Sales funnel - what is it?
You may have come across various terms like conversion funnel, revenue funnel or marketing funnel. However, all of them describe the same concept - sales funnel which presents the processes occurring on the product or service purchase path. On the one hand, it allows you to track user behavior, on the other, it makes it easier to tailor marketing activities to the customer's needs at each stage. Where does this name come from? When you imagine customers going through various stages - from the moment they notice the brand to the moment they finalize transactions - you may notice that the entire process resembles a funnel (wide at the top, narrow at the bottom). This represents the interest of potential customers: at the beginning of the purchase path the number is the greatest, but over time, when they’re close to reaching the conversion level, the number decreases. [caption id="attachment_43479" align="aligncenter" width="423"]Sales funnel stages
- Awareness & attention. At this stage the potential customer is supposed to get acquainted with your brand and find out how your products/services can satisfy their needs.
- Interest. Now the customer realizes that your range can somehow improve their life quality or solve certain problems. The potential buyer isn't motivated yet but sees the need.
- Desire. The buyer explores the market and compares offers of various companies. The customer knows his/her needs and tries to satisfy them.
- Action. This is the point when the customer finalizes transactions. At this stage, depending on the business type, the buyer orders products from your online store and converts.
- Loyalty. Although it might seem that the sales funnel ends with the purchase, or conversion, it's not true. Loyalty is a key point - if a customer is satisfied with a product or service, there's a good chance they'll come back to you and shop again. Perhaps they'll even become your brand ambassadors. A satisfied customer creates a virtuous marketing cycle which translates into improved brand recognition.
Why is it worth using the sales funnel?
The process of developing the sales funnel requires a lot of work and time. However, it’s a type of investment that quickly pays off and you’ll see satisfactory results sooner than you expect. How to use the sales funnel in your business and what benefits does it bring?- You’ll be able to tailor conducted activities to the needs of buyers at particular sales funnel stages. If you know that at the beginning it’s crucial to define expectations of potential buyers, motivate them, show what makes you stand out from your market rivals, you’ll be able to present accurate arguments at the right time.
- You’ll be able to monitor the effectiveness of activities at each stage of the sales funnel and get rid of the so-called bottlenecks. Perhaps negative associations with your brand deter potential customers at the very beginning and this is the reason for a small number of conversions. Or just the other way round - what if you do everything correctly but because of the UX problems users don’t finalize transactions? Determine trouble spots and keep customers for longer.
- You'll learn new lead generation techniques and you may even be able to pinpoint the ones that work best with your audience.
- By knowing individual stages of the sales funnel, you’ll be able to quickly learn which customer groups are the most beneficial for your business and should be addressees of your messages.
- You’ll be able to eliminate activities that don’t bring the intended results and you won’t waste your budget.
- Ultimately - based on the analysis and evaluation, you'll develop a well-optimized sales funnel that facilitates or even automates some of the activities. Thanks to the fact that you’ll determine conversions at different stages of the funnel, you'll learn how to scale your business.
Sales funnel in B2B and B2C
B2B refers to a business to business sales model, i.e. cooperation between two business entities such as companies, while B2C - business to consumer - is based on selling products/services to individual consumers. B2B and B2C sales funnels are similar in a number of ways - they’re supposed to help you reach new customers and improve the conversion rate. This is why we can analyze both funnel types based on the aforementioned 5-7 stages (it all depends on the offer and processes run by the company). So, what makes them different?Characteristics of the B2B sales funnel
- a successful sale to a company is usually based on a relationship with an entire group, not a single person.
- usually, there isn't one decision maker - the sales process is often split between different departments or management levels, which affects the shape and expansion of the funnel
- online sales aren't so common - the B2B sales funnel is often finalized during a meeting or a phone call.
Characteristics of the B2C sales funnel
- we focus on individual customers at each stage of the funnel.
- competition is frequently more fierce than in B2B, which hinders the process of keeping the consumer's attention.
- it focuses on online activities - from the very beginning to the very end - this means that the communication channels defined in the funnel will have completely different characteristics than in the case of B2B.
How does SEO support sales funnel stages?
On our blog you can find a post discussing how to improve your conversion rate in Google Ads at different stages of the sales funnel. Today, we're going to analyze how SEO supports sales funel - after all, search engine optimization, like any other marketing element, is supposed to increase conversions and improve your company's profits.-
Awareness, attention
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Interest
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Desire
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Action
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Loyalty