5 February 2018 - Richard Shire
You want your website to be more than a brochure, you want it to work for you and to make sales. There are lots of strategies to create a highly converting website and a sales funnel is just one of them. A sales funnel is simply a process by which you can generate leads and turn these leads into sales. In this post we will explain what this strategy involves so you can make it work for your business.
When you map out your sales funnel, you map out your customer’s journey from first contact with you to buying your service or product. Sales funnels do not have to follow any set formula but in the interests of this post we will break down a simple sales funnel flow for you now.
A lead magnet is a free product or service that you give away to your potential customers. It has two clear intentions, firstly to demonstrate your value and to provide useful information/support for those who sign up. The second intention is to gather email addresses and/or other data from your potential clients so you can keep in contact and continue to build a relationship.
You can advertise your lead magnet in many places using various different strategies but we recommend that your website is the main platform you gift it to your customers. You can do this on the landing page by adding an opt in. This means that as soon as they visit your page they are given the opportunity to sign up and become part of your email list (while getting something great and valuable in return)
Once you have their email address, a nurturing on-boarding sequence, automated by an email service is the best way to build the relationship and demonstrate how you can support your prospects in your area of expertise.
Examples of email services include Mailchimp, Constent Contact and Active Campaign. It is important to use a reputable company for this process because the information you are being provided with is sensitive. You have a duty to ensure the email addresses are kept safe and the subscribers understand why they are receiving mail, the big email companies will take care of this for you.
Ideally this campaign should be between 3 – 7 emails, a day apart. Each one should have a focus to either entertain or educate and overall you should make sure you are providing real value to your new subscribers, after all this is a fantastic opportunity to become invaluable and make meaningful connections. You can also use the opportunity to address any objections people might have to using your business, share your story and testimonials.
When this is all automated you don’t have to do anything, once your subscribers have opted in, they will automatically get your emails in the time frame you set up. This makes the process easy and an efficient use of time.
Once the onboarding sequence is complete you can continue to send weekly, bi-weekly or monthly updates to your subscribers providing them with more value and letting them have exclusive access to any offers you have available.
A tripwire is a low cost, low risk product or service that you can sell in the early stages of the relationship between your prospect and your business. People are more likely to spend more money on higher value products if they have seen the benefit of the lower cost ones. The trip wire serves to take the next step in demonstrating your value. You can offer the trip wire as part of your email marketing onboarding sequence.
Which of your products or services are the most desirable, where do you want your customer journey to end? The purpose of the sales funnel is to ultimately lead people to the most expensive offer you have by nurturing them and showing them how your business offering could create a transformation for them.
Obviously what this looks like physically for you will depend on your industry, ideal client and brand but the process is the same.
Additional Resource
Here at Aspire Shire we want to enable your website to practically convert more visitors into customers. We love the concept of a sales funnel because it gives you a system to make a sale and it all starts with your prospects first visit to your website.
For more information about how we can design a website enriched with an opt-in, contact us for a free consultation.