Part 1: Attract & Build Awareness Around Your Brand
You’ve heard the term “sales funnel” thrown around a lot lately, but what does it really mean? This article is going to break down everything you need to know about sales funnels and how they can help your business generate more revenue.
What is a Sales Funnel?
The Sales Funnel is a visual blueprint of the steps your prospective customer goes through when they make a purchase. Your prospect’s journey begins with an introduction to your brand via your signature content online, followed by education about your programs or services, and then engagement that leads to demonstration, decision and finally conversion into a sale.
Who Do You Attract to Your Sales Funnel?
The target market shapes the sales funnel. In order to successfully attract a market, you need to know who frequents your business and what their beliefs are. You will then design a message that continues to convey these qualities and values beyond your product or service. Without developing a group of followers with similar ideals, you will find it difficult to implement any marketing plan at all. This is because they are likely to hesitate when hearing new information if it goes against previous standards they have set or beliefs they hold central in this worldview.
The Quick & Easy Customer Avatar Targeting Worksheet
This customer avatar worksheet is a step-by-step guide to help you create your own customer profile. It takes as little as five minutes and can be done in one sitting, but feel free to revisit this exercise at any time before starting the customer journey map!
The customer journey is the most important aspect of your business because without a customer there is no point in running a company! Your customer should always come first before anything else. The customer needs to feel like they are being reached for as well as cared about.
The great thing about this worksheet is it gives you clarity on your target market. Once you have it, customer journeys will be easier to map out.
Download my free lead magnet about discovering your customer avatar. You can download it by clicking the image below.
Why Do You Need to Attract Traffic to Your Sales Funnel?
To make any sales you are going to need traffic to your website. The visitors that come into your sales funnel can be persuaded by content, copy and social media ads to buy, but they will not come in of their own accord. You attract them through all the methods listed above – articles, websites, podcasts, videos, and social media via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and then lead magnets for download – which can be a high-value free PDF that your prospect download in exchange for giving their email. Once you have made enough contacts with people interested in what you do then a small percentage will become customers -it will take multiple touchpoints through your funnel. It is important that once a visitor enters the sales funnel he/she has every reason to stick around “on page” so as not to get distracted and leave.
How Do You Attract People to Your Sales Funnel?
The easiest way to get people to your sales funnel is by giving them good quality content for free – I call it your Signature Content that reflects your mission, your world views as well as educational tools and tips you can provide your audience on an ongoing basis. This stage is called the awareness stage. People who need you gonna discover you and you will lead them to your services in a way that feels good to them and to you. This is when you used your organic content-free post, article, podcast, videos – that you can amplify with ads to create audiences of your ideal future customers.
Listen to the Podcast Version
Conclusion
The sales funnel is the process of converting a lead into a customer. It can be done in many ways, but it usually starts with content marketing, advertising and tactics & strategies to attract potential customers through different channels such as social media or email marketing campaigns.
Once someone has expressed interest, they are then considered leads who have been qualified by an initial outreach campaign. Leads will typically go through more follow-up stages until they finally convert to buyers.
This blog post was meant to provide you with some insights on how your own digital strategy should play out for success from start to finish. If you’ve ever wondered what exactly a sales funnel is or want help integrating these principles into your business model, we would love for you to comment below.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angélique Binet is a social media marketing consultant specialized in paid traffic and client acquisition for women entrepreneurs & speakers, founder of Social Media Love, as well as a paid media strategist for the province of New Brunswick (Canada). She was a French newspaper journalist and Canadian TV reporter. Raised on a farm in France, Binet is a graduate of La Sorbonne University in Paris, and King’s College University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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