How to create a more effective sales funnel
Since people first started selling stuff, the basic elements of the sales funnel have always been this: Awareness, Attention, Interest and Action. Sales Funnels are very simple and logical once you understand them and how to set one (or many) up.
Since people first started selling stuff, the basic elements of the sales funnel have always been this: Awareness, Attention, Interest and Action. Sales Funnels are very simple and logical once you understand them and how to set one (or many) up.
Set up the funnel
First you need to make people aware that you exist. This could be publicist, a magazine or blog article, tv or radio ads, a billboard, pay per click ads, search engine marketing, a listing or directory site or tracing out to someone on Craigslist.
Then you need a place for them to go so you can get their attention. Since we are a digital agency, let’s focus on your website, app or social media. In the physical world it could also include your office. venue or store.
After that you need to generate interest. This is the imagery, video, logos, testimonials or written content on your website.
And lastly you need them to take action, this would be the form they need to fill out or shooing cart they need to put a product in or the phone number they need to call. In the physical world, this includes salespeople and check stands. It’s that simple.
Set up your data
This is the real power of the internet. In the old days marketers were slick salesmen a la Don Draper from Mad Men. They would often claim to have a secret formula that only they knew and lure you in with dinners at fancy restaurants, awards their friends gave them or over golf.
If you ever run into one of these fellows today run for the hills.
Now it’s all about the data. First you need to set up Google Analytics on your site so you can see what pages visitors go to and how long they spend on those pages as well as a million toher things. You also need analysis tools like SEMRush or Moz to find out who your competitors are, how they are marketing and what people are searching for. Facebook has tools to help you micro-target people likely to buy your product on site analytics and you can install 3rd party heatmaps with tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg so you can observe how they behave on your website, a means of dropping a pixel on their computer and forms for capturing their phone number or email address and a CRM like Hubspot or Salesforce so that you can capture their information and remarket to them after they have visited your website.
Adjust and optimize
Once people are aware you exist, and there is a website for them to go to and a way to track visitors all you have to do is watch and adjust. If you know what to look for the problems become pretty obvious and once you fix them sales should start pouring in.
The first bit of data you should look at is your traffic. If there is low traffic, you need to find a better way of making people aware of you. This could be creating better ads, increasing your spend, finding a better place to showcase your organization or – and this is a tough pill to swallow – a product or service people care about.
Next you need to look at the time on page and bounce rate. If people are coming to your website but leaving right away you need better content. This is where heatmaps can be useful. You can literally see how far on a page they scroll or where they click (or don’t click) before they leave.
Then once you have people staying on your website and exploring, if they are not reaching out, buying or exploring, you need to work on the “call to action”. This can be as simple as making sure it clearly says what you want them to do. My uncle Al is fond of saying “If you don’t ask, you don’t get”. So make sure there is a button that says “Get Started”, “Donate” or “Buy Now!”. The more the better. If they aren’t clicking you may need a more compelling argument as to why they need what you are selling. There is an art to this that ranges from articulating what it is that you do differently and better than your competition to creating urgency by amplifying their pain points.
Lastly, if they are clicking but not buying the problem is usually price. Try lowering it or using psychological pricing and you should have sales and/or donations pouring in.
