Sales funnels are not the same as content funnels
Are you having a tough time with your sales funnel? Chances are you’ve set up your website the wrong way or you’re probably just blogging or posting content in the hope that somehow, someway, somebody would click on a link that somehow, someway would put dollars in your pockets.
Unfortunately, the whole “somehow, someway” mentality is not going to ticket to riches. If you are serious about making any kind of money from the internet, you have to pay close attention to funnel building. The problem is a lot of people are confused as to the kind of funnels they should be building. They put themselves in that situation because they did not go about it in a systematic and methodical way.
Content funnels explained
Content funnels are all about turning traffic that is looking for certain types of content and filtering those people in a way, eventually will convert into buyers. Content fans are all about building credibility and authority. When you plug them into a content funnel, their questions get answered and before you know it, they build more and more trust in whatever it is you are promoting.
This can then lead to email list members which you can then convert later through a future update. This can also lead to actual sales right then and there. Pair this from simply pulling traffic from the internet by dropping links, or buying traffic and then people will see a sales page, realize they are not interested and then they bounce out. There’s really not much opportunity in building credibility. It’s really important to understand that sales funnels are very different from content funnels.
Building proper sales funnels
You can actually build a complete sales funnel into one page. This is called a conversion page.
You buy traffic or get organic traffic and people come in and read the page. The more they read the page, the more they find details and they answer questions and the more they may build trust. Eventually, the person who reads the bottom of the page is the one to most likely click the order now button. What happens to everybody else? They bounce out.
After they read the content on the sales page, they realize that they probably not interested or whatever value proposition the product you’re promoting doesn’t really appeal to them. So the conversion page did its job. It filtered people. Content funnels, on the other hand, qualify prospects over an extended period of time.
Content funnels are powerful because they can rapidly build trust in the mind of the visitor. Almost everyone who finds themselves on your site are looking for answers. They haver certain questions they want answered.
When they get their initial questions answered, most would want to bounce out. But if you have other content on your pages that speaks to other questions they may have or, better yet, deep needs they may have, you get a chance to pull them deeper into your site and impress them even more.
The deeper they go into your site, the more likely they are to join your mailing list or click an ad. Set up properly, content funnels build enough trust for consumers to want to click through to an actual conversion sales funnel.
Understand that these funnels are quite different from each other. Don’t confuse the two.
Why do people confuse sales funnels with content funnels?
The real reason why people confuse sales funnels with content funnels is because of terminology. “Sales funnel” can apply to mailing lists. It can apply to social media. It can apply to paid campaigns and many other content channels that have trust building capabilities.
Unfortunately, it’s too easy to confuse form with function and end up with a hazy view of what kind of outcome to shoot for.
Get back to basics
You have to understand the idea behind sales funnels is to turn traffic and plug it into a system to separate people who are not interested from people who are. And when you identify people who are interested, you push them into a lower level that increases their demand or willingness to buy.
Sounds pretty simple and basic, no?
The problem is that when marketers come across this form of sales funnel, they automatically assume that publishing content that filters people work exactly the same way. Content funnels are different from sales funnels.
Content funnels can be plugged into sales funnels but content funnels need and demand attention by themselves. When you are setting up a content funnel for your dog breed website, remember what your end goal is.
Your goal isn’t to set up an online home for people looking for anything and everything related to dog breeds. That’s nice to achieve but you have to go several levels deeper. Your goal is to sell dog supplies. This is what gives you your bread and butter.
You have to set up your content in such a way that you can eventually get people to buy those dog supplies. Otherwise, you’re just wasting lots of time posting content that has no chance of turning your site’s traffic into revenue.
Using the right content structure is the key to success
So you start off with questions that are going to be asked by people who are looking for dog supplies and then you lead them into a comparison page of many different options available so you can make the product category you are actually promoting stand out. From there, you can then start zeroing in on specific products.
You have to build trust.
When was the last time you bought something from a complete stranger? I will guess that the answer would be never. If that is your answer, you are absolutely normal and average because most people would not spend their hard earned money on somebody they do not know. It’s all about building trust and you have to set up your content funnel in such a way that you build heavier and heavier trust until finally, they’re ready to trust you with their hard earned money. This can take the form of review page, you can plug in your content funnel into a sales page. There are so many ways you can do this. Unfortunately, people confuse these two so instead of building trust, they’re basically just repeating the same information. The more you repeat information, the less effective your messaging becomes. Don’t confuse the two types of funnels.
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