Generating demand, stimulating the interest of visitors to the online shop, pushing them to buy, the website owner, in one way or another, guides the customer through all the stages of the standard sales funnel. It goes from a mere lead - someone who is interested in what you are selling - to a loyal and dedicated customer.
Every business, large and small, is trying to optimise enterprise costs and cut costs. And very often, expectations, preferences and priorities have to be reconsidered and sometimes reconfigured on the fly. The Step Link platform makes it easy to model most business processes.
How do you optimize your sales funnel? What steps does a customer go through before making a purchase? Let's explore this question in depth.
Awareness
At this stage, potential customers are not yet familiar with your brand and company. They have searched for something in a search engine, entered the queries they are interested in and so arrived at the website. Your task is to keep their attention, gather feedback and build trust. You need to make sure that the content you put on your site is interesting and useful, answering questions and offering solutions to pain points.
Show the importance and value of your resource. "Bait" yourself by creating free educational content. At this stage the visitor is not yet ready to buy, they don't understand who you are and what you are offering them.
Raise awareness at the top of the funnel in several ways, which can be applied separately or all together. It all depends on your financial capabilities.
Share useful information in exchange for contact details (name, email, phone number) that interest you. Place a call to action on your landing page (offer to leave an application, call, fill out a form, lead magnet). Run Google Shopping ads to get your shop's products featured in Google's search results page.
Create relevant and informative content that will attract traffic to your website and introduce visitors to your brand.
Even at this stage it is worth working with the MollyKool platform, commissioning a marketing analysis and developing a promotion strategy for your business.
At this stage, use pay-per-click advertising and create adverts by connecting Google Ads. Media advertising works well because it gives maximum reach. You should also use SMM and targeted advertising on social networks. They allow you to work with a wide audience and show ads to a large number of people. The goal of all marketing activities is to make the occasional visitor to the site your potential customer.
To automate processes, it's easier to do it all in one system and use the Step Link platform.
Interest
Once your website visitors have 'proven themselves' by getting into your remarketing or CRM database, they move on to the next stage of the funnel and become official leads.
The tactics change. The potential customer now needs to get as much information from you as possible to think about. Using dropshipping, you can scale your business at this stage of the sales funnel by extending your offer to already registered users.
Hold free webinars. Give the opportunity to ask as many questions as possible. Answer them not only in the webinar, but also in newsletters and blog articles.
Post guides and tutorials that show as many convincing facts and proofs as possible that your product is exactly what the customer needs.
Case studies are handy and easy to understand advertising for your business. Customers want to see results, read testimonials, study case studies, watch videos and imagine how your business or your product will change their lives. Media advertising, remarketing and search advertising work better at this stage.
Desire
The product has piqued the customer's interest. They've been to your site more than once and have already put something in their shopping cart. But has not yet placed an order.
At this stage of the funnel, focus on the benefits, personalize your messages. Why is your product better than your competitors'? Why is it perfect for the potential customer? Persuasion, motivation, persistence. Do everything you can to get the customer to the end of the sales funnel and make a purchase.
You can offer a free trial or product samples. Offer a discount and announce a promotion, provided the purchase is made within a certain period of time, this creates a sense of urgency.
The most important promotional tools at this stage are search advertising, remarketing and email marketing.
Buying
The customer has reached the end of the funnel, he has bought the product. Congratulations! Call and ask for details of the order and find out what else he needs, what he wants to buy in the future. Suggest alternative products, recommend related products from other categories. Note that the items you offer on top of that should cost 60% less than the items you added to the shopping cart.
Loyalty
It's easier and cheaper to retain an "old" customer who already knows you than it is to get a new one. Loyal customers are easier to get interested in complementary products, cross-selling and repeat sales.
Step Link Tools
Step Link develops unique methodologies for personalising and promoting websites. The tools provided by the Step Link software allow you to measure and analyze user (lead) behavior at every stage of the sales funnel. The tools in Step Link software simulate the lead's journey through the sales funnel, estimate demand and calculate time and resources required.