automate Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Also, you may be thinking that you don’t have time to email leads constantly. Well… you would want to automate this process.
There are tons of automation email services, but Customer.io is great. It allows you to send targeted emails and it also has a push notification tool readily available as well. One of the main aspects of this tool is that it integrates with your websites as well as your mobile apps with real time data.
Mailchimp, of course, is an old staple that works just as good. Just make sure that you have some type of automation system in place.
You would want no less than 3 emails prior to selling them on the product or service you are offering.
Also, keep in mind that you are going to have different categories of leads for different types of campaigns, so make sure the emails a geared toward each category. Any of the automation email services will have some type of categorization is in place so you can lump leads together for a more streamlined process.
Stage 4: Push Your Product (Lead Conversions)
After the 3rd email, you decide to close the deal. Your potential customer has enough education from the email content you have been sending and they now have a better understanding of how your product or service can work for them. So, you go in for the close.
In prior steps, you may have sold some of your leads during your webinars and trainings, but there are still some leads that are on the fence. They need to convinced a bit more. This is where the bulk of your sales may come from.
Also, make sure that SEO is done correctly as well. With the combination of the prior steps and SEO, converting leads should be much easier.
Review these SEO and lead conversion tips to ensure a perfect balance for your business and website.
You may have to offer more incentives, such as discounts, up-sells, or down-sells; whichever offers more value. In this stage, when communicating with your leads, you have to create a sense of urgency as well.
Everyone has different closing strategies, but keep in mind that you have already established rapport with your audience in prior stages. So you have every right to close and make sure you close hard! You may not get this opportunity again.
Once Converted, Remove that Lead from Sales Funnel
The first thing you would want to do after the sale has been made is to remove the new customer from your sales funnel. You definitely do not want to inadvertently send out a discount that is lower than what they actually purchased.
Keep their email. Don’t delete them all together. The reason is because you may want to put them in another marketing funnel whenever you come out with a new product or service. Then, they can go through the process again.
Stage 5: Assist Your Leads
You closed quite a few leads in the previous stage of the sales funnel, but you still have some leads that are still on the fence.
Closing sales in this stage will tougher because humans have a short attention span; they may have forgot why they even subsribed to you to begin with. As a matter of fact, some leads may have already unsubscribed from your email campaign.
Now because of this, you are just reaching out to the remaining leads that you have and assist in any way possible.
If you have a sales team, this is a great opportunity for you, yourself, get on the line and work your magic. You can offer deals, up-sales, down-sales, and/or additional services/products that only you can offer.
When a potential customer hears that you, the owner, took time away from doing important work to offer these incentives, sometimes that is all that is needed. Psychologically, getting a bargain is the ultimate deal breaker that is all that is needed to close the customer.
And on top of that, you have some savvy consumers that know how the game goes. They may do the same thing with their own business; saving the best deals at the last moment. So, these leads will eventually buy, so do not give up on them and continue to assist.
Even after you have offered the barn, some leads just will not buy your product. You still continue to assist and educate them because you never know when they will come around.
Stage 6: Support
During this stage in the sales funnel, you just want to provide great customer service. Customer service is great for branding and marketing.
The perception and reality of you going over and beyond just for customer service, even after the sale has been closed, shows that you care about your customers. In return, they will be more likely to be repeat customers, which is what we all want.
What Next?
Once you have completed the marketing funnel stages, you start over again, of course, depending on your goal and campaign.
If you have a new product you think your existing clients can benefit from, include them in the new funnel. Include the leads that didn’t previously didn’t buy as well as any new leads you attract.
Also you can tweak the marketing funnel to fit your audience, your goals, and your campaigns. You can add to it, condense it, and you can even have mini-marketing funnel attached to any stage you see fit.
Just ensure your marketing funnel includes:
Create great content
Gather leads
Educate
Sell the product
Assist the customers
Provide great customer service