Let’s not beat around the bush - who really gets what a Sales Funnel is? I know, right.
A sales funnel is a way of finding a huge bunch of people you want to sell your product to, and from that bunch, finding a smaller group who will buy your product. In our Shopify world, this can be done by using a mixture of Facebook, social media and email marketing techniques. And, I'm going to tell you how to do it, or show you:
So, to illustrate a sales funnel in real life (not this bat sh*t crazy online world) let’s think about a hot dog seller outside a football stadium...
Funnel stage 1 - Find a bunch of people you want to sell your product to
The first stage of your funnel is to define your target demographic. For the hot dog guy, he sets up his stand outside a football stadium, as he knows before and after the game, there’s going to be a bunch of hungry suckers looking for food. The same logic needs to apply to your funnel, which group of people can you solve a problem for? Once you have this, you’ve defined your first stage. If you need help on this, take a look here.
Funnel stage 2 - See if that bunch of people show any interest
The second stage of the funnel is to see if anyone from that bunch of people is remotely interested in your product. For the hot dog guy, this is him shouting out ‘GETTT YOUR HOT DOGS, JUST 3 BUCKS!’ and seeing that glistening behind the eyes of a few guys that walk past. For you, this is running a ‘likes’ campaign on Facebook, where you target the group of people defined in stage 1. If you can get people in that group to give you a ‘Like’, this shows some level of interest.
Funnel stage 3 - See how interested they really are
At the third stage, this is where you can test to see how interested they really are. At this point, our hot dog guy see’s the chap with the glistening in his eyes and says, “Hey man, do you wanna try a piece of this, it’s real good!”. At this stage, our football fan either takes bite or walks on by. For you, this stage is running a ‘retargeting ad’ on Facebook. Essentially, for anyone that likes your page during your likes campaign, target an ad which allows them to download a coupon, download a free guide - essentially anything that creates value for them and most importantly, allows you to capture their email.
Funnel stage 4 - Start selling
At stage 4, you can now really start to sell. At this point, our hot dog guy has had a customer taste his free sample and is now talking to him face to face about how he sources all of his beef locally and how his “ma’ still makes the pickles”. Now, the hot dog guy is really selling directly to the customer. For you, this is the point when you start to use a simple drip email marketing campaign. Take the emails you collected from stage 3, plug them into your email provider and send a welcome email, two days later followed by a ‘get to know us’ email and then use a bi-weekly update/newsletter email to sell sell sell.
Funnel stage 5 - Close the deal
It’s cash monies time. For the hot dog guy, this is where he says to his glistening eyed customer ‘So man, how many do you want? It’s buy 2 get one free if you're feeling hungry?’. For you, this is when we to use a second retargeting ad - only targeting those who have opened at least 2 of your previous 3 emails. This ad needs to be product focused and have a clear CTA to buy a product.
So, there you have it - sales funnels are like selling hot dogs. If you're vegetarian or need some additional help with sales funnels, feel free to book a free consultation with us using the big purple button below.
