Create an automated sales tunnel and convert your prospects without lifting a finger!

Would you like to know how to create an automated sales tunnel to increase your Internet sales? If the answer is yes, you've come to the right place. The sales tunnel is a tool that's all the rage in the online business market. And with good reason: what web entrepreneur hasn't dreamed of having a system that automatically sells every day?

But transforming your web traffic and creating an environment conducive to buying to generate automatic sales can't be invented! We take a look at this marketing process and the steps you need to follow to create a high-performance sales tunnel 👇.

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What is an automated sales tunnel?

Sales tunnel: definition

The term " sales tunnel" comes from the English word "Funnel ". It describes the sales process designed to guide your prospects towards the purchase of a single product. In other words, the sales funnel is the path that guides a web user to the purchase of a product or service.

This sales funnel, like a conversion funnel, takes care of the following, step by step:

• identify and filter your potential customers ;
• automatically guide them to purchase (conversion).

👉 This automated sales tunnel logic is based on an anti-distraction sales system. An automated sales machine that replaces sales reps and is used to sell digital products such as :

• training courses,
• ebooks,
• products, etc.

Why automate your sales tunnel?

If you're reading these lines, it's because you want to create an automated, high-performance sales tunnel that will enable you to sell your products or services. This is the ultimate goal of your sales tunnel. By creating an automated sales pipeline, you'll be able to be more productive by reducing the costs and time involved in marketing your offer, while increasing your sales. Ultimately, automating your sales tunnel has many advantages, including

• improved customer experience
• sales growth;
• saves time, allowing you to concentrate on higher value-added tasks.

A sales tunnel can also be used to optimize your offer:

• during pre-sales A/B testing , also known as " split testing" (to validate a product or service) ;
• or thanks to tracking and retargeting at the end of the chain to extract the best sales and target campaigns.

👉 These elements linked to the implementation of an automated sales tunnel will enable a better return on investment or ROI, and therefore a better profit.

What are the conversion stages of a sales tunnel?

But before you can make a sale, you have to convert a consumer from visitor to prospect to customer.

Creating a sales tunnel involves defining the steps a prospect takes before completing a purchase. This process, known as the marketing conversion tunnel , can be broken down into 4 stages:

• Awareness ,
• Interest ,
• Decision (for Desire),
• and Sales (for Action) and is known as the A.I.D.A. method.

The entire conversion tunnel should be based on this AIDA structure:

1- Attracting the potential buyer, which represents the moment when the consumer becomes aware of a product or service.

2- Interest in the product or service.

3- Desire , which marks the decision to buy.

4- Action when the customer buys the product or service.

This classic funnel model has evolved in recent years, and it's not uncommon to encounter slightly different processes. However, whatever marketing strategy is put in place, the objective of the automated sales funnel has remained the same: to understand, facilitate and improve the customer's journey when making a purchase.

Thus, American marketer Russel Brunson breaks down an automated sales tunnel into three stages (rather than 4):

• TOFU (Top of the funnel) is the point at which you need to bring the most traffic to your website;
• MOFU (Middle of the Funnel) is where you show your potential customers that you understand their needs and have the solution to meet them.
• BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel), the stage at which prospects (qualified leads) are ready to buy and convert into customers.

How to create an effective sales tunnel: 5 steps

Let's take a closer look at the different stages of a classic automated sales tunnel model, and what you need to do to move your prospects on to the next stage. Here, we'll use a five-step sales funnel.

1 - Attract traffic via multiple channels

To begin with, you need to make yourself known and attract the attention of your target clientele through a content strategy. This is where inbound marketing comes in, as it aims to attract prospects through the regular production of content.

During this stage, the consumer doesn't know you. It's all about making yourself visible and "noticed" by your prospect. There are many ways to create and capture the prospect's attention, such as :

• Developing your presence on social networks, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook , by publishing regularly via a professional account (white papers, infographics, photos, videos, etc.) ;
• Use partnerships with other brands in the form of an affiliation system, webinars, podcasts, YouTube videos or a guest post;
• Launch an advertising campaign with Google Ads, a paid way to get a quick presence on the search engine;
• Optimize content on the web using SEO. This enables you to gain positions on Google and appear on the first page of results thanks to relevant articles positioned on precise queries .

💡In a digitalizing world, it's essential to take care of this step. This is not about selling directly, but about creating and developing a brand identity and talking about it! Your personal branding or professional branding must be an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. Prospects need to know you and remember you or your brand.

👉 Identify your marketing personae, in other words your target customer profiles. Keep in mind that your solution must address the issues they face.

💡 Are you a SaaS software publisher looking to generate more leads? At Appvizer, that's our specialty!

2 - Create an engagement sequence to convince the prospect

Once the consumer knows you, you enter the consideration phase. In other words, you now need to arouse their interest so that they continue to be interested (without going to the competition).

As such, you need to convince the visitor to commit. The aim is to convert them into qualified prospects or leads, likely to become customers quickly. You can do this with a two-point strategy:

1- Position yourself as an expert in your field through blog articles on your site, tutorials or publications where you demonstrate your expertise and the effectiveness of your services.

2- Ensure an optimal user experience (UX) on your site by taking care to structure your website's navigation; visitors need to quickly find the answers to what they're looking for.

👉 At this stage of the automated sales tunnel, don't forget to think about lead nurturing. Thanks to this content, the prospect is guided step by step along a fluid path during which he obtains the necessary information and answers that lead him to the purchase. Lead nurturing consists of offering tailored content and maintaining contact with the prospect in order to :

• meet their needs
• give them accurate information;
• establish a climate of trust.

In addition, make sure you offer visitors a way of staying in touch with you, so as to convince them gently and without commercial pressure later on. The best way to do this is through emailing. For example, you could offer a discount or free service in exchange for subscribing to a newsletter requiring the visitor's email address. It's a great way to maintain the link with your prospects and take them to the next step.

💡Use a marketing automation solution which, combined with an emailing solution, enables you to target and direct your messages to your customer base.

💡Use lead scoring to assess the maturity of each prospect. This technique for scoring prospects, or leads, is usually established using a marketing automation tool. The higher the score, the more advanced and mature the lead is in the buying cycle. It's these qualified leads that you should focus your sales and marketing efforts on.

3 - Support decision support

At this stage, the Internet user is ready to buy: he knows your brand, trusts your offer, is aware of your expertise and is considering placing an order. They may even have already placed a few products in their basket 😉. All that's left is to encourage this hot prospect to take the plunge and become a customer!

The best way to remove any remaining doubts is to take him by the hand. At this stage, he may still be wondering about many things, such as:

• "Do I really need this product?
• "Will this product be cheaper later?

So it's important to reassure them and convince them that now is the right time to buy this solution or product. Email marketing is a good way of doing this:

• offer an exceptional discount to make the product seem more accessible, so that the prospect sees real added value in his purchase;
• provide relevant, personalized tips and advice;
• offer a free returns policy to reassure the prospect.

👉 This is also the time to use testimonials and customer reviews. The prospect is more confident to see that other consumers are satisfied and recommend your offer.

4 - Encourage the buying decision

Now your prospect knows he wants to buy and is about to finalize his order. He's reached the bottom of the sales funnel. And yet, there are still a number of steps you can take to help him validate his purchase:

• Simplify the purchasing process by ensuring that the interface of your ordering system is simple and accessible (reduce the number of clicks);
• Suggest a final element that will motivate your prospects to take the plunge - e.g. free delivery, scarcity ("there's little room", "only a few items left in stock", etc.), urgency ("special offer", etc.).), urgency ("limited offer", "valid only until").

To achieve this, we use CTAs (call to action) or a call to action button that facilitates the act of purchase and must be judiciously placed during the customer journey. CTAs can be integrated :

• in your posts on social networks
• in your blog articles ;
• in your emails, etc.

💡Create a high-performance landing page. This is the page the prospect arrives at after clicking on a CTA, usually a contact form.

5 - Follow up on the sale

Once the order has been placed, your automated sales tunnel has one final step: follow-up. Ultimately, this stage involves integrating this new customer into your database and building loyalty. It's perhaps the most important stage in the sales cycle!

To build customer loyalty and ensure that they come back to you, you can, for example :

• send an e-mail thanking them for their purchase, with a coupon code for next time;
• offer a voucher for the purchase of similar products;
• thank them for sharing their opinion on your social networks or website;
• encourage them to become ambassadors and communicate about your offer - it's often the best advertising.

💡Question your customers using satisfaction forms, every comment is useful and tells you about the quality of your offers, areas for improvement, needs, etc.

💡Think also of social selling via social networks, which enables you to create interactions and maintain the link with your audience. An ideal lever for building customer loyalty and increasing sales.

Equip yourself with software to automate your sales tunnel

There are several software programs available on the market today to help marketers and web entrepreneurs create automated sales tunnels. Most of these are CRM or sales support tools.

🛠️ Some examples:

• Starter is a ready-to-use CRM application from market leader Salesforce. Aimed at small businesses, it automates a wide range of operations linked to the sales process, to help teams save time and increase efficiency. In particular, Starter supports lead acquisition, with intelligent prospect segmentation and emailing, then the management of contacts and sales opportunities, via an intuitive pipeline.
  
  
• Sellsy is a complete, turnkey and highly intuitiveCRM suite, enabling you to efficiently manage all your sales activities. You can create and dynamically track your sales tunnels via personalized sales pipelines and a host of high-performance prospecting tools: sales document reading tracking, prospect and quote follow-up, opportunity management, etc.
  

3 examples of high-performance sales tunnels

The Groupon sales tunnel

Groupon is an online classified ads site. Every month, several million users visit the platform , whose audience continues to grow. The Groupon sales tunnel is based on a giant mailing list associated with a website with :

• Step 1: traffic generated from mailing lists, recommendations, ads, affiliate links, etc.
• Step 2: a structured landing page with a pop-up window inviting visitors to provide their email address. This step enables them to navigate the site and take advantage of Groupon's services.

The Mailchimp sales tunnel

MailChimp is free email marketing software. This tool automates and optimizes email marketing campaigns. It's a complex yet accessible freemium service, and that's Mailchimp's secret. By offering its services free of charge, Mailchimp has been able to attract a large number of customers. Here's how Mailchimp's sales tunnel works:

• Step 1: traffic: this is organic and comes from blogs, recommendations, etc.
• Step 2: the home page or landing page: their editorial line speaks of freedom, expression, identity... all ideas highlighted by good copywriting.
• Step 3: the free offer remains a powerful acquisition strategy: in exchange for registering with an e-mail address and password, the user can use Mailchimp. The number of users even becomes an example of social proof and a formidable lever for conversion.
• Step 4: once the audience has been acquired and converted , the user becomes part of the Mailchimp community, and by using the product, you also spread the word about the offer.

The Netflix sales tunnel

Netflix is a relatively popular worldwide video streaming subscription service. Its sales tunnel is based on the consumer , not the product.

• Step 1: the home page emphasizes the added value of the offer, namely unlimited viewing of content from any medium and the ability to cancel the account at any time.
• Step 2: Netflix focuses on the consumer and his or her satisfaction, rolling out a clear message. At this point, all you have to do is confirm your interest in the offer by clicking on the next button.
• Step 3: the pricing page: all that's left to do is convert, the prospect is ready to buy. By default, Netflix selects the premium package (social proof), which is also the most expensive.

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What you need to know about the automated sales tunnel

The automated sales tunnel is an indispensable tool for improving the customer experience and increasing sales. Easy to implement, it nevertheless requires precision and rigor to automate a relevant and profitable sales tunnel.

But don't panic: there are many software programs available to help you take appropriate, targeted action and support you effectively in your marketing strategy. Thanks to these tools, you can gain peace of mind with an offer that's a hit on the Internet.