Conversion Funnel Stages.Having a funnel or conversion funnel working is essential to control the profitability of a company and improve sales opportunities.And today, most online businesses take it into account.Do you know what a conversion funnel is and why it is so important in your digital marketing strategy? If you have an online project and you have not started your funnel yet, you need to read this post.
I am going to tell you what a conversion funnel is and what are the phases that you should take into account, what it is for and why it is important to apply it in your digital marketing strategy.
What is the Conversion Funnel.
The conversion funnel, also called a conversion funnel or sales funnel, is a kind of scheme that represents the process of a person from when he knows you as a brand until he meets a goal that you have set for yourself.
That is, they are the steps that a potential client takes from when they discover you until they buy, subscribe, download a lead magnet or schedule a session, for example.
Many people confuse the concept of a conversion funnel with the funnel or sales funnel, and although at first glance we are talking about the same thing, there is a small difference.
- The sales funnel aims to do just that, to sell a product or service.
- The conversion funnel is related to any objective: a lead, a subscription, a reservation, a call … Although it is true that the final objective is always the sale.
In short, the conversion or sales funnel falls within any inbound marketing strategy , where the maxim is to attract potential customers in a more indirect and subtle way through a process.The funnel serves to outline the marketing strategy that you are going to carry out.
There is an indisputable fact: all of us always go through the same process, from when we come across a new brand until we become ambassadors for that brand and recommend it to each and every one of our friends.
We work like this.With the funnel, you are going to take into account all the phases or levels of consciousness that your target audience will go through, in order to achieve the highest number of conversions.From there, it will also serve to see the percentage of people who are left out in the final stages of the funnel.In this way you can implement improvements to achieve your goals more profitably and effectively.
Conversion Funnel Stages You Must Know.
Let’s now see what are those phases or stages within the conversion funnel that any user goes through.
Acquisition Phase.
In this first stage we seek to attract as many people as possible to get to know our brand.Those people have no idea who we are or what we offer, so we are talking about cold traffic .This ignorance is what produces the rejection of the sale from minute 1, and that is why we must start with this first contact in the funnel.
The objective of this phase is to publicize the brand, gain visibility and traffic to our website, blog, social networks … any medium in which you educate your audience with interesting content related to your products or services (no pure sales and hard).
What actions can we take at this stage of the funnel?
- You can write blog articles on questions related to your products or services. For example, if you have an online store about vegan foods, you can write an article about a recipe that includes your products. Or if you sell community manager services , you can write a post about what are the most effective hours to post on Instagram .
- You can also publish posts on social networks with informative content that is related to your business model.
- You can do advertising campaigns in search engines like Google so that, when a user is looking for something related to your products / services or business model, you appear in the first results and increase traffic to your website.
- You can advertise on social networks to cold traffic for people who, through a previous study of your ideal client , may be interested in what you offer, with ads that attract attention and arouse curiosity with educational content.
Activation Phase.
Once you have captured that traffic of people who have reached your website and social networks, it is time to build trust .Users have already met you, but why would they buy from you or take action on something that benefits you?You must show them that you can benefit them, and that you are a trustworthy brand.
At this stage of the funnel, the action par excellence is to have a lead magnet aligned with your business model .
In case you don’t know, a lead magnet is free content that is given to users and that solves a specific problem in a short time, in exchange for their contact information.With this data, the strategies that comprise the funnel will continue, such as email marketing, Facebook and Instagram Ads campaigns or phone calls from a salesperson.
Organically, that lead magnet can be placed as a banner on your website, within a well-positioned post on your blog, or by linking on your social networks.You can also run lead capture campaigns on Facebook.
With the lead magnet you will not only get even more traffic to your website , but you will start to build trust by giving away something that solves a specific problem for your audience.
The key here is not to solve the whole problem and leave them wanting more , being that more your main product or service.
Retention Phase.
In the retention stage we are going to work even more on trust, ensuring that the user spends as much time as possible interacting with us , either on social networks, on our website or through email.The truth is that the phases of the funnel will depend on the price of our products or services.
Trying to sell a book will not be the same as a training course, for example.The more expensive it is, the more difficult it will be for you to make the decision and therefore more trust will have to be worked on. The phases drag on.
There are some more frequent actions in marketing when we are in this phase of the conversion funnel.
One of them is the webinar (especially live), in which we talk about the main problems our potential clients have, we transmit trust and authority as a brand and we explain how our products or services solve those problems.
In the case of social networks , they often use sweepstakes to generate interaction, and share content such as unboxings, making off, teaching offices or who are members of the team, make direct questions and answers, surveys …
An email marketing campaign , on the other hand, is perhaps the most powerful tool for creating relationships with customers and turning them into recurring sales.
The moment we get the data of these people through email marketing, we can send them emails that are entertaining, that arouse curiosity and that always link to the products or services that we want to sell.
The procedure is simple:
A powerful email subject that makes you want to enter and read the content , content that entertains and makes you want to continue reading until the end, and an ending that calls for action and has to do with the objective of your funnel.It is about creating a sequence of emails that generate sufficient trust and guide your potential customers to the next phase of the funnel: the sale.
Sales Phase.
We have reached the peak of the conversion funnel, and that is the main conversion, the objective for which we define the strategy.This stage consists of converting all those people who have followed us and interacted with us, creating a relationship of trust, into clients.
In this phase, these people just need a final push to feel like they are making the right decision and taking action.That is why the most recurrent and effective is to use social proof and testimonials , reviews from previous clients, success stories , even live product tests.Those people need the latest reasons to confirm that they are right to buy from you.
Reference Phase.
Last but not least, the reference phase.Many businesses forget this phase of the conversion funnel and believe that everything is over when they go on sale.They give top priority to selling, but what happens next?
In marketing there is a saying that is a truth like a cathedral: it is easier to sell to a person who has already bought you than to another who does not know you at all.
Translated: it makes no sense to end the funnel in the sales phase, if the greatest benefits are going to be found in the referral phase.
If you work after sales and get satisfied customers, not only will they buy from you again, but they will recommend you to other people . They will become brand ambassadors .
And there is no better marketing than word of mouth.
However, leaving it all in the sale means starting over from the first phase of the funnel and investing time and money in attracting cold traffic and building trust again.
One roll, come on.
Although the funnel is a strategy that must always be working from beginning to end, we must not neglect the referral phase, since many profitable sales can come from it.
And how do we work this part?
Offering very good support , making small gifts that accompany the main sale, offering bonuses or promotions on the next purchase …
The important thing is that you do not forget about your client and are at the bottom of the canyon to make the best impression and that he wants to buy from you again.
