This is when your prospect learns about your services for the first time.

 

This also might be the first time the prospect became aware of a problem that needs to be solved.

 

They probably started looking for solutions and came across your website.

 

 

At this point in the funnel, the prospect has a problem and is actively looking for solutions.

 

If you have great content that addresses this specific problem in a better way than your competitors then you have the opportunity to start some kind of relationship with the prospect.

 

Indications of interest from prospects include following you on social media or signing up for a newsletter.

 

At this stage, the prospect has decided to go ahead and use your solution.

 

This involves reviewing all of the different services, packages, and options that you’re offering in order to decide what to buy.

 

Action 

At this stage, your prospect is completing a transaction and becoming a customer.

 

This doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the end of the funnel. They might be signing up for a free consultation.

 

Even if it is a final sale you may want to “up-sell” your customer into a more expensive product or service.

 

For the purposes of this discussion, I will assume that this is in fact the final stage of the funnel.

 

A common mistake is creating general content as opposed to content that is specifically designed for each stage of the funnel.

 

Remember that your objective at each stage is only to move your customer from one stage to the next.

 

Let’s talk about how to use blogging to generate awareness.

 

A lot of websites create content and optimize it for search engines in order to generate traffic.

 

This results in awareness because your prospects will search for solutions then come across your website.

 

The content of the blog post is an opportunity for you to impress the prospect with your knowledge and expertise about this particular topic.

 

Of course, blog posts can be discovered in other ways beyond just search.

 

You can promote them on social media and if the content is interesting enough you might be able to convince social media influencers to promote the content for you.

 

Lead magnets usually consist of content that is a little more advanced than the content in a typical blog post – such as case studies, white papers, and research.

 

They’re usually provided for free return for an email address.

 

If the content of the lead magnet has genuine value then this will be an effective way to build an email list of prospective customers.

 

The content in the lead magnet shouldn’t just contain random industry information. The content in the lead magnet should meet all of this criteria:

 

It is of interest to your prospect AND naturally leads to the services you actually sell.

 

You can include ‘calls to action’ in the content that will direct them to your services and, if the quality of the content was high, the likelihood of making sales will be higher.

 

Webinars can be used as lead magnets but they’re more effective when used to convince people to take action and buy something.

 

If somebody signs up for a webinar you can assume they’re very interested in solving a problem with your solution.

 

A webinar is not a 30-second commercial.

 

Webinars can run from 30 minutes up to two hours so this gives you ample opportunity to provide valuable information to your prospect, solve their problems, demonstrate your expertise, and make a strong case for why using your services can help the prospects to solve their problem.

 

Videos can be used at any stage of the funnel. As you probably know, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google.

 

A significant proportion of people are looking for solutions presented in a visual format as opposed to written solutions.

 

In some cases, a visual solution is the only option.

 

For example, if somebody wants to learn how to play an instrument it’s almost impossible to do it with text.

 

Some people don’t feel comfortable with video but that shouldn’t stop you from using video in your marketing.

 

You can create slides to communicate anything and just use a voiceover.

 

If you don’t want to use your own voice, you can hire people for you.

 

 

Let’s talk about how social media fits into your sales funnels.

 

Your objective should be to participate in social groups that relate to your topic then direct people from social to your website and build your email list (so that you can access them directly through email as opposed to relying on social channels).

 

The best way to do this is to help people solve their problems.

 

If you see somebody asking for help on social media then you could take the opportunity to help them with a quick comment.

 

If it turns out that the person asking for help has a lot of eyeballs on them then you might want to consider writing a more detailed comment.

 

Either way, you’re not just helping the person that asked the question, you’re also demonstrating your expertise to everybody else that’s watching.

 

Think about that for a second.

 

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the person asking the question is your only potential customer.

 

You need to consider the number of people that are there reading comments.

 

The best way to answer the question is to provide a simple bullet point summary and then suggest that your prospect goes to your website to get more detail if they want it.

 

 

In order to achieve the best results, you will also need to do competitor research (and complete a competitive analysis) so that you can develop a unique selling proposition.

 

People need to be clear about why they should buy from you and not your competitor.

 

After attracting your target market to your website you will need to make sure that you have created an effective funnel and addressed all of the website trust required to maximize conversions.