Why Your Business Needs A Sales Funnel

How do customers go from hearing about a product or service to ultimately purchasing it? Chances are, they have entered a business’s sales funnel and came out the other side as a paying customer.

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is an automated journey a prospect goes through to become a customer. It usually consists of three to four steps that convince interested prospects to take a certain action. As customers continue to be interested, they work their way down the funnel.

Elias St. Elmo Lewis devised the sales funnel process back in 1989. He outlined four steps:

• Attention: When a customer is first made aware of your business or the products or services you sell.
• Interest: The customer is curious about your business, how it solves a problem or gives them something they want.
• Desire: The customer begins to like the product and develops a fondness for it.
• Action: The customer does more research, samples the product, and eventually purchases it.

It’s called a funnel because of the way it looks on paper. The top is wide as awareness reaches a lot of people and eventually narrows as the pool of interested individuals becomes smaller and more targeted.

Why Your Business Need A Sales Funnel

A sales funnel is the backbone of every online business. Here’s why your business needs one:

It builds a relationship

Most customers don’t make major purchases right away. They do their homework, study their options, and buy from brands they trust. A sales funnel allows that relationship to blossom.

You focus on the right leads

Uninterested customers will leave your funnel on their own, leaving you to devote your time and resources to those who are most interested.

It sets the stage for ongoing sales

When customers enter your sales funnel, they are at varying stages of the buying process. Those that are further along will become paying customers. The others are on a journey that will result in an eventual sale. Keeping interested customers engaged in sales funnel means a steady stream of customers in the future.

Accountability for your sales

Every activity in your sales funnel is tracked, so you will know your most effective content, your best selling products, the social media platform that has the most responses, and the geography of your most paying customers. Having a sales funnel helps you understand the sales process and adjust to what is working the best.

You can monitor your metrics

Sales funnel software can give you more information than the page views your website typically gives. It measures traffic, returns traffic, sales qualified leads, conversion rates, cost per lead, sales velocity, and much more.

If you’d like to learn more about sales funnels and how they can help your business, contact Web Strategy Plus. We create engaging sales copy that expands the number of visitors who enter your funnel and enticing landing pages that persuade visitors to take action. We can build a sales funnel for your business that is both effective and affordable. Contact us today for a free consultation. For more tips to grow your business, check us out on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and SlideShare.

10 Reasons That Prove Email Marketing Should Be Your Top Priority

People tend to think email marketing does not get the same attention as social media. However, what people don’t realize is it proves to be one of the most effective direct means of growing your business. Learn 10 Reasons That Prove Email Marketing Should Be Your Top Priority:

1. Email Use

With over 3.2 billion email accounts in the world today, 95% of the world’s population have direct access and 91% check their emails at least once a day. Email is an integral part of our daily lives and no one can really quit emailing.

2. Reach

The idea of reach for email is completely different than Social Media. For social networking, reach refers to the number of followers and likes who have seen your message. With email reach is determined by whether the person has opened it or not. Research shows 18% of emails are blocked and 4% are delivered to the junk or spam folder. However, on Facebook 74% of the messages are missed. Therefore email proves to be more reliable.

3. Life Span

75% of Facebook posts last around 2 hours while the life of a tweet is just 5 minutes. However, an email stays in your inbox and even if you want to delete it – it requires an additional action.

4. Return on Investment

As per the Email Marketing Benchmark Report of 2013, 60% of marketers stated that email marketing produces ROI. For every $1, the standard return on email marketing is $44.24.

5. Analytics

Email has set up solid metrics that have served as the standard for many years. Open Rates, Unsubscribes and Growth can be easily tracked with sales and profits. With a simple formula, you can determine the value of your email subscribers.

6. Engagement

People don’t usually talk about email and engagement in the same sentence. However, emails are excellent engagement vehicles and can serve as a two-way street. Best practice is not to send emails with a no-reply address. Be sure you make it easy for your customers to communicate with you.

7. Integration

The best part is that social media and email are friends. Many services allow you to post your email messages out to various social networks. This connection is great for business growth and helps in establishing cross-platform initiatives.

8. Promotional

Around 77% of people prefer to get promotional content via email while only 4% prefer it via Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook is viewed as a platform for establishing connections and to interact with family and friends. Emails are perceived differently, mainly due to its privacy and simplicity. In a recent survey, 70% of recipients stated that they have used discounts and promotional coupons received in promotional emails.

9. Mobility

Litmus stated that 66% of Gmail inboxes are accessed via mobile phones. A major number of transactions will be done online, and mobile email amounts to 13% of it. Smart marketers have learned how to embrace email and carve out a whole new channel to promote their products.

10. Personalization

Email has the power to send promotional content to hundreds of people at one time while still maintaining the same standards of personalization.

In conclusion, Email marketing has proven to be a networking channel that can truly help you establish a valued relationship between you and your subscriber.