The digital marketing world has a lot of things to take note of and you might have encountered the term sales funnel once or twice. So, what is it really and why is it so important for an e-commerce business to have one?
What is a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel is the potential journey your customers go through on the way to purchase. There are several sections of the sales funnel usually referred to as the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel; but this may vary between sales strategies.
Imagine an actual funnel, where you place cold leads at the top and warm leads at the bottom. It’s your job when building this sales funnel to build effective strategies for each stage of the funnel to keep regenerating new customers.
Why is it important to have a Sales Funnel in place?
Will you sell a product right away to a stranger? More than likely not.
Some may say yes, but in the digital marketing world, that is a recipe for DISASTER! There are best-kept industry secrets that will help you sell more and continue to do so. Luckily for you, we’re here to spill the beans.
A graph of your sales funnel will help you visualize what step on the customer journey you are in, and what actions in your strategy you need to take to ensure you take a customer with you to the next step in the funnel.
TIP: Before we can fully comprehend how important a sales funnel is, we need to understand the buyer’s journey and how it affects the whole sales funnel and process.
What are the stages of a Sales Funnel?
- Top of Funnel (Brand Awareness)
What do you think about when you hear the words Brand Awareness?
How come in online advertising we keep making the same mistakes over and over, trying to sell to our potential customers at the very first chance we get?
Getting a sale is pretty simple, however building a loyal customer base that actually LOVES buying from you and refers you to their friends? This takes a relationship and building this relationship starts at the top with brand awareness.
The potential customer or buyer needs to know who you are and what you or your products can do to help solve their problems. So how do we do that? By getting our brands out there and making these people see who we are and we have these products or services that can help them out.
TIP: In this stage, your target audience is in the initial research stage. Introduce your brand to them and show them that your product will solve a problem they have or need they desire.
- Middle of Funnel (Education)
Now you have your potential customers in the middle of your sales funnel, and they now have an insight into what you do and what your product is, you need to show them HOW you can help them or solve their problems.
What do you do next? EDUCATE.
Remember, these potential customers have just heard about you or have just seen your business. You want to lure them further into the funnel by showing them how effective and awesome your product is.
Using video ads that show how your products work, show their features or advantages will be effective at this stage. The customer at this point is full-on researching and absorbing information about you and your competitors as well, so you want to hook them right away.
TIP: At this stage of the funnel, short-form video or moving image content works best to pique the interest of your target audience while also showing them what they want to see.
- Bottom of Funnel (Conversion)
The most important and exciting part of the funnel is here, yes, sales!
This is where the potential customers we have nurtured from the top of the funnel, through the middle of the funnel and now at the bottom; will finally settle on a decision. In this stage of the funnel don’t think about educating your potential customer some more. Your potential customer has learned everything they want from you in the middle of the funnel and will now decide whether to buy from you or your competitor.
This stage of the funnel can be the most competitive as this is where we implement a remarketing strategy. At the top of the funnel, your potential customer is introduced to you, in the middle, they are in their research stage and learning more about you through your ads and through your website. This is where you can use the data you have collected about them through your website to show them the products they added to the cart but did not buy, or the products they viewed on your website.
TIP: This is where you remarket to potential customers that show interest in your products or intent for your service.
The Sales funnel for E-commerce businesses is what is going to help set up a strategy that will keep generating sales. If you keep creating strategies for each section of the sales funnel then you will always have potential customers to remarket to.
Want to hear more about effective strategies for every part of the Sales Funnel to make your business a money-making machine? Watch the Marketing Ear Biscuits Podcast:
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