Sales Funnels aren’t A new strategy that is being implemented in businesses across the globe.
But over the last few years if you’ve been in the digital space or if you own A business I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Sales Funnel.” So What Does A Sales Funnel Look Like?
Sales Funnels are proven to have A higher conversion rate when it comes to online sales or lead generation.
They are designed to minimize any distractions to your potential customers. Such as outgoing links or share buttons. Each page highlights what you have to offer which can be used to either up-sell or down-sell the visitor.
But the entire basis of your sales funnel is to capture A lead / Contact information and prompting visitors to purchase what your offering.. or leave.
Want To Learn Even More About Sales Funnels? Check Out My Blog Post: Can ClickFunnels Replace Your Website?
It has become A common practice to use A funnel/sales page when selling A product or service online. So let’s look at some big brand name companies that are implementing them so you can get A good idea on how you can step up your digital marketing game!
Groupon
Groupon is A huge business and reaches millions of consumers A month.
They have A very big and prominent email opt-in as soon as you land on their website.
You can kind of look at their business model as A huge email list with A massive website attached to it. Once you start making purchases on Groupon they will start sending follow up emails promoting similar things to you based on your activity on their website.
They act as A huge affiliate network, they don’t actually sell products of their own they just promote other people’s products on their platform. By doing so and prompting businesses to get their offers on their platform they’re receiving commissions as well as building their own email list.
Steps In Their Sales Funnel:
- Traffic: From Affiliates, Direct, Email List, Advertisements, and more.
- Homepage: Their homepage prompts people to sign up with their email address. Upon doing so you’ll be granted access to deals that offer up to 70% off of various businesses and deals in your area
Why Their Sales Funnel Works?
When you find A deal on Groupon there is A clear call to action (Button To Purchase) but to make A purchase or get a discount through Groupon you need to sign up with your email address.
Upon doing so you will be added to their email list where they will follow up with you and promote other products or services that you might be interested in. Which is based on your activity or purchase behavior. Their offers tend to be more tailored towards women because that makes up the majority of their customer base.
They also have A referral/affiliate program that offers A 10% commission to you if you recommend Groupon to anyone and they make A purchase.
NETFLIX
Netflix is the most used paid subscriber video streaming service that allows its users to watch A variety of movies, documentaries, and TV- Shows on millions of devices connected to the internet.
Their site is very simple and isn’t jammed pack full of confusing copy / there isn’t very much going on within their website but you know exactly what you’re getting into. They change their background image based on what movies and TV shows are trending at that time.
They offer A risk reversal where you can get A free 30-day trial but can cancel at any time without worrying about being charged.
Steps In Their Sales Funnel
- Homepage: Their homepage clearly explains A risk-Free trial that you can cancel at any time. They emphasize the risk free commitment because their platform is A recurring charge upon your trial ending.
- Pricing Page: Upon entering your email address and starting the process of signing up you will be taken to the pricing page. By default, you’ll be placed on the premium plan which is actually A very smart move. You can downgrade if you want though.
Why Their Sales Funnel Works?
Their sales funnel works so well because Netflix is fairly simple. They take almost any payment method you can imagine that you can cancel at anytime. They emphasize security which is great because people are naturally risk-averse especially when putting their information online.
It’s very focused on the end consumer and if you’re unfamiliar with Netflix they will build playlists or create A list of movies you might be interested in based on your watch activity.
This becomes A very powerful tool because they will promote new releases to you through your email whether you’re still an active member or you’ve canceled.
The catered follow up combined with the fairly cheap cost of using their service increase the chances of you returning to their service or even paying for it if it’s not something you are using A lot.
ClickFunnels
Clickfunnels has kind of taken the digital space over in the last few years. They have kind of coined the term “Sales Funnel”
Since they are actually selling A service / Product to build online sales funnels it would only be natural for them to have A sales funnel in place. The owner of ClickFunnels (Russell Brunsen) Is well known for creating some of the highest converting sales funnels and skyrocketing sales/profits within businesses through using sales funnels combined with value ladders and attraction marketing.
Steps In Their Sales Funnel:
- Homepage: Their homepage/landing page is long and very in-depth describing all sorts of types of scenarios that A sales funnels could help you, and A clear call to action prompting you to sign up for your 14-day free trial
- Plan Selection: Similar to Netflix the default plan will be Clickfunnels Platinum which offers all of the tools regular users have along with A fairly new feature they’ve added which is like A Netflix for online entrepreneurs. A video streaming platform filled with courses and tutorials.
- First Up-Sell: They will up-sell you for A one time charge of $47 for access to the 9 Secrets of funnel training
- Second Up-Sell: They will then up-sell you on access to the One Funnel Away Challenge which is A 30-day plan that takes you, step by step every day to launching your sales funnel
Clickfunnels is notorious for up-selling and down-selling on additional products or services and why wouldn’t they? That isn’t the backbone of sales funnels. Giving you the ability to get A higher ROI and potentially make more money out of each person that makes A purchase.
Why Their Sales Funnels Works?
Clickfunnels is the king of sales funnels at this time and they create some really compelling funnels that make it all to easy. They offer you A risk-Free trial for 14 days but they are also A very strong powerhouse in the industry at this time.
If you land on their website for even A brief second you’re going to start seeing advertisements for them everywhere and I mean everywhere. Sometimes every advertising slot on A website will be filled by them. They will also start promoting everything to you through email which if you’re starting to see A pattern is Email Marketing & follow up.
People are much more likely to purchase from you if they’re semi-aware of your brand and the cost of paid advertising goes way down if your showing ads to people who’ve already landed on your site.
GetResponse
Getresponse is A software company that allows you to automate your email marketing campaigns and build email lists with ease.
Since A commonality between most sales funnels is the fact that they give you some type of perceived value in return for your contact information it’s only natural for an email marketing software company to have A beautiful sales funnel.
Getresponse take’s the risk-free trial to A whole new level. They offer A 30-day Free trial that doesn’t even require you to enter your payment information. You can actually get signed up and start building things within their software without even entering anything other than your email address. They also have an amazing affiliate program.
Would you like to learn even more about Getresponse? Check Out My Post: How Much Does GetResponse Cost?
HBO
Another video streaming service similar to Netflix, they offer exclusive shows though. Things like Game of thrones other show/movies created by them.
They offer free 14 day trial but they also will try to up-sell you to pay for HBO Go which gives you the ability to stream your favorite movies and TV shows on the Go.
Or from wherever you have an internet connection.
What Does A Sales Funnel Look Like?
The term “sales funnels” is merely A fancy tech jargon for A sales process or A landing page dedicated to capturing A potential customers’ contact information.
In the digital space, it is known as A lead magnet. Which basically is giving someone perceived value in exchange for an email address or some type of contact information.
So if you notice the similarity in all of these examples that I laid out is the business’s ability to follow up with you. Whether you take their free trial and end up being A paid customer or you cancel your trial and you end up parting ways.
They now have means of contacting you and nurturing A relationship with you which is more likely to convert into sales over A cold Audience (Someone who isn’t aware of their brand or business)
Using Sales Funnels can be A very powerful tool within businesses because it gives you the ability to achieve A high ROI out of each customer.
No not everyone who goes through your sales funnels will purchase any up-sell or down-sell but some will and that will in turn giving you more profits and the ability to spend more on scaling your business.
Kind of like when you purchase something off of Amazon and before you check out they show you the “Customers Also Bought”
One Of my favorite parts when it comes to implementing sales funnels is when you’re using them combined with affiliate marketing offers. You can really create enticing offers for products that you’re promoting which will really make you stand out from other people trying to promote similar things.
Even in some rare cases, affiliates can have better offers or A “Bonus Stack” than the actual owner or person who created the product.
I actually talk about that topic A lot more in my Blog Post: Using Funnels For Affiliate Marketing..