SALES FUNNEL SERIES (SFS) -LEAD FUNNELS 

 

According to the Cambridge dictionary, a funnel is defined as “to move or be moved through a narrow space or to put something in a place or use something for a particular purpose”

Note the last line.

Similarly ,a sales funnel could be defined this way the only difference being the sales and marketing keywords.

WHAT IS A SALES FUNNEL?

A sales funnel is a sales process which is used for the sole purpose of taking your potential customers on a journey from awareness/prospecting to purchasing your product..

In the last post (6 things you need to get started with affiliate marketing) ,I talked about the meaning of sales funnels and the A-I-D-A formulae used in the process of building up sales funnels.

Well, the process of building up a sales funnel goes beyond the AIDA formulae …

There are different kinds of sales funnels we have, in which the processes of building them up differ.

The A-I-D-A formulae serves as the base when it comes to building up sales funnels ,but it is not a tool or a complex format in the building up of sales funnels .It is just a primary format ,whose purpose is to outline the base needed for your sales funnel to run.

 

TYPES OF SALES FUNNELS

• Lead generation funnel
• Webinar funnel
• Survey sales funnel
• Call booking funnel
• Content funnel

We are going to be focusing more on the lead generation funnel .

LEAD GENERATION FUNNEL -SALES FUNNEL SERIES 

A Lead generation sales funnel is basically a sales funnel designed to generate leads(prospective customers ) in order for you to take them through the process of awareness, nurturing and purchase.

There are other types of funnels under a lead generation funnel which include;

• Webinar funnel
• Survey sales funnel

Webinar funnel

This is a type of sales funnel which is aimed at generating leads through organic or inorganic traffic in order to direct them to a free webinar that you would be hosting .This webinar should  be based on the the subject of the ad that led your prospective customers(leads) to you in the first place.

Survey sales funnel

A survey funnel is a type of lead generation funnel in which through a quick survey, you can separate visitors into different groups. This happens when you speak a specific message and categorize them based on who they are.

Survey funnel includes many pages that depend on your goal and strategy. However ,they usually have three stages.

• Survey page

This is where you put your question and separate your visitors into a different group depending on their answer.

• Squeeze page 

This is the stage where visitors put their email address to receive the results

• Results page 

This is the last stage in which you show the results and offer them what’s suitable for them.

The aim of a lead generation sales funnel is basically to source for prospective customers(leads)  through the means of organic or inorganic traffic in order to accomplish your sales goal and turn those leads into retentive customers(customers who purchase frequently from you)

PRACTICAL FORMAT OF A LEAD GENERATION SALES FUNNEL

The practical format of  a lead generation sales funnel is as follows;

Facebook ad, Twitter ,Instagram(leads)>Opt-in page(Add to list )> Webinar (Pitching and purchase)> your website.

FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM ADS.

The main aim of these social media platforms is to serve as a traffic source to generate leads (prospective customers) .This is the first part in the structure of lead generation sales funnel.

Generation of leads can be done through;

• Organic traffic (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook)
• Inorganic traffic(paid traffic) ( Twitter, Instagram &Facebook ads)

 

Organic traffic

This involves using social media platforms, to promote your products without running paid ads .

This is done by posting helpful or relevant content on any social media platform (Facebook, Instagram & twitter) you’re active on. The content you post should be related to the product you are promoting which can help your prospective customers.

When you do this..

You build rapport, authority and your social media following..

You become an authority in your niche, based on the product you’re promoting and your social media following would be made up of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to sell. This is due to the fact that you’re posting relevant or helpful content on what could be of  help to your prospective customers, based on the product you’re trying to promote and sell.

 

Inorganic traffic

This involves generating leads by running paid ads on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

For this strategy to be effective ,you have to be able to learn how to  run ads properly in a way it would target your dream customers that would  be willing and ready to buy what you’re selling.

One of the ways you can target your dream customers effectively when running paid ads , is through the use of a lead magnet.

A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away for the purpose of gathering contact details of prospective customers.

A lead magnet also helps you target those  prospective customers who are interested in what you have to offer and sell. Lead magnets are divided into the offer ,presentation and value type lead magnets.

According to the image above, after the process of generating leads is done through the use of social media platforms, it is sent directly to an opt in page, where more details of your prospective or potential customers are collected.

For instance ,using the inorganic (paid) traffic strategy ..

In the process of trying to run your ads, you can set it up in a way that it directly sends generated leads to an opt-in page or a landing page.

 

OPT -IN PAGE 

This is also called a landing page, it’s a page which is aimed at getting the details of your leads (prospective customers) which are beneficial to you, in order to turn those leads into retained customers in the long run.

The details on an opt-in page include.

• The prospect’s name.
• Prospects phone number and
• Email.

When prospective customer signs up on your opt-in page, they can now be added to your list or your email list and the sales process of converting them into retained customers can continue from there.

WEBINAR

When your prospective customers registers on your opt-in page, they are automatically part of your email list.

You can now set up email campaigns and send emails to your prospective customers promoting your webinar to ensure they attend.

Your main aim of hosting your webinar should be to promote your products to further convince your prospective customers of the worth and value that your product can give to them.

At the end of the webinar, you sell your products to your prospective customers and when they buy from you make a sale.

This stage of the lead generation sales funnels process involves pitching and purchase of your products or any affiliate product that you are promoting.

WEBSITE

This is the last part of the sales funnel process where you channel your prospective customers who are willing and able to buy from the webinar to your website, to purchase your products.

This is the last part of the sales funnel process where you have successfully turned your leads into customers who can constantly buy from you.

WHAT YOU NEED TO SET UP A SALES FUNNEL

There are a few things that you need before a sales funnel can effectively work. These are the tools that you need to shape and bring the A-I- D-A formulae and the lead generation sales funnel format into a reality.

So, for you to set up a sales funnel, you need a;

• Domain
• Hosting
• Page designer
• Email marketing tools and payment gateway

DOMAIN

A domain is the address of your website. This can be the address of the website you want your products to be listed, e.g an address to your Opt-in page.

HOSTING

in simple terms, hosting is the  house of your website, if the domain is the address. It is the service that provides space on a server for your website files, allowing them to be available on the internet.

PAGE DESIGNER

This involves the use of certain applications and tools to design your website, opt-in page and sales pages .Examples of page designers include thrive architect , Elementor pro and Click funnels.

E-MAIL MARKETING SOFTWARES & PAYMENT GATEWAY)

E-mail marketing tools 

These are software applications, used for email marketing services. They can be used to grow, nurture and monitor your email list, build email campaigns from scratch and set up email automations. Examples of email marketing softwares include MailChimp, Getresponse,  Convertkit..

Payment gateway

A payment gateway is a technology(payment processing portal) used by business owners ,online store owners and online entrepreneurs to accept debit and credit card purchases from customers. Examples of payment gateway include; Paystack ,Flutter wave, Vogue pay, Cash envoy…

THE SALES FUNNEL DESIGN BLUE PRINT

• FHP stage
• Analytics stage
• Mapping stage
• Development stage

FHP STAGE

This is the first step of the frame work

It involves..

• Stating your sales goal

This means that you state how much sales you want to make and the revenue you want to realize at the end of the sales funnel process.

• Generating your sales sprint question

This involves stating and drafting out everything that could go wrong with the sales funnel process and having a plan to deal with them if they eventually come up .This includes;

• Traffic issues
• Product selling issues
• Lead funnel issues
• Facebook ad account bans

ANALYTICS STAGE

This involves;

• Product analysis

This is entails the unique mechanism or the unique selling point of the product you’re selling that would give you an edge over your competitors.

• Customer analysis

This involves demographics & avatar designs .This is where you talk about your;

• Dream customer
• Age bracket of your dream customer .

MAPPING STAGE

This requires making real sketches of your process , putting into consideration all the FHP & analytics stage data. An example of a tool for mapping is funnelytics.io.

DEVELOPMENT STAGE

This is the main stage where you write all your sales copies, design your sales page, design your ads creative and then connect everything.

PROTOTYPING STAGE

This is the stage where you test all the tools and processes of your sales funnel.

 

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