- If you've got a business, product, or service,
and you want to make more sales
then you need a sales funnel.
Which is why in this video we're talking about
what is a sales funnel and how does it work
so your business can generate more sales, customers,
and money in the bank.
Let's get to it.
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Hey there my name is Adam Erhart,
Modern Marketing Strategist,
and welcome to the Modern Marketing Show
where we help you make marketing that matters.
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and greatest marketing strategies, tools, tips, tricks,
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Alright, let's talk sales funnel.
Specifically, what they are,
and how you can use to help generate more leads,
turn those leads into customers,
and turn those customers into life long
and loyal brand ambassadors for your business.
But before we dive in, let me know in the comments below
either yay for funnels if you're already using
a sales funnel, or not yet,
if you haven't fully implemented them yet,
but hopefully you're able to by the end of this video.
Now, we've all heard that for someone to do business
with you, or make a purchase, or essentially interact
with your business, they need to know, like, and trust you.
Well the beauty of a funnel is a nice and clean
and really simple and efficient way to execute
all three of these things in the shortest amount
and most fluid way possible.
But first off, sales funnels are nothing new.
And they've been around pretty much
since the beginning of business
when the first business owner essentially
invited someone in for coffee,
had a nice chat, maybe then gave them a tour of their farm,
and then offered to sell them a cow, or a goat,
or sheep, or whatever it is people sold in those days.
You see a sales funnel is really nothing more
than a relationship building framework
that allows you to take someone who has absolutely
no idea about you, your business, or what you do and
how you may be able to help them,
and guide them effortlessly through the process,
educating them, and essentially
building the relationship as you go.
Taking them from lead,
all the way into happy and loyal customer.
Now we're gonna cover the ins and outs
and some of the details of a sales funnel in this video,
but to make things even more clear,
I'm gonna lay out a really nice, clean,
and simple funnel that pretty much
any business owner could benefit from
and I'll put this right at the end of the video.
So make sure to stick around for that.
All right, let's dive into exactly how sales funnels work.
The way that a sales funnel works
is first by understanding and respecting
the different levels or essentially different
steps of the buying journey that a customer may be at.
To put it bluntly, you basically don't wanna
make an offer right at the very beginning
of a relationship when they have
absolutely no idea who you are or why they should care,
or how you could even help them.
It's a little like proposing marriage on a first date.
Odds of conversion, pretty low.
This is why a sales funnel helps
to facilitate a nice and smooth introduction
to you, to your business, to your product or service,
and essentially guides them through
at a pace that's comfortable to them.
We do this in three stages,
ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu.
Silly words but powerful concepts.
Let's start with ToFu, shall we?
The very first step of a sales funnel is ToFu,
or top of funnel.
Aptly named the because it's at the top.
This step is all about awareness and
introducing your product or service
or even a high level overview of your offer to your market.
Now prospects at this stage of the funnel
typically have absolutely no idea
about you, about what you do,
or about why they should care.
It's for this reason that you wanna keep your ToFu content,
or top of funnel marketing really low barrier,
essentially you don't wanna come right out
and ask for the sale, especially
if your selling something a little more
expensive or high ticket.
Now you wanna keep commitments low at this stage
and really keep that low barrier of entry
by maybe giving away some free content
and asking nothing in return
or maybe offering something of a little more value
in exchange for an email address and maybe a first name.
Now some traffic and lead gen type activities
for the top of funnel include things like
blogs or videos or podcasts
or essentially anything that allows you reach
a large number of people relatively cost effectively
so you can sort of reach them and then filter out
the ones that might be interested to move them
into MoFu, or middle of funnel in just a second.
Also don't be afraid of paid advertisements at this stage
because really what we're trying to do is
call out our target market,
see who's interested and get them to take action
so we can move them further down the funnel.
Good examples here might be something like Facebook,
Instagram, or a YouTube ad that directs them
to a free download or PDF giveaway
in exchange for their email address
so you can follow up with them later.
Now prospects and potential customers
that engage with your business or content
in some way, shape, or form,
well they get to graduate to the next stage,
MoFu, or middle of funnel, again, not the most original name
but at least it gets the point across.
Now your marketing at this point
should appeal to your prospect's
interests and consideration.
Essentially they already know a little bit
about your business by kind of graduating
through that ToFu, top of funnel content,
so it's at this point that you can escalate things
just a little bit further by really drilling down
on their pain points and how your business
is uniquely positioned to solve that for them.
Basically, at this point you wanna nurture the leads
that you may have acquired at the top of funnel stage
by sending them value packed emails
or re-targeting ads that give them more information,
and essentially continue to build that
know, like, and trust factor.
You want to encourage them to take the next step
and establish your position as an authority on the subject
and an expert on what you're talking about.
You can do this through, again,
lots of value content, but as well making use of
things like testimonials and case studies.
Again, these are gonna be a lot more relevant
at this stage because someone knows
a little bit about you and a little bit
about your business.
So it's not like a case study's coming
out of left field and totally irrelevant to them.
Also at this stage, don't be afraid to start
to really sprinkle in some offers and really
educate them on what you do and how you can
be of service to them.
Again, because they already know you,
at least at little bit, it's not gonna be irrelevant,
and if they've engaged with you in some way shape or form,
they've essentially self identified as someone
that could benefit from what you have to offer.
An example here could be some email
follow up messages that not only educate
and inform, and possibly entertain,
but also sprinkle in some very strategic
calls to action that direct them to your offer
or next piece of sales or promotional material.
The bottom step of the funnel is not surprisingly titled,
the bottom of funnel, or BoFu.
It's here that your prospects are far more likely
to have both intent and purchase traits
because they've already graduated through
your top of funnel and your middle of funnel
and they're still sticking around.
This is why at this stage your soul mission
is to make things as easy as possible
for your potential prospects to purchase
or engage with your business.
Clearly define exactly what it is you're selling,
who you're selling it to,
and how it would benefit them.
You also wanna make the sales process
as frictionless as possible,
by providing multiple calls to action,
essentially limiting unnecessary steps,
and again, following up in their preferred media choices,
meaning email, possibly direct mail,
putting links on your website, through social media,
or however your ideal target market likes to engage
with your type of content.
Now at this stage of the funnel, at the bottom,
you're able to keep things a lot more direct,
after all they've already engaged with you,
they already know who you are,
presumably they already like you
or at least believe that you can help them in some way,
shape, or form, so there's no need to kind of go out there
and re-educate them on who you are,
and re-introduce yourself again,
that'd be kind of weird, right?
Hi, my name is Adam Erhart
and you're watching The Modern Marketing Show
where we help you, I already said that?
I already said that.
All that said there is some content
that you can repeat here.
Specifically educational, informational,
entertaining content, and social proof elements
like those case studies and testimonials
because they only further to cement your position
as an authority and expert on the topic.
Some examples of calls to action that you could use
at your bottom of funnel include things like
a strategy session or a free trial,
or maybe even a demo,
depending on what you're selling.
All right, so now that we've covered the sales funnel
from top to bottom, let lay out a nice
and clean and simple online marketing funnel
that achieves all three steps
as quickly and as easily as possible.
For the top of funnel, we'll start with a Facebook ad,
an Instagram ad, or a YouTube ad that introduces yourself
and also creates some awareness around the problem
your potential prospects may be facing.
This ad in turn will direct them to a landing page
where we'll collect their email address,
and of course deliver upon the promise that we
made in the ad in the first place,
on the thank you page.
For the middle of funnel, we'll follow up
with an email series as well as some re-targeting ads
that continue to educate and entertain and inform
as well as paint a vivid picture of how much
better things could be if they were to engage
with your business.
Finally, for the bottom of funnel,
we'll ramp up both our email and our re-targeting ads,
and we're gonna be a whole lot more direct about
their pains and how we can solve them
with the solution that our business offers.
We're also not gonna be shy here
about how they can take the next step,
and we're gonna encourage them every step of the way.
And that's all there is to it.
A complete sales funnel that engineers the perfect
relationship from stranger to prospect to customer.
All right, so thanks so much for watching,
I hope you enjoyed the video.
I'm gonna make sure to link up another video
on sales funnels right below so you can
check that out too if you'd like a little more
information on the subject.
Also if you enjoyed the episode,
make sure to give it a thumbs up,
subscribe to the channel,
and say hello in the comments section below.
All right, so thanks so much for watching.
I'll catch you next time on The Modern Marketing Show.