I see it all the time. Newbies to the internet marketing game need the Sales Funnel explained because they have no idea what a sales funnel is. They join one or various companies and think that all you do is send people to an affiliate link or a replicated website run by the company. Then, they think, the prospect either signs up, netting the new internet marketer a commission, or they get followed up by the company on the new marketer’s behalf so that they eventually get that sale. Well, not all companies are ethical and for many affiliate offers your prospect will end up on THEIR list being marketed to BY THEM, NOT YOU.

Did that wake you up?

Of course there are different levels of affiliate marketing.

Some people are sent directly to offers, as in people who click on website banners or are being sent to a CPA offer, or those sent from contextual ads.

If you are sending people to some other company’s website to get more information, without you yourself collecting their email address first, then you are doing it WRONG and you need the Sales Funnel Explained so keep reading. (we have pictures, too)

YOU need to be the one who captures and stores that lead for future follow ups.

Enter the sales funnel.

A good way to think about it is like this. If the prospect just came in for free and you have lots of basic affiliate offers out there that monetize your blog, then yeah they go on directly to the offer without going through your own sales funnel.

You can always get these people into your funnel through a blog popup or signup form.

If you are buying website traffic or some other form of clicks to an offer, then you MUST send those to your own sales funnel and collect the information for that lead. You paid for it! Don’t squander it!

Of course you can choose to always use your own funnel with lead capture, but I was merely stating some exceptions where you could do it the other way if you wanted.

What is a Sales Funnel

What is a sales funnel but an entry into your email list. Some people mail their lists often with other offers, some don’t, but if you are an online marketer, you need a list of some sort. You build the list with the sales funnel. So what is a sales funnel but an automated sales system set up by a marketer to build their list of people to market to. It is an automated sales presentation tool that allows the marketer to do the work once and that same presentation can be given to thousands of people, any time of day or night, all without the direct participation of the marketer, who is freed up to work on other things. No version of the sales funnel explained would be complete without that explanation.

So the sales funnel definition is that we have is a lead capture page that puts up an idea or creates a feeling within the prospect to get more information on something that looks great. Perhaps it’s a lifestyle or just simply the ability to live independently of a job, or maybe it’s to get a recipe booklet if in the food niche. If it’s the automotive niche, it could be a way to avoid taking the car to the mechanic. So, the sales funnel definition of a lead capture page is just that, and it can capture whatever it is set up to collect. Name, email, phone, all three, or some other combination. Usually the email is the bare minimum to allow a followup email series to be sent at a later date.

The sales funnel definition also includes the sales presentation, which the prospect is usually sent to right after filling in and submitting the lead capture page. Usually, while they are going to the presentation, an email is sent to confirm joining the list, or a thank you with a static link to the presentation, in case they can’t watch it right away, or need to or want to watch it again.

A sales funnel explained via this definition can also include training pages, multiple presentations for multiple products or services that work in tandem as part of a system that is being presented, or anything the marketer wants.

What is a Sales Funnel Template?

A sales funnel template is a template that you can use to create a sales funnel with, by customizing or changing the template. The key here is that the hard setup and formatting is done and customizations are easy to make. An added dimension to a sales funnel template is the ability to make and share sales funnels with a larger group of people, so this makes the sales funnel template into a share code item, if the sales funnel tool supports it.

What is a Sales Funnel Website?

A sales funnel website is basically the lead capture page, which is a web page on the internet that the prospects are somehow sent to , via a blog, or some other link in a forum, or social media, and even through email solo ads or some other paid click campaign. The lead capture page then leads into a sales page, or sales presentations, and these sales funnels can be several pages long, depending on the complexity of the funnel and the offer being presented. The sales funnel website is essentially the sales funnel explained as an example.

What are Sales Funnels Examples?

Sales funnel examples are basically a set of lead capture pages and their associated sales page or pages. You can easily see these, as well as the templates, in the back office of any sales funnel creation and hosting system. It’s very easy and pretty automated.

Here is an explanation of what a sales funnel is with examples of usage.

Sales funnels examples can be as simple or complex as you can make them. You can have your prospects bounce around forever until they get tired of being shown new things and they run for the door, or you can keep them on a generic list for you to market to them periodically via email. You can even set up methods for those who actually purchase from you to be placed on a buyers list, since if they bought once, they may potentially buy again. Buyers lists are golden in the internet marketing world.

Here is a basic sales funnel user flow: It’s a lead capture page to a sales page, and of course they end up on an email list related to the offer which is the subject of the funnel.

Here is a little more complex version, where multiple sales pages are used to either show them different parts of the same offer, or to show them different related businesses that work in a synergistic manner.

In this example, the lead capture page leads to a main sales page, which then shoots off to other sales pages and at the end we even lead to sales presentations for complimentary programs. There is a potential sale for all three of these in this funnel!

Here is the sales funnel explained via photos so that you can get a good picture, and since a picture is worth a thousand words…

Here is the Lead capture page where the prospect enters their email to enter the funnel and your email list:

Here is the main sales page where they are introduced to the business:

This is another sales page which for this funnel is more of a further information about the business page:

Here is another sales page that explains how the business pays out:

Here is the join page, and for this funnel there are 2 other buttons that introduce the prospect to 2 other businesses that compliment this one, how to market and get traffic for the sales funnel:

So there you have a sales funnel example that illustrates how these things look.

These are valuable because you can potentially make several sales per lead if they go for all of the parts of the system, which is recommended throughout since the whole things works best in tandem.

Sales Funnel Stages That You Should Know

The sales funnel explained cannot be explained without knowing about sales funnel stages. That’s a tongue twister! (say it ten times fast)

Sales Funnel Stages:

1. Awareness – The prospect is aware that there is an offer on the table and enters the funnel
2. Opinion – The prospect may have a preexisting opinion, or base a new opinion from what they are seeing
3. Decision – The prospect makes a decision to either take the offer or not
4. Action – The prospect acts on the decision and either buys or leaves (can be marketed to later of doesn’t opt out of email list)

Sales Funnel Software That Can Help You

Sales funnel software is usually an online application that you join as a monthly member, and you have access to the entire tool and its component parts, such as lead capture page creator, email contact manager, email autoresponder, and any other related tools that your specific sales funnel software contains.

The funnel creator is a main part of the sales funnel software since it is usually a visual editor where you can create web pages for parts of your funnel. You create lead capture pages and sales pages, or training pages, information pages, or whatever you need to complete your sales funnel.

The email contact manager and email autoresponder are the other real important parts of the sales funnel software since it involves storing contacts and following up with them. Creating and maintaining email followup campaigns is also a crucial tool within the sales funnel software.

Sometimes other tools are now included, such as the ability to create a hosted blog, since what is a blog but another way to advertise and create content that pulls leads into your sales funnels?

A sales funnel system complete with ways to create the funnel, store and follow up with prospects, and also market the funnel via a website (blog) is actually a complete online marketing system, much more powerful than the individual parts.

The Sales Funnel Explained Conclusion

In this article you had the sales funnel explained from a “what is” perspective in case you know nothing about them, and also for people who know, but need to know more. The sales funnel is the primary tool of internet marketers as they get prospects into their email list and looking at the businesses, tools, and other offers that bring them to the next level of their marketing life.

Sales funnels can be simple or complex. They can have one or many sales pages, and they can link to a homegrown or affiliate product.

The choice is yours.

I hope the sales funnel explained in this way has been enlightening and beneficial to you.

Until we meet again…

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