A sales funnel is a process that businesses use to guide potential customers through the stages of becoming a paying customer. The idea behind a sales funnel is that not everyone who is interested in a product or service will immediately make a purchase, but by guiding them through a series of steps, a business can increase the chances that they will.
Typically, a sales funnel has several stages, such as:
- Awareness: This is the stage where potential customers first learn about a product or service, usually through advertising or other forms of marketing.
- Interest: In this stage, potential customers show an interest in the product or service and want to learn more about it.
- Desire: This is the stage where potential customers develop a desire to purchase the product or service.
- Action: This is the final stage, where potential customers take the desired action such as making a purchase or signing up for a free trial.
A business use various marketing techniques to guide the customer through these stages, such as email marketing, social media promotion, retargeting, and more. And by monitoring where customer fall off in the funnel, business will be able to optimize their marketing strategy.