What is a Sales Funnel (And How Can I Use One?)

I bet you’ve heard this countless time – you need to create the right freebie to get people to opt into your email list and start them in your sales funnel.  But what’s a sales funnel?  People talk about them as if it is something that all online marketers automatically know about and understand when they start building an online business.

Does this sound familiar?  You know you need a sales funnel if you have products or services, even for things like affiliate sales.  But you don’t really know where to start and what the reason behind creating one really is. 

Here’s the thing – I’m no sales funnel expert but I do understand the basics.  And I’ve brought together my own knowledge with lots of expert tips to get a picture of what a sales funnel is – and how you might use one.

What is a sales funnel?

In it’s most basic form, a sales funnel is the route that people take from becoming aware of your business to making a purchase.  There’s a reason that it is shown as a funnel because a lot more people go in that come out the bottom (more on that in a bit) and it is a simple way to show the process.

Every sales funnel is unique to your business and depends on lots of different factors.  But the basic principles of the sales funnel stay the same.  Learn them and you can apply them to your own business.

Why would you need one?

Now I’m not a fan of doing things because everyone says you need to.  But there is a good case for the sales funnel and why you want one or even a few, depending on what you do.

The process of creating a sales funnel helps you see the path from learning you exist to making a purchase so you can make sure this is a smooth and sensible path.  It helps you understand what your customers need at different points of the funnel and guides your content creation.

The four stages of the funnel

Generally, a funnel is shown with four stages, also known as the buyer’s journey.  There are different names for these stages, but we will go with the most commonly seen one.  Once you understand what they mean, it is easy to adapt information from different sources to what you need if it helps you more.

Awareness

The top level of the funnel is often known as the awareness stage.  This is when you first get the attention of the customer and they are aware either of your company or what you offer.  There are lots of ways you can grab their attention and create this awareness:

• Blog posts
• Pinterest pins
• Social media updates
• Online quizzes
• Opt-in freebies
• Paid advertising

Grabbing their attention makes them aware that you may offer the solution to their problem.  They may not even be aware they have a problem that needs to be solved until they come across your content.

Interest

The second stage is interest – this is where they are thinking about the problem and doing research on it.  This is definitely where that content above comes in by providing them with information, ideas and possible solutions but not always selling them something.  The key is to build a relationship, show them you know your stuff and help them.

Decision

This is where they have done their research and narrowed down their options to maybe two or three potentials, one of which is you.  This could be the point where you increase the value of what you offer to help them pick you – this could be a free shipping offer, a special promotion or an added extra. 

Other concepts can be used here to help them purchase.  Scarcity is something that is great as long as it is genuine – if you have a limited time offer, let them know how long they have to grab it.  But don’t fake it because people will realise.  Social proof is another concept – show them others who have bought to give them reassurance they are making the right choice.

Action

This is the final stage of the funnel and the most important one as this is where someone takes action and buys what you offer.  Of course this isn’t the end of it – you want to nurture them afterwards and help them become repeat customers or fans who tells their friends about what you do.

How to use a sales funnel in your business

As I said before, there’s no definite way to create a sales funnel for your business because every business is a little different.  The starting point is to know your audience, where to find them and what the problems are that your product solves.

Here’s one example from CrazyEgg:

• Awareness – a Facebook ad
• Interest – a valuable freebie to get them on your email list
• Decision – interesting and informative blog posts to help them understand their problem and see your product as the answer
• Action – a special coupon that helps them make the purchase and maybe one that rewards repeat purchases

Here’s a similar example for my own product on Pinterest:

• Awareness – a Pinterest pin
• Interest – a Pinterest keyword freebie to get them on my list
• Decision – an email welcome series that links to relevant blog posts to help them master the basics of Pinterest and shows I know my Pinterest stuff
• Action – a special discount at the end for my eBook which helps them take those basics and expand to get regular traffic and build a strategy

So what you need to do is map out the process that people would follow to get from that initial first contact with your business (the ad or pin) through to taking the action of buying the product.

Building the sales funnel

Once you have a basic idea of what your sales funnel will look like, then you want to start building it.  This will help confirm what you thought as you go and allow you to make adjustments as needed.

1.     Look at audience behaviour

I’ve always found the whole ‘ideal customer’ thing quite tricky.  I’m not sure I need to know the imaginary person’s favourite ice cream flavour or TV show to help them because that isn’t what I do.  But I do have a clear idea of what they need me for in relation to my services.

You can also get a lot of information to back this up or correct errors from various analytics platforms.  Google Analytics is the gold standard of free and platforms like Facebook and Pinterest do tell you a lot.  If you aren’t sure who your audience is, this is where you can figure this out.

2.     Get their attention

Once you know what they want, you need to show them that you understand that.  There are loads of ways of doing this but at the heart of it all is the blog post.  Then you can repurpose content into videos, infographics, Facebook Live or Instagram Stories content and much more.  You can even brand into paid advertising as long as you know what questions they are asking and how you can answer them.

3.     Have a landing page

Even if it is for an opt-in freebie, you always want to have a landing or sales page to direct people to.  You can link to it directly from ads, make specific Pins for it and link to it from your blog posts.  Go with solid and simple landing page principles with one strong call to action.

4.     Create your welcome series

Just getting them on your list is just the start of the process.  Next you want to build a relationship and ‘warm’ them up.  This is done with your welcome series and it should help to showcase what you do, without always selling at the beginning.  Help them, provide more useful information around their problem and then lead to your product or service.

5.     Follow up

Not everyone who reaches the ‘action’ stage of the funnel will do just that.  So it is important to follow up.  This doesn’t mean chasing them to see why they didn’t buy – it means keeping up regular emails, helping them and offering other ways to take that action.  A discount coupon, a special deal, free shipping, these can all work.  Keep building that relationship!

How do people start the funnel?

I mentioned earlier the ways that people start your funnel and it is worth taking a moment during the planning to really consider these and decide which are best for your audience – and which part of the funnel they apply to.

Blog posts

By reading this, you can guess I’m a big fan of blog posts.  I’m a reader but I will watch video if needed.  Blog posts are perfect for awareness and interest parts of the funnel and you can use the promotion of them to bring people to your website. 

Blog posts generally don’t create sales, but they can be used to get people to sign up to your list.  They can also, in the case of affiliate marketing, help them make a decision and head towards a purchase.  Review and comparison type blog posts will work great for this.

Opt-in freebies

These are firmly in the interest section of the funnel as they require a commitment – signing up for your email newsletter.  You then give them the freebie (also known as a lead magnet) as a thank you for doing this. 

Creating opt-ins is a bit of a complex topic for another day but let’s just say that you want to create something that is useful for the customer, relevant to what you sell and seems good enough to pay money for.  Not a lot, you don’t want to give a $100 product for free but if you could sell if for a new dollars, then it is a good value freebie.

Webinars

I’ve never done a webinar myself but I’ve attending plenty and when they are done well, they are excellent.  They fall into the decision and action phases because you help people decide to make a purchase and lead them to it.

The key with webinars is to make them full of value then offer your product or service.  No-one wants to sit through an hour long sales pitch or have 10 minutes value and 30 minutes selling.  Make it natural for them to want to sign up.  And if all else fails, you have them on your mailing list.

Video content

We will throw YouTube, video on your website and all the social media options into one bucket here for simplicity.  Video works for all section of the funnel because you can make video specific to the stage of the funnel you are aiming for.

From explainer videos to helpful tips, quick Facebook Live content talking about a hot topic relating to your product and even sales video, there’s no end to the types of content you can create.  And video remains super popular both with social media algorithms and Google.

Measuring what works

As with almost anything in marketing, there’s no ‘set and forget’ to sales funnels.  You want to be constantly monitoring what happens and see if there are ways to tweak it.  There are also good metrics to look at for each stage.

Awareness

Website visitors is the main thing to look at here – this means you have made them aware and they have come to your website.  Also look at new and returning visitors to see if people are coming back after the initial visit.  Inbound links are good as they boost SEO while referral visits are also where someone has sent a visitor to you.

Interest

Acquiring leads is the measure here and that depends on how your business works.  For lots, this is probably around email signups and people retained on the list after the initial welcome series.  You can also use a tool like HubSpot if you have more traditional styles of leads.

Decision and action

These tend to be measured on number of sales but also things like cart abandonment or how many people don’t finish the sales process.  You can also look at repeat customers to see if people are buying more than one thing if this applies.

Sales funnels for all

When you hear people talk about sales funnels, it can sound a bit complex and something for big companies.  But if you have a product or service or even are doing things like affiliate marketing, then you can use a sales funnel.  By understanding how people come to your business and what they need to be ready to make a purchase, you can concentrate your efforts on what gets the best return.

What would a sales funnel look like for your business?  Or if you have one, tell us the basics in the comments!