A Digital Marketing Funnel is the process and a series of steps that potential clients are guided through, to turn these potential clients into paying clients. By providing these steps in Funnel pages, you can greatly increase conversion rates and sales.
For many people terms like Sales funnels, Marketing funnels and Lead funnels are something that sounds very new and complicated. It is not.
Although the term may sound new to many, the process is not. Sales funnels in various forms have been with us for a long time. Even before the internet, sales were done by guiding potential clients through a process, to get to the point where a successful sale was made.
It has evolved over the years to also cater for online and digital marketing. Keeping this in mind, could help you to not feel intimidated by digital online funnels.
The entire sales funnel could be entirely online, or a combination of online and offline.
For high end products, sales funnels are more likely to be a combination of online and offline processes.
What are digital marketing funnels used for?
The purpose of Digital marketing funnels are to promote brand awareness, generating leads, or generating sales. Funnels can be purpose built with a single goal in mind, or it can be a combination of these objectives.
Industries and client needs vary greatly, and business is conducted online and offline, but the basic steps typically remain similar to one another.
These are:
- Make potential clients aware of your business and brand.
- Motivate potential clients to engage with your business and to want to learn more about what you have to offer.
- Attempt to get contact information, like an email address, from the potential client.
- Provide the client with more detailed information about the products and services that you offer and why the client should buy from you. Take the client through the decision-making process.
- Make the sale
- Re-target the client for more sales.
How to create a digital sales funnel
Firstly, you will need a platform like GrooveFunnels to build the funnel on.
Secondly, you will have to do some research and planning.
As with any sales campaign, the first step would be to decide, who your target market will be.
Think about what type of person, or company in the target market would be your ideal client. Keep this ideal client in mind, when planning your campaign and funnels. This is often referred to as creating an Avatar of your perfect client. Plan and execute your campaign as if you are selling directly to this Avatar.
Continue to keep this avatar in mind when you build your funnel.
Make a clear decision on what the goal of the campaign and your funnels will be. Do you want to use the funnels to direct the client towards an immediate sale, or is the goal of this campaign to generate leads?
Even if the goal of your funnel is to take the client to a sale, the client may decide to exit, before committing. This often happens, because people like to do some research first, before committing.
For this reason, it will be to your advantage, if you could get an email address, or contact details for as many of the visitors to your site as soon as possible in your sales funnel. This is done by including Opt-in pages in your funnels where potential clients can opt into you mailing list.
People generally do not just give out contact details, unless they feel that they will have something to gain, by providing you with contact details.
You will have to come up with innovative ideas to give the client an incentive to provide you with contact details. This could be a free “How to guide”, or an E-Book, depending on the industry that you are in.
An example of an Online Sales Funnel
Although your funnels will be based on your needs and creativity, this is what an online funnel may look like if you combine multiple objectives into a single funnel.
Generate traffic
For a business to be successful, potential clients need to know that your business exists and that you can assist them with the product or service that they require. In other words, you need traffic, to make sales.
Websites typically use one or more of the following methods to gain traffic. These are SEO, Advertising, Social Media Marketing and Email marketing.
SEO is done by using specific keywords on the website that will be indexed by search engines. When you enter you search phrase, it will display the most relevant websites that contain these keywords. You can then decide to go to the website. Blog posts are a popular way to make use of SEO to generate traffic.
Advertisements are usually targeted at a specific audience. Use wording, images and video to encourage potential clients to enter your funnel. Free offers has also been proven to be a very effective way to get traffic.
Social Media is ever increasing in popularity. There are various social media platform available. Each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Choose one, or more of these that are best suited to the products or services that you offer.
Email marketing is still a powerful marketing tool. Funnels can be used to grow email lists by getting email addresses from traffic that comes in through other traffic sources.
Regardless of what platform you use, or who your target market is, ensure that you capture your audience’s attention.
What is a Landing Page?
This is the page where the client will arrive on in your website or marketing funnel. This could typically be a Sales Page, or a Free Offer Page.
First impressions are important. Make a good impression, especially after the effort that you had put in to get the client to enter your funnel.
Clients will arrive on your landing page with certain expectations. These expectations are based on the tactic that you used that motivated them to come to your landing page.
Ensure that there is continuity between the expectation that you raised and the client’s first interaction with you. If there is no continuity, visitors are likely to exit.
What is an Opt-in Page?
An Opt-in page is a page where you will ask the client to opt into your email list. As mentioned before, you will have to offer a reason why there will a benefit to the client if they opt into your email list.
What is an Order Page?
This is the page that you will direct the client too once the client has decided to buy your product or service.
What is an Upsell Page?
This is the page that you direct the client to, after the client has indicated that they intend to buy a product, or service. The goal of this page is, as the name suggest, to upsell the client.
Link this part of your funnel to your Order Page if you have products that you can use to upsell the client.
As an example, this could be an accessory that compliments the item that the client has decided to buy. You can present the client with an offer to the top of the range accessory.
If the client is not interested in this upsell, you can direct the client to a Downsell page where you offer a less expensive accessory.
What is a Downsell Page?
This is a page where you can offer the client a less expensive item, if the client is not interested in the more expensive offer that you suggested on your upsell page.
What is an Order Confirmation Page?
On this page you confirm that the sale was successful. This will typically be combined with a Thank You Page where you also thank the client for the purchase.
You can use this opportunity to route the client to an Opt-in Page again. It could be – Opt into our mailing list to see future offers.
Next Funnel
Rather than have the client exit, route the client to your next funnel. There you can show other products or services that you offer.
