If you are selling something, your sales funnel exists whether you’re aware of it or not. However, if you’re aware of how it works, you have more influence on it. There are various stages in a sales funnel
It usually starts from the top with gaining new prospects from your business and ends with purchasing your product. There are several steps in the funnel, these are the most common ones. The steps of the sales funnel may change depending on the company’s sales model.
Generally, what happens is you start with a lot of people who are interested in your business; they are your potential customers. As you go down the funnel, the potential customers will decrease.
And at the end of the funnel, you have a small group of people who will purchase your product. This “small group” isn’t necessarily small, it can be hundreds or even thousands of people. However, it is small compared to the people who are at the top of the funnel.
If you are confused by now, then don’t worry! We will cover every aspect of the sales funnel in detail. First let’s understand why sales funnel is important.
Why is Sales Funnel Important to Understand?
Sales funnel is basically a pathway your customers take in order to reach your brand and purchase a product. Understanding the sales funnel will allow you to identify the pros and cons the customers face before they get to even reach your brand.
Finding faults in the path will help you to reach a decision faster and thus optimizing it for better customer experience. The important aspect of a sales funnel is the customer experience, if they face any barrier, they won’t purchase any product and ultimately it’s your loss.
So in order to make smoother customer experience and a well-optimized sales funnel, understanding the sales funnel is crucial. Below we will show you how the sales funnel works.
The Core Phases of a Sales Funnel
While there may be many steps in a sales funnel depending on the company’s sales model, but there are 4 core steps/stages which basically lays the foundation for other steps. These steps have an acronym; it’s called AIDA – Awareness, Interest, Decision/Desire, and Action. These 4 steps define the whole sales funnel.
In a sales funnel, a consumer goes from a visitor to a prospect to a lead and finally to a buyer. So in this transition, all the steps need to be ensured properly. So here are 4 important steps –
1. Awareness
This is the initial stage where you catch the attention of your prospective consumers. The method can be anything from a Facebook post to a tweet or even Google search. The important thing here is making sure that your prospects are well aware of your brand and your offered product.
Sometimes they will immediately purchase your product, but your brand or business needs to have that amount of authority in the industry for that to happen. The important aspect of this phase is to attract your customers and letting them know about the existence of your business and offer. Then they dive further in the funnel.
2. Interest
After they have reached this phase, your prospective consumers will in a comparison mode. They will research your product to see if it’s worth the value. They will compare with other products to determine their pick. Their minds will be in a state of choosing.
Therefore, it is the perfect phase to swoop in and capture your consumers. This is the phase where you put up quality content and show your expertise in the industry. If you push your consumer in the awareness phase, the chances of pushing them “away” is highly likely. You do this after they are aware of your business.
3. Decision
By this stage, your prospects have already narrowed down their product picks by only a few, including your one as well. This is the phase where the consumers are prepared to purchase. In this phase, you give your most exclusive offers like discount coupons, giveaways, etc.
4. Action
The last and most important phase of all is the action phase. This is where you close the deal. As in, your customers will purchase your product. This is the bottom of the funnel where the least amount of customers is compared to the top of the funnel.
The customer journey will finally come to an end and they will be part of your business ecosystem. However, the work is not done yet. You need to make that 1st purchase into 10, 100 and beyond!
This means after this, starts your customer retaining phase. If you provide smooth customer experience and the product is good enough, you will able to retain your customers.
Best Funnel Building Tools
These are basic tools you have to associate various pages, advertise, sell, digitalize and develop your business in a single platform. You use it in building every one of the means and procedures your client experiences in purchasing from you.
What makes a great funnel builder tool? There are many criteria to look into before you start working on your sales funnel with software or tool. Here are some of the things you should consider before you start working with your preferred tool.
- Built-in Customizable Templates
- Easy to Use
- Built-in Automation
- Ability to host webinars
- Fits into your existing marketing stack
- Responsive customer support
- Affiliate Center
- Inbuilt shopping opt cart
Now let us begin with our list of some of the best funnel building tools available in the market right now.
1. ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is the best sales funnel building software available in the market. ClickFunnels incorporates everything a business needs to have in order to build a complete automated sales funnel. Besides creating sales funnels, ClickFunnels can also build landing/sales page/online courses, host webinars and many more!
Some of the mentionable features of ClickFunnels are –
- Pre-built funnel templates
- Drag-and-Drop sales funnel option
- Affiliate management option
- Funnel sharing
- Funnel sharing
- Inbuilt automation (Follow-up funnels)
- Funnel Flix
Price – ClickFunnels offers a 14-Days free trial option to new users. Afterward, the pricing is as follows –
Startup plan – $97 per month
Edison Suite Plan – $297 per month
In a nutshell, ClickFunnels is the best available software in the market. However, if you’re looking for alternatives, there are also some quality tools in the market.
2. Kartra
Kartra is another fantastic funnel building tool that has almost all the functionalities of ClickFunnels. It is sort of a 360-degree tool that provides an easy solution for hosting and marketing your business as well as creating a sales funnel.
Some of the mentionable features of Karta are –
- DFY sales funnel campaigns or templates
- Hosts videos
- Responsive Helpdesk
- Kartra Calendar
- Automated sales-driven campaigns
- Membership sites with Kartra
- Kartra BAM
- Affiliate management tool
Price – Kartra offers a 14-Days trial option to new users for 1$. It allows the users to test run all the amazing features this tool has to offer. Afterward, the pricing is as follows.
Starter Plan – $99 per month
Silver Plan – $199 per month
Gold Plan – $299 per month
Platinum Plan – $499 per month
3. Convertri
This tool can be categorized as both an individual funnel builder as well as a WordPress based sales funnel builder tool. It enables you to associate page into funnels which likewise gives you all that you will ever need to take a pristine possibility from a section purpose of your funnel to the point where you convert them to clients. Convertri highlights like powerful content substitution are what make it somewhat better than stages like ClickFunnels and Kartra.
Some of the mentionable features of Convertri are –
- AMP features
- Drag-and-drop editor
- Dynamic Text Replacement
- Sub-accounts
Price – Convertri offers a 14-Days trial option to new users for $0.01$. $. It allows the users to test run all the amazing features this tool has to offer.
- Standard Plan – $59 per month
- Pro Plan – $69 per month
- Agency Plan – $199 per month
4. GetResponse
It is not the best funnel building tool in the market, however, it is one of the cheapest ones in the market that ensures quality value of the product. This is basically an email marketing tool with a cool autoresponder capability which can also create great sales funnels. The cons of this tool would be that it was limited number of built-in templates in the stock. It also has no affiliate management tool or membership feature. However, it still works great considering it’s very cheap. Some of the mentionable features of GetResponse are –
- A dedicated email marketing tool as a bonus
- GetResponse Auto funnel
- Page Templates
- Ecommerce store
- Team management & CRM
Price – It doesn’t offer any free or trial version. It starts directly from the offers.
- Basic plan – $15 per month
- Essential plan – $49 per month
- Professional plan of $99 per month
- Enterprise plan of $1,199 per month
5. GrooveFunnels
GrooveFunnels is an all-in-one platform that comprises a collection of software applications known as GrooveApps which are used to build websites and funnels. Inside the GrooveFunnels, we have tools such as GroovePages GrooveSell GrooveMail GrooveMember, GrooveWebinars, etc.
GrooveFunnels has so much more to offer, you can run your entire business on it. GrooveFunnels have GrooveApps which is basically the compilation of all the features and tools it offers. Some notable ones are –
- GrooveKart
- GrooveSell
- GrooveAffiliate
- GrooveMail
- GrooveMember
- GrooveVideo, etc.
GrooveFunnels is its competitors but better, more affordable, and way more unique features and tools. GrooveFunnels is one of those all-in-one platforms that offers varieties of features that many of the top market leaders fail to provide.
6. BuilderAll
This is a great tool where you can build your sales funnel comprehensively. Besides building a sales funnel, BuilderAll provides other features that make it a 360-degree marketing platform. Even though this is not as good as Clickfunnels, it works quite well as well. However, it has some limitations. The editor is unintuitive and clunky. There are so many features in this tool that makes the user confused sometimes. Many unnecessary features are integrated with the tool which does not add much value in the usage. Regardless of this, it has some nice features as well.
- Animation and video editor
- Blog Builder
- Browser notification system
- Ecommerce tool integration
- Facebook Messenger chatbot
- Auto-post for social media
- Heatmaps and ClickMaps
Overall in the market, ClickFunnels has made its way in the market with its sophisticated features which helps you to create the best possible sales funnel. The majority of the people use ClickFunnels. However, if you’re looking for something alternative to work with, the rest of the tools work quite well as well.
How to Optimize Your Sales Funnel
The market is always moving and so is the preference of the customers. So, you can’t just create a sales funnel and keep it like forever. You always need to optimize your sales funnel. This can be done in many different ways. There is room for improvement in every phase of the funnel.
The most critical points in the funnel are when customers move to the next phase in the funnel. Therefore, that should be the most important focus point, which is the switching point.
When you are running Facebook ads, don’t restrict it to just one; run for like 10, 20 or even 30. Facebook’s targeting features makes it easier for ads to appear in front of your target audience. You can change those target audiences by their gender, demographics, buying behavior, etc.
If you really want to optimize the whole funnel, then start with the top of the funnel. It is as important as the bottom of the funnel where the purchasing happens.
If you are creating content, make sure you have different types of content for different points in the funnel.
A/B testing your landing pages will help you to reach a wider range of people and convert your leads into customers.
Don’t forget to monitor the customer’s retain and sustaining list. Analyze their behavior on your website. Find out which pages they stay the most or least. Find out on which page they leave your website.
Your analytics tool will help you find this information. The goal is to increase your brand awareness and conversion rate.
The best way to optimize sales funnel, though is to pay attention to the results.
Conclusion
Creating and optimizing sales funnel takes time. It’s hard work. But it’s the only way to survive in a competitive marketplace. Sales funnel is about more than being just planning. It’s tied in with giving each potential client the individual treatment they deserve.
It’s tied in with ensuring you follow up at the correct occasions, without fail. So you can invest a greater amount of your energy accomplishing the most rewarding thing like bringing a deal to a close.
