How to Make a Sales Funnel That Is Automated in 2022

One of the most valuable talents you can have in 2022 and beyond is learning how to design a sales funnel. Lead generation is critical, which is why it is a top focus for most firms.

You’ll need a distinctive product/service, a skilled sales team, and outstanding content to take your audience from one stage to the next.

You’re undoubtedly really busy as a product creator. There’s very little time to set up intricate sales funnels, email series, and other internet business essentials, especially if you’re doing it as a side hustle. But there’s no getting around it.

Either you create an effective sales funnel or your product sales will never achieve their full potential. An automated sales funnel will, in the best-case scenario, meet your needs and assist you.

How do sales funnels function?

Please take a moment to slow down. What is a sales funnel, exactly? You’ve probably heard the term “huge funnel” used in the marketing business, and you’ve also seen photographs of it on numerous websites. But, in the end, what does it all mean?

A sales funnel, in layman’s terms, is a series of stages for attracting people to your product and then turning them into paying customers.

The funnel picture originates from the way it works: there are a lot of website or social media visitors at first, but only a tiny number of individuals become devoted clients at the end. The offers you make to these people are contained within the funnel.

Why Are Sales Funnels Important?

Let’s take a look at some of the most important advantages of sales funnels and why most businesses should use them:

Automation: If a process can be automated, it should be so that time can be saved and a proven outcome can be scaled. Furthermore, 88 percent of SMBs say automation helps them compete with larger companies.

Track Customer Behavior: Using a sales funnel, you can figure out where your customers are going. You can make changes to your funnel to enhance overall conversions when prospects drop off at a given stage.

Follow Up: The longer you delay to follow up, the more likely it is that another vendor will get the customer’s business.

A Sales Funnel Has Several Stages

First and foremost, we notice three main groups in a sales pipeline:

• Top of the Funnel (ToFu)
• Middle of the Funnel (MoFu)
• Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu)

These three stages are utilized by marketers and business owners to develop a targeted content marketing plan for their new leads. For example, when potential customers first learn about your company, they are at the top of your funnel.

To properly nurture them, you must provide ToFu content such as tutorials, videos, or white papers to pique their interest in your product.

To assist you, consider the following stages of the sales funnel and the types of content that are appropriate for each:

Step 1: Awareness Stage

This is the point at which individuals become aware of your product or service. Consumers typically learn about you when they conduct a Google search, interact with social media content (posts, Facebook Ads, and so on), or hear about your product from friends and family.

Marketers attempt to draw a fresh lead into the sales process by attracting their attention at this level of the funnel. If your offer is compelling enough, they will enter the sales funnel and begin researching your company.

For the best content you’ll need interesting content to engage your target audience. The following are the ideal types to use:

• SEO optimized blog content
• Social media posts
• Infographics and e-books
• Videos and podcasts
• White papers

Step 2: Interest Stage

Consumers are aware of their demands throughout the interest stage. They will not make a purchase, though, because they are unsure about the answer. Instead, these leads will research all of their possibilities to discover the one that best fits their needs.

However, if you want to convert them into sales-qualified prospects, you must demonstrate the value of investing in you.

While moving them to the next level will take time, you and your salespeople should keep an eye on these interest-stage leads to prevent missing out on a wonderful opportunity.

The best content to use is to persuade them to buy, demonstrate your competence in your subject and provide highly instructive content to unqualified leads:

• Lead magnets
• Comparison posts, videos, etc.
• Lead capture landing pages
• Downloadable content: case studies, templates, checklists, etc.
• Webinars

Step 3: Decision Stage

Your leads have successfully narrowed their alternatives and are now ready to decide at this level of the sales funnel.

Because they are still considering other options, you must play your strongest hand and direct them to your product/service. You may simply lure these prospects by providing them with special discounts, free shipping, or gifts.

The best content to use is to provide material that will give your leads more reasons to become paying customers. You can achieve so by employing the following methods:

• First-time purchase discounts for eCommerce stores
• Engaging explainer videos
• Email newsletters with reviews and testimonials
• Targeted offers

Remember to include testimonials in your campaigns to boost your reputation and demonstrate to potential buyers that your product/service works.

Step 4: Purchase Stage

Your leads are now ready to purchase. You must continue to nurture them with tailored messages to obtain them. Also, delivering excellent customer service is critical in motivating people to act.

While a great deal may be enough to entice a potential buyer, don’t forget to address their pain issues and show the benefits of becoming a part of your brand.

The best content to use is to personalize your sales funnel communications and deliver unique consumer experiences to close the transaction (CX). Also, remember to employ urgency to get your target audience to respond to your calls to action (CTAs). It’s possible to accomplish it with:

• Personalized email marketing campaigns
• Landing pages with irresistible value propositions
• Free trials and demos
• Sales calls

Step 5: Retention Stage

If your audience has reached this point, you have successfully persuaded them to join your cause. The stage of retention in the sales funnel is just as crucial as the stage of purchase. You must now convert your new consumers into repeat customers.

Because client retention is more profitable than acquisition, putting money into a great retention marketing strategy is critical to your company’s existence.

The best content to use the following strategies to increase retention:

• Email newsletters with extra tips/how-tos
• Special offers for recurring customers
• Loyalty rewards

Using Influence Principles to Improve Sales

Of course, to move your leads from one stage of the sales funnel to the next, you must find ways to favorably affect them.

Let’s have a look at the six principles of persuasion you may use to drive your consumers a step farther down your funnel, as suggested by the “godfather” of influence himself, Robert Cialdini:

Reciprocity

To employ reciprocity, you must demonstrate the worth of your company to your leads by providing them with unique customer experiences and high-quality items. The more delighted they are, the more they will invest in your company.

Offering a gift or discount to your audience via landing pages or online forms is a basic example of reciprocity. As a result, in exchange for their email address, your prospects will offer you theirs.

Scarcity

Of course, every firm wants to have a wonderful product and sell it in enormous amounts. Isn’t it true that if you sell more, you’ll get more? What if we told you that when something is scarce, people are more likely to buy it? Offering a limited number of products will compel customers to purchase them regardless of the circumstances. 

Why? Fear of missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! To fully apply this idea, don’t forget to emphasize the advantages that purchasing from you will provide to your potential buyers. 

Authority

Customers need to locate trustworthy items to meet their needs in the age of phishing and scamming. Show them that your company is reputable to stay under their radar. To persuade and convert your target audience, you must establish authority in your niche. Don’t forget to share your knowledge and skills with them if you have them!

Consistency

When it comes to expanding your sales, commitment is crucial. You’ll gradually turn your new clients into loyal advocates of your company if you can get them to commit to your brand.

To make the most of this principle, you must be consistent in your messaging and follow through on your promises. The more honest you are, the easier it will be to persuade people to change their minds!

Liking

Over time, the consumer-brand connection has evolved considerably. Customers will now buy from brands they like and trust as a result. To do this, you must tell fantastic stories that humanize your company and make your audience fall in love with you. You may entice your audience to act and stay with you by employing the notion of like.

Consensus

Potential purchasers will look through client testimonials before purchasing your product to see if you’re worth their time and money.

Uncertainty can be a huge roadblock, especially if you’re new to eCommerce or retail. Using social proof, on the other hand, will help you approach new prospects and gain their trust before they make a buy. And it’s all because of the influence of a few nice reviews and social media posts!

Measuring the Success of Your Sales Funnel

When you create your sales pipeline, you need to monitor its performance by tracking important marketing metrics. Here are the most significant indicators:

Leads entered: The number of leads you gained and from which channels they entered your funnel (email, social media, Google search/Ads, etc.)

Cycle time: How long it took them to get to the next stage.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The expense of acquiring new consumers is referred to as the customer acquisition cost (CAC).

Customer lifetime value (CLV): Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the estimated profit from each new customer.

Conversion rate: Conversion rate is the percentage of leads who become committed customers.

What Does It Take to Create A Successful Sales Funnel?

Assume you manage an online store that sells women’s hair products. You discovered that your target audience is ladies between the ages of 20 and 30 after conducting extensive research.

Awareness: You decide to build a Facebook lead ad to target young ladies because 72 percent of them use Facebook.

Interest: You redirect them to a landing page with an appealing offer if they click on it. They will have to give you their email address to receive it.

Decision: If they do, you’ll put them on one of your mailing lists. You did an excellent job! You start sending email campaigns with beneficial suggestions, hair care regimens, quizzes, and more after segmenting your new subscribers.

Purchase: You decide to send a first-time discount to seal the deal after cultivating them for a while. Some of your subscribers are blown away by the offer and purchase your hair products.

Retention: Your work doesn’t end there, of course. Your goal now is to provide post-purchase content to your new customers. You will successfully enhance your retention in this manner.

As you can see, the above sales funnel is effective in converting a visitor into a loyal customer.

How to Make Your Sales Funnel More Profitable

Measuring the success of your sales funnel will lead to the final step: optimizing your sales pipeline for greater lead generation and conversions. Before we look at the best strategies to enhance it, we need to figure out what the most prevalent causes of poor sales pipelines are:

• You’re not reaching the correct people.
• Your content isn’t sufficiently interesting.
• The CTAs aren’t very powerful or clear.
• During the checkout/sign-up process, there is a lot of friction.

To improve your funnel, you’ll need to solve these issues and look for ways to make the consumer journey easier. Here are a few easy methods to get it:

• Increase your lead production by leveraging referrals.
• To capture your site visitors, use retargeting marketing.
• Rethink your content marketing approach.
• To eliminate friction, improve your website’s user experience.
• Make sure your salespeople are up to date on current customer behavior patterns by training them.

There are, of course, other ways to improve your sales funnel. The greatest approach to succeed, though, is to recognize and solve difficulties as quickly as possible. You’ll be able to design a funnel that works on autopilot this way!

Create a Profitable Sales Funnel

From small businesses to major corporations, building a sales pipeline is critical to increasing income and ensuring your company’s existence.

Understanding the stages of your funnel can help you better understand the client journey and provide content that converts leads to paying customers. Furthermore, with the appropriate tactics, you can quickly and effectively create a successful funnel that works! Just make sure you have all of the necessary tools for the job!

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

A sales funnel is a set of processes that a company utilizes to steer prospects through the process of becoming satisfied paying clients.

You must pay great attention to your potential customer’s decision-making process and analyze their habits from the moment they learn about you until the time they place their Xth order.

A successful funnel can assist marketers in visualizing the client journey, identifying gaps in their marketing strategy, and developing viable solutions to address them.

Your ultimate goal is to have an impact on every stage of the conversion process, from awareness to conversion.