The Sales Funnel as the road to decision making

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One of the reasons we write with intent is to start our reader down the road to a decision.

The sales funnel is not a gimmick or some ruse to manipulate a potential buyer, but a sound means by which to lead someone through a very natural decision-making process.

I have heard it said that buying is an emotional experience. But is it really that way?

I contend that buying is really a series of logical steps that someone takes to get to the point where their emotions are in sync with their knowledge and they feel that they can say “yes” to the question of whether to buy or not buy.

How often have you heard someone say, “I’m not sold on that idea”?

Usually they mean they do not have the information they need to make a buying decision.

They have not reached the point where their subjective valuation of the good in their hand is greater than the valuation of the money is in their pocket. They are still unwilling to exchange money in their wallet for the item on the shelf.

They have not gotten the “lovin feeling” yet.

If we as content marketers do not find a way to get them to that “lovin feel”, they will go and get it somewhere else or not at all.

One highly effective way to bring our audience to that "I want to own that widget”, is to take them on a journey, gradually through the sales funnel.

Funnels generally have three parts: the top, middle, and bottom. From a content standpoint each one serves a different function

At the top of the funnel, content makes the prospect aware of the problem and helps them realize a solution is available.

A few of the methods that exist for bringing about this level awareness are:

  • Blog posts - Informational content
  • How to videos
  • podcast

Content at the middle of the funnel helps the prospect to evaluate the ways your solution can help them get closer to a buying decision

Content at this level is designed to convert our aware prospect into a lead. This can be done with content that offers

  • Educational resources
  • Events
  • Discounts
  • Quizzes
  • Surveys

Lastly, at the bottom of the funnel our content should be designed to facilitate conversion.

This content helps our new lead make an informed decision. They are at the point of saying “Yes! This is worth it”.

A few effective ways to do this are with

  • Customer stories
  • Demonstration videos (YouTube)
  • Important specifications
  • Comparison table

As you can see the process of taking a prospect on a journey from recognizing a problem all the way to helping them make an informed decision involves staging your well designed and engaging content.

Ideally a professionally written piece of content can take a prospect through these stages in one fell swoop. And if our audience converts at the end of our piece, then all the better.

But we know that not everyone converts right away. It may take them returning to the well many times before they buy. The point is that understanding the stages that most people go through in their decision-making process can help make our content writing that much more effective.

To incentivize a given action the content should offer what the customer wants at the right time and in the right place.

Understanding the user journey and building your content marketing funnel around it can be an effective way to bring a customer to the point of saying "YES".

Happy Memorial Day everyone

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Recent Comments

15

Excellent break down, Dan! Thanks for sharing and Happy Memorial Day!

Jeff

I suppose that loving feeling is the emotional tie that people speak about in the decision-making process.
Great post on the customer journey - thanks.

Alex

Very well put, Dan.
Clear and valuable points.
Thank you!
:-)
Richard

Wow! This is very informative and really a great one .
Thank you ever so much for such a beautiful and very well put post.

I do really appreciate you and your caring time

Be well and God bless you.

Elizabeth

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