What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is the mental model of the journey you want to guide someone through to turn them from a visitor into a lead, and ultimately a paying customer. The sales funnel holds true no matter what medium you use. You could apply this model to your website, your social media channel, offline marketing strategy, or a mix of those.
In the video below, Shankar Poncelet explains what a sales funnel for a public speaking club (Toastmasters) could look like.
How many phases are in a sales funnel?
Advanced sales funnels have a multitude of phases. The most basic one, however, can be divided up into the following:
What happens in the Awareness Phase?
In the first phase of the funnel, we want to expose as many people to our website as possible. We want them to become aware of what we are offering by directing traffic to our website using as many sources as possible. These mediums include social media, pay-per-click, YouTube, offline ads, business cards, and many more.
Make sure you track the performance of each referral source so you can decide how to allocate your marketing budget.
Very important: It is imperative to use advanced tracking techniques, aka pixeling, to mark your website visitors.
What happens in the Consideration Phase?
In the second phase of the funnel, we aim to expose the marked audience with high-quality content that is relevant and helpful to them. We turn them into interested followers/fans who enjoy what we post and start engaging with us online.
Important: It’s of utmost importance to not spam our audience with ongoing commercials. It’s okay to ask for their business, but in moderation. We want to give nine times before we ask once.
What happens in the Conversion Phase?
In the conversion phase, we turn a follower into a customer. It’s extremely important to understand that this phase needs to be facilitated by a seasoned marketer. We see too many companies spend a lot of money on leads, only to let inexperienced marketers chase them aways.
Remember: As long as you keep a conversation going, you have the potential to win a lead over. Always make sure to end a dialogue on a positive note, even if the outcome is not the one you aimed for.
What happens in the Retention Phase?
In this final and ongoing phase of the sales funnel, we take good care of our existing customers. We listen to them, show them our appreciation, and keep helping them if they need us.
Pro tip: It’s easy and affordable to grow your business on referrals you get from a happy, existing customer base