How to make a good sales funnel in social networks
In order to make a sale, there is a process that must be fulfilled by the company to convert a person into a customer. This procedure has been exemplified in the sales funnel and it is essential to understand what it consists of so that you can optimize the activities within your company. If you are interested in knowing what the funnel is, how to make a sales funnel for social networks or why it is important to understand this term, below you will find everything you need to know about it.
What is a sales funnel?
The term funnel or sales funnel is used as a metaphor to represent the ideal marketing or sales process, since it maintains certain similarities with the operation of a funnel. Both marketing and sales have a large target audience, but this large group will not complete the process to become a customer. This is where the metaphor is used to represent these stages, where out of a large group of people only a small group of them will become a customer.
Another way of interpreting the sales funnel is the graphic exemplification of how the target audience must go through multiple filters before they can become a customer and complete the sales process. In fact, it was conceived as a tool for you to have visual support that allows you to understand this process.
Origin of the sales funnel
In its origins, this exemplification was not called funnel or sales funnel, but it was baptized as the AIDA model by Elmo Lewis in 1989, which more than 100 years ago conceived a simple way to understand the marketing process. The acronym stands for attention, interest, desire, and action.
However, after 50 years, Christian Betancur proposes a more complete variation of the AIDA model, which he called NAICDASE, the acronym for “need, attention, interest, confidence, desire, action, satisfaction and evaluation”. This new, more complete model is more similar to the sales funnel we know today, as it includes the pre- and post-sales process within the same example, which is important to understand if you want to know how to make a sales funnel for social networks.
The function of the sales funnel
The sales funnel itself is not constituted as an element of the sales process, but it is a tool that will allow you to understand how the steps of the sales process should be structured. That is, it is a mechanism through which you can validate whether your organization is managing the stages of each sale in an ideal way to achieve closure.
Therefore, the function of this tool is more related to the internal management of the organization than to its external management. If used properly, knowing how to make a sales funnel for social networks will allow you to optimize all actions related to the field of marketing, thus achieving not only an increase in the closing of sales but also less effort by your staff to achieve it.
Once you have understood what a sales funnel is, you just need to understand what actions are necessary for each of its stages so that you can make your own. As mentioned before, the funnel seeks to convert the public into a potential customer and then this becomes a sale, in this process, there are several filters or stages to meet. In order for you to understand the sales funnel and its stages a little more, below is a summary of each one.
Need
This stage is a bit foreign to your organization because it is about an existing need among the population, but at this point, they do not know about your brand. Your job at this point is to identify existing needs in the market so that when someone moves on to the next point you can offer them what they want. To do this you need to do constant research on the market you want to target.
When learning about how to make a sales funnel for social networks, many people leave out this stage of the process. However, it is key that you understand what your product must have or why the customer comes to you so that you can manage the sale properly.
Awareness
This is the first contact, the awareness stage is where you make yourself known to the public, where they can learn what your brand does, what products you offer and where they are located. This stage is fundamental, since it refers to the first impression they will have about your company, so it is key to transmit a professional and reliable image from the first moment.
For a person to be at this point you must first have diffusion, that is, have a mechanism through which the audience knows about your work. To do this you can use social media campaigns, paid promotions, ads, banners, or sponsorships, any of the ways a person comes in contact with you include it in the awareness stage.
While someone is at this point they are getting to know you, exploring what your brand does, and don’t have a full understanding of what they may encounter. To move them to the next stage, it’s key that you know how to make a sales funnel for social media and that you generate some kind of interest proposition, that your products have some value or that your networking causes some kind of curiosity or questions in them.
Interest
At this point, there is already a more direct interaction between the parties, because when a person is here is because it has already reflected some interest at least in your brand, either in the form of interactions in networks or visualizing your work frequently.
So these are people who have questions, who want to know more, who have seen something interesting in what you offer and therefore want answers to their doubts. A person who has questions about your product is not synonymous with a potential sale, but someone who voices and shares them can become one.
Decision
By this point, the person has already decided to ask questions or contact your team directly. When one of your audience members has expressed some desire for your products, you will have to face some inconveniences, as not all questions will be positive.
You need to address all kinds of concerns, any aspect that does not generate confidence, and explain your value proposition. In such a way that those who approached your networks with questions, end up satisfied and even more interested in your product to be able to move on to the next point.
Once you understand how to make a sales funnel for social networks, you will realize that it is important not to limit yourself only to solving questions, but to share both the company’s philosophy and the value it represents for the individual’s needs. Because this point is crucial, it is the first interaction between members of your team with someone from the public, this impression can make the difference for the rest of the sales process.
This stage can be given both in networks and personally, they can share doubts by mail, by Whatsapp or by any other means. The important thing is that anyone who has approached you with interest ends up satisfied and wants even more of your services.
Action
When you have finished with your client’s questions, the next point is the action, this can be a bit complex at the beginning because it is a point where knowing how to negotiate and explain yourself clearly makes the difference. At this stage the customer is invited to close the sale, a series of final questions are asked and the call is made to enjoy your goods or services, a point that you must master if you want to know how to make an optimal sales funnel for social networks.
At this point there are two possible scenarios, the customer agrees eager to finally get what he wanted or in the second scenario he resists, has doubts, and still does not want to make a decision. In the second case is where negotiation is necessary, explaining the sales process, listening to doubts, and respecting the customer’s decision, it is more important to make a good impression than trying to force a sale that may not work.
To make this phase easier and less laborious, you should optimize the sales closing processes, have several reliable payment methods, offer different shipping methods, and even provide complete advice for the process. Keep in mind that those who got here went through all the other steps so they are interested and already know you, it only remains a little help for them to decide to complete the sale.
Retention
Some older sales models ignore this stage, the post-sales process or retention is about building customer loyalty. This is done for two reasons, the first is to improve their experience, get feedback from them and make them satisfied so that they can recommend the product. In addition, loyalty ensures that the customer can come back if he needs another product or if he wants to make another purchase because he has had a pleasant experience where the company transmitted confidence.
Remember the Pareto principle, 20% of your customers will generate 80% of your profits, so you are not interested in attracting customers indiscriminately, but that those you attract have an excellent experience and are properly loyalized. This way, once the post-sale process is over, you will be sure that if they are interested in another product or something about your brand, they will come back to you to learn more and make a new sale.
Examples of successful sales funnels
In order for you to understand how to create a sales funnel step by step, taking into account some examples of how the sales funnel can be structured will be very helpful, because as it is only a reference tool for you to understand the structure of the sales process you can make variations of it, as long as you comply with the same stages of the process. Some of the ways in which this structure can be seen more clearly are the following examples.
- Netflix: the example of the streaming platform is perfect, as it has a super minimalist structure. When you enter their site you see images about their series or movies, you see the free trial option and some information about the site. Then on the pricing page, you can see the costs of their services, features and a FAQ section. Finally, you can start a free trial, this way they introduce you to the product, its benefits, solve your doubts and give you an option to close the sale in minutes.
- Webinars: if you want to offer an experience or a course, webinars are a good option. In this method, you start capturing the customer with ads, on your site they will find all the crucial information, and experience of others and finally you ask for contact details to offer a free sample of the content. With these steps you have already got all the information from the potential customer, you can solve all their doubts and after the webinar, once you have generated desire, you give options to make the sale.
- Groupon: when offering premium services you must know the Groupon method. The coupon platform attracts customers through paid ads, once they enter their site they receive an ad whereby giving their email they will get free coupons every so often, then the customer can visit the site and receive emails based on their interests. In this way the service is presented, its benefits are shown, trust is generated and with the emails the desire to buy is generated, all in a very short process.
The process for a funnel in social networks is the same as the method used in any field; however, the main difference is that with social networks you have an infinite number of tools to manage the sales process, making it much easier. To learn how to make a sales funnel for social networks is key that you do not limit yourself to the old marketing methods, but take advantage of the platforms that you have in your favor.
That’s why to help you automate your process, here are some sales funnels and examples where this structure has worked that will help you in creating your own model.
Clickfunnel: one of the most popular tools to build your own funnel, it will help you understand more about the sales funnel and how it is done. To enter you only need to select the trade your company is dedicated to and start designing your ideal funnel, you will find templates for webinars, landing pages, memberships and many more options.
SmartFunnel: this is an option in the cloud where you will find many tools for automating your sales process, making your funnel more effective. It will allow you to create a clear structure where you can follow the process in each of the prospects and manage each case in particular.
Wishpond: this platform will help you become an expert in the process of how to make a sales funnel for social networks, as they offer templates for any stage of sales along with tools to optimize them. In addition, it includes analytics options that will allow you to measure the results of your practices, so you can improve your management.
Benefits of using the sales funnel
If this term is still somewhat new to you, you may not know what the sales funnel is for and how it benefits your company. These are some of the advantages that can be taken into account when defining your sales model
Greater efficiency: when the sales process has been properly designed, it leads to more effective management, which involves less effort and greater results.
Facilitates optimization: when you have a structured process and submit it to review, it is easier to identify where there are flaws or elements that can be improved.
Saves resources: linked to effectiveness, if you have a properly structured process, where each action has a purpose, you save time and resources that you can allocate to other activities.
Improves sales understanding: if you don’t have much experience in sales, understanding the funnel makes it easier to understand how an ideal sale works, so you can apply this model easily without having extensive marketing knowledge.
Improve the customer experience: some sales models are very invasive or neglect the customer experience, so incorporating sales models where the buyer is taken into account leads to a more humanized procedure.
Marketing can be an extremely broad and interesting discipline where there is always a lot to learn. If you are not an expert in this area but you have a business to manage, knowing how to make a sales funnel for social networks will be very helpful. Just by incorporating a few small practices or modifying certain aspects of your sales model, you can increase your success rate in your sales and prosper in the field to which you dedicate yourself.