When you hear the word funnel... what comes to your mind first?
Probably some sweet and tasty funnel cake, right?
Or a laboratory tool?
Well... what if I tell you that neither of the two is what I'm talking about?
Because today, we're talking about a different kind of funnel.
A funnel that will make an unbelievable impact on your business.
A funnel that will help your business be more profitable.
We're talking about the sales funnel!
Did you know that without a well-organized sales funnel, nearly 79% of leads can't convert into sales?
Yikes! We don't want that for your ecommerce store.
That's why if you want to know how to build a profitable sales funnel in 2024, this blog covers it all.
Because we will also be discussing some tools to help you make CRAZY sales!
So, let's get this show down the road to becoming a sales funnel specialist!
What Is A Sales Funnel?
Sales funnels are the steps your customers follow to purchase from your online store. And it has different stages.
It's used to map out your customer journey from the beginning until they reach the last stage, which is the purchasing stage.
The different stages of the funnel require specific approaches... because each step is crucial. Some potential customers may enter the first stage but won't make it to the end.
To tell you more about it, let's talk about the sales funnel stages.
1. Top Of The Funnel
This is the first stage of the sales funnel.
For the awareness stage, your goal is for your potential customers to be aware of your brand. Don't scare them by trying to make a sale!
Your potential customers are still researching their problems and possible solutions. At this stage, you can catch their attention through your content. It can be through your social media posts, search engine results, and likes.
But you still have a way to go. You are still pursuing them to buy something from you.
If you're successful, they might go to the next stage...
2. Middle Of The Funnel
This is usually the consideration stage.
Since your customers are now aware of your brand, they might be considering purchasing from you.
At this stage, you're still pursuing them. Even if they're at this stage already, you still need to do a lot of work as they can come and go.
That's why you need to support their research and live up to their expectations.
The last stage of the funnel is...
3. Bottom Of The Funnel
This is your customers' final decision on a sale funnel. Remindings, retargeting, and incentives work very well. It is a mixture of soft selling and hard selling, depending on the strategies you use in the front and the middle of the funnel.
Congratulations! You're almost there!
After nurturing your prospects, they're going to take action now. You can now convert them into paying customers!
Sounds good, right? It means you have a successful sales funnel!
To show you an example, let's discuss the AIDA model.
This is an example of what a basic sales funnel looks like.
- Awareness. Your potential customers are aware of your brand. You are not nameless to them anymore.
- Interest. They're showing interest in your offers. This is probably what they need, and they're already doing their research.
- Decision. This is where they decide if you are the right answer to their problem.
- Action. They made a purchase! Now, it's your chance to nurture your relationship with them.
So, you probably think it's a lot of work. But is it even worth it?
Why Are Sales Funnels Important?
I know you're thinking you need to exert a lot of effort. But if you're willing to go through all that work, you will see the results.
For now, I will tell you how it can help your business more profitable:
- It helps you identify quality leads. Based on your sales funnels, you can see the prospects who are most likely to convert into paying customers.
- It gives you insights. If your prospects leave a certain part of your funnel, you can identify what is wrong, and you can work on it. And you can also plan their entire customer journey.
- You have a clearer sales process. A clear sales process will make your sales funnel more profitable over time because these are just repeatable steps.
To sum it up, sales funnels are important because they ensure that your customers' journey will not get lost in the process. They help you understand what your ideal prospect needs for each stage. And you can provide it so they can move closer to the conversion stage.
Now, let me teach you...
How To Create A Sales Funnel?
1. Create A Landing Page
This is the first stage of your sales funnel. And think of it as your sales page.
Your prospects probably saw a friend share your post. Or maybe you created an ad to sign up for your newsletter or claim their freebie.
But whatever that is, this can be your prospects' first impression of your business. This is where they will decide if they want to pursue an association with your brand. Or in this case, if they want to claim your offer.
When you create landing pages, you have to impress them. And to do this, you need to have compelling and powerful content to convince them.
I mean, I wouldn't sign up for your newsletter if you didn't tell me its benefits. ??♀️
Remember, this is your time to shine. Get that prospect!
2. Make A Valuable Offer
An enticing copy and a great landing page won't cut it. You need to make sure you are giving them value so they will lead to the next level of your sales funnel.
If you're wondering what kind of value... it can be in the form of an ebook, checklist, and the like.
Let's say you're a product-based business. You are selling comfortable beds for new homeowners. One of the freebies you can offer is a checklist when choosing beds. It's valuable for your prospects, and you might capture their emails.
So, to make them sign up... you got to give them something in return.
The next one is...
3. Foster The Prospect
Your prospect gave you their emails. Now, it's time to nurture them.
Make sure to foster customer relationships by sending them emails or valuable freebies they can use. This is an important step because they might still have objections to your offers.
After this, it's time to...
4. Seal The Deal
This will either make or break your sales. That's why you need to make your best offer to seal the deal.
You can think of offers that will help your customers based on the behavior they showed during their customer journey.
Next up is...
5. Optimize From Time To Time
What if some of your customers left the funnel they're at?
You need to identify where you're lacking and why they're leaving or unsubscribing. Another reason is your target customers' behavior is constantly changing.
For example, you can check which of your strategies has the highest funnel conversion rates. Then you can utilize them moving forward.
You can use data analyzing programs (which I will show you later) to determine which funnel sales methods work and what do not work. Then you can make adjustments.
You can also start testing with several variations to determine what works better. Maybe, you could send a reminder to customers who use different languages and graphics. Depends on the results.
That's why to make a successful sales funnel... you need to optimize your funnel from time to time.
So... now, why don't we go to the good part?
13 Tools To Build A Profitable Sales Funnel
Here are 7 sales funnel tools you can use to make a successful sales funnel.
Let's start with...
1. Hubspot
Hubspot is inbound marketing, sales, and service software. It's a marketing automation software and can make successful sales funnels. You can use this to generate and convert leads.
Best part? It can also be your customer service and CRM or Customer Relationship Management tool!
Let's look at some of its features:
- Landing pages
- Free CRM
- Email automation
- Workflows
- Social Media Integration
It's really a sales funnel tool with stellar marketing automation features! So, if you want to build a successful sales funnel, Hubspot starts at $45 per month.
So, let's hop on to the next one.
2. Leadpages
Leadpages is a sales funnel tool that will help you capture quality leads through its dynamic page builder. You can create high-converting landing pages that can transform your leads into sales.
Here are some of its features:
- Drag and drop builder
- Fast-loading page speed
- A/B Testing
- Unlimited popups
- Integrations
Amazing features, right? And you can get these for your sales team starting at $37 per month! Now, let's go to our next sales funnel tool...
3. Unbounce
Want to create your high-converting marketing campaigns? Unbounce is your pal. This sales funnel tool helps you from collecting emails to growing your sales. Good news? You can also create a landing page because it's a dedicated landing page builder.
Let’s look at some of its features.
- Reporting and statistics
- Customizable templates
- Customizable branding
- Drag and drop
- Form builder
The pricing starts at $90 a month, and you can get up to 20, 000 visitors! Sounds good?
Our next sales funnel software is...
4. Calendly
If you want to make a successful sales funnel, Calendly can help you with that! Remember when I said nurture your prospects during their customer journey? To make sure you don't lose them, try organizing webinars or meetings with this sales funnel tool!
Let's look at some of its key features.
- Integration with Google, Outlook, and Office 365
- Follow-up emails/reminders
- Automated workflows
- Metrics and reporting
- Web, iOS, and Android apps
Pricing starts at FREE. But if you want to get the best features... you can acquire the $12/month Professional plan! This allows your sales team to get access to this sales funnel tool!
5. Funnel.io
Funnel.io is a sales funnel tool that will help you create and analyze your marketing data. It automatically collects marketing data. While Google Analytics can also be helpful, Funnel.io can pull in your cost data, and it's helpful to analyze your advertising expenditure cost accurately.
It is a cloud-based sales engagement software. The best part? It increases the use of sales automation.
Here are some of its features:
- Platform integrations
- Unlimited data volume
- Quarterly success review
- Scheduled imports
- Data history
To analyze your data, the pricing starts at $399 a month. And up to 5 of your sales team can get access!
Another one is...
6. InsightSquared
Want a real-time view of your revenue and forecast your sales? Try InsightSquared!
This sales funnel tool will help you turn insights into actions. It gives you a real-time view of all your essential metrics and the pipeline visibility you will need of your customers.
Want to see their features?
- Forecasting
- Interactive reporting
- Detailed reporting
- Activity capture
- Conversational intelligence
If these features excite you, you can request pricing on their website as they have custom pricing plans.
Another sales funnel tool is...
7. Mixpanel
Mixpanel is the sales funnel tool to check customer insights. This is a powerful tool because it will help you convert and retain your users based on analyzing their behavior.
Let's see some of its features:
- Interactive reports
- Product analytics
- Users insights
- Frequency chart conversion rate
- Team dashboards
But here's the best part... they have a FREE plan. But if you want to take your business to the next level, it starts at $25 a month.
The next perfect tool when creating sales funnels is...
8. Leadboxer
Leadboxer is a sales funnel tool that helps you identify your quality leads and provides insights into your sales workflow. If you need a platform that will help you generate data, this is perfect for you!
Now, let's see some of its features.
- Website and email tracking
- Identifying website visitors
- Tools integration
- Automatic lead-scoring
- Segmentation
If you want to acquire this profitable sales funnel tool, the Basic plan starts at €195 per month.
Another tool you can use to create a successful sales funnel is...
9. Insightly
Insightly offers a wide range of products for your business. From creating intelligent marketing campaigns to customer relationship management... this will help you build a profitable sales funnel!
So, what makes Insightly one of the best sales funnel tools?
- Data management
- Metrics tracking
- Pipeline management
- Application Integration
- Customizable real-time insights cards
The Plus plan starts at $29 per month. Not bad for its features, right?
Now, here's another sales funnel tool!
10. Spiro
Spiro is an AI-powered CRM (Customer Relationship Management) that will help you improve your revenue through intelligent customer management. It's also a sales funnel tool that automatically collects data from email, then optimizes customer engagement.
Now, why is this the perfect tool to help you build a profitable sales funnel?
- Up-to-date data
- Integrations within your organization
- ROI (Return On Investment) tracking
- Team activities
- Lead creations
They have custom pricing plans. So, to know the pricing of this sales funnel tool, you have to fill out their form and request one.
Another sales funnel tool is...
11. Hootsuite
Remember when I said to nurture your leads? You can do this through social media! So, if your potential customer is in the middle of the funnel and wants to know more about your brand, Hootsuite can be a great tool to help you spread your messaging.
Let's take a look at their features.
- Scheduling posts
- Team access
- 24/7 customer support
- Unlimited posts
- Approval workflows
You can avail of their Professional plan, which is $19 a month!
Next up...
12. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a sales funnel software for improving your revenue. It's a sales platform for teams of all sizes. Not only that, but it's also a Customer Relationship Management tool to grow your business!
Sounds exciting? Look at some of their features.
- Integrations
- Email templates and scheduling
- Workflow builder
- Revenue projections
- Data import
These are amazing features, right? You can avail of their Essential plan for $12.50 per user a month!
And last but not least...
13. Samcart
Since you want to lead your customers to the bottom of the funnel, Samcart can help you with that! It enables you to optimize sales pages for conversion by creating a seamless checkout process for your customers.
Who doesn't want an easy checkout process, right? Let's take a look at its features!
- Drag and drop builder
- Language personalization
- Digital wallets payment
- Integration
- One-click upsells
To access this good stuff, the pricing starts at $39 a month!
So, what do these sales funnel tools tell you?
Choose The Best Tools For Your Website!
It's so important that your website uses the best tools possible in the world...
But hear me out.
Once you lead your customers to the bottom of the sales funnel, are you 100% sure they're purchasing from you?
Because here's the catch...
Despite planning their entire customer journey and paying thousands of dollars for these sales funnel tools... it's useless if your website isn't built for conversion.
That's why you need a Shopify theme that is OPTIMIZED for it. So your effort doesn't go to waste.
And I have the answer for you...
You need a theme that can be your Profit Optimization Partner, like Debutify! 378,491+ smart brand owners trust it for a reason!
It has over 50+ Add-Ons that will help you further enhance your store's looks and feels. Best part? While improving your conversion rate and profits!
Now, it's time to...
Build A Highly-Profitable Business With Debutify - Today!
14-Day Free Trial. 1-Click Installation. No Credit Card Required.
