If you’re looking to increase your online sales, you need to understand what is funnel building and how it can help you. A sales funnel is the process of taking a potential customer from awareness of your product or service, through interest and decision, all the way to purchase. Building an effective sales funnel can be essential for any business that wants to succeed online.

In this guide, we’ll tell you what is funnel building, and discuss all that is involved in building a successful sales funnel. We’ll cover topics such as identifying your target audience, creating compelling content, and using effective lead capture techniques.

What Is Funnel Building?

A funnel is a process that leads potential customers through a series of steps in order to purchase a product or service. The steps may include awareness, interest, decision, and action.

Funnel building is the process of creating a series of steps, usually, through marketing and sales activities, that will move potential customers towards becoming paying customers.

Building a sales funnel takes time and effort.

But it’s a necessary evil in today’s competitive environment.

A seemingly small change like the font you use can have a big impact on your conversion rates. And asking someone to purchase from you too soon can scare them off.

Take the time to build your funnels out. Figure out what your target audience wants and needs, and cultivate your funnel accordingly. Adjust your approach as you progress through the different sales funnel stages, and figure out why your methods aren’t working for you.

Sales Funnel Explained

The sales funnel is every step that a prospect has to go through to become a customer.

Let’s compare a real-world funnel to a digital marketing concept.

The top of the marketing funnel is people walking by your business. A certain percentage will walk into your shop, which is at the bottom of the sales pipeline.

A shopper is browsing through a clothing sale. He or she is now at the next stage in the sales funnel.

The prospect has successfully navigated through the funnel and is at the checkout page.

If all goes well, then your customer will reach the end of the sales funnel.

Every business has a sales process, and yours is no different. Your funnel could be as simple as:

A sales pipeline is the process a business uses to convert leads into customers. The sales process usually begins with marketing tactics that attract people’s attention. From there, interested individuals learn about your product or service. Ultimately, they purchase from you.

Any marketing strategy can be a part of your overall sales strategy. And your sales process might span across several strategies.

Each stage of the funnel has an effect on consumer behavior. You need to understand them.

By understanding each part of the sales process, you can implement strategies to increase the number of steps a prospect goes through.

This can have a huge effect on your revenue.

If you increase the number of contacts in your pipeline by 2, you will increase both your number of qualified sales opportunities as well as your overall close rate.

That’s 4 times as many customers as you’d get from just 1 customer.

Understanding your sales process and funnel is one of the most important things to understand when running a business.

The Importance of a Sales Funnel

Your sales funnel is the path that your prospects follow.

Knowing your sales funnel can help you identify where your prospects are dropping off.

If you want your sales funnels to work effectively, you need to understand how they work. We will go into this in more detail below, but broadly speaking, you can influence the flow and conversion rates of your prospects through the funnels.

How A Sales Funnel Works

We’re going to briefly explain the most common funnel stage names, including visitor, prospect, lead, and buyer.

A potential client or customer has landed on your site after finding you through a Google or social search.

The visitor might check out a few of your blog posts or browse your product listings. If they’re interested in what they see, you can offer them the chance to sign up for your email list. This way, you can stay in touch and continue marketing to them outside of your website.

If the prospect completes your contact form, he or she becomes your “lead.” You can now contact the prospect via other channels, such as email, telephone, or text message — or all three of them.

When you reach out to your lead list with offers or news about new content, they are much more likely to return to your site. You can also use a discount code as an incentive to bring them back.

As your prospects move through your sales process, your number of potential sales will decrease. This is because there are more people at the top of your marketing process than there are at the end. Your message will also need to be more specific as you continue through the buying process.

The 4 Stages of a Sales Funnel

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The AIDA model, which stands for awareness, interest, decision, and action, is a simple way to remember the four sales funnel stages.

As a marketing professional, it’s your job to know which stage of the funnel your prospect is in so that you can deliver the appropriate messaging. It’s like a waiter asking what dessert you want before you’ve even had your appetizer. You need to make sure that you aren’t giving your prospects the wrong impression, otherwise, you risk them losing interest in you.

Let’s take a look at each step in the sales funnel.

Awareness 

This is the moment when consumers first notice you. It could be through Twitter, Facebook, or Google. This is your chance to make a great first impression.

Your prospect is informed about your business and what you offer.

When the timing is right, some customers will buy right away. It’s usually when the customer is in the right frame of mind and is in the right place.

The prospect already knows what you’re selling and is interested enough in your product to want more information.

The Awareness Stage is more about building a relationship than selling. You want to be informative, but not too sales-y. You want to pique their interest so they’ll come back to you for more.

Interest 

When consumers are still in the “research” phase of the sales process, they are probably still considering their options. This is the best time to send them helpful information, not pushy, hard-sell tactics.

Consumers like to feel like they’re in control of the situation. If you push a product on them right away, they’ll likely feel pressured and uncomfortable. Instead of pushing, establish your authority and expertise. Help them make informed decisions, and they’ll be much more likely to buy.

The Decision Stage 

The Decision Stage of the Sales Funnel is when a customer is getting ready to make a purchase. Hopefully, he or she will be choosing you!

Now is the time to make your strongest pitch. You can include a discount, bonus, or free gift when most of your competitors charge. By offering your best price now, you can increase the chance that your customer chooses you over your competitors.

Your product or service should be so valuable to your prospect that they can’t wait to hear from you. Make sure it’s something that solves their issue and is of genuine value.

The Action Stage

At the end of the funnel, it’s time to close the deal. This is the point where your customer becomes part of your customer base.

Just because a consumer has reached the end stage of the sales process, that doesn’t mean your work is done. It’s up to them and the salesperson to finalize the deal.

You want to make as many sales as possible from one customer.

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Sales Funnel Building Process

Now that you’re pumped, it’s time to create a funnel.

Sending a call straight to your prospect’s phone doesn’t have to be as complicated as you might think.

Step 1: Analyzing Your Audience Behavior

The more you understand your target audience, the more effectively your funnel will be. You’re not going to market to every single person.

Your ideal customers are people who would be a good fit to buy what you offer.

Where do they click on your site? When do they scroll?

All of these metrics can help you refine the buyer persona of your ideal customer.

Step 2: Grab the audience’s attention

Your sales funnel will only function if you’re able to draw people into it with the right kind of marketing. This means putting the appropriate kind of information in front of the right person.

Posting lots of different types of content on all of your social media platforms is a great way to engage your followers. However, don’t post just any content. Instead, make sure you’re posting a variety of things like videos and graphics.

Running advertisements is a great way to get in front of your audience. However, it’s important to know where to place those ads for the best results.

For businesses looking to sell to other businesses, advertising on LinkedIn could be the way to go.

Step 3: Create a landing page

Your ads and other marketing material are designed to drive your leads to a specific destination – a well-designed, high-converting page. By offering something of value upfront, you increase the chances of them staying on the page and converting it into a sale.

Focus on collecting contact information from your prospects, rather than trying to close a sale.

A website’s landing pages should guide visitors toward taking the next action.

In order to achieve your goals, you need to give your prospects a clear, strong call to action that tells them exactly what to do. Whether it’s to download an e-book or watch an instructional video, taking this next step will help you achieve those goals!

Step 4: Start email drip campaigns

Send out emails to your leads to provide them with awesome, valuable, and relevant content. Do this on a regular basis, but not too often.

Sending one or two email blasts a week should be enough.

How can you help your prospects? What do your customers want to learn about? How can you educate them?

What pain points do you face when convincing customers to purchase your products?

Your final email in your automated lead nurturing sequence should end with a strong call to action.

Step 5: Stay in touch with your customers

Don’t forget about reaching out to your loyal, existing customers. Keep in touch with them.

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Sales Funnel Optimization

Optimizing your funnels involves focusing on how customers move from one step to another.

Don’t just rely on one Facebook Ad.

Create 10 or 20 similar Facebook ads, but target them to different groups of buyers.

AB Test your landing page. It takes time and effort, but you’ll be reaching more potential customers and converting more leads into sales.

You can A/B split-test your emails to see which types of language and images, as well as what offer and layout, your subscribers respond to. This can help you optimize your funnel.

To get the most out of your funnel, you need to pay attention to your results.

Start at the top of the marketing funnel. You’re creating free and paid content to encourage people to visit your site and to click on the call-to-action.

If your content isn’t working, try something else.

Your landing pages are the key to getting the most out of your ads. Make sure your ad copy and your call to action match the content on your landing page. This will ensure your conversion rates are higher and your lead flow is steady.

Try testing your headlines, your body text, your images, and your call to action to see what works best for you.

When you ask your contacts in the action stage of your sales funnel to purchase from you, A/B Test your offers. Does offering free shipping on your products work better than a 5% discount on them?

These little things can make a huge difference in your revenue.

Finally, track your customer retention rate. Do customers come back to buy from you a second time, a fifth, and a twenty-fifth?

Do they refer their friends?

Your goal is to always provide value. If you consistently deliver on your promises, then your customers won’t feel the need to go elsewhere.

Conclusion

What is funnel building? Funnel building is the process of creating a series of steps, usually, through marketing and sales activities, that will move potential customers towards becoming paying customers. This guide has shown you everything you need to know about what is involved in building a successful sales funnel. By identifying your target customers, creating compelling content, and using effective lead capture techniques, you can set your business up for success.