To Funnel or Not to Funnel?

Many people will be familiar with the concept of a funnel, but I will briefly explain the difference between a website and a funnel for those that do not know.

When someone visits a website looking for further information, that person by definition does not have all the information.

The website they visit, may have multiple pages, multiple blog posts and be jam packed full of useful and important information.

So what’s the problem I hear you ask?

The person does not necessarily know what information it is they need, they don’t know what questions to ask, they don’t know which pieces of information hold more importance than others.

So the website that seeks to answer all of the questions comprehensively leaves the visitor overwhelmed and looking for a simpler source of information.

So what is a funnel?

Well, years ago, good salesmen would formulate their presentations to lead a prospective customer down a corridor, giving the customer the information they needed in the order they needed, at a speed that the customer could comprehend, confirming at each exit that the customer had understood, agreed and wanted to continue receiving information.

The prospect then ended up at the final exit, at the end of the corridor having confirmed at all previous exits that they had agreed and understood, this only really left the customer one exit, which honest customers were happy with.

Obviously if the customer had been stroking the salesman’s ego and pretending to agree all the way along, when it got to the final exit they may have felt under pressure.

We are not here to debate pressure selling, however the corridor worked offline and with genuinely interested prospects the corridor works online.

There are many types of funnels, but if you start with an opening video on the first page, laying down your foundations and credibility, give the customer a link to further information, then possibly a link to more specific information of their choice. You are telling them what they need to know and when, at a pace that will not overwhelm them.

This stops the potential customer looking for a simpler source of information, and enables you to establish a relationship with your brand as you walk them through the learning curve.

More importantly, because of the simple step by step delivery, your customer can take on board many times more information than they would usually on a website, this gives you a chance to comprehensively educate your consumer as to why your solution works best, thus blowing out your competitors.

This is a very brief description of what is frankly an art form, having almost completed 3 of these for the people who choose to work with me, I can tell you it is not simple.

However, once you have a funnel, the numbers are easy to establish and improve, this makes the results from time or money invested very predictable, forecast able and dependable.

We are using Facebook Free Promotions, Pay Per Click Adverts and Free Viral Competition traffic to push towards our funnels, alongside Solo Adverts, Email Marketing and Offline Advertisements.

As you can see, once you have a funnel, the sales process is almost completely automated and offers great flexibility as to where you get your traffic from.