How to Build a Successful Sales Funnel

In order to bring in a constant stream of new customers, you need to develop an effective sales funnel. Whether you’ve tried to create one before or you’re new to the whole idea, read on to find out how to build a successful sales funnel as part of your online marketing strategy.

Step 1: Identify Prospects

Before you develop your sales funnel, you’ll want to identify which prospects would actually desire and be willing to purchase your product or service. In other words, you don’t want to waste time trying to engage those who don’t fit your ideal prospect profile. If you haven’t already, define your ideal customer -- age, gender, interests, hobbies, needs -- and keep this customer in the forefront of all of your marketing strategizing.

Step 2: Develop a Content Strategy

Now that you’ve identified who your ideal customers are, create solid content -- articles, videos, podcasts, infographics -- that appeal to them or help them in some way. Create a calendar that helps you stay on track with posting. This is essential as the more consistent you are with publishing quality, value-added content, the more of a following you will gain and the more credibility you will acquire in your field. 

Your strategy should also include how and through what channels you plan to promote each piece of content so that it reaches your prospects from different angles. Maybe you plan to deliver content through predominantly email and social media. If so, that’s fine, but just make sure you are reaching the right demographic through your chosen channel. In other words, you wouldn’t want to focus solely on Instagram if your target customer is a Baby Boomer. 

Step 3: Create Your Landing Page

Create a first impression by making sure that your landing page is visually appealing, organized, and functional. A great landing page will have some sort of call to action that will get the visitor to input his or her information… and that’s what you’ll use to reach out to them for your next touchpoint. 

Another tip: make sure that your landing page offer delivers on the promise you made on your email campaign or social media ad. If your customer clicks on a “Learn More About Our Services” CTA and then arrives at a landing page with no new information about your company, it’s a huge turn-off. 

Step 4: Present a Front-End Offer to Potential Customers

Now it’s time to offer your potential customers a deal. This could be a discount on their first purchase, a BOGO offer, or a percentage off of a set of items, or free gifts along with a purchase of a predetermined amount. This offer is your chance to get the first sale, so make it good.

Step 5: Present an Upsell Offer

Now that you’ve got your customer hooked, give them another offer they can’t refuse (well, hopefully WON’T refuse). This upsell offer should offer greater perks for the customer on top of the front-end offer. All they have to do is buy more or upgrade to a more expensive service. And it’s a win-win because they’ll save more and you’ll earn more money.

Step 6: Create a Follow-Up Strategy

Stay in touch with your customers if you want their continued business. Show them you appreciate them by giving them a discount for their second purchase, or by offering a referral promo code that they can share with friends or family. Don’t forget to offer some sort of incentive to get them to share. And last, but certainly not least, ask customers what they thought of your product or service and take their responses into consideration. This shows your customers that you truly do care.

Step 7: Measure, Manage and Improve 

Monitor your content, your CTAs, and your ad performance. Which gets the most engagement? Which results in the most sales? Do some of your offers work better than others? Look at the data and be willing to scrap the ideas that didn’t take and enhance the ones that did.  

Your sales funnel is intended to turn the prospective customer into the customer for life. Ideally, you can do this by preparing adequately, sticking to your strategy, and being open to change when ideas don’t work as planned. That's just an indication to try something else. You'll get a plan in place that works for your desired audience. Just keep trying!

Need extra help? Here to help with personalized strategies for your business. Message here on LinkedIn to chat.