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so the biggest like misconception that I've seen or heard in business is if you build it they will come not true because you can build it but I might not need it I might not want it I might not ever ever ever ever need that thing or want that thing or even know that that things thing exists to ever come looking for it [Music] hey y'all welcome to my channel where we talk about boutiques e-commerce business and all things making money online [Music] thank you hey guys it's Dan chartey and I'm back again with another video so in today's video we're going to talk about something that confuses a lot of business owners online and that is the difference between the buyer's journey and a sales funnel so if you're interested stay tuned so during the last four years of being a online business owner I've heard so many different words get thrown around marketing advertising funnels buyer's Journey target audience target market buyers personas so on and so forth and all of those words get confused they think that this one thing is the same thing as this other thing and this thing's the same thing as the other thing and a sales funnel in the buyer's Journey are two of those words or phrases or parts of business that people often confuse and they confuse them because technically speaking they coincide with one another but really they are two areas of business that have to be seen from two different points of view so the buyer's journey is exactly what it sounds like it is the buyer's Journey it is controlled by the buyer they decide what they're going to interact with they you know internally decide whether or not they need or desire something or want something and that has little to do with us as we may think however that's where your sales funnel comes into play so although the buyer is going to decide what they will and will not interact with you as a brand get to create content and marketing and advertising and things like that that can meet them where they are and help to guide them along the path of potentially making a purchase so before we go too deeply into today's video I do want to as always give you the formal definition of both the buyer's journey and sales funnels and then and we'll go into my thought process about both Concepts okay so there were way too many definitions of these two um forms of business or parts of business on the internet so I found an article that I feel like really sums up the difference of the two and then like I said we'll go into like my understanding of it and how I've applied it in my business so it says the sales funnel is a company-centric approach that focuses on company goals on the other hand the buyer's Journey funnel is a consumer-centric perspective that focus focuses on the buyer's distinct needs the former ads aims to convert visitors into leads and then into customers and the latter represents the path a prospect takes from interest to purchase so basically what this is saying is that a sales funnel is centered around the business it is centered around how the business desires for buyers to go through the process of becoming aware of their business and ultimately becoming an email subscriber and then ultimately becoming a purchase a purchaser so the business controls all aspects of what a potential customer is going to see and they control it by building out a sales funnel whereas this paragraph is saying the buyer's journey is customer Centric which means that the customer controls it it means that the customer is you know like we said they choose what they're going to interact with you may have had a hand in them becoming aware by way of you posting content or running ads and things of that nature but ultimately they decided whether or not they wanted to interact with it whether or not they needed it whether or not they're going to click on it so on and so forth so on the back end as a business you kind of have to think through all of the potential possibilities of what could occur in the buyer's journey and so in order to do that you have to first understand the different stages of the buyer's Journey so again just like I said earlier the internet has so many different descriptions of sales funnels and the buyer's Journey some of them list like seven stages that they believe buyers go through some of them list three um there's so many different options to like take into consideration and I'm not going to say that either of them is right or wrong however I'm going to tell you the one that I work within and then again we'll talk about how I apply it and how it works for me in driving sales consistently let's talk about the buyer's Journey first and I'm gonna give you the more like long or complex description of what a buyer's Journey may look like and then we'll talk about the sales funnel so when speaking about the buyer's Journey basically there is a clear starting point and there's a clear ideal ending point but there's also points within the buyer's Journey where they may decide they don't need anymore decide that they're going to go buy it somewhere else decide that they don't have the money for it so long so on and so forth so the buyer's Journey starts with awareness it typically goes into what is known as the interest stage then the consideration stage then the decision stage then the retention stage and then the advocacy or loyalty phase so and the awareness stage this is where they are becoming or have become aware of their need or desire or want for something uh it could be that you know they just need a new outfit for the weekend they need an outfit for a party they need an outfit for a concert a date so on and so forth it could be because they lost a ton of weight and they need a new wardrobe it could be because like if we think about like appliances and things like that in our house um maybe they just moved and they have to buy the appliances or maybe their house was flooded or something and they need to replace something there's all these different instances that may impact someone needing the products that you sell and as you can see we have nothing to do with that we don't impact whether or not someone needs our products so the biggest like misconception that I've seen or heard in business is if you build it they will come not true because you can build it but I might not need it I might not want it I might not ever ever ever ever need that thing or I want that thing or even know that that things thing exists to ever come looking for it so the first part of business is not building it and thinking that it that they will come but more so understanding who you're targeting in the first place and thinking through all of the potential reasons why they may need or desire whatever it is that you sell so once they become aware of their own needs desires wants and things of that nature then they typically go seeking now one thing that I think we neglect to realize is like there is the uh possibility that someone just randomly sees your products or you know sees your content on their feed and they may not have needed or desired what you had to offer but they saw it and they gained interest so that's the next stage of the buyer's Journey and in order for people to form interest in something that they may not have had a need or desire for in the first place it gotta look a certain way it needs to sound a certain way it needs to be presented to them in a way that makes them literally stop in their tracks to start considering whether or not they need or desire or like thinking of an instance where that product might fit into their life so as we stated they go from awareness to interest to consideration so I could be interested in what's in front of me I can see it and be like oh this is so pretty I wonder how they did that or I wonder how much this costs so on and so forth I'm interested but I don't start considering it until I start looking for more information about that thing so this might be them clicking the link in your bio or clicking the link under your ads so on and so forth and that's an indication that they have seen something that interests them and now they're going to go elsewhere to consider whether or not it's worthy of giving their money to so once they have gotten to the consideration stage then hopefully they make it to the decision stage they've weighed their options this is where things can get a little muddy because for example I think about Amazon all the time when I think about the middle of the buyer's Journey Amazon sells everything and I don't know about y'all but like there have been plenty of times where I saw something online that I really really liked and my first thought was let me go to Amazon and see if they have it and there has also been a ton of times where I went to Amazon and bought it there instead because it was cheaper or because I could get it by tomorrow or I could get it the same day so on and so forth so nothing to not to say that your brand or the brand that I saw the product that I saw was not worthy but more so to say that the thing that encouraged me making a decision was how quickly it could get to me the price the description so on and so forth so the things that impact awareness are totally different than the things that impact interest and then totally different from the things that impact consideration and then ultimately different from the things that impact decision so let's say in a happy world I decided to go ahead and buy the product as the buyer and uh let's even leave Amazon in there and this is this is going to kind of lead into the sales funnel so let's say that I go to Amazon I leave that product behind because they don't have the color that I want so I forgot your business's name let's say that I forgot I can't remember your website address I didn't like the post I didn't follow your page so I really want that thing but there's really no way of me getting it at this point other than me going back to Amazon but as a business owner we can impact the buyer's Journey and that's where your sales funnel comes into play and I don't want to jump too far ahead so I'm gonna finish the buyer's journey and then we'll hop into sales funnels so let's say that you know in a perfect world I go ahead and buy that product I've made a decision I'm getting it let's say I get it the next stage of the buyer's journey is retention so now that you've gotten me as a customer how do you keep me as a customer so that might look like having a Rewards program a loyalty program it could even be as simple as you following up and saying thank you so much for your purchase um we would love to offer you 15 off of your next one so something that retains me as a customer versus um you know this being a one-time situation and not to hop too deeply into like inventory and things of that nature but a lot of Boutique owners impact their ability to create customer retention because what they sell is so Random you you were selling club dresses in April but then in uh June you were selling swimsuits and then in the fall you're selling office wear like I don't know I'm I'm lost so when you create consistency in your brand it makes it that much easier for to for you to retain customers so after that the last stage of the buyer's journey is loyalty or advocacy and at this point you are wanting people to advocate for your brand on your Brand's behalf or on your behalf so this might look like having like a referral program if you refer someone to our brand then we are going to give you a five dollar reward for every purchase that they make or it could be allowing them to create user generated content or maybe having a brand ambassador program some affiliate marketing anything along those lines could potentially impact that advocacy or or loyalty so hopefully that helps you to understand the buyer's journey and now we have to talk about sales funnels which is one of my absolute favorite topics of business as we stated earlier in the video the sales funnel is company Centric and it takes it into consideration the company's goals now obviously you may be thinking well ourselves our goal is sales we want to make money however there are other things that we should have goals around to help us or impact our ability to make the sales that we want so the sales funnel is centered around the buyer's journey and I like to think about sales funnels as taking into consideration all of the what ifs so when I speak of what ifs I mean what if they see my content but they don't follow me what if they go to my website but they don't add anything to cart what if they add something to the cart but they don't purchase what if they initiate checkout but they don't finish the purchase what if they sign up for my email list but they don't use that initial coupon code that we offered them when you are building a very intentional sales funnel and more specifically an effective one you want to be considering all of the what ifs so I find in business we only think about like the best option the the best outcome what we want to occur but in all actuality as we mentioned we don't control the buyer's Journey we control the funnel that we build around it and in order for us to make sure that we are meeting customers our potential customers where they are and potentially impacting their purchasing decisions is to build around what could or what if they do or do not do a thing so if we go back to the previous example I talked about um you know me as a consumer if I go to Amazon and I decide I don't want to buy from Amazon but lo and behold I didn't like your post I didn't comment I didn't follow all I did was click the link in your um in your bio and I went to your website but I don't remember it I don't still have it up I closed it so on and so forth this is where things like retargeting ads this is where things like prioritizing lead generation this is where um your email marketing efforts your SMS marketing efforts this is where those types of things come into play so when you're building a sales funnel essentially you're building it kind of in the same Realm of the stages of the buyer's Journey but only this time it's you what you're doing in conjunction with what they're doing or what you think that they're doing so let's start back at the beginning awareness so someone becomes aware you have to think about all of the places where someone could potentially become aware of your brand so for me that might be Instagram that might be Facebook that might be Tick Tock that might be YouTube um but that could also be through word of mouth if if you participate in pop-up shops could be a pop-up shop um I know bigger Brands they do Billboards they have commercials it could be an influencer if you work with influencers so on and so forth first things first you have to take into consideration all of the places where someone could become aware of your business from there you have to say well what would make someone interested in my business now our job isn't to make everybody interested our job is to make our ideal customer interested and in order to do that we have to know in detail who our ideal customer is we have to know enough about them to be able to create something create content shall I say that looks and sounds and feels the way that it needs to feel to attract them to make them want to stop in their tracks and interact with that content and so a lot of business owners miss the mark in this area because one they don't understand their target audience and two they neglect the importance of quality content they think that it is enough to just showcase the products without showcasing the product in a setting and in a way that the ideal customer would want to see it period um so from there we get to say okay if this is where they become aware what do I create to potentially make them interested now another element of Interest could be it being a sale or a giveaway I love giveaways giveaways are one of my favorite things to do to generate interest in my brand however giveaways I'm just going to use that as an example a giveaway is a great lead generation opportunity so like I said earlier you know you want to think about not just them going to make a purchase but what if they do not how can I make sure that I'm able to continue to Market to them if they didn't save my Brand's name or save my website address or follow me or like this content if it's going to be nearly impossible for me to get back in front of them because of the algorithm what could I do to impact the potential likelihood that they make it back here so when you prioritize lead generation early in the buyer's Journey versus at the end I think about people that are like well I'll get their email address when they purchase or I'll get their email address when they see the pop-up on my website so on and so forth like yes absolutely but also you could try to get it way before that and I'm the type of person that will try to get an email address way before they ever even make it to my website so I like to do giveaways as a point of lead generation but let's just say not a giveaway um they've become aware and now I've created some piece of content that just makes them interested I love to do reels of me just like walking through my house doing random at home things because my brand serves women that are like homebodies and things of that extra so I want to make sure that what I create is something that they could Envision themselves doing so let's say that they become interest interested and interested so much so that they let's say on one hand they follow my business page and on the other hand they go to my website so those are two what ifs to what ifs that could potentially have two separate funnels attached to them or they could have one funnel that kind of like is built the same way based off of the two what ifs so we're going to start with what if on this side so what if they follow my brand but they don't do anything else guess what I can run ads to you or I can continue to um execute my organic efforts in hoping that you interact with further content and start to click links you know the links to my bio or the links in my story so on and so forth I personally prioritize my stories a lot because um my audience is not huge but it's pretty big by like a beginner's standards and I want to prioritize the people that are already interested in my brand because they're like in the funnel already they're already in the buyer's Journey but they haven't purchased anything so I use my stories a lot to just like educate them about the products tell them what's going on I use that link sticker to send people to a landing page to sign up for my emails and my texts and to download my app versus sending people to my website with the expectation or hope that they'll sign up for my email list and ultimately that just makes so much more sense even if you don't buy anything I have your email address and now I can continue to send you emails so what ifs they went to my Instagram they followed but they did not go anywhere beyond that I can run an ad to you or I can continue to organically Market to you as a follower on the other end they didn't follow me but they went to my website I don't know what they did on my website like I can't spy on every single person individually actually I can there's apps that you can use to do that but that's neither here nor there um but I know that these are all the possibilities you can go to my homepage you can go to a collection page you could go to the product page you could add something to your cart you could initiate the checkout and you could purchase but you could also abandon your cart you could also not add anything to your cart you could also look at a collection page but never make it to a product page so I am considering all of the what ifs and then from there I get to build something that impacts my ability to get back in front of them ads can play a huge role in the sales funnel because they allow you to get back in front of people based off of the things that they have and have not done so for example I can say I want to retarget or put my business shall I say back in front of every person who added something to their cart in the last 30 days but did not purchase something or I can say I want to put my business back and forth with every single person that looked at my homepage or I could even retarget my email list I love ads another topic for another day however so now that I know like okay these are all the possibilities I get to build around it and again it's either I got your email address and now I'm going to continue to send you emails that might be an abandoned car email that might be a browse abandonment email sidebar quick commercial break I have an email marketing class I'll link it in the description below if you need help with email marketing more specifically if you use clavio for email marketing if you don't use clavio for email marketing and more specifically if you have a Shopify store you need clavio and you need my course okay back to the video so um yeah it might be an email it might be an abandoned cart it might be a browse abandonment there's so many different things but imagine if you don't have an email pop-up or let's say you're not sending people to a landing page or you're just generally speaking not prioritizing lead generation the the chances of getting back in front of this person are slim to none so I prioritize lead generation over everything else so that I can allow my email marketing and SMS marketing to work on my business's behalf versus banking on them just going and buying and loving everything about my brand so they're aware they're interested they're considering they're at the point of needing to make a decision and they may not make a decision at every single stage I have to say what if they do not what do I build around that so now I want to talk about what a very simple sales funnel could look like so stick around and let's do it okay so at this point I honestly want to replace the word sales with marketing because funnels can be built for a multitude of purposes not just sales so I actually tend to use more funnels for like marketing purposes and lead generation purposes versus sales once I get to the point of like building a sales funnel it's going to very heavily be built around email marketing and paid advertising so I'm just going to give you guys an example of a simple marketing funnel or a funnel for a lead generation and then I will give you one with sales as the objective so building a sales funnel or marketing funnel first and foremost requires you to be clear about what goal or objective you're trying to meet at the end of it so let's say that my objective or goal is lead generation I am trying to get email subscribers so I think about all of the different ways or methods that I can use to acquire leads I already mentioned that I do giveaways but sometimes it's just as simple as making an announcement so for example in like three or four days I'm gonna be running a really big sale actually it's no seven days but I'm gonna announce it in about three or four days um so I'm running a big sale at the end of the month it's gonna be end of season sale and my call to action for all of the content that I'm going to be creating leading up to that um sale is sign up for our email list from there I get to tell them where to sign up for my email list and that's where thinking about all the ways you could get a lead comes into play so I know that I could send them to my website but I'm not gonna do that why am I not going to do that because one I'm telling you that we're gonna have a big sale they're not gonna go to my website and buy something today and I also don't want them to have to wait for a pop-up to show so I'm going to replace the link in my bio with a landing page uh the URL to a landing page um if you use a email marketing platform that allows you to build um landing pages and things like that this is where that's going to come into play if you use clavio you can build what's called an embedded form and it kind of works the same way so let's start from point number one so I'm gonna create a reel and that rule is going to be me standing in my warehouse and I'm gonna make the announcement that we are starting a huge end of season sale on whatever date that it's going to occur and I'm gonna say that uh my app subscribers are going to get first dibs and our Evo subscribers are going to be the first to get notified when the sale starts and if you don't want to miss out on that thank you oh my gosh I just sneezed so I'm gonna say if you don't want to miss out on that make sure you sign up for our email list and here's the way to do that all right make sure you sign up for our text Lister make sure you download our app whatever your call to action is going to be that's what you're going to say the key is that you want to tell them how to easily do that and there's a multiple ways you could do that so I have more recently been using a uh automation service called mini chat and basically you can set up like funnels and you can say um sign up for our comment this word below and we'll send you the details so I might say comment the word sell in the comments and we'll send you the link to sign up for our email list so instead of me saying click the link in my bio wait for the pop-up to show up so on and so forth like no you just comment this word and we're going to send the details to you and then in the um DMS they can send their email address and you can on the back end in manychat you can integrate your email marketing software and boom you got to do email subscribers so I've been using that method a lot lately and I actually really love it so that's one way I could go about it again I can send them to the link in my bio and that could be a landing page if we're talking about in my stories and then I can you know use the link to a landing page key point being here I'm not going to send people to my website to wait for a pop-up to show I'm going to make sure that it's very simple for them to get on the list from there I need to have email automation set up so whether that be my everyday welcome series or whether that be a welcome series built specifically around the sale totally up to you so I am going to build a welcome series specifically around the sale and it's going to basically give them like instructions for how to prepare for the sale so here's all the details you need sales going to start on this day at this time these are all the things that are included this is what the sale is going to be um go ahead and fill your cart right now or create an account on our website and you know add anything to your wish list so that when the sale starts you're able to get whatever you want really quickly so I'm like setting the stage for someone to potentially they've already made they've already shown interest they've already kind of considered it because they're already considering it considering purchasing and I'm setting them up to make a decision when the time and date comes so I'm telling them exactly what they need to do to make sure that they are able to make a purchase when that day occurs versus me saying the sale is here on the day that the sale is here and expecting people to just go from awareness to interest to consideration to decision no don't do that and yes it is possible for people to do it in you know one sitting or in one one day but it's so much more effective if you take the time to actually map it out and you honestly get way more by way of like people or subscribers than you would waiting until the day of the situation and this goes for like launching too you're gonna get so much more from preparing and planning and preparing them for it than you are from just announcing it and expecting people to come remember you don't build it and they come that's just not it's not How We Do It um from there I can send I can send ads to every single person that interacts with that content as a reminder that that sale is occurring and yeah then when the sale happens I wait for it to wait for the sales to come in so that one's pretty simple but then when we get to the point of wanting to add email marketing and advertising essentially at almost every single point of the buyer's Journey there's going to be an email as well as an ad so at the point of awareness you're aware you interact with my content even if you just liked it and if you're going to get retargeted and we're going to tell you something about our brand that hopefully leads you back to either my Instagram or my Facebook or my website and let's say they go to the website they start browsing a collection let's say they look at a collection nothing else they don't even look at a product they don't add to cart they don't purchase and we're going to retarget you with an ad that tells you a little bit more about the business a little bit more about the products the sale that's happening we might offer you a coupon code and that ad long story short we're saying that one visit for me ow I just scratched my neck I'm in my chin um that one visit you not buying anything when you weren't there it's not an indication that you don't want to buy anything I mean I think about the fact that I always have money in my my pocket I can't just Splurge whenever I want I got bills to pay that doesn't mean I don't want it I mean that I can't get it today and I want it but make it easy for me to come back so at um but then also emails get to come into play so let's say that the first interaction that they have with my brand is me getting their email and they don't even go to my website today so that to my website that day they're gonna go through a welcome series they're going to get a coupon code to use on their first purchase that welcome series is going to have five emails in it every single products and every single link and every single button in that welcome series is going to be intentionally decided or intentionally chosen because I want to impact every single thing that you do and everything that every single thing that you see along your journey so if I can catch them early in their journey I have a little bit more control over how that journey goes versus if I try if I catch them late in the game I'm messing up so long surgery um so they collection they product so they're on my email list let's say that they're now on my email list and they just look at a product on my website guess what they get a browse abandonment email if you don't know what a browse Amendment email is again grab the email marketing course in the description period browse available emails are my favorite it's just like hey we saw you looking at this don't leave it behind come back then we have an abandoned car Series so let's say they add all the stuff to the cart and they leave them behind abandoned cart emails abandoned cart ads we are going to remind you that this is still here it's waiting for you my email my abandoned card email sequence is my favorite email sequence because it is so well thought out and like so extensive honestly truly I make up so many so many potential lost sales through my abandoned cart sequence period I say period a lot oh my God anyway so even after they make a decision they become a customer remember we still have two different stages of the buyer's Journey which is uh what are the stages child Lord Jesus uh retention and advocacy so I want to retain you so by the time you make that purchase you're getting a thank you email that says thank you so much for this purchase from my name is James I'm the owner of raising Boutique I just want to thank you so much for supporting my business as a special thank you I want to offer you this discount code or your next purchase do you all know how many people come right back and buy something else because nine times out of ten they took something out of their cart because they were like my total too high they come right back it's the coolest thing they come right back and they buy it because I gave them a coupon code if they when we send them the request for a review coupon code um and I didn't always offer coupon code for that one but coupon code um and then advocacy I have a Rewards program sign up for this here's a referral link send it to your friend like it's so mapped out now this video has become way too long but the biggest thing that I want you guys to take from this video is that I don't care that you classify yourself as a small business my business is still considered a small business by way of like how much revenue it brings in however in mentality and in action and in strategy I think like a big business all day every day anything if I go to a big Brands website and they send me an email an ad or so they got an app whatever I always tell myself you can do that like anything a big brand can do I can do anything that they could get their hands on I can get my hands on it might not be right now today but it's a possibility because all of them started somewhere all of them had a day one all of them had a first day of sales I can get there as well so online business e-commerce more specifically is not about building it and letting people come it is about you understanding consumers and how they navigate the internet and the buyer's journey and then you building a sales funnel that addresses all of the what ifs in their buyer's Journey making sure that you understand that you don't control what they buy but you can have some control in what they see and how they get to the point of buying so I hope this video was helpful it's kind of long I know but it's very important I want to let you guys know that I have a program called e-commerce Elementary you can learn more by clicking the description or the link in the description it is a 11 module course it has I don't know like 60 lessons inside of it that take you from point A to point Z of e-commerce understanding things like the buyer's journey and sales funnels understanding what marketing is and what it means to build a marketing campaign clarifying who your target audience is how to build a good uh website how to set up your email marketing if you if you get the e-commerce Elementary you don't even need the email marketing class everything that you need to know about building a successful and more specifically a profitable e-commerce business so if you guys have any questions at all comment below let me know have any questions about the courses comment below let me know hope you guys enjoyed this video as always make sure you like comment and subscribe and I will talk to you guys later bye