What Is a Sales Funnel and How Can It Help Your Company Succeed?

Sales Concepts Based On The Sales Funnel

Several sales concepts revolve around the idea of the sales funnel:

• Lead generation: attracting potential buyers to ultimately get prospects to express interest in a product or service. It usually occurs at the top of the funnel.
• Lead qualification: determining which leads are most likely to turn into customers. It typically happens in the middle of the funnel.
• Closing the sale: completing the sale and getting the customer to take the desired action. Most commonly occurs at the bottom of the funnel.
• Customer lifecycle management: managing relationships with customers from initial contact to post-purchase follow-up. The customer lifecycle can be considered an extension of the sales funnel, as it involves several continuous efforts to retain and upsell to customers.

Awareness

Marketing specialists primarily focus on lead generation in the Awareness stage of the AIDA funnel through a variety of different marketing techniques, including but not limited to:

• Advertising: paid ads on TV, radio, online, or in print.
  
• Content marketing: creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.
  
• Social media marketing: using social media platforms to connect and engage with potential buyers.
  
• Public relations: generating positive buzz with the help of press releases, media relations, and events.

Because in the Awareness stage, your potential customers and buyers are conducting research to understand their options, this is arguably the most important step for SEO activities. Optimizing your website with appropriate keywords and phrases can increase your chances of attracting attention and facilitate discovering what your company has to offer.

In the Awareness stage of the AIDA funnel, prospects can be categorized as:

• New visitors are new to your company's website and are only finding out about your products or services.
  
• Researchers actively seek information on a particular product or service and are currently weighing their options.

Interest

In the Interest stage of the AIDA funnel, marketing specialists focus on building upon the customer's initial interest and helping them make a purchase decision. It can be done through a variety of tactics:

• Providing more information: creating educational content such as blog posts, articles, or videos that provide more detailed information on how the product or service could benefit the customer.
  
• Offering demos or trials: allowing the customer to give the product or service a "test drive" to experience its benefits firsthand.
  
• Highlighting customer reviews and testimonials: showcasing positive reviews to help establish credibility and trust.
  
• Offering special deals or promotions: giving discounts, coupons, and other incentives that will encourage the customer to purchase.
  

In the Interest stage of the AIDA funnel, your prospects might be described as:

• Qualified leads have shown interest in your product or service and are already considering purchasing.
  
• Evaluators are still weighing up several options and considering the pros and cons of each.
  

Intent

While Intent is not a stage in the AIDA model, it is a concept often used in marketing to refer to the reason customers are motivated to show interest in your offering. By this stage, the customer already has a clear vision of what they want to purchase and is actively seeking information to help them make a decision. Unsurprisingly, therefore, it is often confused with AIDA's Interest and Action stages.

Read more: Intent Marketing: How the Sales Funnel Has Changed

Desire

In the Desire stage of the AIDA funnel, marketing specialists should focus on helping the customer develop a strong desire for the product or service. They can do this by:

• Emphasizing the benefits: highlighting the advantages and unique features that can help the customer achieve their goals or effectively solve their problems.
  
• Creating a sense of urgency: using limited-time offers or other techniques to develop a sense of urgency and encourage the customer to take the leap and take action.
  
• Using emotional appeals: employing storytelling, imagery, and other tactics to appeal to the customer's emotions and create a strong desire for the service or product.
  
• Overcoming objections: addressing concerns or objections the customer may hold to help them perceive the value of making a purchase.
  

In the Desire stage, the goal is to help your prospects overcome whatever barriers remain to make a purchase. On that note, they can be categorized as:

• Engaged leads. These customers have already shown interest in your product or service and are probably considering purchasing.
  
• Ready-to-buy. These customers are highly interested in the product or service and are reaching for their wallets as we speak.
  

Action

In the Action stage of the AIDA funnel, the work of a sales and marketing specialist is still ongoing. By now, their main objective is to help the customer take the desired action. It could be done in the following ways:

• Simplifying the purchase process: streamlining checkout to make it easier for the customer to complete a purchase.
  
• Offering convenient payment options: accepting multiple forms of payment, including credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, and others. 
  
• Providing clear calls to action: using strong, actionable language as well as prominent links and buttons to encourage the customer to make a desired move
  
• Following up after the purchase: sending out a confirmation email or providing other forms of after-sale support to help encourage repeat business and ensure customer satisfaction.
  

At this stage of the funnel, your prospects could be described as:

• Customers: anyone who has purchased and actively uses the product or service.
  
• Advocates: customers who are not only satisfied with the product or service but are vocally willing to recommend it to others.
  

Read more:

• AIDA-Plus: includes additional stages, like "Enthusiasm" and "Confidence," to offer a broader view of the customer journey.
  
• AIDA-Plus-Plus includes even more stages, such as "Loyalty" and "Satisfaction," to make the funnel even more comprehensive.
  
• AIDA 2.0: incorporates modern marketing techniques (e.g., personalization and customer segmentation) to provide a more targeted customer experience.
  
• AIDA 3.0: also emphasizes the importance of the customer experience while focusing on creating an emotional connection with customers.
  
• AIDAS: another extension of the AIDA model, AIDAS adds two additional stages: "Satisfaction" and "Recommendation." These stages represent the customer's post-purchase experience and are designed to help companies achieve repeat business.