How To Get Paying Customers Not Just Free Followers

Read on: gibusconsulting.com

Happy Hump Day!

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What to expect below:

• List - The 3 stage customer buying journey - to get paying customers not just followers

(in a 4 minute read)

When I started I wasted a lot of time and money on things that had minimal impact.

I chased vanity metrics (social media like) which made e feel good but didn’t make me money.

My biggest lesson?

If you want to make sales.

You need to learn how to do this: people → leads → customers.

Enter the sales funnel.

A funnel is the journey a prospective customer takes to purchase your product or service.

The term 'funnel' is used because the model resembles a funnel in shape, with a large number of potential customers at the top, and a smaller number of actual customers at the bottom.

Essentially, potential customers move through the different stages, some falling out at each stage.

With the actual customers at the bottom.

Here’s the journey below ↓

Awareness Stage / Top of Funnel (TOFU)

The Awareness stage is the top of the funnel, where potential customers first become aware of your product or service.

This is where marketing efforts are focused on reaching as many people as possible and making them aware of your product.

It’s the stage where you have the largest audience and the greatest opportunity to attract potential customers.

Important to consider:

→ largest competition for customers at this stage

→ critical you stand out and make a strong 1st impression

→ build trust and credibility

TOFU strategies:

Some things you can do here:

1. Social media marketing - create and share valuable educational content

2. Create a landing page - offer a freebie

TOFU success metric:

How many visitors convert to qualified leads

Consideration Stage / Middle of Funnel (MOFU)

The Middle of Funnel is the stage where potential customers have left the initial awareness phase, and are now considering different products/services.

Here they compare your service to others and do a lot of research.

This is where potential customers know they have a problem that needs to be solved but are deciding whether they will actually purchase a solution or not.

Important to consider:

→ focus on differentiating yourself from the competition

→ show potential customers the value of your product/service

MOFU strategies:

Some things you can do here:

1. Detailed high quality info about product/service

2. Surveys or scorecards

3. Share case studies

4. Newsletter

MOFU success metric:

How many qualified leads convert to sign-ups or subscribers

Purchase Stage / Bottom of Funnel (BOFU)

The Bottom of Funnel is the final stage of the customer buying journey, where they’re about to make a purchasing decision.

This is the point where your marketing efforts can now directly lead to sales and revenue.

This is about converting leads (people who know about your product/service) into customers (people who purchase your product/service).

Important to consider:

→ create urgency - show potential customers they need not want your solution

→ leverage tools like CRM systems and email marketing software

BOFU strategies:

Some things you can do here:

1. Free trials or demos

2. Special discounts or incentives

3. How to guides that eliminates doubts

4. Share social proof e.g. testimonials

BOFU success metric:

How many sign-ups or subscribers convert to customers

Conclusion

A funnel is a powerful framework to help you understand and improve the customer journey.

By dividing the journey into different stages you can understand the different factors that influence customer behaviour at each stage.

This allows you to develop more effective marketing strategies and improve your conversion rates.

Essentially, ensuring your efforts have the highest ROI.

Other newsletters to consider:

I hope you found this helpful.

That’s all from me.

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