What is a Sales Funnel?

Next, I will explain the reasons why the Sales Funnel is the best Marketing strategy for your business.

First of all, let me introduce myself so you know why I am writing this article and why I believe that both my students and the agency's clients need to definitely know what a Sales Funnel is.

A LOVER OF SALES FUNNELS

I am Gonzalo Castro, founder of The Funnel Box and the digital marketing academy, Héroes Digitales. Primarily, in both ventures, I try to help entrepreneurs, companies, and individuals with their own projects to implement marketing tools correctly to attract clients; I firmly believe that a conversion Funnel is the ideal system for them.

WHAT IS A SALES FUNNEL (SALES FUNNELS) IN DIGITAL MARKETING

I will not delve into technical terms, nor do I intend to write the typical articles that become endless and nobody usually understands, I will be as clear as possible.

A Funnel (or sales funnel in Spanish) is the steps we want that potential customer to take to perform an action we need, for example: making a call to our company, sending a contact form, or even making a purchase on our website.

To be clearer, before having digital marketing, many companies used to sell door-to-door, that is, going out to the street and selling “something” to people. The funnel serves to transition clients from “cold” to “warm”, allowing them to take the action we mentioned earlier.

Let’s see an example: imagine that we are an English teacher and we want to attract clients to teach classes online. Directly, I could have a website and start posting the link in different Facebook groups (a cold sales action since we have had no contact with these people). Surely someone will contact us, but we are really sending it to people who initially, many of them, are not interested in this service; those who are interested are called “cold”.

How can implementing a sales funnel help this business?

To begin with, as I mentioned earlier, we need to “nurture” that person, convincing them that we really have a lot of value to offer them; ideally, I would demonstrate it personally, which is why I would offer a free 30-minute class, what is known in English as hook, that is, a hook.

This will help a person who may have doubts to think: why not? It’s free and it might help me. Those 30 minutes will be our opportunity to demonstrate all our potential: the knowledge we have, the teaching methodology, how we usually connect with the student (empathy), among other aspects. This will give us many more chances for this potential client to ultimately hire us.

As we can see so far, if a person arrives at the site, they would only see a free 30-minute offer, no “cold selling”, just an opportunity to demonstrate and provide value to our client (we would not put any fees, because that also creates a need on the part of the person to know prices, which leads to them contacting us).

Let’s remember something fundamental: before digital marketing, we used to have a physical space, where the person came and saw a teaching school, chatted with the person, connected, and that generated trust. Today, being online, they need that time to be convinced that we are a good option, which is why “creating a hook” is ideal for closing a potential sale.

These steps we have detailed are exactly what it means to create a sales funnel; the series of stages we want our potential client to go through and really become one. 

Let’s detail the steps:

Step 1: the user sees our offer (hook) in the Facebook group; it could also be ads on Google Ads or Meta Ads, which is how it is usually done to accelerate sales.

Step 2: the client enters the website, sees the 30-minute offer, and acquires it.

Step 3: the potential client attends the 30-minute class.

Step 4: besides providing value in the class, we will comment on the offers we have for them to continue with us (sale).

Step 5: The potential client becomes one and begins with online English classes.

Nothing more, nothing less; this is a sales funnel. I tell you that this can have as many steps as you want, depending on your creativity and business needs.

Some graphic examples of Sales Funnels that I usually create for my clients

This is an example of a conversion sales funnel

Examples of Sales Funnels

Although we may not believe it, we are being “funneled” daily, and many do not even realize it, let's see an example that almost everyone knows.

A low-cost airline:

Normally, they offer us very cheap flights (hook). We, when searching, want to travel (we are a potential customer). The moment we find something that fits what we are looking for and is economical, we usually buy it. But before paying, the stages begin so that this airline can actually bill more. They offer us seat selection, then a larger suitcase, a second suitcase, priority boarding, and more (all the possible stages based on the number of services they have). As you can see, this is a very long funnel, and it will depend on all the extra services that can be sold, until it reaches the moment when payment is made.

Do you think the funnel ends here?

I regret to inform you that in many cases, since they have our email, they often contact us with new offers for those services we didn’t purchase, and many times they even tend to be cheaper with the aim of convincing us to buy. A clear example could be vehicle rentals.

And like this type of example, there is also another one such as the case of the CINEMA, you pay for a regular ticket, but before watching the movie they offer you popcorn, Coca Cola, among other things. More? Yes, of course! Before the movie starts, they play the typical trailers for other films, and in this way, they are making a passive sale; you are already feeling like coming back soon.

Why is this Marketing strategy important for your business?

I believe the reasons are more than clear in everything I’ve mentioned: the way in which you scale sales and convince our potential client of all the value we can provide to their needs.

And of course, let’s never forget that now we sell online; sorry for being repetitive! Today we do not connect directly with a person, that’s why an e-book, a free mini-course, a trial, whatever we provide, will help them to know us better, and begin to trust us.

I hope this article has helped you understand why for our marketing agency The Funnel Box, it is a system we use every day in our Digital Marketing strategies for our clients.

If you are looking to implement a Marketing strategy, which could also include SEO positioning, to increase sales, clients, and the expansion of your company, do not hesitate to contact us.