Without a Sales Funnel, Your Digital Marketing is Going Nowhere!
Is your digital marketing all clicks and no conversions? Do you wonder where your money is going? Probably to the same place that your leads are: nowhere. You need a sales funnel, pronto.
Here’s why having a sales funnel is a non-negotiable for digital marketing success.
Why Am I Not Getting Sales from My Website?
A bullet—even a silver one—doesn’t do anything unless it’s fired.
You can spend a lot of money on content marketing, social media or Google Ads campaigns. And then what?
Leads get lost.
The web will tell you a lot about how digital marketing is the silver bullet to more sales and higher marketing ROI. But, a bullet—even a silver one—doesn’t do anything unless it’s fired. Consider the sales funnel as the hammer that hits the bullet.
The Point of a Sales Funnel for Business
The goal of marketing is to acquire customers. Advertising and SEM create the hype that attracts prospects, but that’s only half the job.
It’s seldom that someone visits your site with the sole intent to purchase. Today’s online customers are a bunch of distracted “multitaskers” toggling between 18 tabs while comparing their options. If you leave people on some arbitrary page hoping they buy, they’ll just wander off to the next shiny site.
The sales funnel takes interested prospects and tells them where to go, leading them on a customer journey that takes them over the finish line as paying customers.
How a Sales Funnel Works
A sales funnel (or marketing funnel*) is a process carefully designed to take a person from a prospect to a purchaser.
People generally go through four stages to make a purchase: awareness, interest, decision, action.
We call this the funnel because if you visualise the process, each stage narrows, allowing only qualified prospects through to the next.
At Famous Digital Media, we use an adapted model designed for services with more stakeholders and a slightly longer buying cycle.
The construction and ICT sectors are good examples. Their customers can’t quite “add to basket” and check out. The sales process relies on relationships and face to face meetings to close deals.
There are several tactics used to guide prospects from stage to stage. Each is meticulously chosen and crafted for your target market and their behaviour.
Sales Funnel Benefits
The apparent advantage of a sales funnel is that it channels the right people to the dotted line—but that’s not all.
A well-crafted sales funnel creates an exceptional customer journey, which benefits your business in numerous ways.
- It enhances your lead generation
- Leads are continually qualified and warmed (nurtured) leading to a higher conversion rate.
- You learn more about each customer through each stage, allowing you to segment customers directly into your CRM for greater personalisation.
- More qualified conversions improve your cost per acquisition and reduce wasteful spending.
- A positive customer experience increases brand loyalty, creating higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
- Loyal customers become brand advocates increasing positive word of mouth.
- Altogether, you can see how a sales funnel gives you a greater return on investment on your marketing spend.
Altogether, you can see how a sales funnel gives you a greater return on investment on your marketing spend.
Sales Funnels for Nuanced Industries
The most significant benefit of implementing a sales funnel is developed according to your business processes and audience.
It is particularly suited for B2B services that involve complex project management. Most of the time, the sales process includes RFQs. If you are selling bespoke solutions, you need meetings to generate sales. A sales funnel will enhance brand awareness and help you secure those pivotal meetings.
Spend your marketing money where it matters.