How To Build A Sales Funnel 2020 (Step By Step) With Examples

Posted on the 25 May 2020 by Jitendra Vaswani @JitendraBlogger

A sales funnel comprises all steps that an individual takes to become a customer. Sales funnel building is crucial since it has an incredible impact on a business enterprise. Managing and defining a sales funnel is one of the influential concepts for any business.

Let me take you deep into what is a sales funnel and how can you create one for your business in no time.

Creating a sales funnel in today's world is not a daunting task, but many feel so. Let me tell you that all you need is a total of 25-30 minutes to create your sales funnel. The best part is that you can do it yourself without needing a developer who would charge you a few hundred dollars.

You can come up with a creative and converting funnel on your own. In this guide, I will take through the steps of how to build a sales funnel fast.

Before knowing the steps to build a sales funnel in less time consumed, let me explain what a sales funnel is, in brief.

The entire procedure that a stranger takes, right when the person is aware of your business until the first purchase is made. No company operates without a sales funnel. Individuals move through the entire sales funnel while making a purchase. Every business has some kind of a sales funnel knowingly or unknowingly. This is because each consumer goes through some sort of process before finally converting.

However, the sales funnel keeps continuing even after a customer converts, and money is collected from them for sale made. Sales funnel helps to keep consumers engaged throughout their buying journey. Hence, it is crucial to crafting your sales funnel really well and optimize it to attract consumers. A value ladder is used to add value to every step of the sales funnel.

A value ladder is a primary element needed to build any marketing funnel. The ladder comes in the form of an order bump, cross-sells, upsells and downsells. It is not possible to create an efficient sales funnel without the help of a value ladder integrated into your offer.

It makes a sales funnel tremendous, and the features are also different from the traditional funnel. Sales funnel is different from the funnels found in the offline world.

The sales funnel tapers down as the visitors move through it. This is because your sales funnel has more potentials in the first step as compared to the buyers that convert eventually. This is also because you need to have messages that are highly converting.

How To Build A Sales Funnel: The Step By Step Guide (2020)

Sales Funnel has four stages: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. The four steps represent the mindset of a customer and require a distinct approach from the creator. As a marketer, you don't want to send wrong messages to your prospects at the wrong time.

Let us look deep into each stage of the sales funnel in detail.

Awareness -- This is the first step in the sales funnel when a customer is attracted to your business. It is possible through a tweet, a google search, Facebook post or anything else entirely. Potentials are now aware of your business and offerings as well. After attracting a possibility, you will want them to keep coming to your website and engage more.

Interest -- The interest stage illustrates that the shopper has considered your product and is doing market research. They are comparing different, similarly available products and thinking over the convenient options. Don't make the mistake of selling products to your prospects from the first stage. Offer them help in any way you can, and provide them with helpful content

Decision -- In this phase of the sales funnel, the customer has made a choice and is ready to purchase. The customer most likely considers two or three options and they may include yours as well. You can tap on the potential just at the right time by introducing several offers specifically for them. Make them irresistible for your leads.

Action -- This is the last stage of a sales funnel, where a customer acts. By making a purchase, the stranger becomes a part of your business ecosystem. However, your work is not complete after a consumer reaches the last level of the funnel. Your primary objective is customer retention, and you should work on that.

Now that you know how a sales funnel looks and how it works, it is now time to compile everything together. It requires practical steps, and I will run you down through the steps of building a sales funnel. You don't need a coder, designer, or anyone with years of experience on the field. I am sure that you will not face too many challenges in the process.

You are already aware of the availability of several sales building software in the industry. However, only a few of them are equipped with everything you might need to scale your business. But, I will show you the usage of a funnel builder that is a complete and all-in-one solution when it comes to building a sales funnel. We will use ClickFunnels in the process.

To your amazement, I will take only 30 minutes of your time. Yes, ClickFunnels is that fast, you will have your sales funnel curated in less than 30 minutes with ClickFunnels.

Step 1: Log in to your ClickFunnels account

ClickFunnels offer a free trial of 14 days, and after going through the free trial phase, you will need to get familiarised with the platform. Learn a few things about what all is included in it and how it will help you build a robust sales funnel in very less time. Go through a little onboarding process and learn about the software.

On the dashboard itself, you will find an option that says build funnel, and you are required to click on that option to get started.

Step 2: Pick the type of funnel you want

The next screen will have options regarding the type of funnel that your business will need at the present stage. Observe and select which type suits best. ClickFunnels has altered the process and made the work convenient for its users. This is done by offering 22 varied types of sales funnel, each one serving different objectives. However, the goals of each business enterprise are more or less the same, irrespective of the niche in which the business is operating.

A few examples of the different funnels include Survey Funnel, Hero Funnel, Reverse Squeeze page funnel, etc. However, before selecting, a feature is provided from where you can choose your industry and then the desired goals. The funnel types are then displayed that fits your selection perfectly well. ClickFunnels itself make the best judgment, and you can decide based on that.

You will observe as you keep tailoring down, the funnel type also keeps changing, and you can make the best selection possible. You can also choose to use the classic funnel builder and make one of your choices.

Step 3: Choosing the Funnel Template

After picking the funnel type, you will now have to select the funnel template. Alter and modify the funnel template to make it suit your needs.

This step doesn't require much action, and all you need to do is to choose a free available template to apply to your sales funnel. After picking one, the template will shove into your account, and you can then proceed to the next step. The next step is all about customizing your funnel as per needs.

Step 4: Customizing your funnel

After picking a theme, you are brought to the dashboard where you will see several setting options through which you can make desired changes. From this window, you can also choose to change your funnel path as well. You can either delete a funnel, alter the settings, funnel statistics, and you can also add additional setup related to the funnel if you want.

You will see an option that says "Edit Page" on the dashboard itself, and you are just a few clicks away from creating a robust sales funnel

Choose to edit texts, change colors, add autoresponders for emails and messages, or just any other funnel setting that you want to.

Step 5: Launching your Sales Funnel

Can you believe your sales funnel is almost ready, and you can now launch it successfully? Have you ever thought that you can do this, build a sales funnel all by yourself? An expert takes almost 10 minutes to complete the above steps. Hence, you will not take 20 minutes to complete them all. ClickFunnels is an efficient tool, and almost everything is laid out properly. The steps are all segregated in such a manner that the user can conveniently understand the steps.

Everything is included within; funnels are already built, straightforward integrations, stuff right beside, and a crisp editor. What else you will need to create a sales funnel. After setting everything, test your sales funnel, and you are ready to go.

Test your integration, form submission, URL, and other things necessary for the launch of your sales funnel.

Your sales funnel ready, yes, you did it! Drive traffic to your website and convert them into leads in no time. Get the best of what a sales funnel has to offer. See your business soar high. However, ensure that efforts made to build a sales funnel are worth and you drive maximum traffic.

Traffic is the ultimate test of the sales funnels developed without traffic who will flow through each step of the sales funnel.

Your sales funnel may require a few modifications as your business scales. A single sales funnel will not work throughout. With time, you will learn more about your potential and will also diversify your offerings. Hence, it is crucial to keep altering your sales funnel according to your specific needs.

You can conveniently measure the success of your sales funnel with the help of conversion rates. For instance, the number of subscribers you gain in your email list after seeing a Facebook Ad posted by your company. Businesses must pay attention to every stage of the sales funnel.

Optimize your marketing funnel in innumerable ways. There are a few critical places where you need to pay special attention, and it includes areas where your consumer shifts to the next point in the sales funnel. After knowing how to build a sales funnel fast, let me take you through the steps of optimizing it.

While running Facebook Ads, one Ad may not help, run 5-10 Facebook Ads, and target different personas. Use targeting features of Facebook to ensure that your ads are appearing at the top of news feeds for your target audience. By directing various commercials to different individuals, you can tap on a large customer base.

Run A/B tests for your landing pages. The procedure is a bit time-consuming, but I am sure that you will generate high-quality leads and will convert more readily. By paying attention to the results, you can pay great attention to your sales funnel.

You use content to grab the attention of your audience. Hence, your content should be encouraging enough, so that people take the desired action either on your ads or landing pages.

When it comes to your landing pages, ensure that the offer and CTA are relevant to the content in your Facebook Ad or any other asset used to drive traffic. Test several things to find out what works best.

While introducing offers to people, test varied offers to see what works best. Will 5% discount or free shipping work for you best. Little things will ultimately make a huge difference in your revenue. Furthermore, don't forget to keep track of your customer retention rate. Keep your brand on top of the mind of your prospects.

Advantages of Sales Funnel

Small Businesses make a massive mistake in selling to their potentials right after they come to know about the business. Creating additional steps between the first contact and making ultimate sales helps in varied ways. Draft a sales funnel to soar high. The whole concept of creating a sales funnel is to provide consumers with some space to make their own decisions.

Let us discuss the pros and cons of the sales funnel.
  • Sales Funnel is effective in increasing the conversion rate. As strangers move down the sales funnel, they decrease in number. But, those who are still present are the ones who are interested in buying from you. The ones who stay will buy more. As a result, the conversion rate increases.
  • Identify areas facing problems -- A sales is efficient in determining the products and services that have some issues. When a prospect leaves your sales funnel in between, you can discover the phase and the reason for their leaving.
  • Sales funnel will help to predict the number of purchases made. Numbers are vital to online marketing. It helps to enhance marketing strategies and further develop newer high funnels. Sales funnels track the number of individuals moving down the funnel. This data is beneficial in the long run.

Cons of a Sales Funnel

  • The funnel is linear, in the sense that it defines a particular set of steps, an individual goes through while making a purchase. Moreover, this does not apply to every stranger. Some may follow the same procedure, but for some, it may vary.
  • A finite end is implied by the sales funnel, and by its definition, it is assumed that the journey ends. But, in today's world salespeople are looking to develop long-lasting relationships with their prospects.
  • Sales funnel focuses only on conversion. The modern customer is more complicated than they were a decade ago. It is possible that sometimes they are not looking to buy something, rather interested in a chunk of information or possibly just engaging with your brand.

Traffic is integral to any business. This is true since, without traffic, your efforts will go vague, and there is no point in creating a sales funnel. Every business requires traffic to earn money and survive. However, not every company can drive adequate traffic, despite the availability of several tools that help in the process.

You can create a sales funnel and optimize it to direct high traffic. Pick and pay attention to a single platform. Learn from it and master it fully. After getting a winning system, automate the process before anything. You can choose any one platform and stick to it to ensure maximum conversions. All you need is just a single funnel to soar high.

Keep your funnel simple to attract the right amount of traffic.

FAQs

Quick Links:

The tool I used in this guide is not the only one available to build a great sales funnel. Several tools are floating in the market, and most of them claim to be the best. Moreover, ClickFunnels is till date the best and super easy to use tool that will get your sales to funnel ready in just 30 minutes.

You want to build a sales funnel without having to do much with technology. Creating a sales funnel is easy to use. Now that you have learned how to build a sales funnel fast, you can effortlessly build one.

Every business is looking to convert their website visitors into leads and then turning their leads into potential customers. After converting your leads, companies want to convert them into long term customers. Sales funnel is the right solution.

Building a sales funnel is not too complicated, and you can create one or more product sales funnel from your comfort zone. No specific technical knowledge is needed to build one. ClickFunnels has every functionality in place, and you will get to know more about the tool as you explore.