What Is a Sales Funnel and Why Is It Important?

Sales can be a challenge for many businesses, whether you are a well-established corporation or a new business trying to grow. There are many obstacles that you may come up against, for example, not attracting the right kind of customers, or perhaps not getting enough sales to meet your goals. The reason for this will depend on a number of factors, from using the wrong sales tactics to not understanding your customers. Fortunately, if your business is struggling there are changes that you can make to improve your sales and your profits. At the foundation of every strategy and sales tactic, is the sales funnel. If your business can nail your sales funnel, sales will flow easily. 

What is a sales funnel? 

A sales funnel is a popular marketing technique that will enable your business to drive more customers, by guiding them through a journey that is very specific to their needs and desires. It will take them from the first point of contact, all the way through to conversion. 

A sales funnel has four components: awareness, interest, desire, and action. 

Awareness

Awareness is the first stage, and this is where a customer learns about your business. This stage uses a variety of marketing techniques to enhance your website’s visibility, so customers become familiar with your brand and what you do. 

Interest

Getting customers to your website is a challenge within itself, but you have to pique the interest of your customers while they are there, if you want them to stay. The key is to engage your customers in a way that leaves them with a good impression of your business and a better understanding of how you can meet their needs. You can do this in a variety of ways, such as creating informational content and tutorials that help them with a problem, using incentives, or making your content stand out with images. 

Desire 

Once you have engaged customers, it is important that you build trust and a strong relationship with them. You can do this by creating desire around your products or services. You can do this by creating an environment, whether this is in your store, on your website, through your content, or via your customer service, that is engaging and welcoming. This will make customers want to choose you over their competitors. 

Action

If you have successfully guided your customers through your sales funnel and have their attention, you have to persuade them to take action. Without this last step in the funnel, all your efforts are going to be wasted. Action can mean a variety of things. It can be as simple as a sale, or it can be a download or a subscription. This is because some people are ready to buy straight away, and others are not. To ensure your effort is not wasted, a subscription or download can be valuable, as it enables you to stay in contact with your customers and nurture them, for example, through email marketing. They are more likely to make a purchase later down the line. 

To create a sales funnel, you can find software and tools online, or you may choose to work with a search engine optimization (SEO) agency to create one, as it will be beneficial to your SEO strategy and website development. This is because you will need written content that will provide help and value to your customers, and move them along the funnel accordingly. If you are wondering what is an SEO agency? then you should conduct research and find an agency to work with, as SEO is a crucial role in any business that wants to be visible and attract more customers. Without SEO, your sales funnel will not be drawing in customers and navigating them through a journey. SEO will make your business visible to create awareness, and the content you create via your SEO strategy will engage your customers and create interest and desire. The tactics used in SEO, such as keyword research and competitor analysis, will ensure your business is visible in the most relevant search queries placed by consumers to drive them to your business. 

Why is a sales funnel important?

There are many benefits to creating a sales funnel and using it as the foundation of your strategies. Not only does it make your processes more efficient, but it will get the right customers interested in your project and help you to make more sales. Here is some more information on why the sales funnel is important. 

Makes your efforts more efficient 

Without a sales funnel, you are likely making blind efforts that have no strategy or purpose. This can waste a lot of time, budget, and resources. A sales funnel will streamline your efforts and make them more efficient, as your efforts will be targeted and purposeful. They will quickly and smoothly attract the right customers, meet their needs, and move them from A to B. 

Attract new customers

The first stage of the funnel is awareness. Working with this first step means your business is employing a range of effective marketing techniques that will attract new customers, for example, SEO, social media, pay-per-click, and much more. 

Learn about your customers

The more people you funnel through your sales process, you will learn about what is working, what is not, and what your ideal customers want and need. This will help you improve and develop the best products and services on the market, upsell to your customers, and adapt your business to be highly competitive. Your customers should be the most important part of your business and everything that you do. The data you can obtain from your sales funnel can make your business successful.  

A sales funnel is extremely important for any business, regardless of what industry you are in. It is an effective strategy to follow, that will attract new customers, drive sales and grow your business to new heights. It can even be automated so customers just continue to flood into your business.

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About Dequiana Jackson

Dequiana Jackson, Founder of Inspired Marketing, Inc., helps overachieving women entrepreneurs conquer limiting beliefs and create marketing plans that grow their businesses. This includes one-on-one marketing plan development, digital product creation, web design and content marketing. Dequiana is the author of Know Your Business: How to Attract Ideal Clients & Sell More and runs the award-winning blog, Entrepreneur-Resources.net.

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