If you answered no, then it is absolutely essential that you do some research on the subject and get it implemented as soon as possible.
Why?
Because, having a website made without a sales funnel clearly defined is like starting a business without a strategy to create revenue, or it would be like building a retail shop without any consideration to making actual sales or increasing revenue.
But before we begin, let’s make sure we are all on the same page on what a sales funnel is, as it applies to the WEB, and internet marketing.
What is a sales funnel for the web?
A sales funnel is a strategy to make your website generate revenue. That is it in its simplicity. No further complication is required.
A strategy on the web to make sales and get revenue would have various component parts. The ‘sale’ or the ‘purchase’ is the very last part of this. There are a few steps before that, which result in a sale. If we can understand what they are, then we have a ‘formula’ for sales, which you can then follow to get more sales.
Many marketers and sales people have their own style of funnel with different ‘tiers’ and descriptive words, with their own twist on it.
We’re going to keep it is as simple as possible and strip away the complexity.
When we do this we see that the ‘sales cycle’ involves just these types people, or three stages of people:
- Prospects
- Leads
- Customers
The Prospect is someone who has become aware of your products, services of company. This would be a website visitor, or someone who has viewed your ads, or someone who has heard of you. He may or may not be interested, but he has had some contact your brand.
You get prospects by paying for ads, doing social media posts, getting your website high in the search results, so people can find you when they search, and visit your site. Anything that gets the word out about your company and products. This is promotion.
The Lead is someone who has become aware of your company/brand enough that he is interested and has given his contact information and you now have him on file.
You get leads by offering free or very discounted products/services (or buying lists of names and phone numbers), and in return you get the person’s contact information, and then they can be contacted by you in the future and enlightened about your flag ship products and services.
The Customer is someone who has become aware of your company/brand by search, or ads, or referral, and then bought a product. He may or may not have had the intermediary step of becoming a lead first. He may have gone straight in and bought your product.
You get customers by getting LOTs of prospects and lots of leads. It is as mechanical as that.
Customers can be RE SOLD with additional products and services. So the funnel truly does not end with a simple purchase. You can sell again and again. Additionally, existing customers are MUCH EASIER to sell to, thus require less effort in making the sale. If you are not actively re-selling to your existing customer base you are missing out on this goldmine!
Using the Funnel
Just by reading the above you can see that right away you can take each component of the sales funnel (prospects, leads, customers), work towards increasing them, and by doing this you can effectively increase your revenue.
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