Why your business needs a sales funnel that is conversion focussed and optimised
A sales funnel can turn your business into a well-oiled machine, churning out leads and sales with ease.
But all too often, businesses focus on acquiring leads without putting enough thought into how those leads will be turned into customers and how to increase revenue automatically.
Increase your revenue on autopilot
In this article, we’ll take a look at why your business needs a sales funnel that is conversion focussed and optimised to increase your revenue on autopilot.
Plus, we’ll show you how to go about setting one up in the quickest, simplest and cheapest way using powerful, low cost business tools
What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is a strategic marketing system that takes potential customers through a series of steps designed to convert them into paying customers.
The funnel typically starts with attracting attention and ends with the customer making a purchase.
Traditionally this happens over many manual steps.
But with conversion-optimised website builders integrated with automated upsell shopping carts, you can now take a website visitor from browser to buyer (including multiple upsells to increase average order value) within minutes, on a single page.
Why do you need a sales funnel?
You can have a great product that people love, but, for some unknown reason, no one is buying online.
You can have tonnes of website visitors but not a single sale. What’s going on?
It’s likely that your website isn’t optimised for conversions and you’re not going to make any money if that is the case.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at the sales funnel and how you can make sure that it is conversion focussed and optimised for your business.
We will recommend the best value-for-money business tools to set up your own conversion focussed sales funnel quickly and simply that will run on autopilot and increase your revenue.
How does a sales funnel work?
A sales funnel takes all the people who could buy your product or service and automatically filters them into paying customers.
An automated upsell/downsell/cross sell shopping cart funnel then increases average customer spend automatically.
You’ll hear terminology such as top/middle/bottom of funnel.
At the top you have prospects (they are browsing), in the middle you have leads (they show interest and have some questions), and at the bottom you have customers who buy.
Why sales funnels are important
Sales funnels can be used to help companies see, study, analyse, and react to drop-off points as visitors pass through the sales funnel.
Optimising each step of the funnel provides incremental gains as more information is gathered, allowing businesses to achieve more conversions and increase profits.
Google Analytics is a free tool that can help business owners visualise how visitors interact with their website and travel down their sales funnel.
It allows you to identify what are known as ‘choke points’ that have high drop-off rates.
Businesses can test out different website elements such as call-to-action text on a button and its’ position.
This is known as split testing, to check the impact that small changes have on conversions.
How do you convert a customer
You begin by defining the problem you want to solve for your customer.
To create a sales funnel for your service or product, you will have to know about your audience’s pain points, aspirations, interests, knowledge, and emotional states to target them effectively.
The more information you have on the customer, the more successful the service or product can be.
Awareness. Interest. Desire. Action
AIDA is a framework you can use to guide potential customers through their decision-making journey from initial attraction to taking action.
1. Awareness
Think of this of attention. You first need to hook your viewer by gaining their attention.
2. Interest
Define a prospects goals and/or problems. In doing so, you can begin providing preliminary solutions, allowing them to experience “quick wins” to become more engaged.
3. Desire
Now the prospect knows they have a problem, they are open to the idea of a solution being provided.
This is where you present the benefits of your solution (at an emotional level).
Do not simply list features and expect a prospect to buy based on logic. Humans buy based on emotion.
4. Action
Finally, you provide a call to action, telling the prospect exactly what to do, such as “click here to buy now”.
Before doing so however, it is best practice to summarise the benefits of your solution and reiterate the pain a prospect will feel if they do not make the purchase then and there.
It is also best practice to build in some urgency (such as a limited-time special offer) or some scarcity (limiting the amount of product available at a certain price) so that there is a reason to take action then and there.
Conversions increase massively with these crucial elements are are explained in more detail below.
There are other key points that must be included to ensure a conversion
Social Proof
Social proof is the concept that people determine what’s correct by finding out what other people think is correct.
User-generated customer reviews are 12x more trusted than descriptions that come from companies.
Allow the stories and experiences of customers to convert new prospects for you.
Add as many customer testimonials as you have to your sales pages. You can’t have too many.
To collect reviews for your business on autopilot for free, check out this free training here…
Risk Removal (a.k.a guarantee)
You must minimise the amount of risk your prospects will have to take when making a purchase.
Create an iron-clad guarantee for your customer.
Don’t be afraid that people will take advantage of your excellent guarantee. The increased sales will outweigh the potential refunds.
You want to make your potential customers feel like they have no reason not to take advantage of the offer at hand.
You can offer an extended money-back guarantee, like 60 days instead of 30.
Or a double-your-money-back guarantee.
Just be sure to make it a prominent part of your offer.
At Anthony Tedd.com we offer a triple-your-investment money-back guarantee.
If you don’t think a product you pay for can return you 3x what you spend on it, we want you to have your money back. We are pleased to refund you.
This tends to set us apart from our competition.
Demand
Shops and nightclubs fabricate demand by forming queues outside their premises even when they don’t need to.
Restaurants do the same by always asking if you have a reservation even when the place is empty.
The waiter will then seat you in the window because nobody wants to eat in an empty restaurant and you will attract more people (social proof at play again).
They will then deliberately place the next patrons on the table right next to you, even when the rest of the place is empty, to make it look busy from the outside which pulls in even more covers for the night.
Humans are herd animals, we don’t like being the first into anything. It feels risky.
Deadlines
Speaking of humans, we will also delay taking action unless we absolutely have to.
You must put a deadline on your offers or they won’t convert.
There’s always a reason we can justify not to pull the trigger there and then.
But fear of missing out is a big thing in our psychology, so make sure there is a close date on your offer and remind potential buyers.
You will notice that you will sell most of your product near the end of your sale period.
It’s just human nature.
Scarcity
Could you introduce some genuine scarcity into your product or service?
Don’t pretend you only have one item left when you don’t. That’s just lying.
But you could limit the number of units you produce or offer for sale in a particular time period couldn’t you?
Tesla do this very well. They hold back their stock when it suits them.
This scarcity creates demand, gets people talking and allows businesses to charge more.
It also plays into our natural fomo again and compels people to buy sooner rather than wait.
Increasing Revenue on Autopilot
Have you ever heard of Bundles, Bumps, Upsells, and Downsells?
This can sound complicated but it’s actually very simple and can be fast to implement in your business with the right business tools.
You can automate it and multiply your revenue in minutes.
There is a very powerful software that will make this very quick and simple for you.
And rather than it costing hundreds of pounds a month like the well-marketed companies such as click funnels out there, there is (incredibly), a piece of software that is simpler and more powerful than them all and is a one-time purchase, which will save you thousands over the life of your business.
Watch the video about it here.
The amazing life time deal is due to end and you’ll be stuck paying monthly if you don’t act soon.
The good news is, you can create a fast, powerful one-page website now and then add it in to a full blown website at a later date with one button click because it integrates so seamlessly with just about any website on the planet.
Don’t miss out. Learn more here
And if you want to build a conversion optimised and marketing focussed website that will last your business a lifetime and perform better than any website builder on the planet, Go here.
It works with the shopping cart software so you can start with whichever one you want and join them up in one click.
How to Increase Revenue Strategically
Bundling
Bundling is when you group complimentary products and offer a discount for the bulk purchase.
It’s good for you and the customer.
Order Bump
A bump is when you prompt a buyer to add a further related purchase at a big discount to the main order.
It needs to be a no-brainer deal so as not to distract them and prevent them from completing the original order.
This is usually done with a one-click action like a toggle button or a check box so as not to distract them (or abandon the cart as it’s known).
Typically you’ll use your high-margin products for this that are not high price points.
Upsell
An upsell happens after the initial purchase is completed (whether with or without an order bump).
It’s at this point that you make the buyer a special offer that is only available there and then at the promotional price and it only takes one click to complete it.
Upsells are typically more expensive than the initial product but the customer is already in buying mode and on a high from their initial purchase.
This is where a lot of profit is made.
To compel the customer to buy a higher-priced item that they didn’t plan on, you make it an attractive but one-time-only deal that can only be taken there and then.
It creates scarcity and compels the customer to buy due to fomo.
They can opt not to buy of course, and they are sent straight to your down-sell.
In reality, upsells and downsells are just different pages on your website, with slightly different price brackets, presented in a certain order.
Downsell
A downsell is typically a less severe commitment from the customer than the offer you just presented as an upsell that they rejected.
If they buy the upsell, they never see the downsell because you typically make less profit on the downsell.
A downsell is often a cheaper alternative to an upsell (or it might even just be a payment plan for your upsell) to get the customer over the line.
By providing these options whilst the customer is still in ‘buy mode’, you increase your chances of increasing revenue and with the right software, it takes zero time or extra money.
On a typical sale, around 20% of buyers will say yes to an upsell.
Did you know that MacDonalds makes very little profit on a single burger order.
All the profit is in the fries and drink. The meal is the upsell and it’s a no-brainer for most customers.
They always ask if you’d like to make a meal. They also always ask if you’d like anything else. They are all easy, fast attempts at increasing a customers average order value which is the fastest and easiest way to grow your business.
Where to go from here
Once you’ve got a marketing focussed website
and a conversion optimised shopping cart funnel
You can rinse and repeat as they say. You may want to consider getting your email marketing in place.
It’s 5 x cheaper to sell to existing customers than it is to new ones so this is where you create more offers following the above process to present to your customers.
Related Business Skills and Tools
The most cost-effective way to resell to your customers on autopilot is with email marketing.
Get free email marketing automation training when you join Anthony Tedd.com and increase your revenue in your sleep, on autopilot.