There’s a process we all go through before we swipe our credit card or click the “order now” button.
Sometimes it takes days, weeks, or months for us to make these email list decisions. Other times it’s the exact opposite. We make up our minds almost in an instant.
There are many reasons why this happens, but the bottom line is – this decision-making process exists, and as a smart entrepreneur or marketer, you need to understand how it works.
Only this way can you meet your audience at different stages of their decision-making process with the right offer and marketing message.
And a sales funnel template can help you map out the most probable path your audience will go through before turning into paying customers.
Author’s note: If you’re looking for a solution that’ll help you automatically build your sales funnel from scratch and help you increase sales, check out the GetResponse Conversion Funnel here.
Now, what is a sales funnel template?
By now, you’ve probably figured out the definition yourself:
A sales funnel template is a design of a consumer’s journey to becoming a customer and what happens after they do.
Think of it as a whiteboard where you completely map out, in drawing, your potential customer’s journey — from when they’re thinking about something they need to the point where they eventually find your business.
Your customer journey through effective sales funnel stages could look something like this:
First, your prospect identifies a need – “I need a pair of shoes”
They go onto Instagram to search for inspiration
They type their search term in the search bar
After browsing through different shoes and designs, they find something interesting
Eventually, they find something promising and visit the vendor’s website
They add their new favorite product to the shopping cart and check out
And sometimes, the customer journey is a lot more complex than what we’ve shown in this illustration, but this is basically how it works.
So, what your sales funnel template does, is it helps your business show up at every step of the customer’s journey leading up to when they finally make a purchase (more on this in the “seven steps” section below).
Now that we’ve cleared the air on what exactly a sales funnel template is, let’s look at a seven-step sales funnel template you can use for your business.
And what type of business is this template for?
It’s universal!
It doesn’t matter if you’re selling digital products like ebooks or online courses. Or you’re a professional doing online consulting and coaching. Heck, even if you’re selling a service that’s delivered offline, like self-defense classes.
This sales funnel template will help you generate more leads and sales for your business.
You may also like: Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Funnels
The 7-step sales funnel template
Regardless of the nature of your business, consumers would often go through these seven (or similar) steps before they become paying customers:
Visual representation of a sales funnel template you can use for almost any business (especially online). It identifies seven funnel stages before a prospect turns into a paying customer.
Visual representation of a sales funnel template you can use to grow your business.
The image you see above is the exact sales funnel template you need.
In fact, if it’s the only sales funnel you’re working with, it can single-handedly take your business to whatever level of growth you want it.
But of course, you first need to know how it works.
So, we’ll explain each funnel stage we identified in the above illustration.
Step 1. Generate targeted traffic
Step 1 of the sales funnel template - generate targeted traffic.
Generally, the more traffic you get, the more sales you get.
But you probably know this already: it’s not that simple. Because it’s possible you generate thousands of visitors to your site or online store but never convert any of them into customers.
But that’s bad traffic, and you don’t need it; it never converts to sales.
Instead, here’s what you need: targeted traffic. Targeted traffic is site visitors who are most likely interested in your product or service and would be interested in buying it.
To get these types of visitors, you need to know where your target customers frequent every day — like the online communities and groups they belong to, search engines they use (and keywords they search with), and influencers they follow.
Then you’ll go to those places and give them a good reason to visit your site; “giving them a good reason to visit” means you’ll need to provide them with a free valuable resource (e.g., ebook, case study, webinar) they can get on your site.
You can call this a lead magnet. An incentive your target audience is ready to trade their email address for.
Once they land on your site, their buyer’s journey begins, and your sales funnel is already in motion. And this is where step two comes in.
