The Fundamentals of a High Converting Sales Funnel and How to Optimize Each Stage

What is a High Converting Sales Funnel?

Attracting and converting customers is a top priority for just about every business on the planet. But, considering that not every visitor to your website is ready to make a purchase, this can be tricky. That’s where a high converting sales funnel comes in. Also known as a marketing funnel, it acts as a visual representation of the journey your customers take, starting from when they first become aware of your brand all the way until they buy your product or service. It’s essentially your best way to nurture leads and convert them into sales.

Studies have shown that businesses with a structured marketing funnel are 33% more likely to close sales. This makes it pretty clear how important that funnel really is. In this article, we will break down the fundamentals of a high converting sales funnel and explore different strategies to optimize each stage of the funnel. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned pro, we’re sharing valuable insights that will redefine your marketing strategy.

What is a Marketing Funnel?

Every customer goes on a journey with your brand, from initial brand awareness to final purchase. A marketing funnel depicts each stage of this process. A funnel is wider at the top and slimmer at the bottom. This is an effective analogy because it clearly represents the gradual narrowing of potential customers as they progress through each stage of the funnel.

Types of Marketing Funnels

Not all marketing funnels are made equal. In fact, your business can leverage several different types of sales funnels to attract, nurture, and convert customers. Here are three of the most common types:

Purchase Funnel: Also known as the consumer decision-making process, this funnel represents a customer’s journey before making a purchase. It’s broken down into five main stages: awareness, research, consideration, purchase, and loyalty. Customer reviews and word-of-mouth marketing play a significant role in this type of funnel.
Sales Funnel: This model illustrates the steps a customer takes throughout the sales process. The sales funnel is usually divided into four main stages: awareness, interest, decision, and action. Responding to leads within an hour is crucial for the success of this funnel.
Conversion Funnel: Also known as the marketing funnel, this model depicts the steps a customer takes before making a purchase. The conversion funnel is usually divided into three main stages: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Implementing an effective lead-nurturing process is crucial in this type of funnel.

Stages of a Marketing Funnel

The stages of a marketing funnel are typically broken down into 3 main categories: top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU).

Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

Think of this as the initial introduction. At this stage, potential consumers first become aware of your brand, thanks to social media, blog posts, or a Google search. While they may not be ready to make a buying decision, they’re interested in the options available to them. Your goal at this stage is to build brand awareness and attract as many people as possible to your website and socials. This means running targeted ads, sharing engaging content, and connecting with your target audience on social media. The top of the funnel sets the stage for the full customer journey, generating more high-quality leads and driving sales.

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

By this stage of the funnel, potential customers have moved past the initial brand awareness stage and are showing some interest in your brand. They have become more educated about your product and are considering it as a possible solution. Your goal at this stage is to give them as much valuable information as possible, helping them to make an informed purchasing decision. Lead nurturing is key here. You can do this through targeted, educational content that shows the value of your product and how it can solve their problems. The middle of the funnel is all about relationship-building and trust. So, to convert leads into paying customers, focus on informative content that answers customers’ pain points and sets you apart from your competitors.

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

At this stage, potential customers are ready to buy. Your goal is to remove any barriers for these customers, so it’s as easy as possible for them to complete their purchase and become future brand advocates. You can achieve this by offering product demos, promotions, and discounts. The BOFU stage is where all your hard work pays off. As a result, an effective bottom-of-funnel strategy can spark loyalty and increase customer lifetime value.

Sales Funnel Success Stories

The best way to truly understand how a high converting sales funnel works is to see it in action. Here are two real-life examples of how businesses leverage sales funnels to drive sales.

Moz

Digital marketing company Moz uses its sales funnel to attract and convert customers. This high-functioning marketing funnel empowers Moz to attract new potential buyers, spark trust, and convert them to loyal shoppers. Moz creates high-ranking, informative blog posts to attract new visitors to its site, build brand awareness, and give potential customers valuable information about its services. At this stage, Moz builds trust with potential customers and establishes itself as an industry thought leader. It achieves this by offering free trials of its SEO tools. Moz offers customers a range of paid products and services that are tailored to the customers’ needs and goals, such as custom link building, digital marketing courses, and SEO consulting services. The brand builds brand awareness via word-of-mouth marketing and referrals, and viral marketing campaigns.

Dollar Shave Club

The Dollar Shave Club is a subscription-based service that delivers grooming products to customers every month. It grew its customer base to over three million subscribers in just a couple of years using a high-converting sales funnel. The brand generates buzz at the top of the funnel with hilarious, viral videos that pitch its product as the solution to a common issue: the high cost of razors. The Dollar Shave Club offers free trials to build trust and foster a relationship with potential customers. Visitors to the website are asked to take a small quiz so the brand can recommend a custom product. Customers have the chance to sign up for a personalized subscription.

Sales Funnel Strategies

Moving leads towards a sale takes work. And a killer strategy at each stage of your sales funnel. We break down five strategies to help you optimize each stage of the marketing funnel.

Top of the Funnel (TOFU) Strategies

Potential customers are still just becoming aware of your brand and want to know more. It’s time to build trust and attract as much awareness as possible. This is where a strong content marketing strategy comes in. Sharing informative and engaging content on your social media and website can make a huge difference at the top of the funnel. In fact, studies have shown that businesses with a company blog generate 67% more leads. Using a social media management tool, such as Sociality.io, can do wonders for your content marketing strategy. You can schedule posts across your brand’s socials and track your content’s performance with insightful data.

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) Strategies

Potential customers are considering making a purchase. They’ve done their research and are now familiar with your product and your competitors’. Email marketing is extremely effective here. Because it’s an opportunity to give visitors personalized content that directly answers their pain points and needs. In return, this moves them closer to making a purchase. Email marketing allows you to segment your audience and send them targeted, relevant content. This is easy to achieve using an email marketing tool like Mailchimp. You can easily segment your email list and set up automated emails based on different users’ behaviors. And, of course, you can use the data to measure the performance of your email marketing campaign.

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) Strategies

Potential customers are ready to buy but may need a gentle nudge. Leveraging customer reviews is one of the best tactics at this point in the sales funnel. Because they build credibility and trust. These visitors know they want to buy your product (or your competitor’s), so it’s all about putting their minds at ease and assuring them yours is the one for them. You can do this by spotlighting positive customer reviews, testimonials, and stamps of approval from your consumers. This is where a smart social media strategy can pay off. User-generated content, such as unboxing videos, product reviews, and how-to videos, are excellent strategies to encourage on-the-fence buyers to take the leap. Studies have shown that 91% of consumers read reviews online before buying. Mobile network Smarty gives a masterclass in leveraging customer reviews, letting its impressive Trustpilot score (8.8/10 out of 3000+ reviews, thank you very much) do the talking. It uses the Trustpilot integration to share customer reviews across its social media platforms. This is particularly effective since consumers tend to place more trust in third-party sites like Trustpilot.

Upselling and Cross-selling

Don’t be fooled into thinking that when a customer makes a purchase, the funnel is over. Now’s the time to upsell and cross-sell to boost customer lifetime value. The best way to do this is by offering upgrades or add-ons at the bottom of the funnel. Not only does your business increase revenue, but it forges a stronger relationship with customers at the same time. According to research, cross-selling can generate a 22% revenue increase per customer. Plus, we all know that acquiring new customers is more expensive than retaining our current ones. One way to upsell is by offering your own academy or training hub. This encourages users to master your product or service, making them more likely to opt for a more advanced subscription down the line. The accessible graphic design tool Canva is a great example of this. Its free design school provides enriching content to its audience, perfectly aligning with its mission to “empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.” Plus, as customers on the free plan hone their skills, they’re more likely to see the value of upgrading their subscription to a Pro or Team plan.

Customizing Your Sales Funnel

A one-size-fits-all approach to your sales funnel is not going to garner the results you want. Instead, your business needs strategies to tailor each stage of the funnel. Doing so optimizes your marketing funnel and sets you up for conversion success. We’ve seen the importance of a high converting sales funnel and the strategies to optimize each stage. Now it’s time to look at how to develop your own marketing funnel. We break the process down into five logical steps.

Define Your Target Audience: No marketing funnel is going to be successful without a clearly defined target audience. Your brand needs to understand exactly who your funnel is targeting, including their needs, pain points, and motivations. The more you know, the more you can tailor your funnel. The best way to define your target demographic is through market research and customer data. Analyze the results to build detailed buyer personas that document the key traits of your ideal consumer. Finally, leverage this information to create content that engages this audience at every stage of the funnel.
Reach Your Audience: Once you know who your target audience is, the next step is to reach them. Harness content marketing to increase brand awareness and get your products out there. A killer content marketing strategy is multi-faceted, using blogs, videos, social media, email marketing, and other content types to reach your audience. But remember, you shouldn’t be churning out content just for the sake of it. You want your content to be SEO optimized and of high value to your audience (addressing pain points, educating your audience, and sharing interesting information).
Capture Leads: You’ll want to capture leads by providing your audience with lead magnets. These come in the form of webinars, templates, e-books, or any other type of content you can exchange for visitors’ contact information. Creating landing pages, forms, and strong calls to action will draw visitors to your lead magnets and hopefully lure them onto your email list.
Nurture Leads: Once you have captured leads, it’s important to nurture them and give them the extra push they need to convert into customers. Email marketing helps you achieve this by segmenting your audience and sending them targeted, relevant content. Of course, the content should be informative, entertaining, and tailored. This is easy to achieve using an email marketing tool like Mailchimp. You can easily segment your email list and set up automated emails based on different users’ behaviors. And, of course, you can use the data to measure the performance of your email marketing campaign.
Convert Leads into Customers: You’ve laid the groundwork. Now there’s nothing left to do but convert your leads into loyal customers. And you’re going to need a high-functioning sales funnel to guide them through the process. Your marketing funnel should have landing pages, forms, compelling calls to action, and other tools in place to attract, engage, and convert leads. But, if you’re thinking that the hard work is over once your funnel is up and running, think again. For ongoing success, your business needs to continuously analyze, review, and tweak your sales funnel.

Measuring the Success of Your Marketing Funnel

Your business isn’t investing time and money into marketing funnels just for the sake of it. The whole point is to enhance its marketing efforts and drive business growth. That’s why you need to measure the success of each stage of your sales funnel. This allows you to pinpoint areas that need improvement and optimize your funnel to get the results you’re looking for. Here’s how to measure the success of each stage of your marketing funnel.

Awareness Stage

The first stage of a sales funnel is awareness. Here, visitors have just become aware of your brand and its products or services. It’s tricky to measure success at this early stage of the funnel, but tracking metrics such as social media engagement (brand mentions, likes, comments, shares, etc.) and website traffic can be effective. Building a strong online presence is a good place to start if your funnel is underperforming. In addition, focusing on SEO, sharing high-value content, running paid ads, and collaborating with other brands and influencers can boost your website traffic.

Interest Stage

The interest stage is where visitors have shown interest in your products or services and want to know more. At this point, important metrics to measure include social media followers, email subscribers, and leads generated through forms on your website. Then, use this data to make improvements to your funnel. Let’s say the number of leads generated through forms on your website is lower than expected. Here are some strategies to improve:

Review your messaging to ensure it’s compelling and clear. Consider adding visual elements and addressing common pain points.
Optimize your landing pages and forms to make them more user-friendly and enticing for visitors to complete.
Use targeted social media ads and email marketing campaigns to attract more interest and generate leads.

Decision Stage

The decision stage is where visitors decide to make a purchase (or not). To measure how well your funnel is working, track metrics such as cart abandonment rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated. You might need to improve your checkout process or come up with ways to incentivize customers to complete the purchase. Other solutions for low-converting funnels include:

Streamlining the checkout process to make it as simple and straightforward as possible.
Implementing retargeting ads to remind customers about their abandoned carts and offer incentives to complete the purchase.
Providing clear and detailed product information, including customer reviews and ratings, to build trust and address any concerns potential customers may have.

Action Stage

The final stage of the funnel is action. This is where your potential shoppers become fully-fledged customers and buy your product. At this stage, key metrics include average order value, customer lifetime value (CLV), and repeat purchase rates. Low performance in these areas could be costing you valuable sales, so it’s important to monitor these metrics closely. Analyze the data to pinpoint where the issue lies. Are customers not making repeat purchases? Are they spending less per purchase than expected? Once you identify the issue, look at how to address it. Here are some common ways to improve low CLV:

Offering personalized recommendations and upsells to customers based on their previous purchases.
Implementing a loyalty program to reward repeat customers and encourage them to continue purchasing.
Providing excellent customer service and support to ensure a positive experience and build long-term relationships with customers.

Conclusion

Getting your head around a high converting sales funnel is critical if your business is looking to grow its customer base and drive sales. By customizing each stage of the funnel, you can guide potential customers through the full purchasing journey and, in the process, convert them into loyal customers. Looking for a powerful tool to help you automate your social media marketing strategy? Sociality.io could be for you. From automating tasks to measuring performance, it’s an ideal solution for businesses looking to amp up their social media game. Start your free trial today and see how Sociality.io can help your organization streamline its social media marketing efforts and drive sales.