How do you know if a sales funnel is right for your business? How do you know if it will work?
First, what IS a sales funnel?
There are 2 ways to think about a sales funnel.
#1 … a set of ads, pages, emails, and re-marketing in a specific sequence, with “if-this-then-that” scenarios.
#2 … using a website where there are different layers making up a sales funnel which includes blogs, ads, email, marketing automation, offers, lead magnets, etc.
What type of sales funnels are there?
There are six main types of sales funnels. These funnels can be stacked (linked) together or used on their own:
- Lead Magnet Funnel: In this funnel you are giving away a piece of information in return for a persons contact details
- Survey Funnel: The two main methods is segmentation as well as giving results from answering the survey.
- Mini-Class Funnel: This is an education funnel. The focus is on educating the client.
- Webinar Funnel: A webinar funnel is also an education funnel. A webinar could be evergreen or at a specific time to be live
- The Sales Funnel: The original is the sales funnel. This is what many people have in mind when considering sales funnel and it is how it started. It has an initial offer, Upsell and Down-sell process.
- Application Funnel: An application funnel has an offer and a booking. The goal is having a conversation with the person either via telephone or online meeting.
How to choose the right sales funnel?
Deciding on the right funnel has two key questions.
Question 1: How do people buy?
Question 2: What is your offer?
How people buy is extremely important. Here is an example …
If you are considering to buy a car, you want to test drive the car BEFORE buying. This means, the type of funnel would be an application sales funnel where part of the process is making a booking.
If you are selling an e-book, then an application funnel would not make sense but a lead magnet or sales funnel will.
What is your offer? In the car example it is a higher value ticket item. The higher the value, the more education is needed. In the car example, one could have videos educating people about the car. For an e-book the price is usually lower which means a sales page would be beneficial and enough to sell it.
What digital tools do you need for a sales funnel?
DO NOT get caught in the idea you need ALL the fancy stuff to get going with a sales funnel. Yes, when you want to automate, get detailed stats, etc there will be a need for advanced software.
Some people use word documents to create their funnel linked to a payment system. This means, in this case you do not even need a website or hosting. Just a Google account and payment processor.
There are various funnel software to choose from. And many work really well. It becomes a decision of what you really need to run sales funnels.
Mapping your sales funnel
And before anything else, you need to map out your sales funnels. This process will help you get clear on ALL the assets needed for your sales funnel.
Part of the process is also calculating the costs and expected ROI. This helps you to determine if getting a sales funnel is worth it.
If the calculation does not work out on paper, it will NOT work out in real life. Do not skip this important step.
It is called a miracle if a sales funnel works right out of the gate. The “trick” to a profitable sales funnel is the consistent testing and tweaking of the funnel. It is not a fire-and-forget process. There is work involved to improve the results form your sales funnel.
