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a sales funnel also known as a purchase funnel is a graphical depiction of buys journey that illustrate the marketing strategy that potential customers take to make a purchase every phase of the funnel moves the customer closer to purchasing a well-planned sales funnel will outline the steps your company must take to move potentials to the next stage it assists in identifying potential gaps in the process where prospects are losing interest developing an effective sales funnel aid in the development of the focus sales and marketing strategy through this course we will learn about the three stages of the sale funnels in addition we will look at how sales funnel differs from the marketing funnel and a sales pipeline so let's get started right away [Music] if you haven't subscribed to our channel yet i want to request you to hit the subscribe button and turn on the notification bell so that you don't miss out on any new update or video releases from great learning if you enjoy this video show us some love and like this video knowledge increases by sharing so make sure you share this video with your friends and colleagues make sure to comment on the video for any query or suggestions and i will respond to your comments hello my name is shantanurana and today i am going to teach you this course on sales funnel by great learning whenever we hear the word funnel in basic english that simply means a kind of an object which is used to pour liquid from one container to another now one thing which is very specific about a funnel is that the area is much larger in the top and comparatively smaller at the bottom now what does that signify when we are talking about sales that is something we will be exploring in this particular course where i'll be telling you what exactly is sales funnel why it is extremely important for any business for any company whatever sector it is in whenever we are talking about any organization there is one thing which is extremely important that is the understanding of the requirements or the needs of the consumers or the customers whatever strategies a company is making be it marketing strategies the sales strategies it should be aligned with two things number one the organizational goals the vision and the mission of the company and number two the customers the needs of the consumers if as a business or as an organization we are able to meet the requirements of the customers then only we can say that this business is effective or is successful if we will not meet the requirements or the needs of the customers or consumers we will never be successful as a business all these things how do we picturize that when we talk about sales funnel that is something we are going to discuss in this particular course so let's not waste any time and directly move to the agenda where i will be telling you what exactly we are going to cover in this particular course as you can see on the screen the very first thing that we will be discussing in this course is what is a sales funnel we'll be telling you the definition of sales funnel then we'll see the need for an effective sales funnel we are talking about sales funnel but why do we need to talk about it why it is extremely important what is the need for a strong or an effective sales funnel for any organization are they going to get any competitive advantage that is something we will be seeing in the second module then sales funnel stages so sales funnel just like a normal funnel which can be divided into three types three parts or stages that is the top of the funnel middle of the funnel and then bottom of the funnel similarly a sales funnel can also be divided into three parts that is awareness stage then consideration stage and then finally the decision stage now that is something we will be exploring in the third module then sales for an example where i'll be explaining the entire process the stages of the sales funnel with the help of a very simple example then sales funnel versus sales pipeline and sales funnel versus marketing pipeline or marketing funnel now how these three terms are different that is also something we will be discussing then how to build a sales funnel for your business then fixing a sales funnel there are some common problems that are there in these sales funnel how to figure out those problems and how to solve those problems we will be exploring that and then at the end of this course we will be seeing how to create content for different stages of a sales funnel as i already told you that a sales funnel can be divided into three different stages which can further be divided into various steps that we will be exploring but what type of content should be created at each and every stage should there be any difference between the content type or if yes then what exactly will be the difference those things we will be exploring at the end of this course so let's get started with this course where we will be covering each of these topics one after the other all right so let's start this course by first of all clearly understanding what is a sales funnel i have already told you that funnel is like an inverted cone which is open at the bottom where the area is much higher at the top as compared to the area at the bottom so there are three parts in a funnel that is top of the funnel middle of the funnel and then bottom of the funnel the area is maximum at the top then comparatively less in the middle and then comparatively lesser at the bottom we will be understanding what does that signify when we are talking about sales but before that let me explain to you what exactly is sales funnel with the help of a very simple example just think about this situation right now i am very sure that you are watching this video on your mobile phone or on your laptop just think about the journey that you had taken in order to purchase that mobile phone or laptop what was your journey like as a customer i am very sure maybe you have connected with some of your cousins friends or family members you must have asked them which laptop is good for you or you must have asked them which mobile phone is good for you you must have compared nokia with samsung and with iphone as well you must have seen which one is better for you and then you must have taken your own journey and eventually you must have purchased the mobile phone or the particular laptop now what was the exact journey like think about it in your mind for a second pause this screen and then again resume i'm very sure there's always a particular journey that each and every customer each and every consumer is taking whenever they are going to purchase any product or any service from the market if you are going to buy even a simple product from a market first of all you will become aware about that product you will get to know that okay this is the product in the market and you have the need of that product once you are aware then you will consider buying it where you will be comparing it with these same kinds of product in the market you will be comparing that product with the competition of that product once you have compared and made up your mind then finally you will be deciding whether you actually want to buy that product or not now this entire customer's journey is nothing but sales funnel sales funnel in very simple word is the representation of the customer's journey or the journey of any consumer when they are going to buy a particular product or a service let's try to have a look at the definition of sales funnel which is written on the screen as you can see a sales funnel illustrates the path that a potential customer takes when purchasing goods or services as you can see on the screen as well that the sales funnel or the simple funnel which is shown over here is divided into three parts top of the funnel middle of the funnel and then bottom of the funnel if you look at the top of the funnel the area is maximum which represents or which signifies that initially a lot of people are interested but not all those people are going to buy your product or service eventually as they will go down the funnel very few of those interested prospects will be buying the product because a lot of them will not be interested at some or the other stage of the final let's say there are a particular customers who want to buy a mobile phone now initially there will be thousands of people who actually want to buy that mobile phone who are considering buy that mobile phone then as they will keep on going down and they will keep on considering that product not all of those 100 or 200 or 300 people will buy the phone out of them very few people will buy the phone so the bottom of the funnel represents those people who will actually end up buying that particular product or service so at the top the area is maximum which shows that initially a lot of people are interested in buying a particular product or service but as they go down the funnel the area keeps on decreasing which signifies that as the customers go down the funnel they keep on considering the product eventually a very few people ended up buying that particular product or service so this entire journey that a customer takes is known as sales funnel in terms of sales we can divide it into three steps again the top of the funnel is known as awareness stage the middle of the funnel is known as consideration stage and the bottom of the funnel is known as decision stage so at awareness stage a customer will become aware about your product which again depends upon the marketing strategies that your company is implementing once the customer is aware then they will go down the funnel and they will consider that particular product once they will consider will do their research will do their homework as a customer then eventually they will have two choices either they want to buy that product or they don't want to buy that product and the third stage is the decision stage so these are the three common steps that a customer will be taking when we are talking about sales funnel when that particular person is going to buy a product or a service so these are the only three steps we will be discussing about these three steps in much more detail in the later half of this course but if you look at this funnel initially at the top you see the potential prospects or the customers who are the leads who have the potential to buy your product but eventually all of them will not end up buying your product very few of them will buy your product and those are the most committed customers that you can see at the end of the funnel or at the bottom of the funnel there's a very simple note as well which is written over here that sales funnels are not static they are always changing and evolving to meet the needs of the customers there is one thing that we discussed in the very beginning of this course that whenever you are talking about marketing or sales in any organization in any business one thing has to be in the center of this hole and that is the customer if the needs of the customers are changing we will have to change our strategies our marketing strategies or sales strategies we cannot be static when we are talking about sales in any business in any sector because if the demands or the requirements of the customers are changing we will have to adapt we will have to change ingly otherwise we will be irrelevant in the market so in order to be relevant you will have to change and similarly your sales funnel will also have to change depending upon the needs or the requirements of the customers so we can say that sales funnel is not static it is always always evolving it is always changing now let's try to understand that why is the sales funnel important we are talking a lot about sales funnel by why it is extremely important for any business number one it allows companies to highlight each step that prospects take on the path to conversion definitely if you think about buying a product it's never that you will think about it and then eventually you'll buy it it's always a journey that you take as a customer it will never be the case that you think about it and the next step you do is you go and buy it that is very rare as a customer we are always very very risk covers we do not want to take a lot of risk so always think about all the scenarios we do our research we compare different products and eventually we end up buying something which is useful for us which is fit for our needs our requirements and with the help of a sales funnel we can actually understand that what are the different steps a customer is taking in order to purchase a service or a product which will definitely be very very beneficial for any company any organization then second is sales funnel helps in the identification of potential gaps or mismatches in the process where prospects are losing interest if there is some issue with the awareness stage then we will eventually know that we have to make our marketing strategy stronger if there is something wrong maybe with the consideration stage then maybe we will have to provide some kind of discount so whatever strategies we will be making that will completely depend upon the analytics that we will be getting from the sales funnel a sales funnel can definitely give a very good idea about the potential gaps in that funnel that where exactly the customers are losing interest and if we'll get to know that area of improvement we will be able to improve it but if we will not be able to identify that area itself we will never be able to solve that problem so sales funnel is extremely useful in identification of those potential gaps in the sales funnel in the journey that a customer takes then third one which is last but not the least is it helps in boosting conversion rates as i told you that we can easily identify what are the gaps in the sales funnel what are the gaps where the customers are losing interest if we can fund those areas then definitely we can work on that we can improve the strategies in those particular areas if there is some issue at the top of the funnel maybe we need to do something better with our marketing strategies if there is something wrong with the awareness stage or maybe the consideration stage then maybe we will have to work on our email campaigns maybe we'll have to work on some other area so we will be able to identify that area only if we have a strong effective sales funnel in our company in our business so definitely if we will be aware about all these things eventually we will be able to boost the conversion rates and the company will get profitability as well as competitive advantage so in very simple words we can say that sales funnel is nothing but the representation of the customers journey when they are going to buy a particular product or a service and it is extremely useful for any business any company with the help of a sales funnel we can identify the potential gaps that the customers that where exactly are they losing the interest and we can work on those areas so that's the beauty of having a strong effective sales funnel in your business all right so now we clearly understood that what exactly is sales funnel it is time for us to understand the requirement or need for an effective or strong sales funnel for any business why it is required in every organization what exactly is the advantage of that let's try to explore that in this particular module the very first point is that creating an effective or efficient sales funnel helps in defining a focused sales and marketing strategy just remember that if you have a sales funnel you will have a better understanding of your customer you will know what is that that your customer likes and what is that that your customers are losing interest in so you will have a basic understanding of the likings or dislikings of the customers and if you know about your customers you can align all the marketing or sales strategies with that and you can make sure that you will get that competitive advantage for having a sales funnel if you do not have a sales funnel or you have a sales funnel which is not effective enough then you will not have a good understanding of the customers and a business without good understanding of the customers will never be able to be successful in that particular domain where the business has to sell the products or services if you understand the requirements or the needs of the customers then only you will be able to fill those needs by your product or services but if you do not have a strong sales funnel it will be extremely tough for the business to get good conversion rates so that is one advantage that if you have an effective sales funnel you will know where to put your focus what exactly is that that the customers are liking so you will have a better focused sales and marketing strategy the number two is companies can generate better forecasts about future purchases by analyzing how leads move through the sales funnel sales funnel we have discussed three stages in that awareness consideration and then finally decision we will not get to know whether people are going to buy our product or service what exactly will be the conversion rate we can actually forecast that or predict that by seeing how the customers are moving down the funnel from the very beginning itself when we have leads how they are becoming aware and how many of those aware prospects are considering the product with all those predictions we can actually imagine what exactly will be the conversion rate for a particular product or service so it definitely helps in future predictions of future forecasting that what exactly will be the conversion rate whether that will boost or will decrease as per the product or the service the number three is a sales funnel can help companies determine which leads to pursue you will always know the likings and dislikings of the leads so you will know where to put your focus where exactly you should strategize and what exactly you need not to worry because that is already done you will always know what are the potential gaps in that entire journey of the customers once you'll find those areas of improvement you can work on that make better strategies and then eventually boost the profitability or the conversion rates for that particular product but this idea you will only have if you have an effective and efficient sales funnel if you do not have a sales funnel as a business or as an organization you will never understand where to invest your time energy or resources you will never know what the customer likes the last but not the least is an effective sales funnel can help companies in attracting new leads as well so definitely it is about attracting new leads and also about nurturing the existing leads which are moving through the funnel or down the funnel in very simple words we can say that sales funnel is extremely important and is required by every business more than importance it is about necessity if you have a good sales funnel you will have a better understanding of the customer and in one line we can sum this entire slide in one thing that that with an effective and efficient sales funnel we can actually have a better understanding of the customers and eventually we can make marketing and sales strategies which are aligned with the requirements or the needs of those customers all right so now we have understood that what exactly is the need for an effective sales funnel for any organization for any company it is time for us to discuss more about the different stages of sales funnel in detail we have already discussed that a sales funnel can be divided into three different steps or stages the first one is the top of the funnel which is known as the awareness stage then comes the middle of the funnel which is known as the consideration phase or the consideration stage and then the last one which is the bottom of the funnel and it is also known as the decision phase so the input of the first stage that is the top of the funnel or the awareness stage is the leads the potential leads who have the ability to buy your product or service and the output of the last stage which is the bottom of the funnel or the decision stage is the most committed customer who always end up buying your product now let's try to understand these three stages in much more detail as you can see on the screen the number one top of the funnel awareness stage so this is the point at which a potential customer has learned about your company and is familiar with your product in general so at awareness stage a customer will not going to buy your product they will not consider your product they just know that you exist they will be aware about you maybe they'll just go to your website or maybe they'll just get to know about you that you are a company this and this company and you have this in this product so that's all awareness stage is about the next to that is consideration stage so at this point a potential customer will express interest in your goods or services by visiting your website by navigating through your website or by conducting product research and comparison so at consideration phase or consideration stage the customer will do his or her homework they will do the product research let's say they are going to buy a particular mobile phone so they will get to know what are the specifications that they are looking forward to they will start comparing different mobile phones so all the product research and the comparison will be part of the second stage which is the consideration stage where they are aware as well as they are considering buying your product or maybe some other product which works the best for them when we talk about a customer they are not biased towards your product they just want a product which will fit their needs or requirements the best if your product will fit their needs the best they will buy your product if some other product will feel will feel good for them then they will buy that particular product now it depends upon you what exactly your sales funnel is like how effective is your sales funnel how effective your marketing and sales strategy is like that you will be able to tell them you will be able to convey them that your product is one of the best compared to all other products which are your competition in the market once you have moved from the consideration phase you will reach the bottom of the funnel which is the decision stage and at this point a potential customer reaches the point of conversion and decides whether to quit the funnel or buy the product so this is the main stage where you will get to know that what exactly is the conversion rate so we have discussed that in a sales funnel there are three things that we have first of all the customers will be aware then they will start considering your product they will do the product research and the comparison and then finally they will decide whether they are going to quit the funnel or they are going to buy your product so initially the area is maximum because a lot of people will be aware a lot of people will be interested but as they go down the funnel a lot of people will keep on dropping off and that is called the drop of points that a lot of people will keep on losing interest and eventually very few most committed customers will reach to the end of the funnel and will end up becoming your customers now let's try to divide these three stages in six stages overall so that you can identify the potential drop of points in much better way so if we divide these three stages further we will end up getting these six stages that is visit lead mql mql means marketing qualified leads sql that means sales qualified leads then opportunity and customer let's try to understand each of this stage one after the other the number one stage we discussed is visit so this is a part of the awareness stage which is nothing but i am just looking stage of the bias journey if you go to a shoe store and the sales representative ask you that what are you looking for and if you are in the visit stage you will simply say that i do not want anything i am just looking you are just window shopping so that is what visit stage is about this is a part of the awareness stage website navigation it can also be the visit stage because you will just go to some website will go through it you will get to know about the product that's it you are just aware about the product you are not interested you are not considering buying it as of now then comes the second stage which is lead there you do the product research and comparisons your customer is interested but not sure whether your product will meet their needs or not so at the second stage which is the lead stage the customer will be interested in the product but not necessarily your product at this stage they will be drawing comparisons between different competition of yours and they will be considering that which product will fit their needs or requirements the best and based upon that eventually they will be making their decision but at this stage the customers will be invested they will be knowing that they are eventually going to buying a product but they are not sure whether to take it from you or from some competitor of yours after this they move to the mql that is marketing qualified leads either your product has the potential to work for the lead or it clearly does not so at this particular stage the customer will be very sure whether they want your product or they don't want it if they want your product they will move down the funnel if they do not want it that will be one drop of point but you have to remember one thing that leads exiting the funnel at this point are not your ideal customers let me explain this to you with the help of a very simple example let's say your company is selling apple iphone basically it does not have dual sim so the customers who want dual sim those are not your ideal customers if you are selling apple iphone definitely you will you would like to go for an android phone in that case so those are not your ideal customers even if you lose them that means you have not lost any customer which was an opportunity so these customers that you're losing till now are not really your ideal customers so you don't have to worry about it but as you go down and you move to sql that is sales qualified leads now you will have to worry as a business or as a company because whatever leads you will be missing after this those were actually good opportunity for you and if you are missing any leads after this stage that simply means that they found somebody better in the market compared to you so at this stage you have to think a lot about your email campaigns you have to think a lot about how you are engaging with the customers what kind of content you are creating all those things will come into the picture after this stage very aggressively so if you talk about sales qualified leads this is nothing but the near the end of the consideration stage after this stage they will be very sure whether they are going to take your product or not leads existing the exiting the funnel at this point are missed opportunities then comes the opportunity phase or the opportunity stage your usp or cta usp means unique selling points or propositions and cta means call to action can make or break this stage of the funnel be ready to answer customers question so at opportunity stage customers will be reading you the reviews for your product they will get to know more about your product maybe they'll ask on quora maybe they'll ask on twitter they'll check out your instagram handle maybe they will see what kind of content you are creating whether you have some loyal customers or not they will try to get as much feedback as possible so that they can eventually decide whether they need to get your product or not as they move down from there then you reach the last stage and they ended up becoming your customer so this is where conversion happens and at this stage you are supposed to engage with the customers and earn their trust now why that is extremely important because if you will not earn their cust the customers trust they will not be the loyal customer and for any business loyal customer is the best loyal customers are those customers who will again come to your company to buy the same product and they will be regular customer for your business and eventually you will get profitability as well as competitive advantage so in this particular module we have discussed that a sales funnel overall can be divided into three phases awareness where the customers are aware about your company and your product then consideration where the customers are doing comparisons doing product research and are considering your product then decision where they are making a final decision whether to go for your product or not now if we divide these three stages further these six stages that is visit lead mql that is marketing qualified lead sql sales qualified leads opportunity and customer so the customers that you will be losing till mql those are not your ideal customers but whatever customers you will be losing after this part of the funnel those will be the missed opportunities that simply means they found somebody better in the market compared to you so from this stage onwards the content becomes extremely important and what kind of interaction you have the customers that is also extremely important so that's all sales funnel stages are all about all right so now we have understood all the different aspects of a sales funnel that why sales funnel is extremely important for any business and what are the different stages in the sales funnel now let me sum this up entire thing with the help of a very simple example so let's take this example where let's assume that you are running an online bookstore now there will be three stages in this example that you will have to figure out the awareness stage the consideration stage and the decision stage now how leads are moving down the funnel you will see in this example the one thing that we are considering we are assuming is let's say we are running an online bookstore where you are selling books on maybe a website online platform in second point as you can see you already know that the majority of your target audience is on facebook that is the age group of 20 to 40. since it's an online bookstore so definitely a lot of old people may not be interested in that and that may not be your ideal customers your ideal customers will generally be between the range from 20 to 40 and those are the people who will definitely be on facebook so one thing that you are completely aware about is that your target audience or your ideal customers ideal leads are on facebook from the age of 20 to 40. so what you do is you create a facebook ad that directs people to your landing page so that you can make people aware about your product which is nothing but books so what exactly you are doing in this case is you are running a digital marketing campaign maybe for facebook where you are making an ad so that people can click on that ad and they can land up on your first page of the website or the landing page of your website and they can get to know that you exist so this is what a part of awareness stage now as you go down the funnel prospects fill out the form with their email address and then download the lead magnet now what is lead magnet in this case this is the first five pages of newly released novel it can be anything for any business in which the leads will be interested so if you are selling some other product the lead magnet can be something else but since it is an online bookstore that we are talking about in this case the lead magnet will be the first five pages of a newly released novel so what you are doing here is you are asking for the mails of those prospects who have landed upon your page and in return you will be giving them the first five pages or first 10 pages of a newly released novel now what you have got from the leads their email ids and you can send them email now you can run email campaigns you can engage with them connect with them now the next step is to nurture the leads you can send out informational content about books or offer information about new books coming soon to your bookstore now you can start educating those leads you can start the process where they will consider buying your product buying your books and one fine day when you think that you have given enough information and people are aware about your product through emails now what you can do is one day you can just give a discount coupon of 20 or maybe any other discount which will be your call to action and you can highlight your usps that is unique selling propositions once you do that all the people who are interested will find it a good deal and they will actually become the paying clients now the process does not stop here we have to make those paying customers into loyal customers and to make those customers loyal you have to again engage with them you keep on sending them informational content so that they can become your regular customers now in this entire process you can easily see the first thing we do is we make them aware about the product by having a facebook ad first of all you should have an understanding of the target audience that who are your ideal leads who are your ideal customers in this case of online bookstore the ideal customers who are on facebook so what we did was we took help of digital marketing and we run an ad on facebook now all the people who will go through that ad will click on that ad they will land up on your website and they will get to know that okay this is an online bookstore and you can get books from here so they will be aware now all the people who will visit your website they will not be interested in lead magnet only some of them will be interested in lead magnet so that's what sales funnel is about the area is maximum at the top that means a lot of people will come to your website but as they will keep on going down note all the people will provide their email id a very few will provide their email id and then once you start sending the emails a lot of them may unsubscribe for those emails but very few will be interested and eventually once you provide them the discount a very few of them will actually buy your books so the area was much higher at the top but as you go down the funnel eventually very few people ended up buying your product which was books in that case that's what a sales funnel is all about you have a proper funnel you have a proper strategy that how your customers are going to take this journey in which they will be purchasing your product which was a book in this case so a lot of people have this confusion about sales funnel and sales pipeline in this module we will be telling you what exactly is the difference between sales funnel and sales pipeline definitely these two terms cannot be used interchangeably let's get to know why as you can see on the screen sales funnel is about the steps in the sales process that your target audience goes through before becoming customers so these are the steps of your buyers who are going to buy product or service from you but when we talk about sales pipeline these are the steps in the sales process that a seller or we can say sales representative takes to move a deal from start to finish so sales funnel is about leads however the sales pipeline is more about the deals when we are talking about sales funnel it is the journey of a customer it is the journey of a buyer who is going to buy or purchase product or service from you but when we are talking about sales pipeline it is the journey of a sales representative or a seller who is going to sell you the product or the service from start to finish what are they going to say at the end what are they going to say in the beginning how are they going to approach you what exactly will be the email campaigns like what type of content will be there in that so that will be the side of the seller or the sales representative but how you are feeling at that point of time whether you want to compare it with some other products or not that will be decide of the buyer's journey so now when we talk about sales funnel that's about the buyer's journey when we talk about the sales pipeline that's about the sale sellers or the sales representatives journey in very simple words we can say sales funnel is is about leads and sales pipeline is more about deals now we have understood how sales funnel is different from sales pipeline it is time for us to differentiate sales funnel from marketing funnel as you can see on the screen the marketing funnel focuses on generating leads by advertising a product or service however the sales funnel starts with these potential leads and tries to move them down the funnel to convert them so when we are talking about marketing funnel that is focused on advertising about the product but when we are talking about sales funnel that is focused on converting those potential leads so whatever is the output of the marketing funnel that actually will be the input of the sales funnel so when we talk about sales funnel you must be remembering that at the very top we talk about the awareness stage where the potential leads will come so those potential leads are actually the output of the marketing funnel in marketing funnel our main focus is to advertise is to talk about lead generation but when we are talking about sales funnel it is about conversions how many of those aware leads we have converted and they have become our customers that's the focus of sales funnel in the second point you can see that sales funnel focuses on making more sales on the other hand the marketing funnel focuses on brand recognition and image marketing funnel is responsible for creating the customers interest so that they can become the ideal leads and they can become aware about our product however the sales funnel is responsible for maintaining the customer interest creating customer interest comes under marketing funnel but maintaining that interest comes under the sales fellow now you told them about your usps and they become interested with that that will be part of marketing funnel but now you are sending them some email sending them some informational content and you are actually maintaining that entire journey maintaining that customer interest that will be part of sales funnel now let's talk about how to build a sales funnel or how to create an effective sales funnel so there are a few processes or steps that we have mentioned as you can see on the screen number one is understanding the target audience we have discussed these things so many times that understanding the audience or the customers is extremely important we have seen in the example of online bookstore that the very first step in the entire sales funnel is to understand who is our ideal customer or who is our target audience once you do that then you will make the entire strategy for maybe marketing or sales so understanding the age gender income geographic location hobbies interest educational level occupation career objectives etc will be part of this step collect as many data points as you can so that you can understand your audience in a much better way and eventually you can make strategies which will be aligned with the requirements of your customers then developing traffic strategy that is seo search engine optimization or search engine marketing email campaigns social media advertising all of this will be part of developing traffic strategy how will you make people aware what exactly this is actually the part of marketing funnel where you will be making people aware and then those people will be the input for your sales funnel then developing audience engagement strategy audience engagement is extremely important so that the customers can build that trust and eventually they can choose you over your competitors so how are you engaging with the customers maybe you can have accounts on social media you can interact with your customers create high quality content to engage and interact with the prospects then last but not the least is creating conversion strategy so all the strategies you should have you should understand the target audience you should know how will you draw traffic to your landing page or to your website and then you should know what exactly will be the engagement like what type of content you will be creating for that and last is you should also have a strategy for conversion how are you going to send the sales email how are you going to send the sales calls webinars all those things will be part of conversion strategy how are you going to hire the sales representatives what will be their journey like how are they going to talk to the customers what kind of discounts you will be providing how will you be highlighting your usps that all will be part of conversion strategy so that's how you build your sales funnel for any business any organization in any sector so now we have talked about the drop of points in the sales funnel that whenever we are talking about going down the funnel then there will be a few drop of points where the customers will lose interest and they will maybe find some other better option and they will be missed opportunities for us now how do you fix those issues if you know that these are the potential gaps in the sales funnel what exactly you can do about it that is something we will be exploring in this particular module so i will be telling you certain problems which are there common problems in sales funnel and then i'll also be telling you how exactly you can fix those problems so let's start with problem number one that is not enough traffic we had taken the example of online bookstore where we put a ad on facebook and the people were landing on our website now imagine if enough people are not landing on your website or we are not able to get enough traffic itself we are not able to make enough people aware about our product or company how can we fix that number one we have to use good seo practices seo means search engine optimization that is optimizing your website ing to the search engine so that it can rank better on those search engines such as google now there is on-page seo off-page seo which is a part of digital marketing but we should definitely have digital marketing experts who can use some good seo practices so that we can rank better and our visibility of the website can be more on any search engine such as google definitely we will be able to get enough traffic then that can be one solution or social media advertising we can take help from facebook ads we can take help from instagram from whatsapp from maybe other platforms as well how can we reach out to people and how can we make them aware through social media that can also be one solution if we are not getting enough traffic maybe we can have ads on youtube as well so those are certain solutions for this particular problem the next problem is let's say not targeting the right people maybe a lot of people are coming to your website but nobody is really buying your product or service that means we are not attracting the right set of people we are not able to understand the target audience the ideal customers what is the solution for that number one understand the audience you should do proper analysis for audience you should understand what kind of audience or the ideal customers you need for your business once that analysis is done then run email service to understand the customer better maybe you can have some email campaign some service so that you can try to understand the thinking of those customers and then ingly you can align your marketing or sales strategies with that the next problem can be not nurturing the leads a lot of traffic is coming but eventually they are losing interest and quitting the sales funnel how can we solve that for that we need to nurture the leads so use targeted and personalized email marketing name people if you are sending a mail to saurabh then send it highest that will be more personalized give discounts talk about your usps engage with the prospects on social media so if you will connect with people on social media they will be able to trust you and they will have that connection with the brand and eventually it will be easier for you to convert them in the sales funnel then last but not the least which is also one of the major issues is not enough conversions again you have a lot of traffic people are considering your product but eventually you're not getting enough conversions and when we are talking about sales funnel the main goal is to boost the conversions to get profitability and if we are not able to do that definitely it will be a failure we need to change our strategy now what can we do if we are not getting enough conversions solution number one is try different subject lines for your email try a b testing maybe one subject line is not working you can try with some other email id some other email subject which can work for the ideal customers then add more payments method if the conversions are not coming maybe people are not comfortable with that particular payment method that you are providing maybe you can start upi maybe you can start net banking as well maybe you can add more options which are easier for the customers to make payment that can be one-ish thing as well which can solve this issue so these are not the best solutions for these problems but the main idea here is to make you understand that how a sales funnel actually work how do we find the potential gaps and then eventually how do we work on those areas of improvement all right now let's talk about creating content for different stages of a sales funnel when we talk about a sales funnel we talk about the awareness stage consideration stage and decision stage so what kind of content we should create at each of these steps so that we can engage and interact with the audience in a much better and efficient way and eventually we can make them loyal customers for our brand for our product or service how can we do that what kind of content we should create that is something we will be exploring in this module as you can see at the top of the funnel which is the awareness stage we should create the content that provides information on customers problems whenever you are talking about any sales process the number one thing is to create the need for your product you are providing a product what gap is it feeling in the customer's life highlight that need highlight that requirement in customers life let's say people are landing on your website page it should highlight that what exactly the customers are lacking without your product in their life then the second phase which is the middle of the funnel in the consideration stage the content should be such that it informs how your product or service can help in solving that problem establishing the problem creating the need is the part of awareness stage that you should do through your content then in the second stage which is the middle of the funnel or the consideration stage you should create the content which will show the customers that your brand or your product will fill that gap there is a need in their life and your product is able to fill that need is able to provide them what they need that's called filling the gap or creation of the need is done in the first step and then feeling that need is done in the second step or the consideration stage then comes the final step which is the bottom of the funnel or the decision stage at this point you should create content that shows your product or service is one of the best solutions in the market you should talk more about your usps unique selling propositions you should also talk about reviews from different people you should create content where you can show people that they can build trust on your brand and your brand or your product is one of the best in the market so this is the basic thing that you should follow when you are creating content at different stages of the sales funnel all right so now you have reached to the end of this course i hope you have understood all the basic concepts related to sales funnel and you also understand that it is extremely important for any organization to strategize the sales properly with the help of an effective sales funnel so that they can get an competitive advantage as well as they can boost their conversion rates in this particular course we started with the definition of sales funnel where we understood that a sales funnel basically represents the journey of a buyer when they are going to purchase a particular product or service this journey we compared with the funnel which is just like an inverted con open at the bottom where the area is maximum at the top and it keeps on decreasing as we go down the funnel similarly when we talk about sales funnel initially a lot of leads we have a lot of people are interested but we keep on dropping those leads those people keep on losing interest as they go down the funnel and they keep on considering your product and eventually a very few people a very few segment of all those interested people will end up becoming your loyal customer or most committed customer we divided the sales funnel into three parts awareness stage consideration stage and decision stage when we talk about the top of the funnel that is the awareness stage the main aim is to make the customers aware about your product or about your brand once that is done then the customers will consider your brand they will do the product research and they will also draw comparison between you and other brands and then finally the customers will decide whether they should go for your brand or they are going to quit the funnel and they will go for some other product or some other service from some other brand we also divided these three steps into further steps where we understood that a sales funnel can actually be divided into six stages visit lead mql that is marketing qualified lead sql that is sales qualified lead and then opportunity and customer but the eventually idea is the same where we chose the journey of a buyer when they are going to purchase a particular product or service we also understood that sales funnel is not exactly the same as sales pipeline or marketing funnel it is different from those concepts we understood that sales funnel is more about leads however sales pipeline is more about deals similarly sales funnel is more about conversion rates and marketing funnel is more about the brand recognition and the image of the company we also understood that there can be so many gaps in this sales funnel which can actually be fixed with so many good practices of maybe seo or maybe by understanding the audience clearly thank you so much for attending this course i hope you have understood all the basic concepts related to sales funnel if you haven't subscribed to our channel yet i want to request you to hit the subscribe button and turn on the notification bell so that you don't miss out on any new update or video releases from great learning if you enjoy this video show us some love and like this video knowledge increases by sharing so make sure you share this video with your friends and colleagues make sure to comment on the video for any query or suggestions and i will respond to 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