Do you hear the word ‘sales funnel’ a lot? But is the only funnel you’ve heard of used to pour liquids into things?
A sales funnel is a way of looking at the customer journey, from becoming aware of your business to making a purchase. It’s a model of the typical stages to take each lead through to turn them into a customer.
It is called a funnel because the amount of people that enter the funnel, is generally a lot smaller than the number that end up making a purchase (unless you are lucky enough to convert people from the beginning).
The first stage of the funnel is called the awareness stage, this is where we will begin our series of articles that focus on the funnel.
The awareness stage is when potential leads become aware that your business exists (what a surprise I know?!).
Typically, at this stage customers know they have a problem and are looking for a solution, but they don’t know what that is yet.
At this stage you want to educate people about your brand, what it is and what it does, and start to build trust. Hard selling at this point is not encouraged.
How to Create Awareness
Social media marketing: Depending on the type of business you have social media can help to attract leads online. We are Social’s “Digital in 2020” report found that 3.8 billion of the world’s population are on social media, so it makes sense to go where the people are. A strong social media strategy with ad spending could have a powerful effect here.
Content marketing: This is another option to spread the word about your business. Blogs are one of the most popular but videos, educational webinars, infographics, etc. are other options.
Smart tip: As well as blogging on your own site, guest posts on sites with a lot of followers could help to create awareness.
SEO: In the modern world potential customers are likely to look to google to solve a lot of their problems. SEO or search engine optimization is the art of making your business website more visible on Google. If your business is high on a list of search results when people are looking for solution’s, then you may see increased traffic to your site, hello awareness.
Not One Size Fits All
Just a heads up that sales funnels can be different for each business, depending on industry, type of product etc.
Plug the Gaps with Live Support Software
Once leads move from the awareness stage down the funnel, live support software could help to plug any leaks that you have in your process. Customers can find out more about your product in instant, live, one-to-one conversations. And advisors can collect lead information, attempt to turn visitors into customers, and upsell in them too. Get started with Xeno today.
