4 Main Stages for Your Sales Funnel

by Rahimah Sultan

Advertising Disclosure: Marketing Success Review may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. There is no expense to you.

A sales funnel is the buying process that you use to lead customers or prospective clients through to purchase a product. It is a series of steps within a particular sales model. These steps can consist of landing pages, blog pages, retargeting ads for bringing people back into the loop if they’ve left, and email follow ups.

Simply put, a sales funnel is the journey you take your website visitors through when trying to sell your products and services to them.

The top of the funnel works to attract people, the middle of the funnel is a kind of nurturing process such as getting people on your email list, and in the bottom you’re doing additional follow up.


Here are four main stages for your sales funnel:

Read magnet
Lead magnet
Introductory offer
Core offer


One strategy you can use to create sales funnel opportunities is to send an email to your list asking them what they need help with, a kind of survey. Your subject line can be, “Can I ask you a question?” Then ask the question.

As people respond, track the common issues or problems that are most popular and use them to create a funnel based on those core needs. You can also incentivize responses by saying you’ll pick a certain number of people to receive a one-on-one 15-minute consultation or whatever else you choose. Now you have a way to address their needs and concerns and a way to get to know and better understand them.


Your Read Magnet makes it all about the reader, before ever asking for the opt-in.

Now that you’ve got your funnel, it’s time to warm up your reader. This can be done by using the survey results to start mapping out a blog post that hits on the one struggle most of your audience is plagued with. Go in-depth with the information.

It doesn’t have to be a blog post. It could be a video, podcast or a Facebook live broadcast that you transcribe and turn into a blog post. Make sure this is all related to the overall purpose of your sales funnel. This should link to your lead magnet which has been included throughout the post.


Your Lead Magnet

Now you want people to see your lead magnet. You can do so by emailing your list with a link to the post, posting the link inside your Facebook group, placing it on your social media channels, and driving some paid traffic, among other things.

You want people on your page consuming content and opting in for your lead magnet, which can be:

1) Cheat sheets
2) Checklists
3) Swipe files
4) Buyer’s guides
5) Email courses
6) A recording of a talk you gave
7) Step-by-step blueprints

This is by no means an all-inclusive list. Be creative.


Introductory Offer

Once people have opted in, it’s time for an intro offer that is a relevant low-cost offer you make to a new subscriber once they have joined your list. Offer something that is relevant to your funnel and that is hard to say no to, while you “have their attention.”

Each step feeds into the next without any disruptions to the flow. This avoids losing anyone who might otherwise close the window or delete your email.


A few tips…

1) Keep intro offer below $50
2) The offer should be relevant to your read magnet, lead magnet and core offer
3) It should 10x the value they’ve received in your read magnet and lead magnet
4) It should be offered on the Thank You page once someone opts in for your lead magnet
5) It should not be used as a money-maker, instead use it to change the relationship from subscriber to customer


A few things to offer, among many:

A video course
Done-for-you graphics
Audio course
Mini-group coaching calls
$1 trial for your product or software

Now you sell your intro offer through another blog post. Once someone opts in for your lead magnet, they’re redirected to the post that contains something of real value, while they wait for the lead magnet email to arrive. They can only get this by following the instructions and clicking the link to the new post.

You want to keep the reader engaged while moving them down the page to where you present the intro offer for the first time. Now you’re building trust.


Core Offer

Your core offer has to be a great one. It has to be detailed, value-packed and help your customer achieve a specific outcome, goal or result.

Your core offer can be an online course, high-ticket coaching, done-for-you services, some software, mentorship, a physical product, etc. It’s your call.

A sales funnel gives you leverage and puts you in control to be able to do what you want whether it’s more travel, to stress less about generating leads if you’re selling services or digital products, and growing your business.


You can use these four stages for your sales funnel to move your business forward.

Source: How To Create a Dangerously Effective Automated Sales Funnel


Get Your Web Hosting Essentials Here