The Sales Funnel an Awesome Tool For Effective Internet Marketing
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The sales funnel has been a part of conventional business and marketing for times untold. However lately it seems to me that the subject of using sales funnels in Internet business is popping up everywhere on the web. The truth of the matter is that folks want to know more about this marketing concept and how they can use it in their online business marketing efforts. If you would like to know something more about the sales funnel for effective Internet marketing I invite you to continue reading.
The sales funnel what it is.
No, a sales funnel isn’t an actual funnel. The use of the term “funnel” for this marketing concept is simply to help visualize and explain a sales process from the beginning to the end. Because it uses a wide entry way for potential customers “Unqualified Prospects” at the top and a much narrower opening for converted sales at the bottom the term funnel is an accurate comparison.
At the top or entrance to the sales funnel will be who we may consider as “unqualified prospects”; these are folks who could need your products or services, but you have never contacted them before. By the end of this funnel, several offers and sales actions later, you’ve gotten folks who’ve obtained your product or service and made a purchase as well.
Another reason the concept of a funnel is effective is that it makes it possible to monitor your potential prospects actions at different stages of the expanded sales process. Using the sales funnel, through figuring out the quantity of qualified prospects at each point of the process, it is possible to anticipate the number of prospective customers who’ll, after a while, turn into actual customers.
A sales funnel will allow you to see exactly what and where your sales process is failing or succeeding, or if your campaign isn’t getting a sufficient amount of prospective customers somewhere in the process. This information allows you to choose exactly where you should focus your attention and work to maintain sales at the necessary level as well as, to fulfill marketing goals. It’s used as a method to gauge and manage the customers sales process.
The sales funnel is actually an organized marketing process in which you methodically direct your prospects into becoming customers and, also, convert them into even more ready to spend customers. Your customer base gets scaled-down as your net profit goes up because you provide higher priced products and services to your ready to spend customers at the base of the funnel.
There are different types of marketing funnels they can be very simple to highly complicated in their design but they will all have a top or front-end and a bottom or back-end. Let’s talk a little about the purpose of both.
The Sales Funnel Top or Front – End
The top of your sales funnel will be the most active area of your process and requires the most consistent testing. You’ll discover virtually limitless front-end strategies limited only by your creativity and resources.
The main goal of the front- end will be to pull in prospective clients and convert them into buyers further down the sales process.
The prospective client becomes “qualified” once they opt-in or subscribe to something that you offer. This is the point in the sales funnel that the potential customer or “Unqualified Prospect” becomes a qualified lead because they have taken an action that actually demonstrates that may have enough interest to purchase your product or service.
For your front-end to be effective you must be able to drive targeted traffic to your website, blog, or squeeze page. The most effective methods and resources for doing this are article marketing, PPC adverts, social media (Google+, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), banners, blogging, forum posting, content marketing and more.
You’ll find that there are numerous tools to “qualify” the “Unqualified Prospect”. One of the more effective is the use of a squeeze page where you can offer something of value that is relevant to your product or service that folks can get for free or drastically reduced price for the exchange of their name and email. The products offered vary from newsletters, video, e-mail courses, eBooks, related reports and more.
So we see that the front-end of the sales funnel is where folks are drawn into your sale funnel. Now what about the back-end?
The Back-End or Bottom of The Sales Funnel
The back-end or bottom of the sales funnel is where the main sales and profits are made. It usually contains your higher priced products. Basically these would be relevant to the same niche but delivered in a different format such as audio, video, live interaction or private consultation. The main difference concerning the front end and the back-end is regarding the type of client as well as the price of the product or service that is being provided.
By the time your customers have arrived at the back-end of your sales funnel they have not only taken you up on your free gifts, free valuable information but also may have purchased your basic product or service and liked it so much that they are eager to buy more from you.
While it’s true that just a small percent, say 1-2%, from the overall number of folks entering into your front – end will finish up in the back-end. That’s alright, due to the fact that this select few will be investing a much larger amount of money. You see, that while front end products and services may cost under $100, back-end products and services are typically priced in the 100s or 1000’s. This make the back-end or bottom of the sales funnel the main source of income for your Internet business, it’s also the most predictable and solid area in this sales process.