You’ve built your very first online sales funnel.
You’re running traffic, getting leads, and maybe even a sale or two.
First off, congrats on making it this far (most people don’t)!
But you’re probably still a long way from firing your boss and retiring to your beach home.
So what can you do next to get more results from your sales funnel?
This blog post from Digital Marketing Expert Neil Patel breaks down how to build what he calls a “Conversion Funnel” that could triple your profits.
It’s a great read for advanced marketers and established business owners to get more out of their marketing.
If you want to learn the basic strategies and some simple ways to implement them into your sales funnel, then keep reading.
Here’s how to supercharge your sales funnel for more results (even as a newbie)!
Basic Structure of a Sales Funnel
As Neil explains in his article, most sales funnels are built around the AIDA model.
- Attention
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
It’s well-known in the marketing industry and a reliable way to move people through your funnel.
Here’s what that might look like in a Facebook Ad:
Attention
Eye-catching creatives and Effective headlines designed to get people to stop scrolling and look at your ad.
Interest & Desire
Neil rolls these two phases into one. This is where your ad copy would come into play, speaking to the problem your prospect is facing and how you can help them in order to build their interest and desire for what you have to offer.
Action
This is your Call To Action, which leads them to the next step in your funnel. For example, “Click here to download my free e-book”.
This process would repeat on the opt-in page:
Headline to anchor their attention, bullets to drive home benefits and build interest and desire, followed by a call to action.
And on and on through the funnel until they eventually purchase.
However, a sales funnel is a sales funnel because people will inevitably fall off at each transition and point of action.
To identify where people are falling off or continuing through the funnel, we can divide it into 3 sections:
Top of funnel
These are people who are just becoming aware of your brand.
For example, people who have seen your ad and possibly clicked to your landing page.
Middle of funnel
These are people who have shown some interest in what you have to offer but haven’t made a real commitment.
Often people spend a considerable amount of time at this stage before moving on.
For example, people who have opted into your email list, but haven’t taken the time to sit through a webinar or watch a VSL.
Bottom of funnel
These are people who have expressed an intent to take action, but maybe haven’t done so yet.
These are your hottest leads who are most likely to buy.
For example; These people have clicked on your email, watched your webinar or VSL and maybe even visited the landing page.
Understanding where people are in your funnel gives you the insight you need to help move them along towards a buying decision.
Here’s what you can do to help them take action so you can make the most of your efforts.
Include Follow-Up in your Funnel
If you have people in your funnel, then you already have their attention, and you’ve built some interest and desire.
But people can be hesitant to take action and buy right away.
It often takes multiple exposures and a certain amount of trust and rapport before they’re ready to pull the trigger.
Don’t let your hard work go to waste.
Nurture people at each stage of your funnel until they are ready to act.
Here are a few ways to do so:
Email should already be a core component of your sales funnel.
Use email to stay in touch, provide value, and continue to share your offer with leads.
Try creating segments to cater your message for people at each stage of your funnel.
And don’t forget to collect info (like first names) and use it to customize your email for a more personal touch.
Here are a few more tips to help make your email marketing more effective:
Content
Publishing content, like blog posts and YouTube videos, is another great way to nurture your leads.
It may not be as personal as an email, but these formats let you teach and give greater value with longer content.
That way you build the trust you need to move people through your funnel.
Plus video allows them to see you and hear your voice, which makes you a real person instead of a random person behind a keyboard.
Retargeting ads
Another way to follow up is through retargeting ads!
This is most helpful for people who have made it to the bottom of your funnel and just need that extra nudge to buy.
Once you’ve gotten a lead into your funnel, use retargeting ads to get your offer in front of them again and push them over the edge.
Keep Customers
Here are a few eye-popping stats from Neil’s article that may shift the way you look at your buyers:
- Acquiring new customers can cost up to 30 times more than retaining customers.
- Your existing customers are, roughly, 50 percent more likely to try your new products.
- 40 percent of sales, on average, can be attributed to repeating customers.
That means that people who have already bought from you are in some ways more valuable than new customers!
That doesn’t mean you can stop prospecting and attracting new leads…
But you do want to maximize your earning from the buyers you already have.
Here are a few ways to keep your customers around:
Exclusive emails
Try segmenting buyers off of your main email list in order to have an exclusive conversation with them.
You can provide valuable content, discounts, and updates that aren’t available to everyone else.
Inner circle
Try inviting buyers into an exclusive community. This helps your relationship to grow and makes them feel special for the action they’ve taken.
Creating a Facebook group is an easy way to create this sense of community.
You can also offer extra training, content, go-lives, and greater access to you to provide value while building even greater rapport.
Employing these strategies helps you keep your best buyers around and open to buying from you again.
Then you can deploy these strategies to maximize what you earn from each customer.
Cross-Sell
This is a simple well known but effective strategy that anyone who has worked in retail is familiar with.
Once someone buys from you, present them with a different offer that may help them in a different way, or complement the product or service they already purchased from you.
Upsell
This is another common strategy:
Bring in new buyers with a lower cost offer.
Since they are already a buyer and more likely to purchase from you, send them a higher-ticket offer that goes above and beyond to solve their problem.
Even if they don’t buy right away, you can continue to build the relationship and re-offer it later on.
By nurturing your customers and continuing to send them offers, you can increase the amount you make from each one while you continue to bring in new ones.
Grow your Customer Base
As your customer base grows, you can leverage these relationships to help acquire new buyers more easily.
According to Robert Cialdini, Author of the book Influence explains that “we determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct”.
He calls this “The Principle of Social Proof”, and you can use this principle in your business.
Here are a few strategies to try:
Collect testimonials
Did you know that 72 percent of customers won’t make a purchase until they’ve read some reviews?
Seeing other people achieve the desired result with your offer will help convince people that buying is the correct choice.
Give those customers the reassurance they need to take the final step by adding some testimonials to your page.
You can either just ask customers for reviews, or you can take a look at your existing reviews on websites like Facebook and LinkedIn and ask for permission to share them in your content.
Create case studies
Case studies take testimonials to the next level.
A case study will dive deeper into your client’s stories and paint a clear picture of how your brand or offer solved their problem and changed their life for the better.
You may want to interview your buyers who have gotten the desired result and document their stories.
Then, organize it into a piece of content and distribute it to leads to help move them towards a buying decision.
Check out this blog post from Hubspot on how to write a case study:
Use testimonials and case studies to leverage the Principle of Social Proof to grow your business.
Conclusion
Getting your first sales funnel up and running and getting your first results is a huge milestone.
Using the tips in this article can help you make the most of your marketing and increase your profits.
Even though some people don’t buy right away, you still have an opportunity to capture their business based on where they’re at in your funnel.
Follow up and nurture leads via email, content, and retargeting ads to help convince them to buy.
Your best buyers are people who’ve bought from you before. Continue to build the relationship and provide them opportunities to buy new offers from you.
Then, leverage positive experiences from your customers to show your prospects and leads what’s in store when they buy from you.
Use these tips to supercharge your sales funnel and increase your profits!
Are there any other challenges that you could use some tips and tools for?
Drop a comment to let us know what you’d like to learn.
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