There are three types of people who are browsing your website: the browsers, the researchers and the buyers. The browsers are just looking, out of curiosity, without a defined interest or need for your products. The researchers need and want products like the ones you are selling, but keep their options open between different providers. The buyers have determined that yours is the best offer and they will go for it.
What makes the difference between the three types of people who visit your website? Some of them simply found it on an internet search, others saw an ad, and others have already known your business for some time and are ready to make the final commitment by becoming your customers.
This kind of commitment is not created overnight. The sales funnel from the social media to your website is complex and selective; it is important to give people time to familiarise themselves with your business and products, and remove non-qualified prospects from the advanced stages of lead nurturing when your financial input is more significant.
So, how do you build such a well-oiled machine which brings people from the social media to your website as buyers and not browsers? Here are the most important steps:
1. Analyse and Prioritise Social Media Channels
The first and most important aspect related to building a profitable social media sales funnel is spending the adequate amount of time and money running it. In turn, this means that you cannot spread your efforts to all the social media channels and invest in too many parallel campaigns.
There are two main reasons for making this initial analysis:
- By their behavioural pattern, your target customers favour one social media platform over another and spend more time socialising and engaging with other people and businesses;
- Many people have accounts on different social media platforms – you risk spending money on various campaigns directed at the same people.
2. Define the Phases of the Sales Funnel
Defining your sales funnel phases determines your entire approach in executing them. You must know exactly whom you are addressing, in what manner, and to what extent you spend money on the customer acquisition process. Although every business needs to tweak its own sales funnel phases, these are the general outlines applicable in building a viable model:
- Top of funnel: you attract people who have never interacted with your brand before; at this point, your goal is to get them to like your social media pages and discover your brand identity. The level of engagement is at a non-committal level, because people need to be familiarised with your company;
- Middle of funnel: casual followers have left and the remaining ones are people who have developed an interest into your business and your products. The engagement level becomes more personal and intent on building a relationship with your followers. At this point, you start demonstrating the fact that you understand their needs and have the solution for them;
- Bottom of funnel: your followers have become qualified leads. They are familiar with your business and products and have developed a genuine interest in them. Further proof that you hold a solution for their problems and needs determine them to take advantage of your offers and buy your products.
- Extension of funnel: your customers are happy with their purchases and they start recommending your products to their friends on the social media. This will create a second wave of top of funnel prospects.
3. Define Adequate Metrics for Each Phase of the Funnel
The only way in which your funnel will prove successful is by assigning and monitoring relevant metrics for each phase. In the top of the funnel phase, you are interested in seeing an increase in the number of Likes and follows on your social media pages. The middle of the funnel top metric is click through rates for various ads you post, encouraging people to subscribe to your newsletters, paired with the number of actual subscriptions. For the bottom of funnel, you must par the rate of completion of your calls to action in the social media ads and offer with the actual sales you generate.
4. Test, Refine, Repeat
Creating a sales funnel which continues to work properly is a work which never stops. You need to keep a constant eye on the insights, metrics and numbers, A/B test your ads, compare various campaigns, and make the necessary changes in your approach and execution of these strategies. Remember that a sales funnel from the social media to your website is always subject to changes in people’s interests and demands and that, while you organise and conduct this game, they make the rules.