Everyone who has an online business needs to create a sales funnel in order to convert his website visitors into paying customers.

What is sales funnel?

The process of introducing a prospective customer to your products or service by leading them through a progression toward purchase is called sales funnel. Digital marketing has changed how the traditional sales funnel works because prospective customers can learn about products and services by making their research online. The game has changed because now there are also various digital media such as ads, emails, popups, push notifications that they can interrupt the perspective customer from its research.

The 4 basic Sales Funnel stages are:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Decision
• Action

Understanding the Sales Funnel Stages

From the first time your prospect hears about you until the moment he buys from you, he passes through different stages of your sales funnel. Before you start building your sales funnels it is important to have a clear business vision, develop a marketing strategy and then define your target audience to work towards your business growth. If, for example you are looking on how to create an online clothing store, you need to follow specific steps to develop your business and stay successful.

 

Awareness

The prospect learn about your existing solution, product or service. At this stage, they also become aware of their problems that they need to solve and the possible ways to deal with it.

This is when they visit your website for the first time, maybe they found from an ad, Google search, social media or any other specific traffic source.

Interest

At this stage, the prospect is actively looking for solutions to their problems and ways to achieve their goals. Now is the time when he expresses his interest in your product or service.

Decision

At this stage, the prospect is making the decision that he wants to take advantage of your solution. They are paying more attention to what you offer, including different packages and options so he can make the final decision to purchase.

Action

At this stage, the prospect is becoming a customer by finalizing the deal with you. They are clicking the purchase button.

Retention

At this stage, you have your customer onboard your company. This stage requires you to focus on keeping customers happy to convert them into repeat customers and brand advocates. Word of mouth is a powerful force and no one can do it better than a happy customer.

Your work is not done when you create your sales funnel. In fact, this is where it all begins.

You need to gather data and analyze and improve your funnel if you want to get better results.

 

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