The concept of a Sales Funnel is not new, in fact, it has been used by many companies for a long time as a way to drill down and find the most qualified prospects who will buy products or services. But how does this apply to internet marketing?
First we will review the sales funnel itself then show how you can use it to further monetise your website or blog.
The Sales Funnel Metaphor
Think of the shape of a funnel, it is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. This helps give a visual to the online sales process. Starting at the wide top, numerous unqualified prospects are just waiting to enter the funnel.
These are people who might be willing to buy your product or service, but do not necessarily have a reason to do so. They may be perfectly happy with their current supplier, or perhaps they simply have no need for additional product. Maybe they’re already getting a great deal, or think they can’t afford your prices.
As you communicate with these prospects, you will get a clearer picture of whether or not they will convert to a customer. Each time you contact them, you learn their resistance points and how to overcome them. At this point you are working your way down the funnel. The prospects are decreasing in number, but they are now better qualified.
At the narrow bottom of the funnel are those people who make a commitment to place an order. These customers accept delivery of the product, then pay for it, finally taking their place at the funnel’s very bottom.
The Sales Funnel As A Tool
Obviously the Sales Funnel is really no more than a concept. It will only be successful as a tool for your business if you put it to work. Start by taking a look at where your current customers are coming from, what pages they are landing on, and where they are upon leaving your site. The idea is to think about how you can take those visitors at the top – unqualified prospects – and guide them down to the bottom of the virtual funnel.
With an online business, this is actually easier than traditional methods of selling. You can use the right keywords and advertising campaigns to start with a more qualified group at the top of your funnel. Your landing pages are a sales tool, make sure that they incite visitors to stay and look around, or perform some sort of action that will likely result in a sale. Remember that the entire process from first click to purchase should be guided. Try going through a sale yourself and determine if it is both compelling and easy for a brand new visitor to buy.
When you’ve got your visitors to move down the funnel, next think about how you can get them back again and again. It’s a good idea to urge them to create an account and opt-in to future email communication. This way you can establish a relationship and ensure your company stays at the forefront of their thoughts. Autoresponders are a great way to automate communication tasks. Make sure that everyone who signs up at your site receives an email in response. If they place an order, an auto responder can send a thank you message, too.
The quicker and easier you can move prospects from the top of the funnel to the narrow bottom, the greater your conversion rate – and the more you can increase your bottom line. Many old marketing tools and techniques are now archaic but the Sales Funnel concept is definitely something that you can still use today as part of your internet marketing program.
About Sean Rasmussen
First of all, when you are dealing with a sales funnel, the first thing you have to do is qualify people for the sales funnel in the first place. This can be a bit difficult, and once you have them in the sales funnel, you’ll be putting out a lot of effort into turning those people into sales. You don’t want to waste all of your efforts, so it is important that you take some time and make sure that you only put great prospects into the sales funnel. Of course you don’t want to throw away good prospects either. So, this can be quite a task that is very important. Do the right thing with your sales funnel and you’ll make huge sales, but doing it wrong can really cost you in the long run.Nice informative post.
I’ve been thinking, who’s this clever dude or chick who came up with the term “sales funnel” that’s now used globally? There’s a suggestion that Chet Holmes did, in his book “The Ultimate Sales Machine”, but I don’t know if that’s right. Well, if anyone knows, please let this way-too-curious IM’er know
Not sure on that one Lina, even Wikipedia won’t tell me
Hi Sean,
I haven’t heard of the sales funnel before. It really clarifies the sales process. I’m thinking that the more targeted traffic you get to your site means the more customers that you will have at the end.
It also means I’m going to have to think about the best way to guide my customers through the process to make a sale. I think that every post I write must be written to entice the reader to click somewhere else and move further along the sales process. I really haven’t looked at it this way before.