A solid lead generation funnel can be a valuable sales strategy to get your digital business producing sales at a competitive rate. In addition, this strategy can help turn a low-performing business into a high-performer almost overnight.
This article discusses what a lead generation sales funnel is and the basics of sales funnels. We then walk you through the process of setting up a lead generation sales funnel, step-by-step, offering tips along the way.
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What’s a Lead Generation Sales Funnel?
Have you heard of a lead generation sales funnel before? You may have heard the term thrown about—it’s a buzzword that’s seen a lot of use over the last several years. However, maybe you’ve listened to it but don’t know what it exactly means.
You probably know what lead generation is, but what is a sales funnel?
A good sales funnel operates as you would imagine. It’s funneling potential sales – prospects into your business, which could be a brick-and-mortar shop or an online presence. The company could also be an online web presence, resulting in more direct orders of your products or services.
The vital aspect is the increased sales the business experiences after implementing a sales funnel method. We’ll focus on businesses that have an online web presence, although this information could be adapted for brick-and-mortar businesses, as well.
What’s a Sales Funnel?
A sales funnel essentially a series of steps someone would take to purchase your item.
There are four standard stages to the sales funnel:
- Awareness
- Demand / Interest
- Decision
- Action
Each stage represents a customer’s state of mind and requires a unique approach from the seller.
Awareness is when the seller should try to catch the customer’s attention. The buyer becomes aware of the seller, but how that happens can vary.
Demand sometimes called interest, is when the buyer has taken an interest in your product and is considering a purchase. They may conduct research or shop around to compare offers. The seller should be careful not to be too pushy during this stage.
During the decision stage, the customer is ready to buy. This is when you, the seller, should make your best offer.
The last stage is the action stage. The customer acts on their previous decision and hits the purchase button, either for you or someone else!
Why is a Lead Generation Sales Funnel Important?
The lead generation sales funnel refers to the second stage of the sales funnel. At this point, you are trying to accumulate a list of relevant leads for your product.
For the first stage, you created some type of campaign—let’s say via social media. The campaign then encouraged the customer to give their email address. Perhaps the email was given in exchange for something, like a free ebook.
The customer was interested enough to exchange their email information for something, and the seller has now generated a new lead!
Also, this is important because, without leads, sellers can’t effectively market their products. Having access to quality leads is a game-changer for web businesses.
Step 1: Create a Website
One of the first steps to creating a lead generation sales funnel is creating a website.
Today, this is easier than ever before. Even amateur blogging people can create a high-converting website with today’s tools. Depending on the platform you choose to use, as little as zero programming skills are needed to create a quality website with high conversion capabilities.
Two excellent options for non-technical web creation are WordPress and Elementor’s landing page builder. Elementor allows users to create beautiful websites with all the necessary functions to convert web visitors to the next sales funnel stage.
You can put together a simple yet functional and visually appealing website in as little as a day. Once you have a functioning website, it’s time to tackle the next step!
Step 2: Lead Generation Sales Funnel (Creating Demand)
Now that you have an attractive website launched, it’s time to start bringing people through the door.
This is the demand generation step. Now that people know your website exists, are they interested in what you’re selling? They might not be at first. However, this is the time to inform them WHY they need your product or service.
One way to maximize demand generation is to personalize your content according to your target audience.
Consider Your Target Audience Demographics
Consider the demographics of your target audience and proceed accordingly. For example, people react differently to certain language styles depending on their age group.
If your target audience is professional women in their 50s and 60s, you won’t frame your message the same way as if you were addressing young men and women in their early 20s.
Consider factors like:
- Age
- Gender
- Education
- Income
- Location
Depending on your product, other factors may be essential to consider. For example, if your product is homemade pet food recipes, research what type of people are most likely to want homemade pet food.
Successfully Creating Demand
If you successfully create demand during this step, the customer will look further into your product. This is a great time to give them more information. If you have their email address, you may consider sending an informative email during this stage.
Remember, they’re likely to be shopping around to your competitors. It would be a shame to convince the customer that they needed a product like yours, only to have them purchase from your competition!
Most Effective Methods for Selling Services and Products
Now that you’ve launched your website and created demand, your lead generation sales funnel will be effective. So, this is great, as long as you have an effective method for selling your services and products.
Webinars are one of the most effective methods of selling expensive digital products and services. Depending on your digital business, you’ll want to seek out the best webinar software for your particular needs and functions.
Hosting live webinars is a particularly effective online sales strategy because it lets you interact with your audience and establish a connection with them.
Webinars are often educational, so prepare a topic that would be timely and interesting to your particular target audience.
Regardless of whether you opt to go down the webinar route or not, you must have some method in place to convert your leads into sales. Otherwise, the previous effort is wasted.
Summarizing the Lead Generation Funnel
Taking the first step in creating a lead generation funnel with no programming skills can often be intimidating. Just follow our outline step-by-step, and you’ll be on your way to operating a successful lead generation funnel in no time—no tech skills required!