Shall we start with the most obvious question—- what is a sales funnel and why do you need one? Also known as the marketing funnel, it is the process a business uses to make its products, services and even the entity itself known to and trusted by potential customers. The purpose of the sales/ marketing funnel is to generate sales. To that end, the funnel process is built on a strategy designed to convert browsers into buyers.

The funnel can operate simultaneously on your website and social media platforms. It’s seeded with relevant and tempting information known as content that beckons to site browsers and convincingly demonstrates the efficacy and dependability of your organization and its products and services.

The content offered should become increasingly more specific and compelling so that browsers, who as they linger may be considered legitimate prospects, can deepen their understanding of your products and services. Content presented in the sales funnel should illustrate how your product or service can deliver solutions and help users (customers) achieve objectives. Using inbound and outbound marketing techniques will help you to more quickly build an efficient and successful sales funnel that delivers paying customers, the lifeblood of a business.

Inbound marketing

Reaching out to prospects and customers by creating and disseminating content they will likely value and trust is the purpose of inbound marketing. The strategy employs blog posts, social media posts, infographics, e-books, case studies, webinars, email updates and other information that will attract, educate and persuade prospects to take a chance on you. When inbound marketing functions well, your company will become visible to those interested in the topics the content addresses and some will be persuaded to investigate your products and/or services further and ultimately become customers.

Inbound marketing centers largely around prospects who’ve self-selected, opted-in, and for that reason the ROI is much higher than outbound marketing ROI. Inbound marketing tactics are usually either no-cost or low-cost to launch and maintain. The biggest cost of developing inbound marketing content is your time (and it’s worth money!).

The downside of inbound marketing is that it often operates at a snail’s pace. It can take months or years to build a robust email list of viable prospects who have the money and motive to do business with you and/ or make referrals. But you can grow your prospect outreach much faster when you pair inbound marketing with outbound marketing tactics.

Outbound marketing

Outbound marketing reaches out to the general public. It’s unsolicited, not highly targeted. Advertising of all types, cold calling and telemarketing, cold email campaigns (maybe you bought a list?), pay-per-click ads and public relations (earned media) that might result in quotes of yours or an article that you’ve written being published.

Winning or receiving a nomination for an award presented by a business or professional association, speaking or conducting a skills development workshop at a business or professional association, or becoming a sponsor of a popular local charity are also potentially effective public relations moves that often serve as components of an outbound marketing strategy. Writing a (probably self-published) book is another excellent outbound marketing tactic, one that confers great credibility.

OK. So now that you understand the recipe you can bake your (funnel!) cake. See directions below.

TOFU: Top of Funnel

• Purpose: Name recognition

Social media posts, PR earned media

• Purpose: Educate

Blog posts, infographics, newsletter, your published articles

Winning or receiving a nomination for a business award, teaching a class in your field of expertise at a college or business incubator, speaking engagements

MOFU: Middle of Funnel

• Purpose: Evaluate

Podcast, webinar (i.e. videos), e-book

At this stage, collect a name and email address to facilitate follow-up, know who’s checking you out and build your email list.

BOFU: Bottom of Funnel

• Purpose: Action/ decision

Customer testimonials, case studies, your book

Here’s the money shot. You’ve got a fish on the line and you want to reel it in. Time is money. Depending on what you’re selling, you might cross the finish line by offering a short free trial (maybe 7-14 days), a discount (maybe 10%), a free premium post-sale service upgrade for a couple of months—- what customer hot buttons can you speak to? A really good case study can also be helpful at this stage, to help the prospect envision more realistically how the product or service will deliver immediate and sustained benefits. A phone or video call is in order and a face2face meeting is even better. You’re ready to seal the deal!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Brock Clay March 23, 2022 funnel cloud over Moscow, MS