Your sales funnel is a crucial part of your overall marketing strategy. The sales funnel is the roadmap to the customer’s journey from awareness to purchase. For the funnel to lead to a sale, each stage needs to work as intended to nurture the relationship by creating awareness, building trust, and finally converting the sale. While the middle of the funnel does a lot of the relationship building, this can’t happen without a top-of-funnel strategy. How does your ideal client get into your sales funnel, to begin with? That’s where Cole’s lead lists come in.
What is a sales funnel and how does it work?
The sales funnel strategy was created in 1890 with the idea that if you create desire in your prospect, you can overcome their objections and lead them to buy once you have them circulating in your sales funnel. There have been many iterations of the sales funnel in the last 120 years but the principle stays the same: create awareness about your product, garner consideration and convert it to a sale. Some recent updates to the funnel include adding brand loyalty and brand advocacy to the bottom of the funnel, something that keeps up with modern sales and marketing strategies like points-based rewards systems and referral discounts.
Next, we will break down the fundamentals of a marketing funnel and how each part plays an important role in the overall success.
Awareness
In order for customers to come out of the bottom of the funnel (by making a purchase) they first need to enter the funnel. The top-of-funnel strategy is crucial and nonnegotiable to your entire funnel marketing strategy. What draws them into a sales funnel is identifying their problem with clear and compelling messaging, then exposing that problem repeatedly.
The awareness stage is all about creating brand and product awareness that draws prospective customers into your funnel. By showing some level of interest and engaging with you, you have caught your prospect in your funnel and you can then start developing trust and authority within that relationship to lead them to make a purchase.
Consideration
The consideration stage can be as long and as short as your client and your marketing efforts require. How long a client circulates within the consideration stage, the middle part of your sales funnel depends on their individual needs and how much convincing they need to make the purchase. It’s your job to act as an authority on the product you sell and nurture the relationship with useful information on how you solve their problem.
Conversion
Once your prospective buyer has decided to purchase, your objective is to make it as easy as possible for them. The bottom of the funnel is where the majority of the nurturing and nudging comes in. The prospects who have made it to the bottom of the funnel, have shown their commitment to learning more about what you can do to serve them, they just need that final push to buy.
How to build your funnel when sales are slow
If you’re looking to grow your business, establishing an effective top-of-funnel strategy is key. Capturing a high volume of prospects in the early stages and then funneling them through qualifying steps ensures that by the time they reach their potential purchase decision, you have a higher chance at converting leads into customers – even if some don’t convert initially; ongoing nurturing can keep those prospects engaged so they join back up with later marketing efforts.
Crafting an effective top-of-funnel strategy can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! We’ve got the tips and tricks you need to get your campaign off on the right foot.
- Identify and understand your audience. Having a clear picture of what it is your target audience is trying to accomplish or how they envision success will lend to the strategy you use to engage with them. Cole’s powerful lead lists give you the advantage to reach prospective sellers first and begin their journey through your sales funnel.
- Craft useful educational content that engages your audience and draws them into your funnel. By giving away something (seemingly) for free, you begin building trust and authority in the relationship and keep yourself top-of-mind. Providing relevant and valuable content further down the funnel helps convert those leads to sellers as the relationship grows.
- Create a blog. A blog provides a place for all that useful content to live. A blog is a good strategy for optimizing your reach and building your top-of-funnel with specific, targeted keywords. Your blog can live on your website
- Consider a podcast. A podcast is another great, evergreen way to attract new leads and nurture existing leads in your funnel.
- Create lead-generators that are informative and useful to your audience. Research the demographics of your market or the specific neighborhood you’re targeting. Is it new, first-time homeowners? Soon-to-be-retirees? What content will they find useful for their specific stage in life that will get them into your funnel and keep you top of mind?
- Email marketing. Email marketing remains the most effective form of direct marketing. Email marketing nurtures mid-funnel prospects with relevant, educational and entertaining content directly in their inbox. An effective email marketing campaign also helps collect data on the behaviors and engagement of your prospects, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
- Cold calling. One of the oldest forms of direct marketing is cold calling. Though not as effective as other forms of direct marketing, cold calling is a vital piece of your overall top-of-funnel strategy. To learn more about cold calling with Cole’s lead lists, read our blog article on cold calling and download our cold calling playbook.
- Social media advertising. Whether you opt for paid advertising or not, social media ads can be very powerful when done correctly. Conversely, when done poorly, social media advertising can do more harm than good. Things to consider:
– Know your audience
– Consistency and frequency are key
– Use data to adjust your advertising approach
– Interact with your audience - Quizzes and checklists. Similar to downloadable PDFs, lead-generators like quizzes and checklists engage your audience in a way that places you as the authority and guide in their journey.
- Measure and adjust! The goal of a marketing funnel is to capture a broad audience at the top and narrow it down as they move through the funnel. You have multiple opportunities to reach the right client, you just need to know what they’re looking for. If it isn’t this run through the funnel, it may be the next.
Having a strong sales funnel strategy is essential if you want to be top of mind with prospective sellers when the time comes to sell. If you find yourself in a sales slump, don’t despair. By examining your sales funnel and implementing some basic tactics, you can get back on track and put yourself top of mind. Cole’s lead lists give you the power to maximize your sales funnel and establish connections with homeowners.
Get ahead of the competition by leveraging this invaluable tool today!
