Sales Funnel Strategies
A sales funnel can be a very powerful tool for your business. Your sales funnel can help you connect with customers, build their interest in what you offer, and encourage them to follow through and make a sale.
However, not all sales funnels are the same. If you want to see powerful results from your funnel, there are a number of strategies you will want to implement. Our article below outlines these strategies for you and can help you optimize your funnel and see the results you need.
Work with Team Member to Identify Strengths and Areas of Need
Before starting out to make changes to your sales funnel (or to set one up for the first time), it is a good idea to first take some time to analyze where your business currently is, your strengths, and weaknesses. Some of this can be done through self-reflection, but you'll receive a lot more useful input if you also touch base with the different members of your team. Set up team or one-on-one meetings to get feedback from the different members of your organization on what they think is working well and what improvements they think need to happen.
Another key group of people you should reach out to are your current clients or customers. Get their opinions on the performance and customer support of your company. What drew them to doing business with you? What changes would they like to see in your marketing, product offerings, customer service, or other areas. Receiving feedback from your current clients can be especially useful in helping you identify changes you should be making to attract new clients.
Use Customized Messages and Ad Campaigns to Target Different Groups
The first stage in a sales funnel is awareness. In this stage, your goal is to make as many individuals and groups of people aware of the products or services you have to offer. Running a generic ad will cause you to miss out on so many potential customers.
Rather than creating just one ad or type of social media post, you will want to think about the different groups of people who use or can benefit from the products and services you offer. What are some of the different solutions you can provide?
Create targeted ads and social media messaging for each of these solutions. This will make it more likely that more people will click on your ads or links and begin to develop that awareness of what you have to offer.
Using customized messaging and ads throughout the different stages of your sales funnel is also important. Keep each group in mind as you create your ad campaigns, send email messages to new and past subscribers, and make posts of Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Develop Landing Pages to Match Each Ad Campaign
Developing customized landing pages is just as important as creating customized messages and ads for each of your target groups. You want the content potential customers see on your landing page to match the post or ad that brought them there.
For example, if you ran an ad sharing how one of your products can address a specific need, your landing page should feature that product. Customers should not be directed to the same generic landing page regardless of which ad or link they click.
If the content on your landing page does not match the content of the source your visitors clicked on, they are more likely to navigate away from your page. On the other hand, when you make your landing page match the source they clicked on, you are displaying information that is relevant and of interest to their specific needs and desires. This will make it more likely that they will enter their contact information or click through and learn more about what your company offers.
Start Using a Live Chat Software
Providing excellent customer service can mean the different between making a sale or nurturing a loyal customer and having someone leave your page never to return again. Live chat software programs are an excellent tool to start using. With live chat software, you and your sales team can provide the real-time support and answers visitors to your page are looking for.
You can be there to help them find a specific product, address any concerns they may have, and help seal the deal. Knowing that your company is available to provide this support can be huge in the mind of a customer who is looking to find a responsive and trust-worthy company to give their business to.
Use CRM Tools to Stay in Contact
Staying in contact with potential customers and existing customers is essential. Interest is the second stage in a sales funnel, and one of the biggest ways to cultivate the interest of your potential customers is to keep them informed of your brand and what you have to offer.
Use a CRM (customer relationship management) system to stay connected with your potential and existing customers. Creating email newsletters and product features to share with them is a good way to keep them engaged in what you offer.
However, as we mentioned earlier, you will want to be sure to create customized and targeted messages for each of your customer groups. Use the needs and interests of each group of customers to develop email campaigns that focus on these topics.
CRM software programs can be integrated with your live chat software as well. This can help you and your team members view information about each visitor to your site and allows you to offer very specific online support. For example, you can see any previous purchases made by each visitor, the link they clicked on to arrive at your site, and more. You will be able to tailor the messages you send over live chat to the specific needs of each customer, which can be truly invaluable.
Create an Online Business Blog
A blog can be a very powerful business tool. Blogs are one way you can stay connected with your customers, and they can also help direct potential customers to your website.
Many customers will look for information and articles on a blog to help them answer questions they may have, learn more about a company or a product, and decide whether they want to give their business to that particular company. If your website is lacking a blog, you could lose out on some of these potential customers.
When starting your blog, you want to be very purposeful. Think about each of your targeted client groups and what solutions your products can provide for them. Develop your articles around highlighting these specific solutions.
Utilize Social Media
So many people use social media these days, making it a very powerful way to draw in new customers and stay connected with your current customers. Creating a strong social media presence will be important for your company. Since there are various social media platforms, you will want to think about your customer base and decide which platform(s) will best help you make the connections you are striving for.
Just like you want your blog posts to be targeted to your specific customer groups, you will also want to be very purposeful when planning out social media posts. Again, think of the specific solutions each group is looking for and provide information about how the products or services you offer can fill these needs.
Use Call to Actions
Blogs and social media posts are both great tools that can help move potential customers through your sales funnel and help make sure you retain your current customers. Adding a call to action to the end of each article or post can make it even more effective.
A call to action is simply when you let your readers know what it is you want them to do after reading a post or clicking on an ad. Basically, you are telling them to make a purchase, sign up for your newsletter, contact you about XYZ, or something similar. You don't want one of your potential customers to read through your blog and turn to one of your competitors to make their purchase or sign up for a service. Use the call to action to remind them of what you offer and allow them to demonstrate their commitment to your company.
Try Retargeting Ads
It's a pretty well-known fact that most customers are not going to make a purchase on their first visit to your website. While it would be great if the opposite were true, it is simply not reality. Using retargeting ads can help you reconnect with potential customers who have visited your site once, but did not make a purchase.
Retargeting ads use cookies and JavaScript coding to identify different people who have visited your site in the past. Then, ads for your company can be shown to these individuals again to encourage them to visit your site once more.
Since people are more likely to join a mailing list, make a purchase, or sign up for a service the second or third time they visit a site, retargeting can help you add more customers and potential customers to your databases.
Implement a Referral Program
Referral programs can be a great way to continue adding new people to your sales funnel. When your existing customers share your products and services with their friends and family, more and more people will develop an awareness of the products you offer. This will lead to an increase in sales and revenue.
Your referral program should provide current customers with some incentive for sharing what you offer with their friends and family. This could be a discount on their next purchase, points for your rewards program, or any other number of things. You just want to make sure that what you are offering provides customers with something of value to them that will make it worthwhile for them to share your company.
Referral programs can also aid in customer retention. If you are rewarding your current customers with something for sharing your products, it can help them feel more invested in your company. Plus, if they have a discount to use on their next purchase, it may make it more likely that they will follow through and place that new order they've been thinking about.
A sales funnel can help your business grow and succeed, but it will only have this effect if it is properly set up and implemented. Taking time to think about your potential customers, the solutions your products or services can provide, and working to be as purposeful and driven as possible can help you see the results you're looking for.
We know we shared a lot of strategies in our article. Don't try to implement all of them at once, since it will probably mean you do more of a rushed job and don't give each idea the attention it deserves. Rather, pick one or two that you think will have the greatest impact on your funnel and start there. Then, begin implementing the other strategies until you see the changes and results you're looking for.