Creating a Winning Digital Sales Funnel, Part 2: A Deeper Dive into Digital Funnel Marketing

One of our most popular articles this year has been on the topic of creating digital sales funnels (linked here). Today we want to take our readers on a deeper dive into digital funnel marketing and provide a real-life example.

First, let’s refresh what we learned previously. With the way consumers convert, driving traffic to a landing page often isn’t enough. Visitors need to be engaged and guided towards taking action; and when your product or service is a high-commitment decision, often that guide must go beyond the landing page alone.

When you combine an effective funnel with strong SEO or PPC strategies, you will significantly increase conversions and ROI. However, building these funnels requires careful planning and execution, as well as continuous optimization to be effective.

In short, digital sales funnels educate, nurture customer relationships, and maximize conversions.

Steps to Build an Effective Digital Sales Funnel

• Understand Your Audience

• Define Clear Goals

• Create Compelling Content

• Optimize the Customer Journey

• Implement Conversion Strategies

• Nurture Customer Relationships

• Monitor and Analyze Performance

Let’s break these down further.

Understand Your Audience

• Identify your target audience, and understand who your buyer is, and how they navigate what’s called the Buyer Journey (the journey from awareness to decision). Until you understand both your buyer and their journey you cannot effectively sell to them. For more on the Buyer Journey, we recommend this article.
• Let’s use an example of a business who wants to sell an online course about the History of Investing in America. Through research, they might uncover that their typical viewer, their target audience, and their potential buyers are between the ages of 44 and 65+, generally live in the United States, and fall into the top 10% of household income levels. From there we might infer that, more likely than not, they already have some level of education, likely have established careers (may even hold executive positions), and may have some level of knowledge around investing to be interested in the history of the topic.
  • With that information, we now want to map out how we believe these buyers journey from Awareness to Decision based on what we know about them.
    • Awareness: Our buyers may find us in relevant publications and media, through influencers and referrals, or online research.
    • Consideration: Our buyers will need to know the value they’ll gain from the course in addition to how that will impact their life (increased ROI on investing, better conversations with their portfolio managers, etc.). Our buyers are busy, so they also need to understand how this course can fit into their lifestyle without adding stress to their schedules.
    • Decision: Our buyers need a reason to take the course now instead of later. We could achieve this through limited time content, or limited time offers.
  • With the above in mind, everything in the following steps will be built toward our buyers and their needs at each stage of the funnel.

Define Clear Goals

• Example:
  • Objective: Enroll 100 people in the course within six months.
  • Desired Outcomes: Convert 10% of leads into paying students.

Create Compelling Content

Build content that can be leveraged in each section of the buyer’s journey funnel.

• Top of Funnel (Awareness phase):

  • Blog Posts and Articles: Write educational content, content on industry trends, the tangible value and outcomes of the program, and other related topics. Optimize these articles for SEO and PPC Ads.
  • Webinars and Workshops: Offer free webinars on relevant topics to showcase your expertise. Optimize landing pages for these events so they can be targeted for PPC Ads and SEO.
  • Social Media Content: Social media creates social proof and brand awareness. Share tips, success stories, behind the scenes glimpses, and course highlights.

• Middle of Funnel (Consideration phase):

  • Lead Magnets: Offer a free mini-course, an e-book on a relevant topic, or our personal favorite, a quiz to rate their current knowledge, in exchange for email sign-ups.
  • Email Series: Send a series of educational emails that provide valuable content and gradually introduce your course or other paid content.
    • Tip: Don’t jump straight to your ask in your email series. Remember you are nurturing your leads toward decision; these leads are not currently in the decision phase.

• Bottom of Funnel (Decision phase):

  • Detailed Course Page: Create a landing page with comprehensive information about the course, including curriculum details, instructor profiles, testimonials, and success stories.
  • Limited-Time Offers: Provide special discounts or bonuses for enrollment now.

Optimize the Customer Journey

• Now that you’ve built content to your buyer, and to their journey, capitalize on how you use that content.
• Example:
  • Lead Magnets: Use pop-ups and sign-up forms strategically placed on your website to capture leads.
  • Email Nurturing: Implement your nurture sequences. Here’s an idea:
    • Welcome Email: Greet new subscribers and provide a high-level overview of your organization, and lightly introduce your offers.
    • Educational Content (multiple touch points): Share blog posts, videos, and other resources that establish your authority and educate. Mention your course or offers, but don’t go for the sale just yet.
    • Personal Stories (min of 2 touch points): Lightly intro your course and share success stories and testimonials from past students. As you progress into your educational content, you can start to sprinkle these stories in.
    • Course Introduction (multiple touch points): Provide detailed information about the course, highlighting its unique benefits. As you progress into your educational content, you can start to sprinkle these intros in toward the end.
    • Exclusive Offers (min of 2 touch points): Send limited-time discounts or bonuses to encourage enrollment.

Implement Conversion Optimization Strategies

• A/B Testing: Test different versions of your landing pages, email subject lines, and call-to-action buttons to find what captures the highest clicks and conversions.
• User Behavior Analysis: Use data to understand user behavior on your site and adjust the layout for better engagement.

Nurture Customer Relationships

• Post-Purchase Engagement: Send thank-you emails, provide access to exclusive content, and you can even invite buyers to join a private community or forum.
• Continuous Support: Offer regular Q&A sessions, webinars, and additional resources to keep buyers engaged through your program.
• Referral Programs: Encourage satisfied buyers to refer others by offering incentives such as additional modules, or extended access.

Monitor and Analyze Performance

• Key Metrics: Track metrics such as email open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and student feedback.
• Continuous Improvement: Regularly review performance data and make necessary adjustments to your funnel to improve results.

As you can see, creating a strong funnel requires some planning, but by following the steps above and learning from your iterations you can create highly effective funnels that boost your conversions and your results. While this can feel like a lot on paper, and in many cases it does take some level of effort to be successful, the returns are significant.

Topics like digital sales funnels can feel overwhelming when you’re just getting started. If you need help in your journey reach out to Adsum Partners. Our team of consultants and sales and marketing experts are here to help you navigate your growth needs. Don’t wait – connect with someone from our team today.