Something I take for granted as a marketer is my understanding of what it is exactly that funnels do.
In marketing, we call this “the curse of the expert.”
You do it too, I’m willing to bet.
As the EXPERTS, we tend to assume our prospects and clients know things–can infer things–about what we do, what we’re saying.
Sad reality is I’ve made the mistake of assuming my prospects or clients “get it” when in reality they’re lost inside and being silently polite.
Not good for sales if they don’t know what we’re talking about.
Quickly…
Think back to when you were a kid, and maybe you played with one those “penny funnels.”
They’re these big things you see at arcades and tourist destinations.
It’s a big funnel, and on the top is a coin ramp.
You drop your coin in the slot of the ramp, and it feeds the coin into a rolling circle along the top of the funnel.
Gravity and momentum take it from there.
Slowly pulling the coin from the rim in big, slow, long circles, gradually inching it toward the bottom.
As the coin descends deeper into the funnel, it speeds up because its orbit gets reduced.
The higher in the funnel the coin is, the slower it orbits.
The closer to the bottom or nozzle of the funnel, the faster the orbit.
Until it’s ripping so fast it’s wall riding like those crazy guys on motorcycles at the circus–literally riding the wall.
Until, eventually, it descends to the very, very bottom of the nozzle.
No more wall.
And clink, into the bottom with all the other coins.
#1 – Funnels Are a Sales Journey System
As a biz owner, you’ve definitely engaged with Contacts throughout what we call the top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel stages.
Let’s define a few terms, so we can all be on the same page.
Sound good?
A Contact is someone for whom you have contact information.
A Lead [is a Contact who] may be a fit to buy your offer.
A Prospect [is a Lead who] is qualified to benefit from your offer.
And an Opportunity [is a Prospect who] has agreed to consider your offer.
Top of funnel Contacts are what we call cold Leads.
They just met you, just entered the top of the spiral.
Big, slow, long, orbits.
But they’re orbiting.
These leads have different needs than your middle (Prospects) and bottom (Opportunities) of funnel Contacts.
Delivering personalized, timely and relevant content is critical to feeling authentic with your audience.
Simply put, you don’t want to push sales copy hard to top-of-funnel Leads.
And you don’t want to be soft with bottom-of-funnel Opportunities.
Sales funnels, when done right, are a system through which you can relevantly nurture every Contact in your funnel to bring them closer and closer to the bottom.
To the clink where the sale happens, where they end up with all the other coins.
#2: Funnels Attract New Leads
A funnel that just sits there is pointless.
And, not all traffic that enters your funnel is relevant.
Great funnels filter out Contacts before they ever get to you, so you only spend money on reaching and interacting with what we call “Qualified Leads” – Leads MOST LIKELY to be a fit for your offer.
The first goal of a funnel is to send targeted traffic to it.
We do this with Lead Magnets: Checklists, Trainings, White Papers, Discounts, etc.
We offer something of value to the Lead in exchange for their information: Name, Email, and ideally their phone number.
This is what we call an Opt-in.
#3: Funnels Capture New Leads
Once the Contact has opted in, they are officially a Lead.
This is where we can now begin to communicate with them AT WILL.
This is now where we start pulling them down the funnel.
Closer and closer to the nozzle, with each piece of content and point of contact reducing their orbit until they’re wall-riding their way to the clink…
#4: Funnels Nurture Leads into Prospects & Opportunities
This is where funnel automation magic starts to happens.
Lead nurture is the process of tending to your freshly acquired Leads.
Think about a seed.
You plant it and walk away after pouring a little water on it.
After you walk away, sure. They seed MIGHT grow up into a strong plant.
But tending to it–watering regularly, weeding, fencing, etc.
That all improves the odds tremendously that it’ll have success to CONVERT from a Seed into a Plant.
With automation, we can nurture our leads strategically, based on user behavior, with the right messaging, at the right time.
#5: Funnels Close Opportunities into Paying Customers
The whole point of funnels, everything we do, is to develop an optimized system for:
acquiring new Leads,…
qualifying them as Prospects,…
upgrading them to Opportunities,…
and CONVERTING them into the most desired label of them all…
CUSTOMERS.
Funnels are a beautiful marriage of marketing strategy and technology (automation) that streamline and systematize the sales journey of your Customers.
Curious where a funnel for your business would fit into our Sales Growth Engine?
Here’s the link to book a call with me.