Do You Know How to Manage Your Sales Funnel

Your business needs to have a sales funnel. Business to consumer sales funnels aren’t usually as complex as business to business sales funnels. Service businesses usually require more research in their sales funnels and don’t always end in a sales transaction. 

What Does a Sales Funnel Look Like?

At the widest point of your funnel, you have your target market. As you go down the tunnel to the narrowest spot, you have your paying customer. Inside that funnel are steps that occur that turn your target market into visitors, into prospects, into shoppers, into buyers, into paying customers. 

Step #1 Convert target customers into visitors – You’ll be able to do this well if you have taken the time to identify who your target market is. Use a keyword tool like Google AdWords. Once you know who your target market is make sure that your site is visible in directories, blogs, search engines, affiliate sites, etc. In this stage of your sales funnel, your goal is to identify the target market and send visitors to your site (store). Here are some marketing tools to help you achieve that goal. 

* Search engine optimization – SEO focuses on the keywords most likely to bring visitors to your site.
* Social media – Make sure you have a visible social media presence. 
* Online advertising – This includes Amazon ads, PPC ads, banner ads on affiliate sites, etc.
* Marketplaces - Sell on Buy.com, Overstock.com, Amazon, eBay, etc.
* Blogs - Your blog needs to be compelling. The content needs to attract relevant traffic.
* Comparison shopping engines – Provide support product feeds to Bing Shopping, Google Shopping, Nextag, etc.

Step #2 Convert visitors to prospects – Once the visitors have made it to your landing page on your site; you need to engage them further. A prospect is defined as someone who browses at least three pages and bookmarks your site. Here are some factors you can use to turn visitors into prospects.

* Site design – Create a design that is clean and easy to view.
* Good navigation – Build a site that is easy to navigate and has a good site search. 
* Compelling content – Offer content that is both original and interesting. Offer detailed descriptions the products you sell. 
* Load times – Make sure your site loads fast or people will leave. Keeping your images smaller will help.
* Security and trust - Establish trust through memberships and testimonials, and by providing a detailed “about us” page that tells about the company. 
* Merchandising – It’s really important to offer promotions within your store. However, make sure that you are clear about what these promotions are.
* Landing pages – Make sure your landing pages are tightly integrated with where your visitors are coming from and how they might search.  
* Signup points – Provide links that are easy to find for your email signup, your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. 

Step #3 Converting Prospects to Paying Customers

You are now ready to get prospects to put one or more items in their shopping care. Here are some key elements you should have.

* Chat and phone support – There should be a way for prospect to get immediate answer to their questions such as live chat. Email is too slow you will lose them. 
* Newsletters - Send a confirmation email to initial subscribers. Offer them choices about what they would like to get updates on. 
* Social media postings - Mix your posts up with instructions on new products, offers, how-to tips, surveys, images, etc. 
* FAQs - A section on frequently asked questions is very beneficial for those looking for immediate answers to their questions. It’s a good place to put info on products, pricing, discounts, shipping, and returns.

