Sales funnel. What is it, what it consists of and how to implement it

One of the most effective tools in digital marketing is a sales funnel. Examples of how to make a funnel in your business.

To make it easier to understand this topic, it is better to start with an example right away.
Many of you have come across a situation where shopping did not give results — only time spent. Familiar? The same thing happens on the Internet. A visitor leaving the site may end up not buying any of the products offered. Why is this happening?
Every seller is interested in taking care of the customer, helping with the choice in order to eventually bring him to the purchase. For these functions in real life, you need to hire additional workers. Online business is much easier in this regard. The first step is to set up a sales funnel, which will significantly speed up and facilitate the trading process.

What are the advantages of a customized funnel?

• Attracting and retaining customers.
• Saving your time, the ability to pay enough attention to sales.
• More resources to communicate with customers.
• Rapid growth of conversion and sales up to 30%.
  

Let’s start our study of funnels.

The sales funnel. What’s it?

A sales funnel is a step—by-step process that a user goes through from the very first visit to your site to purchase.

The sales funnel is the stages completed by the user, starting from the recognition of the required product or service and ending with the purchase. It is necessary to demonstrate the work of the sales funnel:

• a person entering your site becomes a visitor
• after which he is a cold lead
• then a hot lead
• next – the client
• regular customer.

In short, a sales funnel is a sequence of actions of your client.

To understand how to make a funnel, it is important to know its stages. Consider a funnel for an online store:

• the entrance of a potential consumer to the site
• viewing the catalog by a visitor
• adding it to the cart
• purchase of goods
• re-return.

The concept of sales is very clear. But why is there a funnel? It’s simple — a person who has lost interest in buying a product at a certain stage ceases to be a customer of the store or service. For example, when visiting a resource of 800 people, approximately 200 will send a product item to the basket, and only 50 people will buy it. It turns out that each stage of the funnel is a loss of potential customers. In fact, it’s even worse! The confirmation is the data of the Online Store base, 3% is the maximum conversion of stores.

To solve the problem with the loss of customers, automatic messages are used in the funnel, which reduce the percentage of loss, retain, and retain interest in the product. Thus, the customer does not just get acquainted with the product, but also buys it.

The sales funnel involves the use of automatic tools, eliminating manual configuration. Of course, different implementation options can be used, but with a fixed set of actions.

How to make a funnel? Use a CRM system, it will greatly facilitate the work.

What is the funnel used for?

The funnel is used in order to attract customers as much as possible. The problem of attracting and retaining consumers is often solved by large monetary investments, hiring managers and increasing website traffic. The goal of making a profit can be failed in case of inefficient spending of money. This problem can be solved by using a funnel. So, most of the funds can be spent on improving the product, and not on those tasks that are completely solved by automation.

We mentioned sales tunnels earlier. In its meaning, this term is very similar to a funnel. But sales tunnels are an advanced tool that follows the funnel.

Demonstration of the work

So, we have considered what the sales funnel is used for. You can consider examples of funnels below.

The first example is a sales funnel in an online store:

• A user comes to your site.
• If the product is abandoned in the basket, remind the customer about it.
• Thanks to thoughtful assistance at the stages of registration, the client makes an order.
• If the order is abandoned again at this stage, you return the user using informational messages so that he pays the cost of the goods.
• Increase the customer’s interest in re-buying so that he chooses your product again.

The following example is a sales funnel in SaaS:

• The user comes to the site.
• After its registration, automate the e-mail newsletter.
• Help the user better understand the product so that he makes an order.
• Return the departed users.
• Tell us about the company’s news or the appearance of new products among popular products so that the customer returns and makes a purchase again.

Depending on which product the sales funnel is used for, examples may additionally include or exclude certain stages (pre-order, payment by installments, loan, etc.).

Components of the sales funnel

A funnel is a system complex consisting of:

• methods for winning customers,
• the tools with which this happens,
• the product offered by you,
• content that is necessary to communicate with the client.

Product and content are two important components of the successful implementation of the funnel. At each stage, it is necessary to provide something catchy. The first step is to define the product matrix.

The product matrix is the characteristics of the product, based on which you can build a funnel.
Next, consider its components.

Lead Magnet

This is a free product offered to customers, and in a broad sense — a free offer. The purpose of the lead magnet is to interest the client, to give the opportunity to try the product in such a way that he wants again.

The main nuances are a free, but special product.

The key goal is to bring the lead. A person leaves his e-mail, after which he can count on a lead magnet.

What are the conditions for a successful lead magnet:

• It should be easily applicable;
• be useful and valuable to the client;
• to promote the client through the funnel or request the performance of certain actions, for example, to leave contact details.

Variations of lead magnets suitable for stores

• Promo codes, bonus account, discount. Visiting many online stores, you may notice that they give a small amount at the first purchase. We imagine that this is really money, although in fact — the discount is included in the price or is valid only for expensive transactions. It’s all about the right pitch.
• Free shipping.

In addition, you should not leave customers without advice on choosing a product. This will help minimize the risk of disappointment with the wrong choice.

SaaS-service and information business

• An unpaid informational product, for example, a useful article on a certain topic, which can only be available to those who specify an email address. But do not forget that quality is the key to the success of a lead magnet. Good content will arouse your client’s admiration and desire to learn the features of already paid content.
• Free trial period. If you have an online service, offer visitors a trial period. And instead of the incomplete standard version, offer customers to try the completed version with all the advantages.

Tripwire is a one—time, inexpensive offer

Pay attention to this stage, as its effectiveness can be quite high.

A tripwire is a single-use product offered at a price lower than your main product. A simple example is a one—time lesson in self-development courses. Such an offer may eventually attract the purchase of a full course.

A successful tripwire must be:

• inexpensive to have differences from the main product;
• inaccessible to everyone, be exceptional;
• limited time frame for motivation.

You can use a 50% discount on what is offered in the online store.

for the SaaS service, you can apply a special price if you register for the webinar before a certain date.

The main product offered to the client

After you have managed to attract a customer, it remains for a small one to present the key product that has the highest price in the chain.

For the success of the main product, it needs to be more valuable to your client than a tripwire or a lead magnet. Only with this condition will the funnel work correctly. Attract customers, but not in the form of giving gifts, because you need a real desire of the customer to have this product.

Profit Maximizer

Did you manage to sell the product? And what to do next?

To compensate for the cost of attracting customers, you need to saddle up so that the client returns to you regularly. The main goal is to increase the check, the total profit of the company, as well as to ensure that the client becomes permanent.

An option for an online store may be an offer to buy additional items to the main purchase at a discount. The client buys a fishing boat, you offer a pump and a first aid kit for transportation. And after a while, the offer may be the purchase of a repair kit, patches, glue or lubricant for paddles.

What option should I offer to SaaS services?

This can be setup and product support. You can systematically supplement and improve the service, offering it to the client for extra money.

Conditions that will help create a successful profit maximizer:

• in addition to standard sales, there are additional sales;
• the product must be beneficial;
• it is not necessary to offer an additional product obsessively;
• the customer liked the main product.

What is needed to build a funnel

Before implementing a funnel, you need to understand that at the initial stage you have to work hard, analyze your audience to understand their fears, needs and pains.

The funnel is suitable for both beginners and those who have already developed business processes. It works perfectly for online business because it is introduced by resorting to online services. But we cannot exclude the option of setting up a funnel, even if the user has passed part of the way not in Internet mode.

It is worth thinking about the funnel if you are the owner:

• online store;
• services that can be offered to the online consumer;
• infobusiness;
• product companies, for example, SaaS, software development.

Each of these areas is individual, but a turnkey sales funnel is also possible for those areas that require a lot of time to make a decision due to a considerable amount of investment, or the product itself is quite complex.

To implement a funnel, you need to have:

1. Website. This is mandatory for the implementation of the funnel. And if there isn’t one, first of all you need to choose a suitable platform. Then hire a master or try to build the site yourself through the constructor. Decide on hosting.
2. Traffic. The funnel interacts with traffic that already exists, which is important. If there are problems with the number of visitors on the site, before implementing the funnel, use paid advertising, SMM and similar tools.
3. Communication tools. To implement a funnel, you can use many different tools and services. We’ll talk about them a little later.
4. A specialist who will create texts, a coder for making edits on the site. The content manager will cope with the nature of the presentation of information, the copywriter – with the creation of the mailing text and on the site.
5. Analytics tools. It is important to use tools that will help you monitor the effectiveness of the funnel in metrics.

The introduction of the funnel is accompanied by the use of certain tools

At the very beginning of the implementation of the funnel, as a basis, you will need a system that stores customer data.

It can be different CRM: AMO, Bitrix, HubStaff and many others. In the subsequent stages, it is important to use analytics tools. Using end-to-end analytics, you can easily trace the entire path of the client, and you will also know where buyers come from. To begin with, you can do without it, leaving the analysis of events to attract customers and individual campaigns. Here are examples of end-to-end analytics systems: Rick, Roistat.

Programs that create intelligence maps can be considered an effective tool. A turnkey sales funnel is designed by depicting what is happening step by step with the help of a drawing — it is important to describe the triggers that trigger events. The chain will not be able to start without these things.

For example, in our work we use, as a rule, 3 main ones – Xmind, Draw.io , MindGenius

Tools for working with leads

Please note that the use of tools depends directly on your scenario. Not every one of the tools described below may be needed.

1. Working with leads implies frequent use of such a tool – email newsletters. Email marketing is used for most scenarios, provides for the distribution of letters to certain recipients, return letters and welcome chains. Mailer lite and others will help you with using this tool.
2. Such a tool as pop-ups is very convenient in order to collect e-mail and return customers who stopped at the stage of application processing, or customers who do not take any active actions after filling out the basket.
3. If you have heard about such a tool as online chat, then you probably know that in addition to customer support, it is used to increase sales. Starting a conversation with a client, get him interested so that he wants to try your product or service and immediately come back again. You can use Binotel, Redhelper, Manychat.
4. Various kinds of alerts are another tool. With the help of Web push notifications, you notify customers about the availability of new blog articles, discounts, promotions, and inform the customer about the end of his subscription.
5. A/B testing. This tool will increase the efficiency of your resource by applying hypothesis testing. By testing two hypotheses that have differences, it is possible to understand by the indicators which of them dominates.

Typical miscalculations during the introduction of the funnel

With a well-chosen script and tools, you will achieve high results.

How to make the funnel the most effective? Pay attention to the miscalculations, they can pretty much prevent you from achieving success, ruining the process of lead generation.

Incorrect definition of strategy

In order not to lose customers, it is important to understand the specifics of the project. If you are presenting an expensive product, it would be an erroneous action to immediately transfer a visitor to fill out an application or register. At this stage, the visitor has not yet recognized your product and does not understand how valuable it is.

You can also observe a situation in which a visitor views a landing page for a long time. This can be corrected by offering an online consultation, with the help of which he will get the information he needs, and in the meantime you will replenish the list of clients.

The choice of the script is wrong

Do your best to choose a scenario for your business. This step will not only lead you to success, but also save a large part of the budget.

Missed opportunity to improve the script

Don’t forget about updating your content and replacing auto—messages – this is a chance to improve your results.

Technical errors

Test every auto-message. This is necessary in order to understand whether your pop-up window is adapted for both the computer and the phone.

You need to test using several browsers at once. A lot depends on the person himself, so be careful. For a harmonious view of the scenario, you can use intelligence cards.

Hypotheses without testing

It is important to test the funnel steps constantly, do not rely on luck and skip this action.

Guesswork is not an assistant. Fix the changes before and after each of your steps, so it will be clear whether the hypothesis worked or not.

Perfectionism

It’s wasted time. The perfection of the content does not play a major role, it is played by conversion. The most correct step would be to quickly launch and test two options at once, rather than one ideal one.

Incorrectly selected segment for auto-messages

Start with volume segments, for example, these may be people who visited your site while there for 15 seconds.

Mixing segments

The correct setting of triggers and newsletters for auto-messages is very important. If it is wrong to send auto-messages, a person can simply leave your site.

Misunderstanding of significance for the client

In this case, mutually beneficial conditions should apply. If you ask a customer to leave an e-mail, then you should also offer something, for example, a discount on a product. It’s important to give customers what they don’t have yet.

The use of the funnel is not in full force

Independent implementation of the funnel requires a lot of effort. Do not forget about working with auto-messages, use different lead magnets and invest in lead generation. An interesting decision was made by Yagla, having completely replaced the employees of the sales department with car communications.

Results

Without a sales funnel, it is difficult to imagine an established work with visitors, as a result of which they become customers. All this is done by the sales funnel. This is a really effective tool for your business.

Despite the multilayered funnel, its well-coordinated work will be noticeable immediately. And if you want to implement your business project the way it was conceived, you cannot do without this tool.