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In this article we will explore what sales funnels are, the benefits of sales funnels, the reasons why you should certainly consider creating sales funnels for your online store and how you can easily create a high converting WordPress sales funnel.
What Is A Sales Funnel?
The concept of a sales funnel can perhaps be best understood from our experience of visiting a physical shop like a supermarket. You choose the products that you would like to buy from the supermarket and then as you line up in the cue making your way to the cashier you are surrounded by shelves filled with sweets, chocolates, crisps etc. which entices you to buy relatively cheap extras that you did not plan to buy. This can be seen as an upsell as customers are enticed to put extras in their shopping trolley that they did not plan to buy.
In short a sales funnel can be seen as the process prospects go through to become a customer – the so called customer journey. Each stage of the funnel takes the customer one step closer to a buying decision. A well-planned sales funnel will define the actions your business needs to take to push prospective buyers to the next stage.
When it comes to running an online business, sales funnels are even more relevant and can include features like one click upsells, one click downsells, one click order bumps and dynamic offers where the most relevant product is displayed to your customers etc.
How Do Sales Funnels Work?
The sole purpose behind sales funnels are to increase conversions and maximise profits. To enable us to do so we need marketing tools that enable us to build effective sales funnels. Sales funnels are highly customisable and can be adapted to your particular business model to achieve your goals in terms of conversions and profits. I highly recommend you to watch the video below as it provides clear visuals of what a sales funnel is and how a sales funnel works. Lower down in this article we will also evaluate the steps within a sales funnel that will explain in more depth how sales funnels actually work.
Why Are Sales Funnels So Effective?
A sales funnel helps you understand what potential customers are thinking and doing at each stage of the purchasing journey and it is a powerful tool that helps you to track your leads as they progress closer to becoming paying customers. These insights allow you to invest in the right marketing activities and channels to create the most relevant messaging during each stage. By examining your sales funnel you can optimise your marketing efforts and sales.
What Are The Steps Within A Sales Funnel?
There are generally four to five steps in any given funnel (can be more) but one thing that remains true for every funnel is that there is a top, middle and bottom. The top of the funnel represents lead generation driven by marketing, the middle of the funnel represents lead nurturing driven by sales and the bottom of the funnel represents customers in the purchasing stage. This is why you might hear entrepreneurs or sales reps referring to the top or the bottom of the funnel to reflect where their prospects are in terms of their journeys.
In my sales funnel journey example we will explore six stages.
Stage 1: Awareness
You cannot generate sales if your prospects do not know who you are. So the first step will be to create awareness. This can be achieved through word of mouth, social media, cold calling, cold email templates etc.
Stage 2: Interest
This is arguably one of the most important steps in your funnel and in the sales process. When a prospect is interested in what you are selling they will get in touch with you by filling out a form on your website, by giving you a call or to send you an email or message on social media. As the saying goes, first impressions last. The first contact you have with a potential customer that shows interest is of utmost importance as it is during this period of time that the prospective customer is testing your interaction, responsiveness and based on that a prospective customer may decide to either do business with you or to steer clear. In my experience, the quicker you respond, the better your chances of doing business.
Stage 3: Consideration
The initial contact is very important and it is not only an opportunity for the potential customer to evaluate whether it is a good fit but also for you as the business owner. During this phase you will try answer all the questions that the prospect has in order to steer them towards a purchasing decision.
Stage 4: Intent/Engagement
While the prospective customer is in the consideration stage of their journey you need to do whatever you can in order to keep your brand in the forefront of their mind. A subtle way of doing so is to send them more information about your brand/business via email, emphasising the reasons why they should buy from you and not from your competitors.
Stage 5: Evaluation/Action
At this stage of the sales funnel your prospective customer has made their decision whether to buy or not to buy. If they decide to buy then congratulations to you as you now have a brand new customer.
Stage 6: Retention After Purchase
Just because you sealed the deal does not mean that the funnel ends here. Retention of your existing customers are extremely important. Thought needs to be put into this process to decide exactly how you are going to retain their business. An email marketing campaign is often a great way to provide value to your existing customers and to keep your brand in the forefront of their minds. Existing customers often buys from your business over and over again due to the trust relationship established.
The AIDA Principle And Its Impact On Conversions
When considering the creation of a super successful sales funnel it certainly helps to keep the AIDA principle in mind which stands for attention, interest, desire and action. When considering your marketing plan you need to decide how you will make your marketing campaign stand out from the crowd so it draws the attention from your target audience. What you offer needs to not only create interest, but desire. Once your prospective customers reached a state of desire, then action and resulting sales are inevitable.
How To Create A WordPress Ecommerce Website With WooCommerce
The first step in building a high converting sales funnel with WordPress is to create a WordPress ecommerce website with WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a customisable open-source ecommerce platform built on WordPress. This means that any WordPress site can be converted into an ecommerce site by simply adding the WooCommerce plug-in.
Once you add the WooCommerce plug-in to your WordPress site you will be able to set up your online store in minutes. WooCommerce offers secure payments, configurable shipping options and more out of the box for free.
WooCommerce can be customised and extended via several plug-ins to expand its capability and this is where the power of CartFlows comes into play that will enable you to utilise WooCommerce to build high converting sales funnels with WordPress.
CartFlows – Builds High Converting Sales Funnels With WordPress
The CartFlows sales funnel builder converts your WordPress website into an optimised selling machine. CartFlows is recognised as the number one WordPress sales funnel plugin with the aim to increase sales and maximise profits. CartFlows was launched in 2018 and has seen explosive growth boasting a thriving community of over 220k users.
See How Easy It Is To Add Funnels To Your WordPress Website?
WATCH DEMO VIDEO BELOW
CartFlows Features
CartFlows has an enormous amount of features that enables you to build a high converting sales funnel with WordPress. We will now explore some of the key features that is responsible for CartFlows being recognised as the number one WordPress sales funnel plugin.
WATCH COMPREHENSIVE DEMO VIDEO BELOW
CartFlows Ready Funnel Templates
CartFlows provides you with an array of ready-made funnel templates that are niche specific. It works out of the box and can be easily customised to suit your brand and preference. Click here to check out all the awesome CartFlows ready funnel templates for you to choose from.
One-Click Upsells
With CartFlows you can entice your buying customers with a series of additional offers after the checkout process, which will ensure to maximise your conversions and profits.
CartFlows One-Click Upsells are Perfect for:
One-Click Order Bumps
Order bumps are additional offers that appears on your checkout page. The order bump conversion rate is between 10% – 30% and another opportunity to increase your conversions. CartFlows enables you to add order bumps to your checkout pages.
CartFlows order bumps are perfect for:
A/B Split Testing
A/B split testing allows you to test which of your sales funnel templates converts best. This can make a huge difference in terms of generated sales.
Benefits of CartFlows A/B Split Testing:
Dynamic Offers
Dynamic offers displays the most relevant products to your customers based on customer interaction and interest.
CartFlows dynamic offers is ideal for:
Canvas Mode
Canvas mode helps you to visualise the customer journey from beginning to end which makes it easy to identify funnel optimisation opportunities.
Checkout Takeover
The CartFlows checkout replaces the default WooCommerce checkout. The CartFlows checkout is fully customisable and optimised for conversions.
Lead Generation
The CartFlows optin feature will enable you to instantly grow your email list through its ability to build high converting landing pages. Lead generation will lead to a significant increase in sales.
Pre-Checkout Offer
When the user clicks on the Place Order button the pre-checkout offer is displayed on the checkout page.
Insights
CartFlows insights helps you to gain an in-depth understanding of your visitors. This includes analytics on total visits, conversions, conversion rate, revenue, average order value etc.
Modern Checkout
Replaces your default WooCommerce checkout with a single click which speeds up the checkout process, reduces cart abandonment and increases revenue.
Other Powerful CartFlow Features Include:
CartFlows Works In Conjunction With Your Favourite Plugins
YOU CAN TRY CARTFLOWS RISK FREE FOR 30 DAYS!
Summary:
If you are looking to build a high converting sales funnel with WordPress then look no further than CartFlows. Whether you are new to selling, running an existing shop or running an agency, CartFlows is the WordPress sales funnel solution you were waiting for. With CartFlows you can start selling in 20 minutes, it is that easy to implement.
An article that really compliments this article very well is this article I wrote on Getresponse: “Getresponse Introduces Ecommerce Automation Tools”. When considering a CRM (content relationship management) software, Getresponse certainly gets my highest recommendation and for very good reason. An email marketing automation software like Getresponse will be required to integrate with CartFlows. To give one example where this is needed. “If a buyer doesn’t complete the checkout (cart abandonment), CartFlows will pass their info to your CRM to trigger an email”.
Should you have any questions regarding CartFlows, please feel free to leave your comment below or alternatively you can send me an email at info@productspotlight.net
Hi Schalk,
This is a very informative and helpful page. I do not have a ecommerce website, but I am creating an email list. I found all this information and videos very helpful in understanding sales funnels, and how they work. And I want to have a free gift to giveaway with my email list as well, so just the illustration in the videos was very inspiring.
The Cartflows plugin looks like a very handy plugin for selling products. It adds quite a professional touch to the sales funnel and I think it will definitely increase sales. I think this page will be very helpful for me in the future, so I am bookmarking this one!
Chas,
I am glad you found this article helpful. Writing this article was actually a very good exercise for me too to recap on the importance of the structure of sales funnels. As you would know there are several other options out there for creating sales funnels like for example softwares like GrooveFunnels, ClickFunnels and perhaps even e-commerce platforms like Shopify, but often people are looking for a simple WordPress sales funnel solution that can seamlessly integrate with their existing WordPress websites that are already established. Wishing you the very best of success with your online business!
This is an excellent article on how one can build a sales funnel on WordPress and you have also explained nicely how to build awareness step-by-step and so on for customers to gain your trust, because you have offered a good option for a successful online business. I’m sure this article will help many and be useful in how to find a solution for successful online business Thank you for this article. I wish you success and good health. 🙂
Zvezdan,
I am glad you enjoyed this article and hopefully it was insightful in regards to how exactly sales funnels work, the most important aspects to keep in mind when creating sales funnels and how to create a high converting Wordpress sales funnel through the incorporation of WooCommerce and CartFlows.
You have broken down all the elements you need to take to make an e-commerce store work and how to build a sales funnel. We have learned something new today and we are going to try this for our business. We have one similar but we need one more extensive.
It’s great to see that your valuable article has inspired us to keep writing and get more involved with our sales funnels and how we can improve our tactics.
We been following your website for awhile now and we must say that these seems to get more intense and extensive, can’t wait to read the next article.
Cheers,
MnD
Many thanks for the positive feedback. Cartflows can indeed be used not only as a WordPress sales funnel solution for e-commerce but can also be used very effectively for selling affiliate products, courses etc. Wishing you the very best of success with your online business endeavours!
Thanks for this comprehensive review of the various steps in a sales funnel and information about the capabilities of CartFlows. As a consultant, I am impressed that CartFlows is versatile enough to service consultants with sales of one time offers, cross sales of related products and sales of a mastermind. Indeed it seems to be a robust platform with a lot of features. Is this a subscription based access or a one time payment for access to the program?
Ceci
Dear Ceci
The price is $299 annually or a one time lifetime access payment of $999. The lifetime amount can be split into 4 equal payments should you so require.
Hi Schalk, so not really what I expected when I stumbled upon this article. I really have struggled with lead generation really although I think Elementor I am kind of getting the hang of more so that is maybe one thing. I have also used Thrive Leads and Bloom. Also, Hellobar looks like another interesting one but seriously I am kind of interested in Cartflows. Does this have any benefit to affiliate marketers or is this more of a benefit to direct sellers that are actually themselves making the sales that is what I wonder.
I mean actually, I would be tempted to set up a store for affiliate products. I tried something similar in the past but was just a bit too complex I think but yes there are aspects that interest me like the abandoned cart funnel I do like the sound of that but seriously how much I know woo-commerce is around $3.99 a month but how much extra is this?
Hi Alex
Woocommerce is 100% free to use. I use it and pay 0 monthly. CartFlows can be used for more than just e-commerce. It can also be used for the selling of affiliate products. Check out the full tutorial on CartFlows by Freddie. I have that video embedded in this article. It is a 2 hour 37 minute video lol but you can just watch some parts of it and see how he uses CartFlows effectively to sell affiliate products and also his own courses.
CarfFlows costs $299 annually or alternatively you can pay $999 for a lifetime license and the payments can be split in 4 equal installments/payments.
Hi Schalk,
Thank you for this extensive article and explanation.
To be honest, I personally dislike the shopping experience when I choose just one product that I am interested in and I would like to go ahead and make my purchase and I am being offered three other products along the way. For me that is not a pleasant experience, but maybe it is just me 🙂
The solutions that CartFlows offers are ones for more experienced bloggers who have something to sell.
Would it also work promoting products via affiliate marketing?
Cheers,
Tatiana
Hi, I totally understand where you are coming from but yes I guess it all depends on exactly how the sales funnel is put together whether it would be of interest and lead to a further buying decision. Often sales funnels are so professionally put together and the offers in the upsells are so good that you simply cannot resist.
Sales funnels are sometimes quite subtle as well. For example let’s consider Wealthy Affiliate. You have the free for life version to entice you to sign up but then also the WA premium and WA premium+ to choose from which are essentially upsells that forms part of the sales funnel. Sales funnels usually involves highly relevant related products so it should not feel as if you are targeted by a variety of products once you have already set your heart on a specific product. The upsells, downsells etc. should compliment the original product on offer and provide an irresistible offer that makes the product you chose even better.
Would it also work promoting products via affiliate marketing? It certainly would. Have a look at the complete CartFlows tutorial embedded in this article by Ferdy Korpershoek. He shows you a lot of amazing ways in which WordPress sales funnels can be incorporated for different business models.
Hi,
This is a very thorough and informative article about sales funnels in general and WooCommerce with CartFlows plugin. It sounds like it would be very effective to incorporate these tools into your website. I don’t have an e-commerce site at this time but that doesn’t mean I never will. It is still very interesting to learn more in depth about all of these tools.
Thanks very much,
Barbara
CartFlows is indeed a great WordPress ecommerce plugin to consider which will entitle you to build high converting WordPress sales funnels. As you mentioned, there is a place and a time for everything and if the business model you are currently focusing on is affiliate marketing then it is important to not get distracted with other business models until the ideal time has arrived to do so.
This is an interesting topic and an informative article to help me understand how the sales funnel system works. You have gone to great lengths and done good research. Thank you for this contribution. I will definitely look into it and learn more about how I can integrate it into my online business. Thank you for this information.
I am glad you found this article interesting and that it has given you a better insight into how exactly sales funnels work and how effective sales funnels should be created and what marketing principles to keep in mind when creating sales funnels. I personally was looking for a way to build high converting sales funnels with my existing WordPress websites instead of having to invest in ecommerce platforms like Shopify which I need to build from scratch. This is how I stumbled upon CartFlows which seems to be a very effective WooCommerce ecommerce plugin that enables you to build high converting WordPress sales funnels.
I wish you the very best of success with your online business.