Funnels to Implement in Your Business

When someone says “business funnels,” do you often scratch your head and wonder what they mean? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Sometimes, the person talking about funnels doesn’t quite know what they mean either. Funnels are a buzzword, and often the concept isn’t well defined.

A funnel is a process that you use to move people from one stage of being a prospect or customer to the next. There are three different funnels you’ll want to implement in your business to be successful: the  Acquire funnel, the Activate funnel, and the Sell funnel.

The Acquire Funnel (Prospects and Leads)

The first step in helping someone understand your business and become a customer is to give them an awareness of who you are, and help them become interested in your products and services. This process is often called “lead generation,” and is the first step to building your business.

To build an acquisition funnel, you start with an interesting free or very inexpensive offer. This can be a free e-book, a small piece of your overall premium product, or a webinar. You want to make the initial engagement as low-risk as possible. To use an analogy, if a man walks into a bar, sees a pretty girl, and proposes to her on the spot, what is the conversion rate going to be? Terrible! What if he sees her and immediately asks her to visit his parents’ home? Still too much! You want something low-risk, like buying her a drink or asking her to coffee.

Often, once you get someone to take the first step, you ask for another small step. You might start with a free information guide, then offer a $9.99 ebook, and then offer your $50 per month premium product.

The Activate Funnel (Engagement)

Once someone has interacted with you one time, the goal is to get them to continue interacting with you on a regular basis. The marketing word for this is “engagement.” There are a lot of ways you can build engagement with your email list, social media following, or blog readers. Here are some ideas:

• VIP Gift or Content. Create some content that is only available to readers who are more committed to you. This could mean sending something physical in return for a mailing address, or it could mean having them create a free account for VIP content. Either way, you have more information about them, which helps your marketing.
• Survey. Use a survey to build engagement and learn more about your readers. If this is a new group of leads, use a shorter survey. Folks who have been interacting for longer may be interested in sharing more.
• Share and Win. A great tool on social media is a giveaway that your followers have to share to enter. This gives you access to their friends and family, which can mean spreading your message to thousands with a simple contest.

Sell Funnel (Sales and Conversion)

After people are engaging with you, it’s time to make an offer so they can buy. This is honestly an act of service. If you have something that can solve a burning need, shouldn’t you let them know? There are a variety of ways to create a sales funnel. Here are a few things to try:

• Limited Time Offer. Offer a special, like a discount or a buy-one-get-one-free, for a limited amount of time.
• Special Discount. A special discount can be great, especially if a specific action is required. A discount for those who share a social media post or those who physically come to your store is a great way to drive sales.

• Mini-Service Sale. Selling a small part of your flagship product can be a great way to give people an affordable taste of what you have to offer. Once they have the partial service, you can offer the full package as an upsell!

Creating funnels helps bring people to your business, create engagement, and turn that engagement into sales. Interested in learning more? I’d love to help you create funnels for your business. Schedule a free strategy session today!