If you’ve been struggling to increase your sales despite creating better offers, raising prices, and offering more value, it’s time to look at your sales funnel with a critical eye.
A sales funnel is an organized system designed to move leads through a step-by-step process that eventually leads to a sale. It gives you more control over how and when you present an offer to your leads.
If you’re not extending offers to the right people at the right time, your sales will remain flat. A well-structured sales funnel will deliver these offers correctly. Your sales funnel might have some leaks or disconnected components if you’ve tried everything else but still struggling with sales.
An intentionally engineered sales funnel directs offers to the correct leads
A properly engineered sales funnel allows you to track and identify where each lead is in the customer journey, enabling you to market relevant offers and messages to customers based on where they are.
Collecting data forms a pattern that reveals information that couldn’t otherwise be seen. In addition to segmenting leads, you should be collecting data on customer behavior every step of the way.
You need a data-centric sales funnel
Analyzing data can provide profound insight. A collection of data, such as tracking which links they click on in emails, their browsing history, purchase history, and more, will allow you to accurately categorize them for targeted marketing.
Intentionally craft every step in your sales funnel
It’s not enough to create a series of emails that get drip-fed to new leads over a period of time and hope for clicks and sales. Each step in the sales process is actually an offer, starting with the opportunity to receive a free download in exchange for an email address.
Keep increasing the offers as people move along their journey
Offers often start out free, but gradually require the lead to invest some cash. Make sure you keep increasing the value of the offers you send your leads, and ensure those offers are relevant to each lead.
Every offer is actually a series of offers designed to increase purchase size. The AIDA marketing model is used by marketing gurus everywhere and stands for Attraction, Interest, Desire, Action.
As you collect more information about your leads, you can start tailoring your offers to appeal to their specific preferences. For example, if you sell pet products for both dogs and cats, you can send targeted offers based on the links they click in your emails.
The customer journey map is the pattern that emerges
The customer journey map tells the story of the customer’s experience with your brand, and paints the picture of the customer’s greater motivation – the data you need for crafting an effective sales funnel.
Always keep segmenting and match offers accordingly
Categorizing leads is essential because it tells you how to interact with them. For example, if a new lead signs up for your newsletter and shows interest in your product, they should be automatically tagged and moved to a segment designated for people who actively take interest in your products.
Tailor your sales funnel components to your product and market
Not every business should build a sales funnel based on the traditional sales model. Each component you employ as part of your sales funnel should execute data-driven action. Nothing should be random.
Prioritize data if you want to see sales soar
Over 50% of global marketers report that they have little or no knowledge of customer data, which is crucial for marketing. The more accurately you can market to your leads, the more sales you’ll get.
