A sales funnel is a tool used for understanding a customer’s journey from thought to action, that will help you define your sales and marketing strategy to reach your business goals. It’s important to have a strong brand communication strategy and know where to find your target audience. You must define what mediums they are on, and what your outreach strategy will be.
AIDA model is a simple and effective model used to understand the path of buyers from their first interaction with your brand to a desired conversion. Below we guide you through each step of the funnel and provide practical tips to keep your efforts focused on elements that will drive success.
Attention
Grabbing attention is the start to generating a prospective lead or desired action in the sales funnel. This stage is not only the first introduction to your brand, but can also include several touch points in which consumers form opinions. First impressions are lasting.
Getting attention in a competitive marketplace takes creativity and clear communication. Be sure to focus your efforts on quality content over quantity, where spreading yourself too thin from producing a larger number of posts can often hurt your efforts more than it helps.
Any form of communication that your audience may be consuming has the potential to impact your brand awareness. Examples of attention grabbing content include:
A Well-Designed Email Newsletter
An Eye-Catching Social Media Post
An Aesthetic Website Landing Page
A Well-Crafted Blog Headline
photo courtesy of adweek.com
photo courtesy of Starbucks Instagram account
Interest
Once a potential customer’s attention is piqued, they’ll want to know more. Quality content is crucial in this stage of the sales funnel to make sure consumers don’t continue to pass you up. What can you do to set yourself apart from your competitors? If you’ve done your research, you will have examples of content that your target audience likes to consume, and be able to have a launch point for developing your own content. Develop a variety of content on multiple platforms to increase the likelihood of reaching your potential clients.
Ways to make your content valuable:
Answer Consumers’ Questions
Relate to Your Target Audience’s Pain Points
Use A/B Testing to Determine the Best Content
Provide Relevant Statistics
Desire
Shifting a consumer from displaying casual interest to intentional action involves building a relationship that encourages trust and continues to provide value. Consumers are hesitant to provide their information such as email addresses if there isn’t enough perceived value in the exchange. To foster a feeling of desire for your products or services, relate to your audience and show your value proposition in terms of how it will solve the consumers’ problems or make their lives easier. This can be achieved by purposeful, customized, and segmented content.
Here are a few examples of going above and beyond to create a deeper connection with your audience:
Educate Consumers with a Webinar or Newsletter
Develop Interactive Social Media Posts and Campaigns that Encourage Engagement Such as Polls, Contests, and Series
Master Storytelling to Share Your Company Culture
Segment Your Messaging (Ex. Demographic: “Hey Moms, we know you could use an extra hand.” or Geographically: “Can’t wait for warmer weather?”)
Build Your Reviews and User Generated Content to Increase Social Proof
Action
In this final stage of the sales funnel, it’s time to advance closing in on the desired action. If all of the previous phases were successful, the action stage will be a natural transition in consumer behavior. The prospect has become aware of your brand, the content piqued their interest, and you have discussed their needs and offered solutions. Now you have built trust and communicated the benefit customers receive from your product or service. If an individual understands and believes in your value proposition, you will not only encourage conversions, but foster long-term and repeat business.
A few tips to ensure you nail the sale:
Make Sure Your Process is User Friendly and Functional
Follow Through with Exceptional Customer Service
Ask for Feedback, and Update Your Strategy Accordingly
Key Takeaways
Sales funnels are like plants, they require continued nurturing to grow.
Don’t reinvent the wheel, use real life models to give you blueprints of successful practices.
Create an outreach strategy with your brand voice in mind.
Know your target audience inside and out.
Data and analysis is necessary to better your funnel and increase your sales.