In the digital marketing industry, the sales funnel is one of the core concepts which can take your business from the unknown to a multi-million-dollar marketing machine. However, generating revenue is a multi-step process in which you have to progressively nurture people before they are ready to make a purchase. Instead, you want to build multiple sources of high-value prospects and increase your customer lifetime value.
The Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a business metric that measures how much a business can plan to earn from the average customer over the course of the relationship. Customers were not all created equal. The Pareto Principle (better known as the 80/20 rule) is attributed to the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto which states that 80% of sales come from 20% of customers.
The key to automating a consistent flow of qualified leads is setting up quality funnel’s. And in this comprehensive blueprint, we'll show you just how to do that..
Put simply, a funnel is a framework businesses use to turn strangers into customers. This framework not only attracts leads, but it also builds trust, grows a list of leads and customers, builds relationships with your list, converts leads into customers, recoups your ad costs, offers your customers additional opportunities to work with you, and ascends customers along your sales pipeline. Do any of the different funnels below look familiar?
Basically, if people are purchasing your product or service online, you have a marketing funnel whether you know it or not. Funnels tend to vary in size and complexity from company to company, but they all adhere to a handful of integral components.
A funnel works via stages, from the broader section at the top (Top of Funnel) that pulls in many people, through the narrower section in the middle (Middle of Funnel), and down to the even narrower section at the bottom (Bottom of Funnel) that is populated by serious buyers.
Top of the Funnel (TOFU) The top of your marketing funnel is all about increasing the visibility of your business and making a targeted audience aware of the fact that your company exists.
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) Potential customers enter the middle of the funnel once they’ve engaged with your brand in a meaningful way: maybe they’ve subscribed to an email list, are following you on social media, or have signed up for a webinar.
Bottom of the Funnel ( BOFU) The bottom of the funnel is the last place prospective customers go before they convert. You’ve gotten their attention, built trust, and fostered a relationship with them.
Before you engineer your funnel, you need to have a clear understanding of the key elements that matter most to your business, such as your customers, targets, and goals. Start as simple as possible and add complexity only when it matters (Something you can test, tweak, and polish). Let’s Start!
The Awareness Stage: Whether your customer’s find you organically, or via paid methods (like Facebook Ads or a PPC campaign) your content should answer the basic questions they’re going to have about you in the beginning: who, what, where, why, and how. Demonstrate your knowledge. Build your authority. Slowly increase your value to them.
The Interest Stage: You gained some attention with your free blog posts, videos, and infographics, it’s time to convert them from prospects to leads. And to do that, you need an irresistible lead magnet.What lead magnet (template, tool, guide, cheat sheet, checklist, newsletter, etc.) would your persona find most useful and valuable? Here, you want to start to solve a problem, need, or want for them.
The Decision Stage: In the decision stage, you want to make clear your unique value proposition. Why is your solution better than someone else’s? Case studies with real people and real companies succeeding and enjoying your product are an absolute must, too. And free trials or samples allow them to experience it for themselves.
A sales funnel at its most basic has only 4 stages: awareness, interest, decision, action. What content and message do they need at each level? Answer that, and you’ve got a solid funnel to build upon.
In order for your funnel to be truly effective, you need to take things one step further by determining how leads will be qualified throughout the process and the metrics to keep track. The most effective lead qualification system is not based on a subjective hand on the forehead, but rather on specific metrics. Lead qualification involves three steps:
1. The Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) A marketing lead might be anyone that fills out an online demonstration request or something involving a combination of viewing specific products, interacting with content like demo’s, and opening a certain number of email messages. Based on the lead definitions you create, you can go a bit deeper and assign point values in order to form a scoring system in order to have the right kind of interactions with potential customers.
2. The Sales Accepted Lead (SAL) Once a lead has been qualified it should take no more than a few minutes to determine what is next such a sale’s demo, proposal or phone call. It’s the best thing an organization can do to ensure that the budget, effort and resources devoted to lead generation are not wasted.
3. The Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a prospective customer who has moved through the sales pipeline – from marketing-qualified lead through sales-accepted lead – to a position where the sales team can now work on converting them into an active customer.
Try to validate your funnel works with volume – it will be much easier to judge the largest leaking points, bottlenecks, and successful funnel components with 1,000 prospects rather than 10. Keep in mind that every section of the funnel can be iterated and improved upon!
A funnel is your opportunity to build an automated selling machine that closes deals, optimizes your sales talent, and scales your business to new heights. Interested in learning more about how to generate the maximum number of leads for your business? Join our Facebook Community today!
Thank you for reading,
Joe
