Sales cycle, sales process, marketing pipeline… whatever you call it, every business has some kind of process for attracting attention, turning lookers into buyers and enticing them back to buy again. It may not be an optimized process or a refined one, but it is there. Often referred to as a funnel, there are many different types, but what is a conversion funnel? How do you create a perfectly optimized funnel for your business?

What is a conversion funnel?

When people browse your store – online or on the high street – they are ‘just looking’. They may decide not to buy on this occasion and navigate away. There are other ‘lookers’ who are undecided, but your great products with fantastic copy and a strong call to action persuade them to make a purchase, along with a too-good-to-miss offer.

The likelihood is, you’ll have lots of people looking but you’ll convert a smaller number to be customers. Some customers will return to buy again, and others will not.

HOW you convert lookers to buyers is your ‘conversion funnel’. It is a multi-step process and also one that uses many different mediums, referred to as multimodality. It is a seamless, subtle journey that you take a prospect on, leading them to take the desired action.

• Many steps, many mediums – thinking through the buying and conversion process, you’ll ‘lead’ your prospects through the many different but predicted stages of taking the action you want them too.
• Different elements – landing pages, direct email campaigns, sales appointments… many different conversion elements combine within an optimized conversion funnel.
• Frictionless process – if people find it difficult to buy from you, they won’t complete the sale. The journey of finding you, understanding your products and service, your ethos and values and so on, should be one that is smooth, subtle and frictionless.

The assumption is, you can pick up a template and put your company name on it and hey presto! you have your conversion funnel. But this isn’t the case. The journey or process – the conversion funnel, that is – that your prospects find themselves on will be different from any other company, whether they are your competitors or not.

That said, there are different types of conversion funnels, one of which may fit with your business better than the others. Understanding the theory behind each one will help optimize it to your business.

What are the three conversion funnel types?

#1 The Acquisition Funnel

This conversion funnel is often used to find new customers to boost sales and revenue.

You’ll have come across a website that offers a free e-book, for example, in exchange for your contact information (i.e. joining their mailing list). They do this to ‘warm’ a cold prospect, i.e. someone who may or may not be interested in them further.

The easiest way to think of this is in the shape of a first date – you wouldn’t ask someone you barely knew to marry you (big risk) but would suggest grabbing a coffee (low risk) instead.

In other words, splinter or breakdown your offering to a smaller, low-risk chunk. Giveaway a free e-book, for example, or a special, cut-price reduce offer on a bite-sized chunk of your service or products.

#2 The Activation Funnel

This conversion funnel is about converting the highest number of leads into customers.
Every business knows how hard they have to work to acquire new customers. When they have bought from you, enticing them to buy a second or third time is ‘easier’.

This conversion process is about quantity – turning as many people into buyers but not necessarily maximizing revenue. Many brands activate this conversion funnel with a ‘flash sale’ technique.

Injecting urgency into an offer is a strong suggestion that people need to make the decision and fast. Anything from “this offers ends in 2 hours” to “buy two for one for a limited time” are all ‘flash sale’ examples.

The goal is clear – to maximize the quantity sold, but it may be at a price that gives you very little in terms of profit. This is NOT the same as a loss leader – in other words, selling something and making no profit on it, a dangerous tactic if ever there was one – but reducing a price on a product that brings you a large customer base. Repeat custom should be easier, especially if you have your marketing channels primed for action for a customer’s next purchase.

#3 The Monetisation Funnel

This conversion funnel is about generating as many sales as possible, which is maximizing revenue.

This funnel is used with warm or hot leads – that is, people you are confident will buy from you (warm leads) or customers who will buy from you again (hot leads).

There are various means of kick-starting this conversion funnel, but one is to ask a question of your customer, usually in the shape of, “do you need help to…”

A landing page that asks them if they need help to complete a process or create a bespoke plan for their business or themselves but – and here’s the conversion funnel in action – they do so in exchange for more than contact information. They may pay a deposit to secure a consultation, for example, or sign up for a subscription.

Think of this funnel as the next step on from ‘grabbing a coffee’. This is a full-blown first date with one eye on making something permanent in the future.

How do you know which conversion funnel to use (and when)?

Creating the perfect conversion journey for your business is about understanding your product and service and how people will buy them or be persuaded to make a purchase. For some brands, this is a time-sensitive funnel; for others, it is information-heavy with customers needed information and reassurance before they buy.

But this journey is not set in stone, and neither will it stay the same. How, when and why customers buy your products will change, as will the ‘how, when and why’ of the offers and marketing campaigns.

The question you need to ask is ‘which conversion funnel suits your business now?’