Sales Funnels: The 2021 Beginner’s Guide

So you’ve decided you want to make profit in your business, right?...I mean, who doesn’t! You’ve probably experimented with selling products or services online. Let’s face it, it can be hard! However, sales funnels can help make that process easier than ever.

The truth is that prospects will never buy your products at a glance - it takes time to create a relationship.

So let's get to what a sales funnel is, and how you can use it to achieve consistent revenue.

What's a sales funnel?

Cool...I see these shiny, new marketing tools, but what are they anyway? Well, I’m glad you asked! Imagine taking  your best salesperson, and putting them to work online 24/7. You’re probably thinking “Wow, 24/7 sales and no labor laws?!” Yup. Pretty cool, right? That’s the broad-stroke overview of what a sales funnel is. Now, let’s talk about the technical aspect.

A sales funnel illustrates the path people take online. It's a marketing concept that breaks down the customer journey from awareness to purchasing your product or service. As people go through a funnel, they make small commitments that ultimately lead them to where you want them to go (aka purchasing your stuff!)

As a business owner, your focus is providing an awesome product or service while making money. We’ve seen too many business owners create cool stuff or provide services people need, but forget about how to create consistent income from it! Your goal should be to create predictable income!

Picture this...You go to whip up some awesome flapjacks. You’re a total boss at what you do so you just eyeball the measurements. Next thing you know everyone says open a restaurant with you as the master chef...then one day you decide to franchise, but to your surprise, all your franchisees are failing because their flapjacks suck. Since you didn’t write the recipe out, your franchisees can’t repeat the success you have. Sales are exactly the same!  The cool thing is that sales funnels allow you to create the recipe for consistent success!

Sales funnel Stages

So how do we turn leads into qualified customers for our services and products? We take them on a journey through a marketing concept called AIDA (Attention,Interest, Desire,Action).  

I know...This is the boring portion where we get all technical, but let's illustrate this with an example:

So you have a friend that reaches out to you asking if you are open to “opportunities”...yeah, we all have this one friend. You’re probably thinking, “well, I’m always open to opportunities” so you just go along with it because you're curious and they’ve grabbed your attention. They invite you to some meeting in their grandmother’s basement to discuss the “opportunity”. So you go to this business meeting to find out that they are selling some energy drink that will change your life. At first you’re reluctant because you’re thinking what the hell did you just sign up for, but then you start getting interested based on his story. Since you are now interested you decide to try it out, and play right into the placebo effect of how it makes you feel more energetic….next thing you know you’re drinking the “Kool-Aid” and inviting your friends to “opportunity meetings” just so you can fund your fix in the product. Hello multi-level marketing or MLM. 

Now, I’m not saying MLMs are bad, but this is just a fun way to show you how the AIDA model works. They got your attention, generated interest in the product, created your desire to use and sell the product, and got you to take action on an opportunity to be a distributor. AIDA is used for both the overall strategy as well as the specifics of what is written on  your sales pages.  Now, let’s see how this translates to a sales/marketing funnel.

1. Attention

When looking at the overall strategy of driving traffic to your website or page, attention is usually generated by items such as:

• Content marketing - social media posts, blog articles, etc...
• Paid Ads
• Video
• Referrals

Grabbing attention on your page could be as simple as slapping your target audience in the face with a video or copywriting  that is relatable to the issues that they are facing.

2.  Interest

This is the time to give your audience some incredible content. Your goal is to establish expertise and help customers make a purchasing decision. Your videos and copywriting should be so tailored to your audience that they should feel like you’re reading their mind in a freaky-good kind of way.

3. Decision

At this point, you’ve kicked the audience in the face with such great content that you’ve created a favorable impression about your services/products. When your audience has decided that your product or service is the holy grail of what they’ve been searching for, you need to help them see that you are the best option in the universe for them. This could be done through different offerings, free trials, bonus, or maybe you’re just straight up better than the competition.

4. Action

Now, this is the part where you help your audience to make a purchasing decision with

A strong call to action (CTA) and a simple path to follow. They may shop around or look for a trial to see how the product/service works, but you want to compel with jedi mind tricks (or just damn good offers) to get them to buy your stuff because you’re the best solution for them.

You should understand how each stage works, and the best approach to use - you don't want to send the wrong message at the wrong time. Keep in mind marketing and sales are intertwined.

Benefits of a sales funnel

Cool story bro....You’ve explained some boring tech stuff so why would i bother using a funnel or whatever you called it? Well, just as your mother told you when you were a kid “because we said so” and you also get the following benefits:

• Predictability of Revenue

Once you have an effective sales funnel in place, you'll have a predictable income stream; however, to get to this point, you have to have good sales funnel management. If you’re getting tons of traffic, but no lead conversion, then it’s time to rethink the funnel strategy. To achieve your targets, you should invest your money wisely across your business funnel.

• Conversion Rate Optimization

Let’s face it, we all want more leads, but it does no good if our conversion rate is low. Sales funnels allow us to see how we are converting at each stage in our process to refine our sales pitch. Imagine if you could take your best salesperson and make their close rate better over time. That’s what we’re doing with funnels.

• Tailored Content

Every piece of content should make your audience feel like it was written just for them and their needs. With a sales funnel, we have the ability to market to a specific target audience and make them feel special as they move through our funnel stages.

• ROI of Marketing

When it comes to understanding the ROI of your marketing, as sales funnels can be powerful. Not only do you get the metrics of your specific campaigns on Facebook, Google, billboards, or whatever else your heart desires, but you also will be able to see the traffic and insights of each stage in your funnel independently of the advertising platform insights. This can help you invest in what is actually working.

Sales funnel management

Let’s visualize what sales funnel management is in an analogy. Let’s say you buy a crazy cool car like a 1932 Scout Scarab...go ahead, just Google that bad boy. I’ll wait…

Great you’re back! Now when you purchase this crazy cool roly poly of a car, you have some basic needs. You need gas to get it going, oil changes to keep it running smooth, general maintenance to keep it in great shape, and gauges that work to track all these maintenance items effectively.

Now, how does this weird car relate to funnel management? Well, advertising campaigns are like your gas driving traffic, conversion rate optimization makes sure your traffic is making it through the funnel profitably, general maintenance such as copywriting/video updates/layout changes to keep it fresh, and finally your gauges or analytics such as Facebook pixels/Google tracking codes/heat map tech/and a ton of other cool stuff to make sure your on track with your ad campaigns and conversion rates.

It can be a lot, but it’s a blast when you get it function correctly. So sales funnel management is super important. You can’t just run in with the mentality “Build it and they will come” or you’re just setting yourself up for failure!

Sales Funnel Housekeeping

Every successful business can benefit from a well-planned sales funnel. It's an automated journey that takes customers through the buying process. Here are a few key items to keep in mind with sales funnels:

• The purchasing process is not instant.

Depending on the product or service you want to sell, the buying process can take days, weeks, or months. And there's a statistical probability that shows not all traffic that hits your sales funnel is ready to buy now. 

Some potential customers may only sign up for a free item with their email which is awesome! This means that you can reach their inbox any time you want. Your relationship with your email list can help you increase purchases with low cost marketing!

• Customers are sophisticated

Look, if you’re reading this article then you’re probably doing your homework on sales funnels. Good for you! Now keep in mind that your customers will also do their research about your products or services. They want to buy from a trusted source that does the best at solving their needs. These customers have to be nurtured through multiple marketing touches to create a sale!

• Funnels help build trust

When you think of a sales person, they should be scared if their customers are asking questions or raising objections. The cool thing about sales funnels is that you get to bake those answers right into the funnel! So you answer their biggest questions or objections which helps you build massive trust. Everytime you give value to your customers, you’re building more trust.

• Email subscribers convert

An email has a higher ROI than any other marketing channel. From a statistical standpoint, an email is more effective than acquiring customers via social media channels, and it works for virtually any business! So don’t fret if they don’t purchase right away a smoking good email sequence baked into the funnel can help convert them.

Types of funnel builders & the pros/cons

So you’ve decided you must have a sales funnel at this point, right? Well, the next logical step is to figure out how they’re built. You can create a sales funnel essentially anyway that you would design a website, but there are way easier and faster methods than others. The most efficient way to create a funnel is to use a funnel builder. Here are a couple of great tools with pros and cons:

Groovefunnels

While Groovefunnels may be the newest kid on the block, it has earned the top spot for a reason. It has all the features to help you grow an effective sales funnel and grow your business. Groovefunnels allows you to create websites with unlimited pages, attract an army of affiliates, and sell unlimited products and services.

The lead generation sales funnel also gives users access to different payment getaways. You can sell digital products through Groovesell.

The funnel builder also offers an email marketing solution so you can integrate quizzes into the sales funnels. You can also use this tool to create information about the target market. They also have some cool features like a blog aspect and video tools.

The free plan offers the basic features. But if you need more, you can upgrade to a silver or gold membership. Depending on the pricing plan you choose, you can pay $99 - $299 per month or go for a lifetime membership of $1,397 while it lasts.

Pros

• Affordable
• Easy to use
• Offers a crazy number of tools and products
• Currently offers lifetime access

Cons

• Newly Launched

Clickfunnels

Clickfunnels is a lead generation funnel builder that offers a lot of features like pop-ups, contact forms, and more. You also get an intuitive dashboard and a drag & drop editor. The basic feature costs $97 per month, while the platinum plan costs $297 per month.

Pros

• Conversion-focused
• Easy to set up
• Plenty of templates

Cons

• Few options/less customization
• No lifetime option

From a pricing perspective, Groovefunnels is the way to go to save money (show below), but get all the crazy good features. However, Clickfunnels has been around longer and is more mature with it’s platform.

Doing it yourself vs. hiring

We get it...DIY is super enticing, but can quickly leave a bad taste in the mouth if you don’t do it right. You can definitely cut some costs going the DIY route, but may end up spending the same amount of money by the time you invest in some education to get it right.

Codev Media is a Groovefunnels agency that can help you get potential clients by creating a sales funnel that suits your business needs.This is the go-to option if you're looking for a customer-focused option with a funnel that converts. It's time you take your business to the next level.