In this post we will see step by step the most important aspects of a sales funnel for today’s digital marketing.

The sales funnel or marketing funnel is the means that allows you to establish the path that your prospect (Buyer Persona) must travel from the first time he enters as a visitor to your website, to complete the Purchases process (buyer journey) and becomes your customer. In short, establishing this process is your first goal to boost your digital marketing campaign.

It is called sales funnel because as the visitor or user advances through each stage, it becomes narrower and narrower and therefore the number of prospects decreases as it progresses from one stage to another.

According to studies conducted by MarketingSherpa in 2012 “68% of companies have not yet identified their sales funnel before starting a campaign, and 79% of marketers have not established a rating for their contacts.

Importance of sales funnels

But that’s right, because the main mistake most digital marketing agencies make lies in starting a campaign to promote a product or service. They are not clear about the main objective and the purchase process that visitors should experience on the web.

When an agency believes that the main objective is to increase the sales of a client, but starts a campaign without having a strategy that is based on a sales funnel, it is the same as a baseball player trying to go to the plate to bat blindfolded, the result will simply be a resounding failure, both for him and for the team he represents. It’s exactly the same thing that happened to your agency.

While it is true that not all visitors who come to your website will become customers, if you do not have a well-designed sales funnel, it is possible that few or none do.

A visitor typically needs multiple business impacts before they can make a purchase decision. For this reason it is necessary to have planned a sales funnel with the appropriate content for each phase.

Today direct sales are almost non-existent. We can say that the only exception is impulsive sales strategies of basic necessities. The purchase process requires an initial attraction phase to gain the visitor’s trust. Also a phase of attention and relationship so as not to lose the trust you have gained.

What do I need to create a successful sales funnel?

Creating successful sales funnels is no easy task. To obtain good results, the first thing is to know well your buyer persona or ideal client, what are their needs, ailments, problems and frustrations. Having identified the ailments, needs, frustrations and feelings of your buyer persona you can find many more points of connection and approach, to be able to communicate more efficiently and effectively, why the offer that you are presenting will end your ailment and will solve your need.

It is likely that the term Sales funnel may seem confusing and even unnecessary to implement in your digital marketing strategy. But the truth is that it is one of the most determining processes to achieve a (ROI) Return on Investment and obtain new customers with a really successful sales method.

Now, although it is one of the most important issues to achieve the objectives of a marketing campaign, it is not so easy to outline.

For that reason, the architect, successful sales funnel and expert in Digital Marketing advice Eng. Rocky Ibañez explains in a simple way how to create an effective purchasing process for your brand by manufacturing sales funnels.

Where does the sales funnel originate?

• The Funnels have their origin in the AIDA model, an acronym that is attributed to the American publicist Elias St. Elmo Lewis in the late nineteenth century. whose acronym means: Attraction, Interest, Desire and Action.

With the evolution of marketing and the rise of technology gave way to the sales funnel that today is the most used for marketing strategies.

that where you work?

What sector does this company work in?

Is it a Large Company or an SME or what size is it?

How much do you bill annually?

How many workers do you have?

Role:

• What is your role in the company?
• What position do you hold in the company?
• How can your role/position be measured?
• What does a normal day look like for him at the company?
• What skills do you have or need?
• What software and tools do you use in your day-to-day life?

Professional objectives:

• What are the responsibilities of the position you hold?
• How can your success be measured?

Challenges:

• What are the biggest challenges of your life?

Sources of information:

• How do you gain new knowledge to improve your work?
• What publication titles do you like and what magazines do you read?
• What pages do you visit on the internet, which blog do you read?
• Clubs, social media groups you belong to?

Shopping preferences:

• What means do you use to interact with your salespeople? (The web, phone, in person)
• Do you research in internet search engines? How does he do it? How often?

Step 2.

Now, you must determine how you are going to investigate your buyer personas and how you are going to get the answers to the questions you asked.

The closest option is to interview customers who are currently in the company’s portfolio. You can do individual interviews, virtual surveys or group meetings through video conferences. It could also be valuable with a simple phone interview. You can ask for support from the commercial department of the company or brand.

Another option is digital tools, which help us extract additional information. For example, what content on social networks they use, which group they are members of on facebook etc. You can also rely on the customer database. Make a list of customers that you can analyze to get to know your future contacts better.

Never discriminate in an interview

Don’t discriminate when interviewing customers on the list. Whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied customers you must make the same effort to get the data you need. In this way, you can see both sides of the coin when creating your buyer persona.

The advantage of talking to current customers is that we don’t have to give them anything in return for the information provided. Customers like you to listen to them, so doing the interview gives you the opportunity to get to know them in detail. At the same time, you motivate them to become ambassadors for your brand. In the case that it is a new brand that has no customers, it uses, real hypotheses. Use logic and you can adjust your buyer persona as you make new customers.

If you could interview your competitors’ customers, you would get valuable data to create your avatar. You can also ask experts and influencers to recommend someone to interview. Search in social media groups that have reference with your product or service and launch a trivia so you can receive much more information to help you.

. In addition, you get a database of customers really interested in your proposals.

Use social media

• Social networks are nowadays a must for any digital marketing campaign.

• Just allowing communication between people on the internet offers better opportunities than ever to share your content with everyone. It’s perfect to start there to find your audience.

• You can create a profile of the company and your own. You can share your messages and content so that that buyer persona you created can contact you, get to know you and discover all the solutions you have for their problems.

• Social networks also allow you to publicize your brand and humanize it. They also allow you to add value to all those people who are looking for your product or service.

Get reach with paid guidelines

• At the beginning of your campaign you can also use the paid pattern of your content so that you can enter the market with a little imposition or reach. In the end the idea is to have an initial presence so they can get to know you. The work of blogging will surely give results but at the beginning to guide your messages is very useful.

Conversion phase.

The conversion phase is the stage of the conversion sales funnel or contacts also known as Leads or prospects. These are the users who show interest in your product or service and fill out the forms with their data.

At this stage the sales funnel becomes narrower and is where you must increase your efforts, because it is precisely here where you define which are the visitors who can continue advancing in your funnel and will become customers and which will not.

If you have directed your campaign to your buyer persona and the focus of your content is correct, you will see that the conversions you will have will be satisfactory.

Encourage them to keep up with the news and improvements that arise from your services or products. We can do surveys to know the satisfaction with your product. If you are satisfied, we proceed to make you an ambassador of our brand.

The advantages generated by sales funnels.

• We get contacts that are interested and that are related to the proposal of our products or services.
• Save time and effort for the marketing team and the sales team. Sales funnels are aimed only at users who really have a need that the brand can cover.
• The database is constantly increasing as the flow of users is permanent.
• Once you have your sales funnels manufactured and running, they work for you 24/7, 365 days a year. Then you can dedicate your marketing team to attend to other areas. In fact, even when you’re on vacation your sales funnel keeps working for you.
• The buyer journey your prospect will go through when your funnel is well set up will be an enjoyable and satisfying experience. Prospects need what you offer and you get what you want.
• Because in their progress through the sales funnels, prospects get what they need and feel satisfied with what they buy they will not have remorse that customers normally feel when making a purchase without satisfaction experience which makes them satisfied customers ambassadors of your brand.

Can you create sales funnels for ecommerce?

The answer is yes, ecommerce funnels work perfectly. The ecommerce sales funnels  are very important, knowing how to create the successful process of it, needs, dedication that allows you to optimize resources to the maximum and capture the target audience.

The ultimate goal is to get prospects to the purchase decision. To improve the sales funnel, you need to apply the necessary effort to treat each level of the funnel professionally and use automation techniques.

The phases of the sales funnels for ecommerce are three to know are: TOFU (Top Funnel) or upper part of the funnel. MOFU (Middle funnel) or middle of the funnel and BOFU (Button funnel) final part of the funnel.

TOFU

In this part of the funnel are people who, despite having information about a product or service, do not express any intention to buy, so try to capture their interest with valuable content that can attract their attention even more.

MOFU

In it are the users who have been interested in the products of the ecommerce. Here the conversion provided by your personal data is sought. This phase is important because if you are able to leave your personal data it is because you have an ailment and have seen some opportunity to solve with your content.

One of the most important aspects is that you can retarget, implement nutrition campaigns and content with special promotions for those who have reached that phase of trust.

BOFU

They are the users who have reached the last phase of purchase in an eCommerce. This is when the prospect makes the decision to buy. To do this, you must create content focused on promotions and offers with automation.

Use final Call To Action and sales techniques such as despair technique. For example, “Take advantage of this offer that will run out in 48 hours.” Also don’t forget to use reminders.

Some tips for manufacturing your sales funnel for ecommerce.

• Be clear about your target audience and what demands can be met to improve the ecommerce sales funnel.

• Post your content and use social networks by being active at all times. Generate a whole community interacting with your brand.

• The words discount, coupon or offer are attractive. Who doesn’t like receiving a rebate or offer? Undoubtedly, this will be a strategy that will make more people come to visit your virtual store.

• Create manuals, eBook, webinars or videos. You should explain how to solve the prospect problem in relation to your product or service.

• It is important that you do not forget about CTAs (Call To Action). Make them look irresistible on items and direct them to a landing page, which takes them to the store.

• Review the process of buying your products. Perform an analysis of your website traffic. Crafting a good SEO strategy ensures that users end up clicking on your website when using search engines on google for example.

• Depending on the type of ecommerce, the sales funnel for ecommerce requires actions of different kinds with different elements. To do this, you have to know the purchase process clearly.

• Analyze your ecommerce traffic. The weekly sales analysis will give you the behavior and evolution of the direction that ecommerce is taking with respect to the objectives set.

Do you want more tips to build your sales funnel for ecommerce?

• Create metrics with analytics on a weekly basis. It will help you to keep the business aware of all the most important necessary information that will guide the channeling of new sales opportunities. Also of what you have managed to sell in the last week. This makes it possible to more effectively target your target audience.

• Having a metrics dashboard for ecommerce will optimize your strategy as a company.

• Don’t forget about SEO. It is important the positioning in front of the search engines of the web. This is present in the three phases of your sales funnel for ecommerce. The blogging strategy is the best weapon to make an organic positioning within your marketing strategy.

If you want to scale your business effectively and permanently, start planning your sales funnel strategy. Become the company with the most authority, and relevance within your niche.

Do you want to know what is the marketing tool for sales funnels? Try CLIENTIFY.

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