What your business first funnel should look like

This article is about mapping out your sales/marketing funnels for your business.
This will help you create your long term marketing/sales plan and to monitor its success.
If you are looking more for information about online sales and marketing funnel automation, where you drive traffic to and convert the visitors into leads or customers, you can find this topic here: 3 types of marketing funnels to boost lead generation

Every business should set up a funnel to track prospects and potential customers as they embark on a journey starting and awareness and ending up being a paying customer.

Funnels are used to track leads in order to optimise marketing strategies and maximise sales.

Their success depends on the amount of information you manage to obtain from the prospect and how you interpret that data to focus on your marketing and sales strategies.

It is also very important to examine the data relating to “holes” where prospects fall out of the funnel and identify why this happens.

A funnel should look like its namesake and should be wide at the top, tapering down through the middle and narrowing right down at the end.

Three distinct segments

Your business’ first funnel should have three distinct segments - top, middle and bottom and the key to success is to move prospects through each one until they make a purchase at the bottom.

The top

The top of the funnel usually casts a wide net and can include marketing efforts such as advertising or landing pages for organic search results.

The Middle

The middle of the funnel involves all aspects of the customer journey prior to the sale. Examples include product listings, blogs and positive reviews.

The bottom

The bottom of the funnel is where the final purchase takes place. This is where prospects convert by entering their credit card details and actually make the purchase.

The four stages of the funnel

While the funnel should have three segments, prospects will actually pass through four stages of the funnel.
You can use the handy acronym AIDA to remember: Awareness, Interest, Decision and Action.

Awareness

The first stage of the funnel that your prospect will enter is awareness. As it suggests, this is the stage where they first become aware of your brand.
This could be through advertising, organic search, social media or first-hand conversation.
If everything aligns, you could get a converting customer right here, but you will more than likely need to nurture them further before they consider making a purchase.

Interest

Once the prospect has taken the time to learn about your brand and products or services, they enter the interest phase.

Your funnel should aim to target unique and great educational content to the prospect at this stage, without pushing for a sale or you could make them leave. Think of it like an overly eager sales assistant.

Your content should convey expertise to help the prospect make an educated decision.

Decision

This is the stage where you really need to be on the ball. The prospect is now primed to make a purchase and will be considering all the options they have available.

They will compare pricing, packages, shipping, guarantees and many other factors to give them the best deal.

This is where you should provide the best offer you can. Organise free shipping or give them a discount code for a future purchase. The most important thing is to make your offer irresistible to the prospect. Webinars, online videos, personal emails or phone conversations can all help tip the balance in your favour.

Call to Action

This is the final phase of the funnel and this is where you win your hard-earned sale or lose it at the last minute. The prospect becomes a customer if they decide to make the purchase and they become a part of your business ecosystem.

If they drop out of the funnel at the last minute, you should always try and retarget them.

If you do close the sale, your job is not over. You should get feedback from the customer and nurture them for future purchases through loyalty schemes, discounts and other offers.

Creating your funnels is a very important pillar in the PermaCustomer formula, FairTech’s customers' acquisition process. It is the pillar that helps you harvest leads and turn them into clients. Want to know more about FairTech's client acquisition process? Click to "See the 15 min presentation!" button below.