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As an entrepreneur, you understand the importance of focusing on the bigger picture of your business. However, the day-to-day tasks of making sales can often get stressful, leaving little time for other crucial aspects such as product development and marketing strategies or overall business growth.
A well-designed automated sales funnel can free up your time and energy, allowing you to concentrate on other vital aspects of your business.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the importance of having an automated sales funnel for your ecommerce business. We will also explain how to create a sales funnel according to the customized behavior of clients, providing you with a step-by-step guide to creating a sales funnel and optimizing it through email automation for maximum results.
Why Do You Need an Automated Sales Funnel for Your Ecommerce Business?
Ecommerce store owners often face challenges in approaching different offers according to different stages of the user journey. They struggle to nurture users when they abandon carts, offer relevant products when the user rejects an upsell offer, and many more. This can result in lost sales, errors in order fulfillment, decreased order value and ROI, and lost revenue. If you create a sales funnel with offers without considering the user journey, these challenges will continue to occur.
One solution that can help you address these challenges is creating an automated sales funnel. Automation can help you in the following ways:
1. More Efficient Operations:
Automation eliminates the need for manual intervention, saving time and reducing errors. By streamlining operations and reducing the time and effort required to complete tasks, automation makes your business more efficient.
2. Scalability:
Automation allows you to scale your operations without incurring additional costs. By automating repetitive tasks, you can free up your staff’s time to focus on higher-value activities such as customer service and product development.
3. Personalized Customer Experiences:
With automation, you can personalize your marketing messages and offer customized recommendations to your customers based on their past behavior and preferences. This helps improve customer engagement and loyalty.
4. Improved Customer Experience:
Automation can help you provide a better customer experience by enabling faster response times, personalized interactions, and more efficient order processing.
5. Increased Revenue:
By automating your sales funnel, you can increase your revenue by reducing cart abandonment rates, increasing order values, and improving customer retention rates.
6. Valuable Data Insights:
Automation provides you with valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns. You can use these insights to optimize your sales funnel and improve overall business performance.
Now that you understand the importance of creating an automated sales funnel for your ecommerce business, let’s explore how to create a sales funnel according to the user journey.
How to Create a Sales Funnel According to User Journey
To create a personalized approach and improve the customer experience, it is essential to create a sales funnel according to the user journey. This ensures that you offer relevant product suggestions based on their needs, ultimately increasing order value.
Let’s consider an example of a WordPress ecommerce store that sells skincare products. You want to create a sales funnel for your regular customers who have purchased your highest-selling products and have also provided reviews. Your goal is to nurture them through different steps of the funnel and improve ROI and revenue by increasing order value.
However, with your current funnel builder and CRM tool, you are struggling to achieve this because you have no programming knowledge, and the conditional steps environment is not user-friendly. To solve this problem, you can use WpFunnels as a funnel builder. You will need the pro version of WPFunnels and the global funnel add-on activated to create the funnel. For automation, you can use WPFunnels’ in-house automation tool, Mail Mint (PRO version).
Let’s create a sales funnel based on this scenario using WPFunnels and Mail Mint.
Step 1: Install WP Funnel
First, you need to install and activate the pro version of WPFunnels. Then, activate the Global Funnel Add-on.
Step 2: Configure the Sales Funnel Settings with Customization
The sales funnel includes four steps: checkout, upsell, down-sell, and thank you. From the WPFunnels canvas, you can choose a default template or customize the template according to your preference.
Step 3: Checkout
On the checkout step, you will see multiple conditions to set. The global conditions determine when a customer’s action matches the conditions and enters the customized funnel automatically. For example, you can set conditions such as “Highest Sold product is in the cart” and “Most Reviewed product is in the cart.” This means that when a customer chooses a product that has the highest number of sales and the product with the maximum number of reviews, they will enter this funnel.
Upsell
After the customer completes the main order, you can offer them an upsell. Suppose you want to offer a 15% discount on a specific product category within a price range. You can set the condition “Random product in the category within a price range” and select the category and price range. This means that if anyone completes the main order, they will get a 15% discount on the upsell products under the “combination skin” category, which ranges between $300-$850. After accepting or rejecting the upsell offer, the customer will be moved to the Thank You page.
Down-sell
If the customer declines the upsell offer but accepts the down-sell offer, you can suggest another product related to the main product at a lower budget. Use the conditional step to automate this process. Offer products from the same category but with a lower price range, such as $50-$100. Whether the customer accepts or rejects the down-sell offer, they will be moved to the Thank You step, where you can add your social media links.
By following these steps, you can create a customized global sales funnel for your ecommerce business.
If you want to automate your email marketing within the sales funnel, follow the steps below.
Sales Funnel Automation
After creating the sales funnel with WPFunnels, you can automate the marketing process with Mail Mint directly within the same canvas.
To run an automated email campaign, you need to create an email sequence beforehand using Mail Mint. Here’s a quick overview of how to create an email sequence using Mail Mint:
- Click on “Campaigns” on the Mail Mint dashboard and choose “Sequence For Automation.”
- Add a suitable title, subject line, preview text, and email addresses.
- Design the email using the drag-and-drop interface, including compelling offers based on user behavior and journey.
- Add the number of emails you want to send and suitable delays between them.
- Publish the email sequence.
Now, let’s integrate this email automation within the WPFunnels and Mail Mint canvas.
For customers who completed the main order, set the condition as “Checkout Order Accepted” and add them to the list “Main Order Accepted.” Then, run the email sequence where you pitch them the latest product offerings and arrival updates.
Similarly, for customers who accept the upsell offer, set the condition as “Upsell Is Accepted,” add them to the list “Upsell Accepted,” and run an email sequence suggesting high-end product offerings and their updates.
If a customer rejects the upsell offer but accepts the down-sell offer, set the condition accordingly, add them to the list, and run an email sequence promoting skincare products with reasonable prices, stock clearance offers, and discounts.
By setting up this automation, you can effectively nurture your leads and increase conversions within your sales funnel.
Tips for Automation and Generating More Conversions
Here are some additional tips to optimize your automated sales funnel and generate more conversions:
- Simplify the Funnel: Keep your sales funnel simple and easy to navigate for a seamless user experience.
- Use Persuasive Copy and Images: Utilize compelling copy and images that persuade customers to make a purchase. High-quality product images and persuasive product descriptions can significantly impact customer decision-making.
- Incorporate Social Proof: Include social proof elements such as customer reviews and ratings to build trust and confidence in your products or services. You can showcase these on your landing pages or include them in your email campaigns.
- Streamline the Checkout Process: Ensure that your checkout process is fast and easy for customers, with minimal form fields and a clear call-to-action button.
- Implement Data Analytics: Utilize data analytics to track customer behavior and identify areas for improvement within your sales funnel. This data can help you optimize your funnel and increase conversions.
- Automate Customized Email Marketing: Set up automatic email campaigns that are customized based on user behavior and journey using tools like Mail Mint. Personalized emails can significantly impact customer engagement and conversion rates.
- Regularly Analyze and Optimize: Continuously analyze the performance of your sales funnel using detailed analytics provided by WPFunnels and Mail Mint. Use this information to optimize your funnel and improve overall business performance.
By implementing these tips, you can maximize the effectiveness of your sales funnel and drive more revenue for your ecommerce business.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, an automated sales funnel is a powerful tool for increasing sales and improving the efficiency of your sales process. By following the steps outlined in this guide and implementing the tips provided, you can create a customized sales funnel tailored to your specific business needs.
Tools like WPFunnels and Mail Mint make it easier to set up and automate your sales funnel, even if you have little to no programming knowledge. By creating an automated sales funnel and integrating email automation, you can take your online business to the next level and increase revenue for your ecommerce store.
So, don’t wait any longer. Create a sales funnel that automates according to your user journey and multiply the order value of your ecommerce store. Get WPFunnels + Mail Mint now!