The Different Levels of the Sales Funnel
The different levels of a sales funnel vary from marketer to marketer. Since I am Inbound Certified with Hubspot, I have chosen to use their categories to define the different levels of the funnel.
The 4 levels of the funnel are Attract, Convert, Close, and Delight.
Let’s take a look at what we can do within each level to get people to move farther down our funnel, and what actions we are looking visitors and customers to take at each stage.
ATTRACT
The goal of the Attract stage is basically brand awareness. You want people to know that your brand is out there, and that you have some answers to their problems.
We are not marketing our products here.
What we do in this stage is put out content in a blog post, on social media, in a podcast, video, etc. that answers a question that your target market may have.
You can also pay to drive traffic to your site.
Paid traffic comes from venues like search ads, banner ads, Facebook ads, LinkedIn Ads, and the list goes on.
The sweet spot is to be found organically and drive results that way, but it’s not always so easy to rank for certain keywords.
There is no shame in paying to drop people into your sales funnel.
CONVERT
Once people are aware that your brand exists, and you have helped them in some way, it is time to convert.
Conversion items are things such as email opt-in lists, surveys where you have to enter your email for results, teaching someone through a webinar, having them fill out a form of some type, getting them to make a low-dollar purchase, or maybe download a free guide or e-book.
The goal is to get them to transact with you.
If they are willing to make some kind of transaction, you are pulling them further into the funnel.
Now a transaction doesn’t always have to be monetary. As you can see in the infographic, provided an email for a free guide is also considered a transaction.
If they are giving you something, they are showing trust.
CLOSE
Once the visitor has transacted with you in some way, it’s time to close.
Closing includes sales and order pages for higher ticket items, staging a meeting with the client to close the sale in person, and reaching agreement via email or on the phone.
Closing is the lifeblood of your business.
If you aren’t able to close, you aren’t making the kinds of sales you need to keep your business alive.
One would think that closing is the last stage of the sales funnel, but there is one more.
DELIGHT
After your visitors have made a conversion with you, it is now time to delight them.
What is the next stage in their journey?
What do they need to learn to meet their next goal?
Teach them more in-depth knowledge on your subject and bring them back around to an