Week 19: Sales Funnels
The next part of the marketing funnel mini-series will be the sales funnel, which is what a lead funnel (the previous article) would ultimately and hopefully gear towards. This is the point where your reader becomes a customer and purchases your product or service.
Decision
The prospect evaluates their final options and decides whether to purchase. They might be looking for additional incentives, discounts, or reassurances before deciding. The action stage is where the actual conversion takes place. The prospect becomes a customer by making a purchase, signing up for a subscription, or taking the desired action you've been guiding them towards.
Retention
The sales funnel doesn't end after the purchase. Retention and loyalty efforts aim to keep customers engaged and satisfied with their purchases. This can lead to repeat purchases, upsells, cross-sells, and positive word-of-mouth.
领英推荐
Upsells and down sells often occur on the back end of a purchase where you can offer another service that is either more advanced or a higher ticket item (upsell) or a down-sell if they decline (e.g. offer a lower ticket item that is cheaper).
Even if a customer chooses not to purchase an upsell or down-sell, they continue to be on your subscriber or mailing list so will continue to be offered valuable resources and products that could be useful to them.
For a sales funnel, you might come across different sales pages such as a video sales page or a new article-style sales page. A video sales page is an alternative to an opt-in page if you wish to sell products in the form of a video. This often helps build a slightly more personal connection and put a face to your name to establish trust. Advertorial sales pages disguise themselves as news article rather than a sales page, to educate the reader on a certain topic for introducing a product to tie into that article.
Sales funnels can vary in complexity depending on the business, industry, and specific goals. Online businesses often use digital marketing techniques like email campaigns, retargeting ads, and landing pages to guide prospects through the funnel. The goal is to smoothly guide potential customers through each stage, addressing their needs and concerns at each step, ultimately leading to conversions and building lasting customer relationships.