Sales Funnel – Business Website And Your Strategy
This is the second of a six part series on how to get your small business website off the ground.
Yesterday we ended off by saying that your business website needs to have a purpose. That purpose is usually going to be one of the following:
- Generate leads
- Directly sell a product (e-commerce)
Once you have decided what you want your site to do, you can move forward.
The Sales Funnel
The concept of the sales funnel is very important to the setup of your business website. That cookie cutter website I talked about yesterday suffers from a complete lack of a sales funnel. A site which is designed with a specific GOAL in mind can serve as a machine for your business, generating either sales or leads (and ultimately cash in the bank).
The sales funnel is called a “funnel” for a specific reason. Think of the funnel used to put oil in your car. No matter how sloppy you are when pouring that oil, as long as it ends up in the funnel, it will make it’s way into your engine. The funnel will focus all the oil to the single entry point into your engine. Now, take that concept to your business. You have a specific goal for your website (a sale, a lead, etc) and your site is supposed to serve as a funnel to drive all incoming traffic into your goal. That is the theory, but of course you cannot expect to funnel ALL of your traffic into your goal. Not every visitor is going to buy something. But, you will continually tweak the machine (your site) so as to increase the number of people which convert to a sale (this is your conversion rate).
The sales funnel begins at the point that a prospective customer comes to your website. Through the strategic design and writing on your website, the site will (hopefully) convert that visitor into a sales lead or a buyer of an entry level product. This new convert has now proven themselves to you that they have a problem, need a solution, and are willing to pay money to solve it. But, the funnel does not really end at that first conversion. You want these visitors to turn into loyal, long-time customers and to buy more from you in the future (for hopefully larger amounts of money). The sales funnel will continue through this entire process.
Here is a typical sales funnel design:
- Person comes to the business website. They are looking to solve something and are checking you out to see if you are the one to do it.
- Your site converts the person into a real lead either by having them buy something small, sign up for a free quote, or subscribe to your newsletter.
- Now that you have their identity, you set up automatic ways of nurturing that relationship, building your perceived value to them, and selling them more expensive products or services.
- At the end of the successful sales funnel, you now have a very loyal customer who will practically buy anything you offer to them.
For most businesses, the website is going to serve as the entry step to the sales funnel. The stages of your sales funnel after that are very likely to take place outside your standard website. Perhaps you will have your staff (or perhaps yourself) follow up with the person by phone or meet with them in person. You will have additional sales materials in place to give to the new prospect at various stages.
How Does This Apply To Me?
Regardless of your business, your website needs to be set up as the top of your sales funnel.
Do you run a home contracting business? You probably want the website to educate your clients on topics related to home contracting and how YOU can help them. Then, get the sales lead (their contact info) and follow up outside of the website.
Selling an information product? Set the website up as a sales letter to sell an affordable information product specifically designed to solve their problem. Your sales funnel will then graduate the customer over time to more expensive products or services (like one-on-one consulting).
Selling a widget? Is the widget shippable? Awesome. Set up a website with the purpose of having your prospect purchase the widget online. If the widget is cheap, the online medium is usually pretty workable. More expensive items may require one-on-one work with the prospect, in which case the site would be set up more for the lead than the sale.
Action Plan
OK, so at this time, sit down and design an outline for a sales funnel for your business. This is likely going to consist of a few different steps, your business website being only one of them. When you are done, you should have a clean outline in place (it doesn’t have to be long) of your strategy for generating business for your business, and how your website is going to fit into that. You then have the ultimate plan for having a business website that actually has a point.
Next, I will discuss getting your small business website set up to get this done.
Outside Reading
- The Sales Funnel Explained
- The Sales Funnel
- List Building – Your First Sales Funnel
- The Value of a Sales Funnel
Other Parts of This Series:
- What’s the Point of Your Website?
- Sales Funnel – Business Website And Your Strategy
- Getting Your Business Website Online
- How To Draw in Visitors and Make Them Like You
- Essential Steps to Web Traffic to Your Business
- Summary and an Offer of Help
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...
- Getting Your Business Website Online
- What’s the Point of Your Website?
- Integrating a Website With Your Business
- Essential Steps to Web Traffic to Your Business
- How To Draw in Visitors and Make Them Like You
-
John Stewart
I am a pro-blogger and Internet entrepreneur who generates six figures online per year. This blog is a plain-English, pull-no-punches tale of my life as an Internet entrepreneur and problogger. 
