A Case Study On How To Create A Profitable Sales Funnel

Wednesday, November 20th, 2024
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to Affiliate Marketing, is creating an effective airtight sales funnel, which aligns and calibrates the precise movement of your prospect. This in an environment, where there’s already too much exposure and competition, partly because of the exponential growth of Social Media.

What every consumer is complaining about, is there’s already too much availability to content, usually “click bait” on the Internet.

As a result, what’s needed by the Affiliate Marketer, is the ability to identify the weak links in your blogs command chain, and the sales funnel.

This can be solved by plugging in precisely pinpointed targeted content that converts, which now has become critically important for your marketing success.

Approaching content delivery through integration, means the majority of your content will be discovered through a series of online channels, including search and social media.

The best approach it’s found, is by being keyword centric.

To plan this out, what needs to be researched are the most relevant keywords and content methods, your target market uses, when you’re mapping out your buyers sales cycle.

Diligent Research Dutiful Discovery

Everything that’s purchased online, begins with someone who has a problem, some type of issue or hurt, that they can’t solve themselves on their own.

They’re experiencing some type of challenge, and they need immediate help somehow. So they turn to the Internet for answers.

The buying cycle then begins, before your customer even realizes you have the solution for them, to their particular malady. They have no idea you or your solution even exists.

All they’re simply doing is researching their angst online, on the search engines or at times on social media such as Youtube.

Their research is performed, by using exploratory keyword searches that describes an answer or a solution to their problem.

They’re hoping, the results the search engines provide, will offer clues on the particular issue to what they’re facing.

They’re not necessarily looking to buy a product at this point.

For the online marketer, you, what this involves is taking a step back and determining. “What’s the problem, the core issue my product will solve.”

To Solve A Problem

Health for instance, is usually the biggest issue for many, and one of the most broad searches on the Internet.

Say someone has persistent knee pain, which is a common problem many can relate to when growing older, or when exercising.

Once someone experiences this knee pain, what they won’t do right away, is enter the keywords “best surgery for my knee pain.”

What they will search for instead, is what’s causing the pain, so they can identify what the best, the most easiest (cheapest) solution for them is.

So instead, what they’ll enter are keyword search phrases such as, ‘why do I have knee pain,’ or ‘knee pain symptom cures.’

If this happens to be your niche, you should be looking to creating a comprehensive online content resource, to answer these keyword queries.

This should be based on giving your site visitors a clear concise information package, regarding the actual symptoms they’re facing when it comes to their knee pain.

What doing so does, is it will introduce them to your product or solution at the initial stages, while also prompting them to move a notch down the sales funnel.

First Identify Their Exact Problem

Once they’ve pinpointed their problem, and are confident they’ve defined the issue they’re facing, they’ll then search for a more precise in-depth overview of their particular problem, as well as associated issues.

For someone with knee pain, when they’re at their discovery and research stage, doing so led them to identify their problem, which in this case, may be a possible ACL tear. That darn soccer game.

Then they’ll begin to strictly focus on this particular area. They’ll research its causes, how common or widespread it is, and the degrees of seriousness it poses.

So on your blog, what you should be providing is content such as ‘The Top 10 Reasons Why ACL Injuries Occur’

At this stage of their discovery process, this is the exact type of information your prospect is looking for.

The Search For The Solutions Begin

Once they research and understand the problem they’re facing, what they then want are the best or the most affordable solution.

This is when there’s a distinct crossover to your side, to solve their problem. Their question then becomes, “Okay, what do I do next'”

This is when they’ve now become extremely receptive to your input, even before they begin to actively search for other solutions.

The content you provide on your blog or report during this stage, should become a lot more tactical and technical.

What you’re now doing, is starting to ask your prospect to take some type of specific action, such as an email opt-in.

This is when you can begin showcasing your eBook, videos, whitepapers, etc.

This is when you would be providing detailed information, about the possibility of ACL surgery and the rehabilitation process.

You would begin to continue building stronger calls to action, on every page or video you provide.

You would recommend the visitor book an appointment for a consultation. This is where you’d ask them to take some type of major action, and they would be welcome to it.

There Are Always Alternatives

Once they’ve done their initial research, their due diligence, perhaps spoken to someone at your company, what they’ll then likely do is explore all of their options.

They would go back to the search engine, and enter keyword queries such as ‘are there alternatives to ACL surgery’ or ‘what are the long-term risks of ACL surgery,’ etc.

The information results could be reviews, recommendations or perspectives, that validates they having the surgery may be the best action for them.

The search results will also provide information on possible alternatives.

For most niches, these search results could be content that introduces the products of your competitors, or testimonials debating against one another.

Some of the results, could provide arguments on why the alternate solutions may not always be the best course of action to take.

What this stage of the buying cycle does, is forces your prospect to realize they need this information for assurance.

What you need to do is provide and confirm it yourself, otherwise, they’ll go search elsewhere such as on social media.

The Confirmation Process

What the buyer will then do is circle back, and close in on the final stages of their search and determination process.

They’re now at the stage where they will begin to inspect, verify your company, your product or service is the best possible option for them.

This is similar to the ‘what are my alternatives’ phase during the discovery process. At this stage, you’ll want to provide authentic case studies, show your credentials or awards.

This is where your social proof becomes important. Do you have testimonials you can publish on your site. Are there people talking about you on Facebook or Twitter. Leverage them the best way you can.

Content That Has Purpose

Every piece of content you publish, should have a specific assigned purpose.

If you’re selling something such as a product or a service, or even an idea, each piece you produce, needs to be designated to push the reader forward down the sales funnel to take action.

This so they can take the next most logical step for them, to the point where they’re willing to commit to you.

Testing Out Your Funnel

To test out if your sales funnel works, what you need is to inject plenty of targeted traffic to your blog or a certain article. This to see how it flows. Is your content convincing enough?

Is it capable of converting your most ideal reader, from them being suspects to prospects to buyers.

In order to do so, your content driven sales funnel needs to be precisely calculated, and carefully designed by using proper keyword analysis.

Once you’re able to create an airtight marketing funnel that’s driven by the proper content, and a system is implemented to maintain it, then all you need is traffic to monetize it.