How to Create a Small Business Sales Funnel that Converts
If you’re like most small businesses, your focus is on the end of the sales funnel: the purchase or transaction. To increase your odds of converting a browser into a customer though, your focus needs to start on the steps leading up to that transaction.
Let’s say you own a t-shirt company and went to a dinner party where you didn’t know anyone prior to that night. You walk in and the first thing out of your mouth is “hey I’m John, buy this t-shirt.” You’d probably be lucky if you left that dinner with 1 sale. You certainly wouldn’t leave with any new friends.
For some reason, we understand how inappropriate that is in a personal setting but when it comes to business, we use messaging on strangers that shout “Buy Now!” or “Get an Affordable Website for Your Business!” without first establishing a relationship of trust with that person.
The majority of people receiving that type of message are likely to react similarly to those at the dinner party. They walk away without making a purchase. If you run any digital ads and see consistently poor conversion, you’re likely falling victim to this.
The solution is to start thinking of our marketing in a similar way to how we warm people up to the idea of our business and how it can be of value to them before we ask for the sale.
Don’t get me wrong, a strong and clear call-to-action is necessary but at the beginning stage of a relationship it comes off as being pushy. An alternate idea would be to provide a call-to-action with less of a risk or investment to the potential customer.
In this article, I show you the steps to create a sales funnel that converts. Ready to get started? It’s 5 simple steps that’ll continue to work even when you’re not:
Step 1: Get your website ready
Step 2: Drive traffic to your website
Step 3: Use a free PDF to get emails
Step 4: Setup a automated drip campaign
Step 5: Convert from customer to loyal fan
Step 1: Get your website ready
This first step is the foundation of the funnel. Instead of trying to drive traffic straight to a purchase, drive them to your website by offering something of value for free. More on that in Step 3.
The main goal of your website is to pique their curiosity and begin informing them of what you offer, how it solves their problem, and how to get it. Don’t overwhelm them with everything about your business, keep it simple and focused on your customer. Thing is, at this stage they most likely won’t be ready to commit to making a purchase. They’re curious about what you offer from the content or ad they saw and they’re visiting your website for information.
They’ll be making quick assumptions based on the consistency of your messaging, the visual aesthetic of your website, and its ease of use. This is similar to making a great first impression at that dinner.
If you need some guidance on how best to do this, I’ve created a free PDF explaining How to Structure Your Homepage to Turn Visitors into Customers which includes a wireframe you can use with your designer to customize for your business.
The idea here is to pique their curiosity and inform them of what you offer, how it solves their problem, and how to get it.
Step 2: Drive traffic to your website
Now that you’ve got an awesome website up and running, it’s time to start driving traffic to it. You can do it an a variety of ways. You can choose to spend money via ads or you can choose to do it without spending money but it will take a bit longer.
The best ways you can drive traffic to your website with little or no cost (aside from time spent on creation) are with things like articles, videos, social media posts, and social communities or groups.
Not only will this bring visitors to your website but it will also help you establish credibility in your area of expertise. Offering up value for nothing in return places you as the guide to help others who are facing challenges you’ve dealt with and learned from. It can also facilitate the Law of Reciprocity which states that when someone does something for you, you’ll have a psychological urge to do something for them in return.
Step 3: Use a free PDF to get emails
You’ve probably seen this before and have even provided your email to a business offering something of value to you or your business. This will be the first time you’ll be asking that potential customer to put some skin in the game so it’s important you provide something of value in return.
I personally choose to give all of my best content away for free. It may seem counter-intuitive but I truly believe every entrepreneur and business ought to have a brand they’re absolutely confident will help them connect with customers and generate revenue.
There will be some who will take all my content, apply it to their business, and be successful. Great! I’m happy to help but there will undoubtedly be others who would rather have an expert handle the execution of it so they can focus on other aspects of their business and I’m happy to be their guide.
When you start thinking about what type of value you should put out there for free, you’ve got to start with your customer and their problems. What would help them tackle that problem and does it align with the solution my business offers?
For example, my customers are small businesses and one of their problems is they’ve got a website that just isn’t working. So I created a free PDF that helps them structure their website in a way that converts browsers into customers via structured content and a website wireframe.
If you want this to truly work though, you’ll need to do a bit of research on this. If you’re a part of any online communities like Facebook or LinkedIn groups then jump in there and just listen. Listen to the problems people are having that your business can help solve. Then create a PDF that explains why that problem exists, what they should do differently, or even how they can solve it.
It also doesn’t necessarily have to be a PDF. It can also be a webinar, a video, or a free trial of your software. The point is to add real value in exchange for that email address.
When you start thinking about what type of value you should put out there for free, you’ve got to start with your customer and their problems.
Step 4: Setup a automated drip campaign
Now that you’ve got a free resource to offer potential customers, it’s time to setup an automated campaign to help transition them from the phase of gathering information to making a commitment of parting with their hard earned dollars.
They’ve provided their email address to you so you know they’re interested in what you offer. Don’t take advantage of that and start spamming subscribers with offers or sending them content they don’t care about.
You’ve got to continue to provide the same type of value as you did with the free PDF. A great recipe for this is from Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook which basically states that you should provide value, value, value, and then ask for the sale.
So take some time, head back over to those Facebook groups or read those amazon reviews and identify 3 more ways to provide value to your customers. Be sure the value you’re providing is relevant to your audience otherwise they’ll simply opt-out after downloading that free resource. Don’t create this awesomely useful PDF and then start sending a weekly newsletter that talks about the latest innovations at your company.
They’ve provided their email address to you so you know they’re interested in what you offer.
Going back to the t-shirt company, let’s say you created a free PDF titled “3 ways to ensure your t-shirt lasts for years” then follow up that content with something like “Screen print vs heat press — what’s the difference and why it matters to you.” You get the idea.
Once you have your 3 value-added emails put together, its time to start focusing on your offer or sales letter. There’s a great framework on this topic by Ray Edwards, author of How to Write Copy that Sells. I’d suggest researching his technique or a similar technique to ensure you’re making the most of the offer email.
The one extra piece of advice I’ll add here is this is where you want that clear and direct call-to-action. Don’t offer all this value for free and passively ask for the sale. Your call-to-action should state “buy now” or “schedule an appointment” and not something vague like “reach your potential” or “let’s get started.”
So now that you’ve got all your content together its time to get it all setup and automated. I use MailChimp and there’s a great article by NicheMarket on just how to do that.
The basic idea is an email sequence is automatically started once a user has subscribed (by downloading your free resource). The timing of the sequence is largely dependent on the services you provide. For example, if you’re selling things at a lower price point or in a market where things change quickly you may want to send an email every few days. If you’re in a market where you’re selling luxury cars, you might send an email every few months.
Once you’ve figured out the best timing for your audience, you setup each email to be triggered at a certain date. For instance, your first email may be sent 2 days after signup, the second 6 days after signup, then 12 days.
You can choose to spend money having a designer create beautiful emails for you or you can simply use the templates your email service provides. Although I’ve got a background in visual design, I’ve found that simple is often better. MailChimp has very simple templates that work great.
Now that your email campaigns are setup to be automatically sent, you can take a quick breather. Not for long though because you should start thinking of 3 more value-added emails and another sales letter in the event that your customer hasn’t made a commitment.
Don’t fret, it may just not be the right time or they’re not quite in the market for your services yet. If they haven’t subscribed then they still find value in your content and your brand is also top-of-mind when they do decide they need services you provide.
Step 5: Convert from customer to loyal fan
You may be thinking, “hey isn’t that the end of the funnel? I got the sale!” Unfortunately it’s not. Well, not if you want a relationship with your customer deeper than a transactional one.
Most businesses will stop at this stage. They’ll talk everything up and once they get your money, there’s radio silence. What happened to all the value you were offering me?
This is where you can really pull away from your competition. Once you’ve got a customer to commit to doing business with you, this is your opportunity to wow them. Deliver on your promise and show that you care about their success.
Something simple as a follow-up call or email asking how they’re liking your product or service and if you could provide additional help. Maybe even offer a training session at the end of the project. Send a thank you basket to their office to show how you loved doing business with them. An idea that is a win-win for both of you is to write an article featuring them and tell their story to your audience.
There are so many little things you can do as a business that’ll go a long way. For ideas, check out Jay Baer and his book Talk Triggers for ideas on how you can wow your customers in unexpected ways to promote word-of-mouth marketing.
According to this article by OutboundEngine, the cost of acquiring a new customer can cost 5x more than retaining an existing one. So not only will you be making more money from repeat business, you’ll save money through free word-of-mouth marketing. Your customers will be doing half the work for you by introducing your business, explaining what you do, what its like to work with you and how they can do business with you too.
The importance of focusing on each step of the sales funnel versus just the transaction is tremendous. I’ve provided a short list of some short-term and long-term benefits in this article.
Hopefully now you’ve realized that spending thousands on ads that simply state “Buy Now!” are a waste of your marketing dollars. Instead invest some time and energy into creating a sales funnel that will guide potential customers from each stage of their journey. From curiosity, to information, to transaction, and finally to loyalty. The true beauty of it though is it continues to work for you while you focus on other areas of your business.
Now the work really begins. You’ve got the steps but the content needs to come from you listening to your customers. Only after you’ve listened to them and understand their wants, problems, successes and fears will you be able to really put this funnel to work for you.
I wish you the best of growth in your business.
Cheers!
