What the heck is a Funnel?
Hi! Chris Ternate here…
If you have a business online or thinking about creating a business online.. Well.. I’m sure you’ve heard about funnels. I’ve built hundreds of funnels for my clients and 90% of my clients would ask… What is a funnel?
Confession 😬, I tend to explain what a funnel is in a very.. extremely… techy… nerdy way so, I’ve decided to scour the world wide web see how top internet marketers explain what a funnel is.
Allow me to introduce you to the most misused and misunderstood word in all of sales and marketing…
FUNNEL.
It’s not just for digital marketers… online or offline, eCommerce store or dry-cleaner, if you have a business and you have customers then you have some type of funnel (even if you call it something else).
You might call it a “marketing funnel”, “conversion funnel”, “marketing pipeline”, “sales funnel”, “sales pipeline”, “sales process”, “sales cycle”… or any number of other terms that are all describing the exact same thing.
What is a funnel?
Here’s how we define a conversion funnel at Digital Marketer…
Conversion Funnel – A multi-step, multi-modality campaign that seamlessly and subtly leads a prospect toward a desired action.
FUNNEL.
It’s not just for digital marketers… online or offline, eCommerce store or dry-cleaner, if you have a business and you have customers then you have some type of funnel (even if you call it something else).
You might call it a “marketing funnel”, “conversion funnel”, “marketing pipeline”, “sales funnel”, “sales pipeline”, “sales process”, “sales cycle”… or any number of other terms that are all describing the exact same thing.
What is a funnel?
Here’s how we define a conversion funnel at Digital Marketer…
Conversion Funnel – A multi-step, multi-modality campaign that seamlessly and subtly leads a prospect toward a desired action.
What Are Funnels?
You undoubtedly want visitors on your website to take certain actions.
Maybe you want them to make a purchase, sign up, or fill out a form. When someone does something you want them to do, it’s known as a conversion. The visitor converts from browsing to taking the action you want them to take.
A funnel is the set of steps a visitor needs to go through before they can reach the conversion.
You undoubtedly want visitors on your website to take certain actions.
Maybe you want them to make a purchase, sign up, or fill out a form. When someone does something you want them to do, it’s known as a conversion. The visitor converts from browsing to taking the action you want them to take.
A funnel is the set of steps a visitor needs to go through before they can reach the conversion.
What is a Sales Funnel? And How To Create One that Actually Makes Money
In this video Russell Brunson explains What is a sales funnel - 0:44
Remember the last time you clicked a paid ad on social media, browsed around the website and blog, signed up for an email list and received an offer you couldn’t refuse? You were experiencing a sales funnel – something every business must create in order to succeed.
The sales funnel corresponds with the buyer’s journey. The most successful businesses are there for every step of the journey, delivering the right message at the right time to move them toward making the desired purchase. Before you can learn how to create a sales funnel, you must learn about the basic stages.
The sales funnel corresponds with the buyer’s journey. The most successful businesses are there for every step of the journey, delivering the right message at the right time to move them toward making the desired purchase. Before you can learn how to create a sales funnel, you must learn about the basic stages.
"A funnel is nothing more than strategic pieces of content intentionally selected to reframe a sale. It can be different modalities, i.e. a webinar, video, pdf often time using modalities that speak to different buying triggers like testimonial based, teaching based, inspirational / aspirational based etc etc." - Council Commute 02/28/2020
Most Marketers rave about funnels, Gary Vaynerchuk, Frank Kern and Jason Swenk think otherwise...
Gary V post on Sales Funnels...
"The biggest companies in the world don’t actually sell. They brand. Think about Apple, Tommy Hilfiger, or Mercedes Benz. There’s a certain image that comes to mind when you think of their products, and that’s what ultimately drives you to purchase. Not a sales funnel.
"The biggest companies in the world don’t actually sell. They brand. Think about Apple, Tommy Hilfiger, or Mercedes Benz. There’s a certain image that comes to mind when you think of their products, and that’s what ultimately drives you to purchase. Not a sales funnel.
“Funnels” as you know them are worthless.
Most Internet Marketing “experts” will tell you to send traffic to a landing page, get a prospect to opt in, and then put them into a “funnel” designed to get the sale as quickly as possible.
And that “funnel” is usually a series of emails – sent by an autoresponder – with each one directing the prospect back to the sales page.
The reason this approach will fail you is because most people who opt in to any “funnel” simply will not buy initially …no matter how persuasive your copy is.
The reason why is the simple human nature I just told you about.
People aren’t supposed to buy at first. We’re taught not to do it.
But this is exactly what the “funnel” as you know it attempts to do.
It’s exclusively designed to focus on the tiny percentage of “outliers” who defy human nature and buy quickly.
…And it ignores (and usually irritates) everyone else.
Most Internet Marketing “experts” will tell you to send traffic to a landing page, get a prospect to opt in, and then put them into a “funnel” designed to get the sale as quickly as possible.
And that “funnel” is usually a series of emails – sent by an autoresponder – with each one directing the prospect back to the sales page.
The reason this approach will fail you is because most people who opt in to any “funnel” simply will not buy initially …no matter how persuasive your copy is.
The reason why is the simple human nature I just told you about.
People aren’t supposed to buy at first. We’re taught not to do it.
But this is exactly what the “funnel” as you know it attempts to do.
It’s exclusively designed to focus on the tiny percentage of “outliers” who defy human nature and buy quickly.
…And it ignores (and usually irritates) everyone else.
The Funnel is Dead.
Now is the time to forget “funnels” and instead embark on a new direction of thought, as Jason Swenk reveals the problems with the traditional “funnel” and what you need to have in place to be successful.
Now is the time to forget “funnels” and instead embark on a new direction of thought, as Jason Swenk reveals the problems with the traditional “funnel” and what you need to have in place to be successful.
