Sales and marketing funnels are two sides of the same coin. These are closely intertwined concepts that, when properly used, can help elevate a business to new heights. Defining each separately is often a daunting task that often leads to the question, “can one be used without the other?”
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at marketing funnel and sales funnel to know where they differ and how your business can use them to increase revenue.
What is a Marketing Funnel?
Marketing is a core business function that empowers brands to increase traffic and visibility while gaining a competitive edge on other businesses. As such, a marketing funnel is a process that guides potential customers through the consumer journey.
Marketing funnel increases your brand awareness and guides prospects to know your business and the solutions you provide. Consequently, marketing funnels are an effective medium for businesses to visualize their customer’s journey and create strategies and sales support marketing that will increase conversion.
The marketing funnel is often divided into two distinct sections: Lead generation and lead nurturing.
Lead Generation
This involves creating marketing campaigns that build and boost brand awareness. Inbound marketing, content marketing, online ads, whitepaper, and direct emails are forms of lead generation used to sell the brand.
Lead Nurturing
On the other hand, lead nurturing is where possible customers become interested in your brand and develop curiosity about the products and/or services that you provide. Here, businesses strive to build a long-lasting relationship with customers by delivering tailored-fit
solutions or content that will help prospects consider completing a purchase.
Marketing Funnel vs. Sales Funnel
Because of the symbiotic relationship between marketing funnel and sales funnel, both terms often are used interchangeably. However, the context of use for these concepts is the salient fine line between the two.
Despite their difference in function, one cannot thrive without the other. Each outlines the progress of the prospect’s unique journey to becoming a customer. Marketing is a tool for building prospects’ interest, and at the bottom of its funnel marks the beginning of sales funnel. Undeniably, sales funnels are powered by marketing strategies that help generate organic traffic and awareness of the solution.
Recently, more and more businesses are merging sales and marketing functions that have made separating the scope of the two increasingly difficult. Both marketing and sales funnel are proven effective tools in increasing your business’s revenue and internet presence.
Top 5 Ways to Increase Revenue Using Marketing Funnels
As a business, one of the main goals is to attract possible customers and effectively convert prospects into sure buyers or subscribers. Luckily, by optimizing and fully understanding marketing funnels, you’ll be able to increase revenue indefinitely. Here are the top 5 ways marketing funnels can increase your revenue.
#1 Increase Conversion in the Awareness Stage
The goal is to keep site visitors coming back to your site. If more people are aware of your brand’s existence, you’ll see your products fly off the shelf while cultivating a decent relationship with your customers.
The first step to increasing your business’s revenue is by establishing your brand as an industry leader that is a cut above the rest. Some common awareness stage strategies to attract more prospects are blogging, social networking & publishing, pay-per-click campaigns, and traditional public relations.
#2 Increase Conversion in the Consideration Stage
During this stage, you have cultivated an online presence, and more prospects are aware of your brand’s existence. The goal now is to get their email addresses and engage with prospects to encourage them to make small commitments with your brand before they make a purchase.
One effective strategy is to offer lead magnets. Lead magnets are mostly valuable bribes provided to a prospect that can give them relevant information or part of the solution to their problems in exchange for their contact information. Small commitments like this often evolve to larger ones that will lead to purchasing your product.
#3 Optimized Landing Page
A landing page is a purposeful page on your website that caters to a specific problem. By including informative content and at least a single call to action, you can successfully capture your prospect’s information or better yet make a sale.
Creating an optimized landing page that will capture prospects’ attention and intrigue will give you higher conversion rates.
#4 Targeted Call to Action
An advantage of utilizing marketing funnels is the visual and statistical data you can use to tailor your website depending on your customer’s needs and experience. After studying how your prospects react to every stage of your marketing funnel, you’ll develop an effective and optimized call to action for each page on your website.
Call to action that reflects what you want your site visitor to do on each page can significantly increase your conversion.
#5 Increase Conversion in the Preference Stage
During this stage, you have effectively captured your prospect’s attention. But what should you do next? Here you must educate your customer about the products and/or services you are offering. You should be well equipped to answer all of their questions.
Emails, autoresponder drips & series, sales integration, and customer relationship management software can help you attend to your customer’s needs.
Final Thoughts
The objective of any brand is to thrive, expand, and flourish. However, today’s economy and the oversaturated market make it increasingly difficult for any entrepreneur to penetrate the market, let alone succeed. Thankfully, marketing funnels help alleviate the situation by providing entrepreneurs with a system and data to better their business performance.
As helpful as marketing funnels can be, mastering the system isn’t as easy as it sounds. Rather than risking your business performance, why not consider investing in professionals with a better grasp of marketing funnels and the market altogether.
ClickFunnels is a trusted system that offers state-of-the-art marketing strategies that you can utilize for your business. It helps your company build its cornerstones while making it easier for you to communicate with your audience, hook up payment processors, and create effective landing pages. Click here to read Drip Digital’s pricing guide of ClickFunnels.
The price for a subscription may be risky for most entrepreneurs. Despite not offering a limited free account, ClickFunnels offer a 14-day free trial of all their services so you can better evaluate how it can affect your business.