Sales Funnel Tips: The Building Blocks Of An Online Sales Funnel
For about as long as people have been selling products, they’ve been thinking about where to find customers and how to reach them. The classic sales and marketing funnels date back to the late 1800s and provide a simple metaphor to think about the path a customer takes on the way to purchase.
Building a sales funnel is like building something from lego pieces. You have this set of pieces and you just have to connect them together.
The building blocks of a sales funnel is a model of how to take a visitor from prospect to customer. It can also be used as a starting point in building a journey map.
The building blocks have 4 categories – a few of them for each step of the customer journey:
Pre-frame bridge
Quizzes
You can see many of them on all of the internet, especially on Facebook. Why quizzes are great is because you can ask for an email address in exchange for the result. You can also put viewers into different segments (funnels), depending on their answers. Quizzes give quick results. People love quick results.
Blog articles
They are great for cold traffic resulting from an ad or a google search. Most likely they will work better if they are placed on a third-party website. they are good to pre-frame any topic. For example, compare existing solutions on the market with an explanation of why your solution is better.
News website
The news tends to grab more attention than other non-news information. The downside is that they have a shorter life, but usually, it’s worth writing to them.
Videos
They are great for pre-framing material, such as testimonials. You can use them to educate viewers. As with every other element, don’t forget about a strong call-to-action.
Pre-framing via email works well if you’re using JV partners to endorse you or buy a solo ad.
Bridge pages
These are great when wanting to educate people and give them background information. These pages have a call-to-action leading to the product page. These are also known as pre-sell pages. Connecting the visitor from the landing page to the sales page.
Qualifying subscribers
Pop-ups
This element is kind of obsolete now, but it still has some use in special circumstances.
Squeeze page
This is a very simple page that looks like a popup, where the user has only two choices – give their email address to go forward or leave the page. They are very effective.
Squeeze pop
These are like squeeze pages, but you can place them in many places on the same page.
Free plus shipping, two-step form
In the first step, the user is asked for an email with some personal information. In the second step, he is asked to pay for the shipping. So, we have two steps in one form – qualifying subscribers and qualifying buyers.
Webinar registration
Free webinars are great to generate leads. Also, take them to the next step in the sale process.
Free account
It works very well with software and membership programs. Where the user can sign up for a free trial and if it’s something they see using, they will upgrade to a paid subscription.
Exit pop
Once people want to leave your site show them a popup with a great headline. This is the last chance to get their email address before they leave your site.
Qualifying buyers
Free plus shipping offer
This is my favorite way to qualify buyers. This way they are willing to pay for a
Trial
A very low-cost trial offer is also a great way to qualify buyers.
Tripwire
You can offer one part of your product for a very small price – like seven dollars.
Self-liquidating offers (SLO)
Some of your offers, like free-plus-shipping, may lose you money, this offer will help you get your money back. It’s a more expensive one, between $ 37-$ 97 dollars. People need a strong bond with your Attractive Character to buy these types of products.
Straight sale
A regular sale with one of your high-ticket items (between $ 97-$ 5,000 dollars or higher).
Identify hyperactive buyers
One-time offers
Usually, these are additional offers that complete the value of the initial one.
Down-sales
When a buyer refuses your one-time offer, you can try to sell them a regular payment plan version.
Affiliate recommendation
When the buyer finishes all the purchasing steps and is on the “thank you” page, you can link him to other offers he might be interested in.
Final thoughts
Most of the time, the very first funnel you build may not make you profitable. In fact, the goal of your first funnel is to acquire customers and to breakeven.
As you get better at this, you will come across several new strategies and techniques to filter more people through your business.
You have made it to the end. By “end”, I really mean the beginning. Now that you’ve gone through the concept and the recipe, you’re ready to build your own sales funnel.