Yes, sales funnels are a legitimate way to generate sales online which is typically more effective than a traditional website. However, we can’t vouch for all vendors who use sales funnels.

A sales funnel is more of a marketing strategy than it is a single “thing”. It is usually a guides process potential customers go through to become a customer. You can leverage a sales funnel to legitimately guide your website visitors step by step to take the desired action you want them to take without all the distractions they may have on a website (about page, blog, social media) etc. Capture their attention straight away and guide them to take action. Not get lost down a rabbit hole.

As a consumer, you have probably experienced sales funnels without even knowing it.

It’s a Saturday morning and you’re driving past your neighbourhood supermarket. On a whim, you decide to pop in and see if there’s something you need to buy. You go in, see something that you like, pay for it and check out.

This whole process is exactly what comprises the four stages of the sales funnel.

A sales funnel helps you identify how easily you can convince your customer to make a purchase. This knowledge helps you move the process along and guide your customer so as to not lose a potential sale.

When you’re driving past a store, that is the awareness stage. You now know that the store exists.

When you evaluate if the store will have something that you need, that is the interest stage. You walk into the store and choose something that you like, taking you to the decision stage. Once you have made it to the counter and are paying for it, you reach the action stage.

Identifying the different stages of a customer’s purchasing journey is imperative to closing a sale and is also what makes marketing nuanced and competitive. To make it a little simpler for you, we’ve broken down everything you need to know about sales funnels in this exhaustive guide.

Sales funnels are a necessary part of any online business. They help you to efficiently convert leads into customers, and ensure that your business is making the most out of its marketing efforts.

You don't want to hit your customer with a lot of sales jargon when they're still debating whether they need the product in the first place. You can only avoid doing this when you know what stage of the customer journey they are on.

Sales funnels can sometimes sound like yet another concept cooked up by the marketing industry to sell more, and may be something you can skip out on if you only have a physical store to worry about.

However, it is a non-negotiable part of your marketing if you are selling online.

In the past, selling was a lot easier. Customers did not have the kind of access to information that they do today and there weren’t really a lot of other products to compete with anyway.

You needed a nice catchphrase, promise that you were better than the others and send these customers to a shiny landing page or a convincing salesman to close your sale.

Today customers do their homework and a sales funnel helps you understand what you should be saying to them to build value and sell your product

Identifying each stage of the customer journey and acting according is the whole point of a sales funnel. The five stages to this are listed below, along with the kind of customer you are likely to encounter at each stage.

The Awareness Stage is a critical part of the sales funnel.

You only have one chance to make a good first impression, and this can mean different things for different people. For some it's about affordable pricing, for others it's the quality of your product or service that attracts their attention initially.

In any case, you will not be able to close a sale until you've had that chance to capture the interest of your potential customers.

A lot of marketing revolves around putting your business on the map before doing anything else.

The knowledge that your business exists and does things differently stays with the customer for a long time, so even if you haven't made an immediate sale, your business will be the first your customer thinks of when and if the need arises.

There are many different ways to capture your customer's attention, and fortunately, a lot of them are free, for eg.

• You can start by creating a strong social media presence or even developing relationships with key partners and affiliates. Whatever you do, make sure that it is something that showcases the unique value proposition of your business.
• If you are trying to attract potential customers who believe that your product or service is for tech-savvy professionals, sending them an email about the great deals on offer in your store might not get the desired response. Instead, a value-packed email that elaborates on how your product helps professionals work better or the different ways it can be used, will. Relevancy is key here.
• The typical customer you will find at this stage is the one who is 'just looking' or trying to find a solution to a problem.

At this point, your potential customer has seen an advertisement or a landing page and have clicked on it. This is the beginning of the "interest" stage of your sales funnel. The interest stage is defined as anything that happens after someone clicks on your ad or landing page and before they decide to purchase from you.

This is when you create your interest profile.

The creation of the interest profile consists of:

• Gathering information about who has clicked on your ad,
• what they did when they got to your landing page (if there was one),
• and their email address.

Thus, you can make tailored ads that appeal to specific groups of people. You may even be able to send targeted emails to those who have clicked on your ad but didn't convert.

Here are a few things you can do at this stage:

• Keep track of how interested the person is in what you're selling. You can do this by looking at their behavior on your website and measuring things like how long they stay on your page, what pages they visit, and whether they subscribe to get updates on deals that you offer.
• Check to see if they have added items to their cart. This is a good way to measure their interest. Sometimes I add things to my cart, only to get caught up in something else and forget to check out. I usually get an alert or an email reminding me to check out soon after. It's quite eerie.
• Lastly, you'll want to make sure that you're providing a good experience to those who have clicked on your ad. Your website design and copy should be effective in convincing people to stay on your page and learn more about what you're selling.
• Provide valuable content that is relevant to what they're interested in.
• You could also create a sense of urgency or scarcity. For example, you could offer a discount for people who sign up for your email list within the first 24 hours.

These goals are achieved in different ways, depending on the kind of business you are trying to run.

The goal here is to convince your potential customers that they shouldn't spend another second thinking about it. They need to make a purchase or subscribe to your services or they’re missing out.

So what's the best way to create a sense of urgency?

• One of the most effective ways is through time-sensitive offers. Let your potential customers know that there's a limited amount of products and/or services available, and that they need to act fast if they want to take advantage of the offer.
• You can do this by highlighting any potential risks or problems that could occur if they don't buy your product.

However, it is vital to not overdo it. You don't want to goad the customer into buying something they don't need, no one walks away from a sale like that with positive feelings.

You also have to consider that being too insistent is going to push customers away, would you linger in a situation that leaves you feeling like you have no control?

Scaring the customer is not ideal, but exciting them about your product is something I highly recommend.

Your goal at this point is to get them so excited about their purchase that they can't imagine living without it. You should include all sorts of bonuses and add-ons when doing this for an even harder sell.

This is the stage where your customer engages with your brand and makes a purchase. This stage is followed by following up so that you gain a returning customer.

Sales funnels only work when they are implemented well. They help you build strong relationships with the customer and nudge them along their customer journey. But how do they work? Are sales funnels legit?

It works in the following ways:

• It helps you build trust. Sales funnels are a great way to build trust with potential customers. By providing valuable content and information, you can help people learn more about your product or service and how it can benefit them.
• As people become more familiar with what you have to offer, they will be more likely to trust you and eventually make a purchase.
• It helps you establish a direct line of communication with the customer. Sales funnels allow you to collect contact information from potential customers. This gives you the opportunity to follow up with them later and continue building that relationship until they are ready to buy.
• In addition, sales funnels can help you track the progress of potential customers throughout the buying process. This data can help you better understand what works best for your business and adjust marketing strategy accordingly.
• It helps you follow-up with the customer. It provides you with more accurate data about what your current customers are doing and why they made the decision to buy. This information will help you serve future clients better while building on existing relationships.
• It helps you analyze your current marketing strategy to get better results. Let's say you wanted to place bets on a horse race. You wouldn't go to the track and just randomly put money on any of the horses, right?
• You would first need to know something about the horses - their form, what races they've been in before, who is riding them etc. In the same way, you can't just start selling your product or service to someone without knowing anything about them.
• You need to understand their needs (or the problem they are trying to solve) and provide information that helps to move them through the different stages of the funnel.

Sales funnels have three basic elements. You cannot do without these. This is commonly referred to as the three Fs.

The foundation of any sales funnel when it comes to digital marketing is the website. The content, landing pages and call-to-actions on your website form an integral part of nudging the customer along.the journey.

This involves following up with the customer after the sales has been completed. It is established that retaining customers is easier and cheaper than gaining new ones. The process involves retargeting ads and altering the strategy according to what you know about the consumer.

This is the traffic that is flowing to your website, this makes it possible to kick start the marketing process in the first place. Fuel could be anything that gives you input when it comes to strategy. Customer email ids are a good example. They are all components of a great sales funnel builder.

Clickfunnels is a legitimate software company that offers products and services to help businesses grow online. Their products include a landing page builder, email marketing software, and a CRM system.

While their products may be beneficial to some businesses, there is no guarantee that everyone who signs up will earn money. Like any other business, success with Clickfunnels depends on how much effort you put into it and what type of business you are running.

If you are running a legitimate business, you can expect to get your investment in marketing funnels back with a reasonable amount of time and effort in understanding your ideal customer, crafting your irresistible offer and writing highly targeted messaging.

However, you may come across overtly promotional Clickfunnels reviews. Why is this?

• The owner of these blogs probably use Clickfunnels, and they want to convince you that it is worth using
• They are most likely part of the Clickfunnels affiliate program. In this case, any review will be biased.

In order to succeed in their mission, these bloggers will often advertise how great ClickFunnels is without going into too much detail. It is always better to conduct your own research or sign up for their 14-day trial to see for yourself. There are also plenty of lower-cost alternatives like SME Sitebuilder.

Clickfunnels features allow users to create funnels where they can promote products or services. There are three main types of funnels that can be created: The Lead Capture Funnel, Sales Funnel and Webinar Funnel.

1. A Lead Capture Funnel is designed to collect potential customers' contact information in exchange for something of value, such as an eBook, video or discount coupon.
2. A Sales Funnel is created to drive potential customers to a sales page in order to close the sale.
3. A Webinar Funnel is designed to increase attendance at a live webinar event and convert more attendees into paying customer

As far as their services are concerned, they are very promising and probably a good investment contingent on your goals. But you still have to do the work, and Clickfunnels does not guarantee success. There is another sales funnel builder in the market that you might want to consider- SME Sitebuilder. We pride ourselves on a quality product at an affordable price. Get all the tools you need to succeed and only pay for what you need.

The cost of sales funnels software depends on the features and services you choose. You can get a simple, mobile responsive funnel template for very low cost and you can DIY your messaging and funnel design with a simple drag and drop tool. Or you can invest in a marketing agency that specialise in creating sales funnels anywhere from $3000 - $10,000 depending on the scope and the track record of the agency.

We believe it is better that the business owner or key stake holder does a DIY approach, even if it takes more time. That is because, as the expert you should have the skills to bring in sales, write the messaging, understand the pain points of your ideal customer and learn how to use the tool.

If done right, your sales funnel will be your salesperson working 24/7.

Here are a few examples of the costs that can quickly add up when you’re building a sales funnel.

• Hosting and support for the Sales Funnel builder you choose (anywhere from $40 - 300 per month)
• If you decided to get the sales funnel built for you, then this could cost between $3000 - $10000 once off. They might also have hosting agreements.
• There are free funnel builder software out there, however, the free plan often has limited features or a trial only.
• If you're interested in paid advertising, you can either DIY or hire and Agency to do it for you with add-on paid advertising services like AdWords or Facebook Ads. There is usually an ads management fee per month. Or they may operate on a performance bases depending on your business model.
• Ad spend amount is highly dependent on current demand, advertising platform and the cost of your product. The goal is to create a marketing campaign that gives you a consistent return on your investment. E.g. you spend $1 and you make $2. This often requires lots of testing to find the winning ads / sales funnel messaging combination. But once you do, you can usually increase the ad budget.

As your business grows and you're ready to invest in a more sophisticated funnel, keep in mind that you should plan to spend at least $100 per month on any SaaS (software as a service) package for your sales funnel hosting.

As you can see, it's very difficult to put a price tag on a sales funnel because there are so many features and services that go into creating one.

Let’s look at an example of your sales process to see this clearer.

• Let's say, for example, that you have a product on Amazon called "The Business of Writing." A visitor comes to your site and reads through the articles. Your content helps them understand how to be better writers, but not only that; it also helps them understand why they should write.
• They read your article on the 5 Types of Writer's Block, and they're intrigued.
• They go to Amazon and find your book.
• They buy it, and you've just made a sale.

The realization that they need to know more about writing sends them on a journey that takes them to your site and leads to the discovery of your book. This is the awareness stage. They read through your articles, reaching the interest stage.

They then reach the conclusion that since your articles are value-packed, your book must be too. This is the evaluation stage, after which comes the final stage- action, where they buy what you’re selling. This is the simplest way to describe how a sales funnel works.

The process doesn't stop there, though. Now that the customer has bought your product, you need to make sure that they're happy with their purchase.

Maybe they found a typo in the book. Maybe the formatting wasn't how they expected it to be.

Whatever the reason, you need to remedy that issue and make your customer happy so that they'll come back to you again for their next purchase.

You can imagine how, if you do this properly, your customers will eventually buy from you frequently. This is why creating a sales funnel with backend email marketing and support is so important for online entrepreneurs. So you can continue the relationship and make more sales well into the future.

In short, the sales funnel doesn't stop at the sale. It's a process that continues long after the customer has made their purchase. You need to make sure that you're constantly nurturing the relationship so that they'll come back and buy from you again in the future.

Specifically, the following steps are usually common in a sales funnel.

• It starts with an offer.
• This leads to awareness, interest, evaluation, and purchase.
• After the purchase is made, you need to make sure that you're continuing to build the relationship so that they'll come back and make future purchases.

It's a simple concept, but it can be tricky to master. The sales funnel is not something you can create once and forget about. Like a lot of online marketing campaigns, they take consistent work.

It's a process that needs to be constantly monitored. You need to make sure that people are continuing down the path. If you see that they're dropping off at one of the stages (awareness, interest, evaluation), then you need to figure out why and fix it so that they'll continue moving forward.

A good sales funnel is one that can convert leads into paying customers. It should be easy to use and provide a smooth buying experience for your customers. The funnel should also be tailored to your business and your target market.

There are several steps that you need to take to create a good sales funnel for your online business:

What do you want your funnel to do? Do you want to increase sales, get more leads, or improve customer retention?

There are a variety of tools that you can use to create a sales funnel. You can build your own using custom HTML and CSS or you can use a system like WordPress, which provides free templates and plugins to create the necessary pages. If you want something more visual and with drag-and-drop features, check out Thrive Architect.

The right tools will give you the ability to A/B test your pages and check which performs better. If you use WordPress, try using Thrive Themes as it has some amazing testing tools. With this method, you should be able to create sales funnels easily.

Landing pages or sales pages direct customers towards the right offer and help them take the next step in the sales funnel. You need to have offers for all of your target market's interests or pain points, so that you can address them with products and services as you direct them through the results of your online marketing campaign.

The buying process should be as frictionless as possible. Remove any unnecessary steps and provide explanations for anything that may be unclear so that your customers feel comfortable purchasing from you.

You don't want one offer to lead into another and then back out again because something isn't working properly!

Test all links and pages before launching your new sales funnel, and continue testing after launch, especially if you make changes or add new components to it.

You can use tools like Google Analytics to track how customers are moving through your funnel.

The only way to know if your marketing funnel is effective and if your online marketing works is to track the results and make changes as needed. Use analytics to determine which offers are converting best, which pages need improvement, and where customers are dropping out of the funnel.

Make changes to your funnel based on this data and continue testing until you achieve the results you want.

A successful sales funnel can help you increase sales, get more leads, and improve customer retention. It should be easy to use, tailored to your business and target market, and have a smooth buying experience for your customers.

Always test your funnel before launch, and track and test results after launch to improve it.

A good rule of thumb is that your funnel should be around 10-15% of your total customer base. So, if you have 100 customers, your funnel should include 10-15 people. You could also multiply your annual sales target by 3 to reach the ideal size for your online business.

Why three times? Because there will be people who drop out of the funnel despite your best efforts, so aiming for a higher number than the sales you need is key here.

No matter what size your funnel is, it's important to make sure it's always full of qualified leads. You don't want to waste time and energy chasing down dead leads that are never going to buy.

You have the maximum number of people at the top of the funnel, this number dwindles as the funnel progresses.

Each stage of the marketing funnel should be designed to progressively move potential customers closer to making a purchase. For example, the first stage might be getting someone to sign up for your email list, while the last stage might be getting them to buy a product or service from you.

If you're just starting out, it may be helpful to start with a smaller funnel and gradually expand it as you grow your business. By taking this approach, you can ensure that each step of the funnel is effective in converting leads into customers.

It's also important to remember that your sales funnel isn't static - it should be constantly evolving to meet the needs of your customers. So don't be afraid to make changes to your funnel based on feedback from your customers and prospects.

Ultimately, there's no definitive answer to the question of how big your sales funnel should be. It depends on a variety of factors, including the size of your business, the type of products or services you offer, and your target market. But as long as you follow the principles outlined above, you'll be on the right track with achieving your online marketing goals.

No, you don't have to use ClickFunnels for your sales funnel, but it is a popular and effective platform. There are many other options available, such as LeadPages, Unbounce, and SME Sitebuilder.

Whichever platform you choose, make sure it fits your business needs and provides the features you need to create successful sales pages.

A sales funnel is a series of steps that leads a prospect from awareness of your product or service to purchase. It's important to have a well-designed funnel because it can help you convert more prospects into customers and increase your revenue.

ClickFunnels features help you create and manage your marketing funnel. It provides a wide range of features and tools to help you do this, including:

• Customizable templates
• A drag and drop editor
• Webinar capabilities
• Payment processing
• Automatic email marketing

The platform is easy to use, and you can create a funnel in minutes. You can also use ClickFunnels features to track your results and measure the success of your funnel.

Identifying each stage of the customer journey and acting according is the whole point of a sales funnel. The five stages to this are listed below, along with the kind of customer you are likely to encounter at each stage.

Amazon is a great example of a business that has used online sales funnels to great effect. The company has a very well-developed funnel that starts with customers signing up for a free trial of Amazon Prime and then gradually introducing them to more and more expensive products.

Amazon has been very successful with this funnel, and it's helped the company become one of the largest retailers in the world.

HubSpot is a company that sells marketing software. The company uses a very complex online sales funnel that starts with potential customers signing up for a free trial of the software.

HubSpot then tries to sell them on more expensive products, such as its enterprise software package. The funnel has been very successful for HubSpot, and it's helped the company become one of the leaders in the marketing software industry.

Infusionsoft is a company that creates software that helps small businesses with things like email marketing and sales funnels. Like HubSpot, Infusionsoft uses a very complex online sales funnel.

The company starts by giving away a free 30-day trial of its software and then slowly introducing its customers to more expensive products such as consulting services and bookkeeping applications.

This funnel has been successful for the company; it's helped make Infusionsoft one of the most popular companies in the world when it comes to small business software solutions.

Leadpages is an internet startup company that sells landing page creation software in order to help other startups and small businesses increase their revenue without having to spend a lot on advertising or marketing.

Leadpages has used an effective online sales funnel that's helped it become one of the most successful companies in its industry. You can create great sales pages with this one and it’s drag and drop features.

Perry Marshall is an internet marketer who's made millions selling books about his theories on SEO and Google AdWords. Marshall has a very complex online sales funnel that starts with potential customers signing up for his free email course.

The funnel then gradually introduces them to more and more expensive products, such as his $2,000 advanced SEO training program so that he consistently makes money online.

Marshall's funnel has been incredibly successful; it's helped him become one of the most successful internet marketers in the world.

As you can see, there are a number of businesses that have successfully used online sales funnels to increase their profits. If you're looking for a way to increase your business's revenue, an online sales funnel may be the solution you've been searching for.

With so many different types of sales funnels, it can be difficult to know which one is best for your company. If you're unsure about the type of funnel that will resonate with consumers in your market, don't worry!

The bottom line is that if you want to be successful in business, it's important to understand the psychology of your customer.

Whether they are looking for a product or service, customers need an emotional connection with their purchase before making any commitment. To tap into this, you can create one or unlimited funnels.

If there's one thing every marketing professional should know about sales funnels and consumer psychology, it's this- people will buy from people who make them feel good.

With some of the intuitive software out there with its drag and drop features, you should be making a successful sales funnel in no time.

It's no surprise that marketers are constantly looking for new ways to leverage it in their marketing strategies, even if they're not neuroscientists themselves!

The key elements of a sales funnel are:

1. A lead capture mechanism, such as a form on a website or an offer to subscribe to a mailing list;
2. A lead nurturing process, which can involve email marketing, social media outreach, or other methods of engaging potential customers;
3. A sales process that leads customers through the buying decision; and
4. A system for tracking and measuring results so that you can optimize your funnel over time.

The 4 stages of the sales funnel are awareness, interest, desire, and action.

Awareness is when a potential customer first becomes aware of your product or service. Interest is when they start to learn more about it, such as what it is, how it works, and what benefits it could provide them. Desire is when they want to buy it, but might not be ready yet. Action is when they finally purchase your product or service.

There is no one answer to this question. However, there are a few methods that can be used to measure the effectiveness of a sales funnel.

• One way to measure the effectiveness of a sales funnel is to look at the number of leads that are generated and then track how many of those leads convert into sales.
• Another way to measure the effectiveness of a sales funnel is to look at the average amount of money that is spent by customers who purchase products or services through the funnel.
• Finally, you can also track how long it takes for customers to go from lead to sale. The longer it takes for customers to go from lead to sale, the less effective the sales funnel is likely to be.

That's a difficult question to answer because it depends on a lot of factors, such as the type of product or service you're selling, your target market, and how much research you've done to understand your customers' buying process.

A good rule of thumb is that your funnel should be at least seven steps long, but it could be longer or shorter depending on your specific business.

There are many ways to improve your sales funnel, but here are a few key tips:

1. Make sure your funnel is clear and easy to understand.
   
   Your funnel should be simple enough for people to understand and follow. If it's too complicated, people will get confused and may not be able to complete the purchase.
   
   
2. Make sure your funnel is mobile-friendly.
   
   More and more people are using their phones and tablets to shop online, so you need to make sure your funnel is mobile-friendly. If it's not, you're going to lose out on a lot of potential sales.
   
   
3. Test and optimize your funnel regularly.
   
   You need to constantly test and optimize your funnel to make sure it's still effective and up-to-date. You can easily do this by A/B testing your funnel, or trying different types of promotion to see which one works the best.
   
   
4. Get feedback from your customers.
   
   You need to constantly get customer feedback on your funnel so you can improve it over time. If a certain part of the process is confusing, adding a video could help clear things up - or if something isn't working well with your website, you might have to change the order in which pages are displayed.

There are a few different ways that you can increase top of funnel activity:

• One way is to invest in digital marketing and advertising campaigns.
• You can also focus on creating high-quality content that will attract people to your website or blog.
• Additionally, you can work on optimizing your website for search engine visibility.
• By doing all of these things, you can increase the amount of traffic that comes to your site and, as a result, boost your top of funnel activity.

One common mistake that businesses make is underestimating the importance of top of funnel activity. If you don't have a strong top of funnel presence, it will be difficult to convert leads into customers.

There are many different types of online sales funnels, but the most common ones are:

• The 'Capture Page Funnel': This funnel is designed to get people to sign up for your email list in exchange for a freebie or some other type of incentive. Once someone has subscribed, you can start nurturing them with automated email marketing and social media campaigns until they are ready to buy from you.
• The 'Buyer's Journey' Funnel: This funnel is designed to help you sell more products or services to your existing customers by providing them with relevant content at each stage of the buying process.
• The 'Webinar Funnel': This funnel is designed to help you sell more products or services by hosting a live webinar and then converting the people who attend into customers.

A capture page is commonly referred to as a 'squeeze landing page' or 'lead capture'.

This is essentially usually a free web form that requests some information from your prospects in exchange for whatever incentive is being offered on your actual sales website.

When someone fills out this form, they are typically sent an email with their lead information and follow up message which effectively gathers them into your list.

A digital media funnel is a marketing technique for increasing website traffic and growing an email list.

It often involves the use of advertisements, social media promotion, and/or paid content to move visitors along a predefined path toward a final goal such as capturing their name and email address through a form, sale or other transaction, or other desired outcome.

Once each visitor completes an activity described by the funnel, they are considered "funneled."