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Knowing how to build a sales funnel is one of the most important business concepts you should know about. When you understand your customers’ buying journey, you can come up with sound marketing strategies that fit your needs. This allows you to sell your products and services smarter than ever before.

Did you know that up to 68 percent of companies have not identified their sales funnel and have never attempted to measure it? This presents a missed opportunity to sell smarter and not harder to your target customers.

However, if sales and marketing are not among your core competencies, then you might need the help of an expert to guide you.

Here’s the good news: you don’t have to slave away all day trying to figure out how you can build a profitable sales funnel. Today, we’ll be walking you through how freelance professionals can help you boost sales and grow your business with a well-defined sales funnel strategy.

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel or a marketing funnel defines the buying journey of your target market. It’s a model used in marketing that illustrates how people go from being a mere lead to an actual paying customer.

You see, an actual funnel only lets through a minute amount of liquid from what was originally poured from above. A sales funnel provides the same. A large number of leads may come your way through your website but in the end, only a handful of people will buy your product.

There are three important things you need to remember about a sales funnel:

1. It’s inherent in any business regardless if your product is a grand piano or an e-book about social media marketing. As long as you have the intention to sell, you have a sales funnel.
2. The stage at which a person is in your funnel determines their commitment to making a purchase. Not all your leads will buy your product. However, as people go down further into the funnel, their decisions to buy grow stronger.
3. It’s important to have a clear set of strategies to inspire conversion at every stage of the funnel. Your goal as a business owner is to sell your product. When you build a sales funnel, you need a system to spot weak points where people opt-out and then optimize them using appropriate marketing strategies.

The Anatomy of a Sales Funnel

A basic sales funnel has four stages: awareness, interest, decision, and action. Each stage shows the outlook your potential customers are in as they make their way through the buying journey.

The 1st Stage – Awareness

This is where people become leads for your business. It’s the first time they come across your brand and products through traffic sources like a Google search, social media posts, or digital advertisements.

At this point, while people are aware of your brand, they are most likely not ready to buy from you yet. It’s important to build a relationship based on trust at this point.

The 2nd Stage – Interest

In this phase of the buying journey, people become prospective clients. As prospects, they begin to show interest in your product or service. They are actively looking for solutions to their problems or ways to achieve their goals.

They may start following you on social media or subscribing to your email list. This is also the point where people do product research and comparison shopping to know their options.

This is the best time to provide content that helps them but does not sell to them so they feel like they are making an informed buying decision.

The 3rd Stage – Decision

During this phase, your lead is almost ready to become a paying customer. They have narrowed down their choices and are considering your offer, so you have to make it irresistible.

You may provide free shipping, discount codes, freebies, and other value-added offerings that will inspire them to buy.

The 4th Stage – Action

At the bottom stage of the sales funnel, a lead becomes a full-fledged customer. At this point, they will click the checkout button or sign a contract.

Building a Sales Funnel Matters

You might be wondering, “Why do I need to build a sales funnel for my business?”

Before we answer that, you need to understand one thing about selling: it’s about getting your potential customers into a “buying mindset”. What this means is that you need to work hard at influencing people into realizing they cannot live without your product or service.

However, this cannot happen if:

1. You don’t understand your customers’ purchasing journey
2. You don’t design and implement specific and targeted marketing strategies that can persuade people to move further down the funnel and eventually convert.

Consumers Need Coaxing

You need to build a sales funnel because people won’t buy your product just because you tell them to. They need to see what’s in it for them every single time. Furthermore, they need to trust your brand enough so they end up buying your product.

The trick is to nurture your leads so you increase conversions and boost your profits. In practical terms, you need to give your potential clients something of value at every step of the way.

A well-built sales funnel allows your potential customers to get to know your product and your company’s commitment to solving their pain points. It builds trust and credibility and incentivizes your potential clients to buy from you.

Hire a Freelancer to Build Your Sales Funnel

As we’ve established above, it is important to build a sales funnel if you want to convert leads into actual customers. But what if you do not have the time, expertise, or manpower to handle the tasks needed to create a profitable sales funnel?

Do you just let things be?

The simple answer is no. You don’t have to sacrifice your sales funnel just because it isn’t your core competency.

The good news is there are sales funnel professionals out there who can help you sell, market, and even deliver your products and services online.

Freelancers are Specialists

Outsourcing to a freelancer can yield outstanding results for your company. These professionals not only know how to build a sales funnel but they know how to do it well.

Moreover, you’ll also save time and money when you hire a freelancer because you don’t have to worry about hiring and getting new people at the right skill level. Sales funnel freelancers already have the skill set necessary to optimize every stage of the funnel using appropriate marketing strategies that your in-house talent won’t always have.

How to Build a Sales Funnel with a Freelancer

Now that you know what a sales funnel is and why you need a freelance professional to help you out, we’ll now walk you through the steps of how you can build a sales funnel with a freelancer and the type of professional you need.

Step 1: Identify your prospects

Before a freelancer can help you build a sales funnel, he or she will first identify your ideal prospects. Research is key when trying to get to know your target audience. Before leading people into your funnel, it is important to look into:

• Your prospects’ pain points
• The things that interest them the most
• The things that may influence them to buy your product
• How they will use the product after purchasing it
• What social media channels they use

Apart from researching your target market, freelancers can offer skills such as compiling industry leads, cold calling potential customers, answering responses from leads, setting up mail merges, and more.

Step 2: Define strategies at every stage of the funnel

Once you’ve identified your ideal prospects, it’s time to define the strategies that will go into every stage of the funnel. Then work with a sales funnels freelancer to create the funnels for you using the software of your choice.

Awareness stage

At the this level, a freelancer can help you with a handful of things to increase brand awareness. This includes:

• Designing a compelling landing page that gives your potential customers a great first impression of your brand and product. A successful landing page should be aesthetically pleasing, optimized for search engines, and contain a call to action that encourages visitors to either subscribe to your email list or website.
• Creating blogs and optimizing content with the right keywords to attract potential customers from organic search. Well-written blogs posted regularly are known to increase website traffic and leads by up to 3.5 percent according to HubSpot.
• Developing social media advertisements.
• Marketing towards influencers who can help spread the word about your brand.

Interest stage

Once your prospects are at the interest stage, a freelancer can help you with nurturing leads using middle-of-the-funnel marketing strategies. At this phase, the focus is on:

• Educating your potential customers using content that provides value over time
• Offering to solve their pain points with your products using customized content and communication
• Highlighting your brand’s unique selling proposition and delivering facts that relieve their doubts and concerns
• Using lead magnets like videos, e-books and guides, and case studies paired with a strong call-to-action

Decision stage

Further down the funnel when your leads are at the decision phase, they are trying to decide whether or not to choose your brand over your competitors. A freelancer can help you accelerate the deal cycle, put your brand on a superior position than your competition, and inspire your leads to make a confident purchase decision. Some strategies for this stage include the use of:

• Cases studies that show your product in action
• Free demos or downloads that give your potential customers an idea of how your product will work for them
• Product reviews or other content that feature or mention your product

Action stage

When your customers reach the action stage of the funnel, it is generally a matter of giving them that final nudge through a compelling call to action. A sales funnel freelancer will focus on designing the right offer and making the sales transaction simple. You can design one-click platforms and fewer forms to foster a positive experience for your customers.

Step 3: Build a sales funnel using a funnel builder

Using the right tool is crucial if you want to build a sales funnel that effectively converts and generates sales. Hiring a freelancer who knows how to use a funnel builder like Clickfunnels takes away the guesswork from using tools like this so you can focus on your core competencies.

Step 4: Optimize copy on your sales funnel

The truth is if you want to build a sales funnel with a high conversion rate, you need to optimize the copy that goes with it. From your landing pages to your emails, to your blog posts, to your call-to-action, down to the text on your checkout page, effective copy is key. 

A freelancer with strong copywriting skills can help elevate your sales funnel using copy that your customers will love. Some ways a freelancer can help optimize the copy on your sales funnel include:

• Developing headlines that blow your customers’ minds
• Designing specific calls-to-action that have a dramatic impact
• Making it easier for your customers to say yes by outlining the benefits of your product
• Ensuring that your copy is easy to scan
• Split-testing the messaging used throughout the funnel.

Step 5: Track and measure important metrics

Finally, you cannot build a sales funnel without tracking and measuring important metrics like conversion rates. A freelancer can set up analytics that can help you make smarter business decisions.

Through this, you’ll also be able to see the weak points of your sales funnel and strategize accordingly.

Get a Freelancer Onboard to Build Your Sales Funnel

As you can see from the discussion above, freelancers are the key to building a profitable sales funnel for your business. You can leverage their deep understanding of the sales funnel paradigm to boost your sales and to grow your business.

With the right tools and skills, freelancers can nurture leads into paying customers. This means you don’t have to keep chasing after your next sale.

Are you ready to start a partnership with a freelancer? Set up a meeting with FreeUp to learn how FreeUp can help you find the people you need!