With so many sales and marketing strategies popping up, you may have heard a lot of talk about funnels. Since sales funnels are complex and appear in many forms, it can be daunting to understand what they can really offer to a brand.
The main purpose of a sales funnel is to break down a customer’s buying journey. It can also improve customer attitude towards the brand at every step until the purchase and repurchase stage. Funnels help a business use resources effectively through customer-centric approaches and specific goals.
Since funnels tend to get into the nitty-gritty of a brand experience by focusing on every stage, they have multiple roles and functions. This article aims to familiarize you with all of the ways that funnels can contribute to your brand goals.
Funnels & Their Multiple Purposes
Though there are different types of funnels with varying stages, they all have the same fundamental roles and functions at the end of the day.
Do check out my article on types of funnels to learn about the different types and find out which suits your business best.
Some may serve one purpose better than another, but it’s worthwhile to know about all the things they can do for you.
1. Map Out Customer Journey
The most basic function of a funnel is to identify every point during a potential customer’s journey that they interact with your brand.
This could be a landing page on your brand’s website, one of your social media ads, the checkout stage, etc.
All of these stages make up a customer’s experience with your brand. They may have varying awareness and interest levels.
This shows how customers think and behave while also clarifying how they find out information about the brand and highlighting their response to this information.
2. Connect With Potential Customers
Since a funnel points out how, when, and where customers interact with your business, you can also use this insight to form a relationship with potential customers.
Funnels are good for identifying the touchpoints of the potential customers and delivering targeted messages/content.
This helps create a customer-centered brand experience where the business prioritizes visitors’ needs.
3. Create Brand Awareness
A marketing funnel can help you decide the type of information that you need to relay to your audience.
You can check out my article on marketing funnel tips to help your customers in each stage of the journey.
This includes describing how the brand is relevant to the customers and what is being provided to them through the service.
Advertisements, blog posts, and articles are common methods that brands use to educate their audiences and leave a good impression.
4. Generate Traffic
Based on the awareness your brand is generating, your customers can be directed to the places that are significant to their buyer’s journey.
Consumer traffic can be captured in different ways, often through the website landing page, social media impressions, brand searches, and the use of keywords.
Funnels can help you identify how and where potential customers are coming from.
In turn, this ensures that your customers know where to find information about your business and gives them a way to progress from there.
5. Develop Customer Interest
With a funnel, your business can assess your potential customers’ interest levels. Moreover, you can design strategies to engage with your customers and determine how effective they are.
For example, some companies use social media influencers and brand ambassadors to develop customer interest and attract them to their products.
6. Increase Conversion Rate
Funnels also help with filtering the initial traffic stream. Not everyone who visits your site will buy, so it’s important to identify leads that may convert into customers.
Simplifying the process can help! Data-driven funnels focus on increasing sales by simplifying pricing information and the checkout process.
At the same time, your brand should use relevant incentives at this stage. You need to encourage your potential customers to take the next step and purchase the product or service.
7. Filter Out Ineffective Strategies
Another funnel function is the ability to determine which strategies work and which ones don’t.
Your business can use these insights to understand how to achieve the desired results at different points of a customer’s journey.
Even if you’re using well-thought-out strategies, they may not be suitable for your customers at that point in time.
8. Develop Targeted Strategies
Funnels are good for targeting the key points of the audience as well as the brand.
By analyzing your customers’ behavior and tracking their attention, your business can develop strategies that would create relatability and personal connections.
This will also help your brand stand out from competitors in the market.
9. Find A Niche
Since a funnel moves your audience towards conversion, your brand can capitalize on a niche for the product and service you’re offering.
This helps you focus on specific customer interests and distinguish the brand. Targeting the needs of specific customer groups makes them feel seen, which helps foster brand loyalty.
10. Align Goals And Strategies
Though some strategies can help generate traffic or social media impressions, it is important to consider whether they forward your goals and objectives.
With each funnel you build, you can choose specific goals to work toward. Brand image and experience are tailored based on the vision of your brand.
If your strategies do not align with this vision, your brand may not be able to develop the desired identity in the market.
11. Save Time And Resources
Funnels help you focus on beneficial strategies while weeding out the weak ones. If you perform split tests and analyze your data, you can choose only the most effective tactics.
You can check out my article on split testing in ClickFunnels to brush up on your basics about funnel testing.
This will save you from wasting time and resources on strategies that may not work.
12. Predict Consumer Patterns
Using the targeted insights from your funnel, you can determine how potential customers first come into contact with your brand.
The way these customers respond to your strategies at every stage can be valuable information.
In some cases, you might get more attention at certain times of the day, month, or year. This will help you determine when to send specific messages/offers.
With this knowledge in hand, your brand can reduce risk and predict trends in your traffic and conversion rate. The predictability that funnels offer also helps you create growth projections for your business.
13. Improvise And Adapt Approaches
It might seem risky to change a strategy that appears to be working. However, funnels are good at clarifying how and when your brand can adapt its approach.
In this way, your brand can be proactive and continue to grow.
Varying external environments (such as economic fluctuations or social changes) can create challenging and unpredictable circumstances for brands.
In these situations, funnels can be used to identify blockages and overcome them.
14. Build Customer Trust
Funnels are perfect for managing customer relations because the customer lifecycle does not end at conversion.
Funnels enable you to stay in contact with customers and continue to build a rapport.
Loyal customers are valuable to brands, not just for repeat purchases but also for their referrals and recommendations.
These customers carry the brand reputation forward and bring in new audiences that may have been previously unreachable.
Predicting Trends and Customer Behavior with Sales Funnels…
Funnels are wonderfully versatile tools that can be used to target different stages of a customer’s experience.
The data you can gather from a funnel will be handy for predicting trends and customer behavior.
Sales funnels have many purposes, but they are mainly used to understand your audience better, deliver targeted content, and provide analytics for adjustments down the line.
If you use them effectively, you can better serve your customers and gain their long-term loyalty!