Like a regular funnel, a sales funnel starts out wide at the top and narrows towards the bottom. At the top of a sales funnel, you’ll find a number of potential customers—people who have just become aware of your product or service and are interested in it. This number is obviously going to be a lot bigger than the number of people who actually end up buying the product or service. Those people will be found at the bottom of the sales funnel. But on the way from the top to the bottom, the potential customers go through various stages.
- Awareness: The first stage of the sales funnel is when the potential customer just becomes aware of the product or service. Maybe they hear about it on social media or they see an ad for it on a website. They may also become aware of it through more traditional marketing means such as a print advertisement or a billboard.
- Interest: The second stage of the sales funnel is when the potential customer becomes interested in the product or service. If they’re exposed to an advertisement or a social media post about the product/service and they happen to need that item/service, they might become interested. In that case, they might go to the website and read more about the product/service. Or they might look around on social media to see if other people are interested in that product/service.
- Evaluation: The process of buying something always involves a certain amount of evaluation. Is this product/service worth the price that the company is asking for? This is an evaluation that the customer will make mentally. At this point, it makes sense for the company to introduce a tripwire i.e., an offer that the customer can’t refuse! This can be done by offering the customer the product/service at a discounted price to begin with. Once the customer takes up the offer, they will be charged the regular price after a while.
- Purchase: Once the customer decides that the product is going to be worth the price, they’ll purchase it. Of course, this is often done after comparing the product/service to other products/services. So it’s a good idea to keep in mind what your competitors are offering and what prices they are charging. This is in addition to reaching out to your customer via digital and traditional marketing methods.
- Loyalty: Once a customer buys your product, you want to keep them coming back. This applies for products which are bought often, such as food items, as well as products which are bought once in ten years, such as appliances. People remember which product worked out well for them and which one didn’t. So it makes sense to have a good customer service base to help current customers with any issues they may be having. This will keep them coming back next week, next month, next year or in the next decade.
Contact us to learn more about setting up a sales funnel which will attract viewers, turn them into customers and keep them coming back.