What is a Lead Funnel Explained

If you want to run a successful business, you should identify those prospects willing to pay for a product or service. But where do they come from? How can they buy from you? A well-thought-out funnel will track leads who turn into prospects and then to customers.

WHAT IS A LEAD FUNNEL EXPLAINED IN SIMPLE WORDS?

A lead funnel helps to streamline the journey that leads take to become paying customers. It shows how businesses can optimize their marketing efforts to close a sale. Also, the funnel shows where the leads come from, the content they interact with, and how they become qualified.

SALES LEAD FUNNEL VS. LEAD GENERATION FUNNEL VS. SALES PIPELINES

Lead generation funnels focus on prospective customers who have never purchased from your business.

The sales lead funnel, on the other hand, applies to new and repeat customers. The prospects can be qualified leads or current customers. To separate the two, you must use the right tactics at each stage.

The sales pipeline focuses on the reps rather than the customer. The sales reps must respond to the corresponding contact stage.

WHY LEAD FUNNEL IS IMPORTANT?

It organizes your audience and cuts loose anything that is not working for your brand. Much like the sales funnel, the lead funnel follows a series of steps – from lead, interested prospects, to paying customers.

Lead funnels help to deeply analyze the entire process such that the leads can be converted efficiently. And because the prospects are all different, this is where personalization comes in.

LEAD FUNNEL STAGES

To understand how lead generation funnels work, you can break them down into three stages – top middle, and bottom-funnel. In each phase, you must identify the action to take to advance to the next.

TOP FUNNEL (DISCOVERY OR AWARENESS)

This stage allows businesses to create online activities like paid or organic content marketing. While many prospects may not know this, the journey starts as they try to hunt for solutions to their problems.

Let’s say you run a business that offers marketing services. The prospects will get to learn about your business when they search along the lines of `the best marketing business’ or `affordable marketing services for small businesses. To address the pain points of your customers, you can position your business on social media, blogs, and web pages.

At this stage, you can use lead generation software and other prospecting tools. If someone clicks on your website, you can gather their information. Still, you can add a concise call to action to capture their email. You can say something like, click here to learn more.

MIDDLE-FUNNEL LEADS (INTEREST OR DESIRE PHASE)

At this stage, the prospects become interested in the value you offer. This is where your unique selling proposition comes into play.

The prospects know your product or services exist and are now looking for a possible solution. This is usually the longest phase – it can take up to 84 days. Some of the tricks you can use to nurture the leads are:

Personalize the messages

A simple thing like inverting their name on the opening line of an email goes a long way to building trust.

Maintain a steady email campaign

This helps to capture the prospect’s attention, but you should be careful not to scare them away.

Research your leads before speaking to them

For B2B sales, you should take time to familiarize yourself with the company and understand its challenges. For startups, you don’t want to pitch with the most expensive products.

Short interactions

You just want the leads to move to the buying phase. At this point, you should avoid giving the finer details.

Use CRM

This tool helps you track the prospects’ interactions and clicks.

BOTTOM-FUNNEL LEADS (ACTION OR CONVERSION PHASE)

The leads move from engagement and take a specific action. While the customer is primed to buy, that doesn’t mean that they will take the action. If you stop nurturing them, they can get distracted. To ensure they don’t change their mind, you should keep nurturing them. And even after you close the sale, you should devise a strategy to make them repeat customers.

Don’t make the customer feel that you’re only there for the money. If you stop interacting with them, they will take their business elsewhere. Once you build a good customer relationship, you increase the likelihood of upselling success, referrals, and credibility of the brand.

HOW TO MAKE A LEAD FUNNEL

There’s no one-fits-all strategy when making a lead funnel. Generally, you should identify the specific actions you want your prospects to take. To create a lead generation funnel, you should map the stages from awareness to action.

For the awareness stage, you should leverage sponsored ads and blogs. Also, make sure your customers submit their contact information through a prompted form.

For the consideration phase, the leads may request a demo or free trial account, marketing emails, and how to reach out to a representative.

For the conversion stage, the leads can ask specific questions about pricing. After the first purchase, you can create a royalty account.

While prospects may not follow the exact actions, you should prompt them to take action. If you give out your contact information but no one reaches out, you may want to reexamine your strategy. Perhaps, you can rethink the subject line of your emails.

What are the best practices for a lead funnel strategy?

Set realistic goals

The sales reps must encourage the right customer behavior. If you don’t align your goals to what the prospect wants, you may never get there.

Listen to prospects

You may have the best pitch, but a prospect in the awareness stage may not be ready for that. A prospect wants you to understand the problem before you give a solution. The best practice is to work at the prospect’s level.

Never stop experimenting

What worked a few months ago may not apply today. Since the audience keeps changing, you should always look for ways to improve your lead generation funnel. How do your customers connect with the best?

Know when to let go

Not all leads will make it through the sales funnel – some will get lost. Make sure you understand what you want to remain.

Use CRM software to track your leads

You can align your sales team with CRM software. It helps you capture and nurture the progress of your prospects. Additionally, it tracks KPI and generates regular reports.