Identifying and finding potential customers plays a significant role in business activities. In particular, building A Lead Generation Funnel is essential.
However, many business enterprises neglect Lead Funnel’s research, identification, and formation. Therefore, they often face many difficulties in managing their business.
If you want to build A Lead Generation Funnel, this article is the best answer. Let’s immediately refer to this article to understand its meaning and role in business activities.
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What Is A Lead?
First of all, you should know about the concept of who a potential customer is to identify this group accurately.
Potential customers always need the product/service of the business and can pay for that product. This audience is usually people who have not purchased from the company and may become customers in the future.
In other words, potential customers have the same need and ability to buy as yet. Your task is to stimulate demand into action to increase sales for your business.
Many individuals and businesses are still confused between target customers and potential customers. Because these definitions are not clearly defined, many companies make mistakes in finding, identifying, and grouping customers.
Target customers are the group of customers in the target market segment of the business that has the need and ability to buy the product. Target customers include both potential customers and actual customers who made a purchase.
Meanwhile, potential customers have the need and ability to pay but have not purchased.
What Is A Lead Generation Funnel?
Next, before learning about the meaning and how to build a lead generation sales funnel, you should also learn about its concept. Simply put, this funnel describes the journey that potential customers take your ability to go through.
That’s also why when identifying potential customers; you need to pay attention to their behavior and buying process. Then, describing the lead generation process as a model makes it easier to visualize.
Lead Generation Funnel System
Lead Generation Sales Funnel (lead generation funnel, lead funnel, or lead gen funnel) is a type of sales funnel that helps you generate leads online. By giving away a free offer that we call “lead magnet” or bait, in order to grab your potential customer’s attention and convince them to give their email address so they can be added into our lead database, where the relationship will grow stronger over time.
From there, convert visitors into leads and become customers through 5 parts:
Lead Magnet
Squeeze Page
Thank You Page
Sales Page
Follow up Funnel
Not all leads have a funnel, but the standard model has a funnel shape because it shows the number of customers in stages. That is, in the beginning, the number of customers interested in your product is a lot, but gradually until they become actual customers, the number decreases.
An effective lead generation funnel represents your customer’s buying journey. So, this funnel has an essential meaning in the business activities of enterprises. It helps you build strategies and take the correct actions to stimulate purchase.
Types Of Lead Generation Funnel
1. Squeeze Page Funnel
Squeeze Page Funnel – Image Source
Squeeze page funnel example
A special type of lead funnel using a squeeze page solves the problems that pop-up ads encounter and works better because each funnel stage is designed with a unique goal. Potential customers will not be distracted and confused by many links (menu, Category, another post, anchor text, link footer, …)
2. Survey Funnel
Survey Funnel – Image Source
Funnel Secrets: Survey Funnel
Generate leads by using a quiz.
Through a quick survey, you can separate your visitors into different groups. So you can speak a directly specific message and offer it to them based on who they are.
3. Bridge Funnel
Bridge Funnel For Affiliate Marketing
The Bridge Funnel has a page that call Bridge page, where you will instruct them on the steps necessary to do or explain essential concepts before getting into the funnel
B2B Lead Generation Funnel vs. B2C Lead Generation Funnel
The buying behavior of B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to individual) customers have many similarities. However, the B2B lead generation process often goes through more stages than B2C.
Although the sales funnel for these two groups is the same, you need to be careful in taking action to reach each group. Specifically, if you target B2B customers, businesses need to build a more complex selling process.
However, even if you sell to any group of customers, you also need to pay attention to the relationship between the selling price and product value. Businesses all want to sell at a high price to make a profit, but to do that, you must build trust for customers to support and get more leads.
Whether they are B2B or B2C customers, they all care about the value you bring to them. Therefore, the methods of approaching and persuading these two target groups are different; the generating leads have many similarities.
Why Lead Generation Funnel Important?
A Lead Generation Funnel has important implications for a business, no matter how large or small your model is. That is, to reach potential customers and stimulate them to make purchasing decisions, you need to build a qualified leads funnel as detailed and specific as possible.
A qualified lead Generation Funnel supports you in giving appropriate strategies and actions for Marketing, sales, customer care to accomplish your goals in each phase. Specifically, using this funnel, your business can:
1. Generate Awareness
The first role of this funnel is to help increase customer awareness of your business and products. If you have the right approach in the early stages, you can help your business become famous and known by many people.
To ensure effectiveness, and you’re better off targeting your audience. Because, although increasing awareness is essential, if they have no demand, there will be no orders.
With the use of tools like Google, social networks, you can connect with more customers and at the same time increase brand awareness. Whether at any stage, when starting up or as a growing business, Generate Awareness is always an essential factor.
2. Enable Sales and Marketing Departments to Build Productive Relationships
In a business, sales, marketing, and customer service directly impact the buying decision of potential customers. Therefore, building this type of funnel will help you establish relationships between departments in the company, especially the sales and marketing teams.
The lead funnel is the basis for these two departments to work together to form an effective relationship with potential customers. Thanks to that, your business can best approach, advise and support them.
3. Increase Sales and Profit Ratio
The formation of a sales-qualified lead funnel model is a factor that helps increase sales effectively. Because, when the number of potential customers increases, the sales opportunities will also be higher.
At the same time, you can also understand your customers well and offer reasonable policies to speed up the customer’s decision-making process with this funnel.
As a result, your business can sell better and earn higher profits by optimizing processes to maximize cost savings.
4. Build Relationships With Your Target Customers
Besides, your business can build a great relationship with potential customers based on the customer funnel model. Remember, when customers have trust and engagement with you, the odds of them returning and becoming loyal customers are higher.
With information from the generated leads, you can clearly understand your customers’ stage and provide the proper support to satisfy them. As a result, they will love and remember you better.
5. Build Important Data
In addition, when you build a sales-qualified lead Generation Funnel, you can also aggregate customer information. As you know, this database is essential in shaping your business development strategy.
With data from the customer sales funnel, you can better understand the persona of your generate leads and the issues that influence their buying behavior. From there, you can adjust your policies and actions accordingly to increase your ability to convince customers.
Moreover, they also help you evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies you are implementing. At the same time, this is also the basis for reviewing the actions of the Sales and Marketing departments.
6. Lead Generation Funnels Are Cheaper Than Traditional Advertising
In particular, you will be able to save costs in reaching and attracting customers through this effective lead generation strategy rather than other traditional advertising methods.
Nowadays, along with the capture leads funnel, you also use marketing tools and supporting software to reach customers. As a result, you can quickly interact with a large number of customers simultaneously.
Moreover, this funnel model also helps you target the right potential customers who already need the product. And then, your task is to show up to make a mark and speed up the buying process.
Lead Funnel Stages
A sales lead funnel can go through different stages. However, each funnel will have three main specific stages as follows:
Stage 1. TOFU (Top of Funnel Lead Generation)
Stage 1, TOFU, is the beginning of your sales lead funnel. At this stage, the main goal is to reach customers and increase awareness of your business and products.
At this point, the number of customers coming to the funnel is huge, and your task is to create content that is interesting and valuable to them. What they are looking for is a product that can solve their problem.
Stage 2. MOFU (Middle of the Funnel)
Next, in the second stage, MOFU, customers are gradually impressed and interested in your business and products. They begin to learn more deeply and interact with businesses to understand the product better.
At this point, your task is to advise and support and give compelling information. You need to demonstrate the outstanding advantages and reasons they should choose you.
To stimulate the buying decision of customers, you need to create different values. At the same time, you also need to nurture relationships with demanding customers, who need time to consider and find out information during this period. Try to build a good relationship so that they can make decisions easier.
Stage 3. BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel)
Finally, at the bottom of the funnel, the BOFU stage, potential customers can become current customers if they make a purchase decision. Remember, maintaining a relationship with customers is always essential even after making a purchase.
Take care and advice to build a bond with them because this customer group can ultimately come back or buy more products to support you.
Moreover, if you take good care and have loyalty and trust in your business, they will be the best marketers.
How To Build a Lead Generation Funnel?
Surely, you also want to know about how to build a lead generation Funnel. In fact, each business may have different orientations for building a funnel model.
However, an essential and most effective process for the sales team will include some specific steps such as:
1. Identify your target audience
First, you need to identify your target customer group to take the correct actions to sell effectively. It can be that this first step is very important, and it affects your entire process.
Because the number of consumers is huge while your human and financial resources are limited, you need to know your target audience. From there, you build strategies and take specific actions to influence this group to attract and stimulate purchases.
As a result, your business will be more efficient, and you can also save your business time and resources by focusing on the right audience.
2. Identify a Problem That Your Target Audience Is Struggling With
Next, you need to find out information about your target customers to understand the problems they face. Customers are satisfied when the product and business meet their expectations and, importantly, solve their problems.
They will try to find information and solutions to their problems at that time. Therefore, searching trends or issues on social networks like Twitter, Facebook will help you get this information.
3. Create a lead magnet
The next task to attract potential customers is to build a lead magnet with content that is the solution to their problem.
Try to present it in-depth with helpful information to make an impression on customers.
You can choose from various formats such as providing a summary, a free downloadable document, or a paid option as long as the lead magnet must really attract and capture customers’ attention.
3.1 – Do It Yourself
You will build the content for the lead magnet yourself.
Pros
You can write with your voice and your own story
Unique content, positioning you as an expert in the field.
Cons
Waste your time.
Difficult for those who are not good at content marketing
If you are a beginner and not experienced, creating quality content is almost impossible
3.2 – Use the PRL (Private Label Rights)
PLR stands for Private Label Rights. Did you know there’s a whole market of people who hire ghostwriters to write books and then sell the rights to the books?
If you go to Google right now and type in PLR Instagram or private label rights Instagram, there are probably a dozen Instagram products out there for sale.
You pay $12 or $15 and you get the rights to the product.
Pros:
Save time.
Initial costs are cheap.
You can test the lead magnet quickly to see will people want to receive it or not.
Cons:
Currently, most of the content inside PLRs are outdated. Therefore, it can adversely affect your brand, breaking the trust of potential customers after they finish watching.
3.3 – Hire Someone Do It For You
Pros:
You don’t have to do it yourself
Save time
Quality guaranteed
Cons:
The cost of hiring a good copywriter can be a bit high. It’s not suitable for beginners or people who just start an online business
Hard to find freelancers who have good skills and fit your requirement.
4. Create landing pages in the lead funnel
You can then build one more landing page for your lead funnel. You can set up questions to get customer data on this landing page.
Note, here you need potential customer information, so it’s best to make an impressive design with the main content, not too long. As such, it will create a more comfortable feeling for customers, and the likelihood of them leaving information will also be higher.
4.1 – Build Squeeze Page to collect email address
If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results. – Tony Robbins
It’s true when you build your funnel.
Instead of spending a lot of time designing your squeeze page, you can learn it from people who have been successful and have high conversion rates.
Some people call it “Spy,” and others call it “Funnel Hack.” It consists of 3 main steps:
Figure out a successful funnel
Learn their framework, page design, headline…
Model it
Remember, “model” and “copy” are completely different.
For example: Here is the Marketing Secrets Blackbook funnel
Official website: https://marketingsecrets.com/blackbook
Then I use Clickfunnels to clone this page (If you are using WordPress you can also use Thrive Architect or Elementor Pro instead)
If you don’t have Clickfunnels account, you can click here to get 14 days for free
Inside Clickfunnels dashboard you have 2 options: Cookbook Builder (done-for-you funnel template) or Classic builder (Build your own stages of sales funnel)
In this case, I click on Classic funnel builder and choose Collect Email
Create a name and tags then click on “Build Funnel”
Clickfunnels has many funnel templates for you. In this case, because I would like to design like Marketing Secrets Blackbook funnel, so I pick a blank page.
I analyze the funnel and sketch layout.
Then I build it inside Clickfunnels and add elements
And this is the final result
As you can see, the two pages are almost the same. But the fact is that I didn’t copy anything. In case you created your own lead generation page, here are some tips to remember:
The landing page needs to be simple: Most of my landing pages only have a headline, an image, and an opt-in box. Oftentimes, a landing page might not convert because it’s too complex; there’s too much stuff happening on it, and it’s confusing your visitor.
The headline should be engaging and curious to pay visitors attention: Most of the high bounce rates or low conversion are due to the headline not curious enough.
In case you are not good at copywriting, you can use Funnel Scripts (The software helps you create your headline, sales scripts, email scripts, Ads scripts, and more in less than 5 minutes. You fill the blanks and answer some questions).
To learn more about this tool, you can watch the webinar demo here: Funnelscripts.com Besides, they also have a trial version that helps you create the headline for free. Click here to try it out.
4.2 – Create Thank You Page
Thank you page is also built similar to the squeeze page, need to ensure 3 elements:
Simple
Curiosity
Tell people what they should to do
On the thank-you page you have 2 main parts:
Step 1: Fulfill the previous promise; provide links and show people how to get a lead magnet.
Step 2: Introduce your first offer or other funnels (help you break even)
If you don’t have a product, you can invite customers to follow you on social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube
Download IG secrets ebook share funnel here for free
5. Create Email Autoresponder Sequence
Customers always want to receive fast service and continuous support. Therefore, if you cannot answer each person’s mail, the Create Email Autoresponder Sequence is essential.
Once you have the email information of your guests, prepare automated emails and use the tool to be able to send to many customers at the same time. Note, you should invest in email content to limit the risk of it becoming spam.
Some types of content you can create for automated emails include providing more information around a customer problem, information about new products, introducing promotions, etc. Try to maintain relationships with customers through automated emails that ask them regularly to remind them of you.
6. Drive traffic to your lead generation funnel
Besides, stimulating traffic to your potential customer channel is also very important. In the early stages, the best option is still to use paid advertising to reach customers and get them to visit your funnel.
Besides, SEO is a great option to maintain in the long run. Your task is to provide helpful information at the same time, and you need to optimize both the content and the web interface.
In addition, using banner ads with a link to a landing page on another website or affiliate marketing is also an exciting way to increase your reach with potential customers. You should choose the right website, it must be where your target customers often visit, or the website has a high amount of interaction.
7. Testing and analyzing your data
Data testing and analysis is an integral step in this process. After the test run, you need to spend time testing and evaluating the effectiveness of your actions.
The metrics that you need to pay attention to our conversion rate, rate of customers returning, rate of new customers, number of customers leaving emails, cost per customer, etc.
With the inspection and analysis of these indicators, you can detect non-conforming issues to optimize for the most efficiency and cost savings. At the same time, this data source also actively supports your potential customer research.
Thus, it can be seen that, when you have started a business, you need to pay special attention to your target customers. At the same time, building a Lead Generation Funnel is essential because it is the direction for your strategies and actions.
How To Optimize Your Lead Generation Funnel ?
In addition, after you have formed a potential sales funnel, you also need to optimize it to aim at attracting customers and selling at the most optimal cost. Some practical ways to maximize customer channels to help businesses save resources and still achieve high efficiency are:
1. Use the right tools and software
The first option is to use tools and software to optimize your lead generation sales funnel. Note, you can use multiple channels such as website, social network, email marketing, e-commerce platform, affiliate marketing to collect customer information.
If you’re really serious about funnel building, here is my recommendation (pick one)
Besides, you can choose to design landing pages combined with banner ads placed on other websites, where most of your target customers often visit.
In particular, the most economical and most used measure today is SEO, search engine optimization. It is also how to help you maintain your reach in the long run.
In addition, you can also use separate support software with the feature of collecting customer information when accessing your website without going to the landing page. In addition, some CRM and customer relationship management software optimizes the process of taking care of and nurturing potential customers.
2. Qualify your leads
In addition, to optimize the lead generation funnel, you need to define their criteria accurately. That is, before deciding to take action, you should thoroughly understand the characteristics of your potential customer persona.
As a result, you can know exactly where they focus, understand their behavioral habits and interests, so you can offer appropriate programs to attract them.
Setting specific standards for customer portraits is essential in optimizing the search process and building customer channel models. Because it will save you time, cost, and even human resources to implement.
Besides, when you decide to use support tools to find customers faster, such as paid advertising, you will notice this optimization clearly.
Then, you can rely on qualified leads to select some properties when running ads. As a result, your content can reach the right people interested in that issue, and the rate of leaving contact information will be higher.
3. Never stop experimenting
Moreover, you need to experiment constantly to create the most optimal lead funnel. Stay up-to-date with new action options, then test and analyze the data and make adjustments.
Only when you do it continuously will you have the basis to perform this process optimally. As a result, it can effectively attract potential customers and increase conversion rates.
You have to try many options, especially in the first stage; you should innovate continuously to test the quality of the content. When performing many different samples, you have a database to compare, evaluate, and analyze.
Especially, if you use online tools such as websites, social networks to reach potential customers, your content needs to be relevant to the reader and be friendly with machine bots.
Therefore, it is necessary to change the approach and engage content regularly. Because the psychology of customers often changes, especially the algorithms of Google and social networks also change over time.
So, if you stick to the same approach without innovation and frequent testing, it may work at first, but over time, it won’t help you achieve your goals.
Conclusion
This article has compiled helpful information about the potential customer channel, how to build and optimize it. For efficient business operations, you should take the time to research these contents carefully.
Hopefully, you better understand leads and funnel models with the information we have provided. We hope you can effectively use these models.
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