https://maktagg.com
In the field of digital marketing agencies, the term " sales funnel " is widely used, as it is a fundamental tool for the companies that work with them.
Despite this, many of them still don't use sales funnels or don't do so correctly, which negatively impacts their business objectives.
In this Maktagg article, we'll explain what a sales funnel is and how to use it to achieve those desired KPIs.
What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is the process a user follows from the moment they come into contact with a company they don't know until they become a customer.
This process is called a sales funnel because the path followed has this shape: a wide top section where users "enter" and a narrow bottom section where they "exit" as customers.
This is precisely where the importance of sales funnels lies: their ability to convert a stranger into a loyal customer through content tailored to the person's current stage of the funnel.
For the latter, it's essential to understand the consumer's so-called "states of consciousness," that is, what they know about their problem or need, what they know about our company, etc. But we'll discuss this a little further down.
Benefits of sales funnels
Although there are several benefits to sales funnels, we're going to talk about the three that we believe are the most important.
The sales funnel allows you to get to know your customer better.
Aside from the sales funnel, have you also heard of the buyer persona?
This Spanglish term refers to a company's representation of its ideal customer, in terms of demographics, interests, purchasing power, educational level, habits, etc.
Let's think, for example, about the following buyer persona:
Sex : female
Age : 20-25 years
Interests : music, cinema, books, culture in general
Purchasing power : 25 K/year
Studies : Master's degree
Habits : gym, going to exhibitions, eating out, traveling...
With this mental map of the buyer persona, the next thing would be to think: would product X interest a person with that profile?
The sales funnel is a way to test whether the product or service actually appeals to a woman between 20 and 25 years old, with an interest in culture, a salary of 25K/year, a higher education degree, and similar daily habits.
If so, with an appropriate content strategy, the buyer persona will continue moving down the sales funnel. If not, you'd need to adapt the product to their profile or, if manufacturing, production, branding, etc., conditions don't allow it, focus on another buyer persona for that product.
Increased productivity thanks to the sales funnel
Knowing your ideal customer and understanding the different stages of the sales funnel is a way to optimize your work within your company.
In other words, the focus will be on highly defined processes, which will allow efforts to be reduced or even eliminated in actions that don't fit into the sales funnel (the classic "doing for the sake of doing").
Discovering opportunities for improvement through the sales funnel
Constantly monitoring users as they move down the sales funnel is a goldmine of data:
How many users have moved on to the next phase and how many have dropped out?
Where and why have they abandoned?
How to reduce the number of dropouts?
How to “recover” users who have abandoned?
Etc., etc., etc.
As the saying goes in marketing, what isn't measured can't be improved. Therefore, it's essential to analyze each stage of the sales funnel and the behavior of the users who pass through it, looking for opportunities for improvement that will help more users reach the end of the funnel.
The states of consciousness of the user and future client?
With the buyer persona or ideal client fully identified, verified, and verified again, the next step is to understand their states of consciousness.
This will allow us to provide you with the most appropriate type of content based on two factors : your self-awareness and your knowledge of our company or product.
Conversely, the higher your level of awareness in both aspects (yours and ours), the further down the sales funnel you'll be. In fact, the different stages of the funnel are closely related to the level of awareness of the users who move through it.
He who knows nothing
The first state of consciousness or state of knowledge is that of the user who knows nothing, that is, the person who does not know that he or she has a need or a problem .
This is the lowest awareness level of all, and it affects users who have not yet entered the sales funnel.
Therefore, they need a type of content that “opens their eyes,” that makes them question why they have that need, but never transactional content (“BUY NOW”).
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The only transactional content that might work with these users is content that offers a product they're already familiar with. Consider, for example, a very popular book series whose final installment is eagerly awaited.
If we sell that book at a competitive price and reach the user (through PPC campaigns or SEO , for example), they might buy from us. But they wouldn't be buying "our brand," but rather a product (a book) whose "sales funnel" the author himself had already created when writing the previous installments in the series.
He who knows he has a problem or a need
The next state of knowledge is that of the user who, thanks to our first content, is already aware of their problem or need .
That person is at the widest part of the sales funnel, wondering what they could do to improve their situation. However, they're not yet aware that there's a solution for them, which is the product or service we offer.
This way, we'll get them down the sales funnel with content that shows them the solution, but NOT our solution. Now that we've captured their attention, we shouldn't scare them off with a "BUY NOW" message: they're still a pretty "cold" user.
He who knows that there is a solution
The user with this level of awareness is already beginning to be “tempered”, since he knows that there are solutions to resolve his situation .
Their level of knowledge places them in the upper-to-middle part of the sales funnel, and they're likely to start looking for generic information about the solutions offered by different companies in the sector.
Therefore, our task is to continue “warming them up” with more developed informative content that clearly explains how to resolve their problem or need.
Wait, it's not time to "BUY NOW" yet...
He who knows our solution
The fourth state of awareness is that of the user who already knows that we offer a solution... and so do our competitors . After all, if we implement a sales funnel, there's no reason to rule out the possibility that our competitors will do the same.
The person in the fourth stage, who is already beginning to enter the lower parts of the sales funnel, knows the most relevant companies that offer a solution (ours among them).
At this stage, you'll have moved away from "generic" research and focused your attention on the proposals before you. Therefore, the content you need from us as a company is content that demonstrates our benefits and how we differentiate ourselves from our competitors.
He who wants to buy us but…
Finally, the fifth state of consciousness is that of the "hot as a fiddle" user. Thanks to our value proposition, they've decided on us, they want to buy from us, but they need to iron out some final qualms .
This isn't the time (or ever, really) to get nervous and hide information about our product or service, such as price, delivery times, warranty, purchase terms, shipping conditions, refund policy... In short, all the fine print.
It's time, however, to make everything very clear, very large, and very easy; to pave the way for them to the "BUY NOW" button (now!) by answering any questions they may have.
In short, and with all due respect, by being aware of users' states of consciousness, we can plan an optimal content strategy for each stage of the sales funnel, using the different content formats we'll discuss below.
Stages of the sales funnel
The stages of the sales funnel are the parts it is divided into, from the widest to the narrowest. They are established based on the user's state of consciousness, which, as we have seen, determines the type of content offered to the user to move them down the funnel.
Discovery phase
The discovery phase is the top of the sales funnel , the “mouth” that attracts new users/buyer personas.
As in real life, in digital marketing, the first impression (literally) also counts. In this phase, we need to capture the attention of cold users about whom we have no information (nor do they about us).
In the discovery stage, the ideal goal is for that user to become familiar with us as a company and leave their contact information (name and email, at a minimum). Once this is done, we'll determine if that lead is qualified, meaning they're likely to purchase from us in the final stage of the sales funnel.
Interest phase
In the interest phase, the user/prospect will research their problem and possible solutions (second and third stages of awareness). They will then focus on evaluating companies in the sector, so our task is to build trust and authority to position ourselves as the best option for them.
Consideration phase
In the consideration phase, corresponding to the fourth stage of awareness, the user will have opted for a small group of companies . Therefore, we need to continue to differentiate ourselves from our competitors by clearly stating our benefits and value proposition.
Action phase
The action phase of the sales funnel corresponds to the fifth state of consciousness: the user has decided on us and only needs us to resolve their last doubts .
Frequently asked questions are a good way to resolve any questions you may have in advance, but ideally, we should always maintain a direct communication channel with the future customer in case their question isn't listed in our FAQ (web chat, company WhatsApp account, or email itself).
Once your questions are answered, we'll guide you through the purchasing process and, with it, toward a successful conversion.
Loyalty phase
Although the loyalty phase isn't part of the sales funnel itself, we can't forget about it. After all, if a customer has bought from us once, why wouldn't they buy again?
To achieve this, it's essential to have a good after-sales service that can help you with questions, refunds, returns, etc.
In addition, we'll collect various customer data (always provided with their express consent), which we'll use to add them to our database based on their profile. We can then contact them to ask for reviews of our product, offer them other products they might be interested in, or even wish them a happy birthday with a discount!
Content for the sales funnel
Sales funnel content is divided into what are known as TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU . The format and type of content vary depending on the stage of the funnel, since, as we've seen, not all formats or content are suitable for all stages of the funnel.
By the way, talking about content means talking, among other things, about what copywriting and writing are . You'll learn more about them in this post.
TOFU Contents
TOFU content refers to "top of the funnel" content , meaning it's intended to educate the user and help them discover their problem or need.
At this stage, users can discover us through various digital channels, such as Google (SEO), paid campaigns (PPC), and social media.
The most commonly used TOFU formats are the following:
Blog articles
Blog posts serve to provide a comprehensive, straightforward overview of our industry and address basic questions users may have.
Podcast
In recent years, podcasts have become the most popular format, as they allow for more relaxed viewing. The information they offer is similar to that of blog posts.
Infographics
Infographics are also very useful, as they are easy to read and quick to understand.
Newsletter
Another classic digital marketing format, newsletters serve to establish a bond with the user, who will begin to learn more about your company and your products.
Here we tell you more about what a newsletter is and how you can get the most out of this format .
MOFU Contents
MOFU content is "middle of the funnel" content, the type of content created for the intermediate stages of the sales funnel.
As we've seen above, this type of content will begin to differentiate us from our competitors by generating authority and trust in the user, so we must be more specific and develop it more than TOFU content.
Some MOFU content formats are:
Blog articles
In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of our industry, blog posts also serve to discuss solutions to user problems.
Ebooks
Ebooks, although more expensive to produce, can also be used to provide more specific and detailed information about our company and our services.
BOFU Contents
BOFU content is the "bottom of the funnel" content, it is the most transactional content and is designed for users who are in the decision-action phases of the sales funnel.
These are the most commonly used BOFU content formats:
Success stories
Social proof is one of the most powerful psychological sales triggers. If a product has pleased many customers, why not me?
We can talk about how our products have changed the lives of the people who have used them. This always works very well for information products, such as courses, postgraduate programs, and training in general.
Customer reviews
Customer reviews are similar to success stories, except they don't tell the "whole" customer story. Once again, we use social proof as a mental trigger for sales.
Webinars
This type of content is useful for explaining how a product works, as well as building user confidence by seeing a real-life "face" working for that company.
What to consider when creating an effective sales funnel?
Every company, sector, and niche is unique, but we can discuss certain general considerations to keep in mind when implementing an effective sales funnel.
Know your client
As we discussed in the advantages of sales funnels, the first step is to know your ideal customer very well. If you're not clear about who you're targeting, the sales funnel won't be effective .
Keep in mind the states of consciousness and the phases of the sales funnel
Deliver the right content for the right state of consciousness and phase : Reaching a cold user with transactional content won't do any good, nor will offering generic information to a user eager to buy.
Think about your landing page
You need to build trust with your user, so the first impression your landing page makes is a deciding factor .
The first thing you should think about is what that landing page will be: home page? Sales page? Product collection?…
Second, what's your goal with that landing page? Is it to get the user to subscribe? Download a document? Discover branded content?
Email marketing
It's often said that email marketing is dead, but the truth is that it's a channel that still works.
Don't miss out on the opportunities email marketing offers beyond the classic weekly newsletter: you can organize campaigns with an email sequence , develop branding, showcase success stories—you name it.
Measure what happens in your sales funnel
Don't stop sharpening your sales funnel. Measure every action that occurs in it to identify opportunities for improvement and optimization.
And when you're done, measure everything again.
Do you need a sales funnel for your online business?
At our digital marketing agency, we can help you create a sales funnel to attract, educate, and convert strangers into loyal customers.
