Monday Mar 09, 2020
Automated Sales Funnels: Why They Work From Top To Bottom
Business success is all about the process. Your automated sales funnel is no different. Everything from lead generation to sales and marketing involves having streamlined processes to turn traffic and visitors into sales and revenue.
Today, I will discuss one of the most important aspects of converting customers—using an automated sales funnel.
Before we get into the details, we need to have a clear understanding of the basic terminology or what a sales funnel is. If you're curious how to set up a sales funnel for your business, check out this Funnel Factor report!
What is a sales funnel?
In the simplest of words, marketing can be defined as the series of steps a customer has to go through before they end up converting into a sale.
Though sales funnels and systems have been around forever, both online and off, in this fast-paced world with the internet and technology, it has become easier for a business owner to create an automated sales funnel and convert customers than ever.
So, how do sales funnels work?
First of all, you need to understand that the goal of a sales funnel is to make it easy for someone to understand what you do, find out how you do it, and ultimately take action on an offer—in other words, convert it into a sale.
Typical stages of the sales funnel
Now that you know how a sales funnel is laid out, let's shift the conversation toward the different stages a customer must go through.
And believe me, this isn't a newfangled marketing tactic. Automated sales funnels follow the time-tested and age-old A.I.D.A. Principle. AIDA and the overall approach are commonly attributed to American advertising and sales pioneer E. St. Elmo Lewis. They can be found in almost every marketing textbook on the planet.
Awareness
Like a toddler learning language by becoming familiar with the alphabet, the first step of the prospect's journey in this funnel begins with the letter A... i.e., Awareness.
To bring people into the automated sales funnel, you need to make them aware that you have the solution to a problem they are facing. For example, you are selling a car. You need to target the audience—someone who commutes on the local bus and who would rather drive themselves.
So, initially, you must inform them you have a car for them.
Interest
Now that the customer knows you have a solution to their problem, you need to build their interest.
Answer the question – why should they choose your product?
Continuing from the above example – why should they consider buying the car you're selling?
This is where building interest comes into the picture. It would be best to let the customer know about features of your product like affordability, low maintenance, better convenience, higher social status, and other things that'll help your prospect consider purchasing the vehicle...
Desire
Once the customer passes through the second stage and is considering your offer, it's time to increase their desire. This can be done through a demo, a free trial, an explanation of the benefits they'll experience once they purchase, etc.
In the car example, offering a test drive is the classic move that increases desire. Once they sit behind the wheel and take the car out for a spin, they immediately feel a sense of ownership... What would it be like taking the kids to school in this car? How awesome would it be if I didn't have to wake up 60 minutes early every day to catch the bus... At this point, the only stage left is to take action and purchase the vehicle!
Action
This is the final stage of the sales process. The prospect is now all set to buy your product/service, usually through a sales letter, be it a video sales letter or a traditional sales letter. To see how all of this works in your business, book an Action Plan call, and we'll diagram a funnel for you!
Once the customer is satisfied with all the information gathered in the previous funnel steps, it's time for them to decide and purchase your product or service.
Content and content marketing plays a massive role throughout this process. After all, that’s how the customer moves through the different stages of the funnel. Your prospect doesn't stay connected or hooked to the offer without engaging content.
Don’t forget that in today's marketplace, your competitors are outside like hungry wolves waiting to pounce on your prospect. So, you cannot afford to let your customers go once they are in the automated sales funnel. You need to keep them engaged even once they're through your funnel!
Now, throughout this automated sales funnel, the customer journey can be divided itointo different phases based on their stage. Here’s a look into those phases.
Prospect
At this stage, the customer is naïve —he or she is looking for information about your brand or about a solution to their problem, but they're unaware of what you do and definitely don't have the information to make a decision yet. Often, we get them to raise their hand at this point by downloading a lead magnet or signing up for a webinar.
Qualified lead
When a customer begins digging into your products and services, either by filling out a contact form or signing up for a piece of marketing collateral you offer, they move from the prospect stage to the qualified lead stage.
Interested
This is the stage where the customer starts to show real interest in what you are selling by exploring your products/services in detail. Usually, this happens after attending a webinar, watching a sales video, or filling out a form for a strategy session with you.
Decided
When the customer decides to buy what you are selling, he or she will contact your salesperson or click an Add To Cart button on your website to take action.
Won / Lost
The last stage, when the customer is satisfied with the information you have to offer, is after they purchase. At that point, you're fulfilling your product or service, and they're getting what they paid for!
Conclusion
In conclusion, this is the simplest and clearest way to describe how a marketing funnel works and the different stages that a customer goes through while in it.
Getting prospects to enter this funnel is pretty straightforward. Usually, you give a download, webinar registration, or something they opt-in for... After that, though, the real work begins.
To keep your prospects moving through the funnel stages, you must give them what they need to progress through the automated sales funnel as quickly as possible. Sometimes, a buyer decides in 5 minutes... Other times, it could take months.
Remember: Content is your best friend when it comes to conversion. Focus on creating awesome content that can keep potential customers learning and moving through your process, and you'll be well on your way to setting up an automated sales funnel that converts day and night!
If you're interested in a Done For You Sales Funnel, schedule a call, and we'll chat about it!
Video Transcript:
In today's video, we will discuss how sales funnels work from top to bottom.
Now, this is loaded. I mean, it's a loaded question because there are so many different kinds of sales funnels. There are three foundational sales funnels that we build for most of our clients, and they are largely determined based on price and complexity.
The more expensive an offer is, the more high-touch it will end up being. So, your low-touch sales funnels are automated sales funnels that are like VSL upsell sequences, like a video sales letter followed by an upsell sequence.
Above that is a multi-video launch sequence, usually three or four sales videos that walk through a specific sales process. That bond is engaged, and basically, you know, you sell a prospect.
So you know, turn them into a customer. And then you have your automated webinars and auto-made webinars with two different kinds of calls, two distinct calls to action.
One is an order form, so it's straight-up added to the cart, and the other one is to book a call with a sales rep. So that's generally the framework that we follow. The more complex, the more high-ticket, you know, we tend to skew towards an automated webinar with a sales call.
Now, that process can be shortcutted with a fully qualified lead sales video, which we have been testing and doing recently because people want something done quickly. That's one of the reasons why these FTL VSL funnels work really, really well.
But to talk about a sales funnel is really to understand how a prospect warms up to you. So there is an age-old marketing acronym, Ada Ada, that we learned in college, you know, in a marketing class. It was one of those things that was in the textbook. I remember being on a quiz, and I was like, I'm never going to use this.
This is wild. It's 130 years old.
But here's the thing like, it doesn't matter whether it is 100 years or 50 years or 20 years, businesses business you know, so, whether somebody is bonding with you and progressing through a sales cycle in person, or whether they are bonding with you and progressing through a sales cycle, digitally through an automated funnel, the same process is happening.
The same, the same four-step, you know, the thing is going on, they are being attracted into your world, your silo, your business, your brand. They are increasingly interested, so they're becoming increasingly interested in you and what you're doing in your offer; they are growing in desire.
So the more they learn about you, the more they see, they watch the video, they read your sales copy, they visit your blog, they attend webinars, they open your email, the more desire they have for the thing, that the offer that you were making the thing that you are going to be selling them, which leads to the fourth step, which is taking action.
So taking action is the last piece of the puzzle where they pull out their credit card, and they buy whether that or they, you know, you agree to have an invoice sent to them, and they purchase no matter how it works. Those are four primary cycles or the four pieces of the sales process now; when you apply those principles to a sales funnel, you can see them playing out like this.
So, let's say we have an automated webinar selling a high-ticket coaching program or some high-ticket service. So let's say it's a 20 $500 a-month coaching program that is three months long, let's say. So all in all, you know, it's 2500 a month for three months, and there's some fast action discount that drops 1500 dollars off the price, so we set up an automated webinar that plays immediately on-demand after somebody signs up for it.
We also set up a lead magnet and 2025 emails that move them through from a marketing automation standpoint. That's what we do for all of our clients.
When that funnel is up and running, we have a Facebook ad invite you to know; it's a video that invites them to sign up for the webinar or the lead magnet; 20 3050 100 200 500,000 people see that video. It is, it isn't.
It's casting a net. It is inviting people. If you know anybody attracted to this thing, click the link and click the button you know to watch the video. That is the purpose of, you know, that net, and you can do retargeting. You can do content videos, live streams, and everything just to cast a vast net so that people become attracted to you, where you can attract your ideal target market through the words you use and the modalities. You create whatever.
Now, they hit your landing page. They signed up for your webinar and opted in. They receive your webinar content, their lead magnet, emails, blogtheirts, and the things that increase their interest and ultimately into a desire for the thing you're selling.
This process happens because they are receiving stuff from you. After all, they're receiving content.
Then, finally, you make an offer that resonates with them, and they turn that into a pitch. So, the attractiveness piece is everything outside. You know, like that.
First, a is everything that happens outside of your wheelhouse outside of your silo to pull them in. Once you pull them in, and they are, they have opted in for your stuff. Then you work at increasing their desire and ultimately turning, turning, you know, converting them into that action for your offer.
Those steps can play out in as little as two hours, as little as 15 minutes, or it might take six years. I find people who have been on my list for six years, and then they just now have signed up for a sales funnel, or we're running traffic for them, or whatever. You know, they have just made the decision, and then it's time for them to jump and move forward.
You know, so there's always that. So that is this: the sales funnel process and how everything works from top to bottom. Now, your sales funnel is going to be a little bit different. Just purely because your offers are other, your business is distinct.
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