Building a Marketing Funnel for Your Business

More and more businesses are recognizing the benefits of crafting a dedicated sales funnel to cultivate leads and foster customer engagement. A marketing funnel is essentially an automated sales machine that will help you amplify your impact.

Most businesses unknowingly have funnels of some sort already in place. Think about how many social media followers you have. And how those turned into leads, and how those leads turned into clients. That’s a very simple and organic version of a marketing funnel! But designing a funnel specifically for an area of your business can help you gain more prospects, more customers, and drive more results in your business. By thoughtfully and intentionally considering each stage of your clients’ journey, a funnel will help optimize your marketing and sales processes.

It may sound like a daunting task, but building a funnel doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming. In fact, your business funnel can be simple and include minimal steps. A funnel doesn’t have to be complex to be effective.

What is a Funnel

When we say “sales funnel,” we’re talking about the depiction of the customer journey from beginning to end. It’s the process of acquiring leads, nurturing them through marketing automation, providing them with value, and pitching your offers as solutions to their pain points or desires.

Having a funnel (or a few) will not only help you generate leads, but track how someone becomes a client (or customer) for your business. For many online business owners, a simple funnel can look something like this:

Pitch a free resource via an ad on social media to your targeted demographic.

Once someone downloads the freebie, they are added to an automated email sequence.

In the email sequence, you provide valuable resources to support them on their journey.

Toward the end of the email sequence, you pitch an offer or service.

This funnel can keep growing and evolving over time. For example, if someone buys what you

pitch to them, you’ll need another post-purchase email sequence–which can lead into another up-sell sequence. Or you can use those who downloaded your free resource as the audience for retargeted ads on social media!

Why Funnels are Worthwhile

Creating a funnel can increase your revenue. Investing in the right marketing channels will yield more paying clients. Since you’ll know what your potential customers find relevant and engaging. Plus, once you’re able to automate your sales process, you’ll be doing less hands-on work to generate revenue. The “make money in your sleep” phrase we hear a lot in the online space can actually become a reality with properly built and optimized funnels.

If you have a more established, high-earning business, it’s especially important to have efficient sales funnels. This helps to move customers through your offer suite. A funnel will save you time, extend your customer lifetime value, and enable you to focus on other areas of your business that need more attention.

When You Need A Funnel

Before you begin building out your sales funnel, make sure you have a proven offer to pitch to potential clients. It’s equally important to have solidified messaging to pair with your offer. Having both of these things will yield better results.

Without a proven offer or consistent messaging, it’s not worth investing in creating a funnel just yet. You need to be able to deliver quality services that you’ve proven are a wanted & needed service in your target audience. And be able to speak clearly about what you offer before taking on this next step.

Basics of Building a Funnel

Funnels can start in many different ways. The goal is to capture your audience’s attention, and you can do that with quality content, an incentive, and more. But not every funnel has to start with an ad, webinar, or free download! Organic content can still pique customer interest. And that might be the best option for your business if you have limited resources to work with.

After gaining your audience’s interest, you’ll need to send them to a landing page for them to opt in to the content or other incentive that you used to gain their interest. At this point, you’ll be able to provide more information about what your business does and encourage potential clients to

share their contact information so you can provide value to them and stay in touch with them. From there, you can continue to engage and interact with them via email marketing. This helps your business stay top-of-mind when they’re ready to purchase.

Keep in mind that you don’t need a different sales funnel for each of your offers. Instead, you can stack your funnels to generate and nurture your current & former clients until they’re ready for your next offer. Stacking your funnels – rather than several separate funnels – can optimize your marketing efforts and truly transform your business.

Keeping Your Funnel Functioning

Once a funnel is built, you’ll need to monitor it to make sure it’s functioning properly and to identify areas that can be improved. You want the customer experience to be smooth and to provide upsell opportunities at natural times in their journey with you.

At this point in the process if you’ve solely been generating traffic into your funnel through organic marketing efforts, you can also start to look into paid ads. Paid ads will help you increase your visibility and target people you wouldn’t be able to reach organically. If you’re still not sure whether paying for ads is the right choice, read this blog for more detail on what to consider before you invest.

If you’re looking to create a customized funnel, through partnering with Upwell, we will create a sustainable strategy & automated funnel for your business. We’ll help you develop a client-focused marketing and sales funnel that will boost your brand awareness, brand loyalty, and sales.