Our Latest Hands-off Sales Funnel Tips for SME Growth

2024 did not start well for small businesses, and the number of insolvencies rose to 30-year high towards the end of the year. Embracing technology can make a huge difference for small and medium sized businesses. We’ve seen many of them go from strength to strength and grow despite the gloom and bloom. The main reason for growth was the implementation of some of these hands-off sales funnel tips we supported them with. 

 

In this section, I will give you a list of powerful sales funnel tips you can implement straight away to improve your lead generation and conversions. So without further fluff, here they come. 

 

10 Sales Funnel Tips to Implement Today

This list contains all the tips we have collected in the past few years while building custom funnels for our clients. It’s been a learning curve and we are happy to share these ideas with you to help you improve your SME marketing results. 

CRM Integration

If your business doesn’t have a CRM, you are missing out on data. And knowledge is power. So, consequently your marketing power will be reduced. There’s a difference between shooting in the dark and making informed decisions based on the insights you gather from your audience. Integrating your CRM into your marketing system and funnels will give you a competitive advantage. 

 

You can collect valuable information about your customers and your prospects and make adjustments to your marketing funnel accordingly. 

A/B Testing

If you don’t do AB testing, you will probably not maximise your marketing power and lose out on conversions. After all, you will not know what you don’t measure. And if you don’t create an AB test, it will be hard to decide which messages your audience reacts to, and which ones result in the best conversions. 

 

You can set up AB testing on any platform you like; from your own landing pages to your ads and your call-to-actions and graphics. 

 

The simple explanation of AB testing we usually give our clients is this: “Keep the winners and Lose the Losers”. And that is something that sums up the process simply. When we launch advertising campaigns on Google or any other platform, we always make sure that we do the testing so we can continuously improve the conversion rates and return on investment for clients. 

Go for Conversions Not Reach

While running campaigns for branding and awareness (the top of the funnel) requires reach campaigns, we usually go for conversions not reach when it comes to getting deals for our clients. You might be tempted by getting a better cost per click for reach campaigns, but search intent matters. 

 

Based on the behaviour of the audience and their stage in the decision making process, you can create a suitable campaign to take them to the next level and drive them down the funnel. If there’s one king of all the sales funnel tips we can give you, this is the one! 

Always tailor the campaign to your business goal. 

 

Optimise Marketing Funnel Stages

Analysing your marketing funnel and monitoring conversions at every stage is just as important as setting up one. That said, the first launch of the funnel is not likely to get you the desired results. It’s a result of continuous improvement; something that we have implemented years ago as a lean marketing agency. 

 

Next, I will break down the optimisation steps for each step of the funnel:

 

If you are not sure where to start with your conversion optimisation, here’s a list of sales funnel marketing tips that will help you. 

Awareness Stage Sales Funnel Tips

If you are not getting clicks on your organic posts or ads, it’s important to look at the copy and graphics closely. While AB testing is a good start, checking out what works for other people in your industry is crucial. Consider the headline, in particular. We use a headline analyser to check that everything is optimised for impression and engagement. You will have to entice your audience at this stage, so don’t go for the sale straight away. 

 

Interest Stage Sales Funnel Tips

Once you have people who are aware of who you are as a business and what you offer, your job is to get your posts and communication to make them interested. This is when buying triggers come in. What is the one problem these people would like to overcome and what is the one thing they would like to achieve? That should be the cornerstone of your content marketing campaign; whether you are using email marketing or retargeting ads. 

 

Demand Stage Sales Funnel Tips

Once you have confirmed that your audience has a problem you can solve or you can take them from where they are to where they want to be, it’s kind of simple. You’ll have to discover what would make them buy from you or engage with you. First, you have to build trust and authority. Showcase your results, share testimonials and case studies. At the same time, you might want to offer a free trial, consultation, or something that will immediately give you an expert status. 

 

Action Stage Sales Funnel Tips

Once your audience has reached the Demand stage and you have gained their trust and showcased what you can do for them, they will already be considering engaging with you. The final step is to get them to  make a decision. 

 

You can do this by using either a sense of urgency or fear of missing out motivation triggers. Whichever you are choosing, it is important that you reward people for taking action now, and they feel like they got more value than they bargained for. 

 

At this stage, especially if you are selling high ticket products or services, your personal input might be needed. A free consultation, a personalised video, or a meeting could be beneficial. Of course, you’ll have to ensure that your prospects are qualified, so you don’t end up being a busy fool and wasting your time. 

 

For more information on the sales funnel stages, check out this post. 

For more information on improving your conversions in a week have a look at this guide.

 

Reverse Engineer the Process

When we work on sales funnels, we reverse engineer the process for our clients. This means that we start with the end result in mind. We find out whether they want more visitors, leads, or conversions, and work out the numbers. 

 

We find out how many more clients they need to achieve the goals, and- with a simple calculation we find out how many leads we need for that and how many interactions, etc. 

Our one-of-a-kind reverse engineered funnels are built around the needs of the business. That’s why we are different. 

 

Test, Tweak, Repeat

As mentioned above, testing is essential, but analysing the results (yes, crunching numbers) is also needed. You cannot improve what you don’t measure. Continuous improvement is something every business should implement when it comes to their marketing. Consumer behaviours and trends change rapidly in the 21st Century. 

Once you feel like you’ve optimised the site and content as much as you can, you can have a rest (just joking: it will never happen). 

 

Lead Nurturing Sales Funnel Tips – Lead Qualification Sales Funnel Tips

One of the reasons why you might not see enough conversions from your marketing campaigns and funnels is failing to qualify your leads. It is crucial that you are getting the targeting right, and that’s why our ideal client exercise is essential for every business. You can download the ideal client sheet for free from our website. However, it’s even more crucial that you identify which stage of the buying cycle your prospect is. 

 

Sometimes a funnel is set up well, and you might have paid a lot of money for the technology, but you’re not getting anything back. That happens more often than not. In fact, some of our clients have turned to us for the same reason. The good news is that we can set up a sales funnel without using Clickfunnels and this way you can save on the monthly fees and own the system instead of renting it. 

 

Read more about how we create custom funnels if you would like to understand more about the process.

 

Landing Page Optimisation

No matter how good your sales funnel plan is if your landing page sucks. You want to make sure that the headlines are talking directly to your audience and address the problems they are looking to solve. If this is not the case, two things will happen: you will either attract the wrong crowd, or you will not generate enough leads. 

 

Developing an irresistible offer that resonates with your audience is crucial for creating a high conversion landing page. Basically, you’ve got to make them an offer they can’t refuse. 

 

Consider Buying Triggers

Understanding why people would buy from you is one of the most important things you need to achieve before you implement any of these sales funnel tips. Some people have an urgent need to save money, make money, become more successful,or have an easier life. At LMNts Marketing, we try to communicate all these things through our content marketing plan. We don’t only simplify business marketing, but also save time and money for businesses. 

 

At the same time, we help clients become more successful and grow their businesses. Their most urgent needs, however, might be unique. Some want to grow but don’t want to do more admin. Others would like to get a better return on their investment. Finally, some clients want to make the investment they made into their online courses or software.

 

Dig Deeper Into Your Ideal Client Profile

These small tweaks to your sales funnel will help you not only improve your conversions but also target your audience better. Of course, these steps are not easy to implement if you are not an expert, but with testing and data driven marketing it’s possible. For SMEs looking to grow this year and beyond these sales funnel tips are only a start. A comprehensive strategy needs to be drawn up to fully utilise the latest technology. 

 

Conclusion

Creating an irresistible offer, understanding your ideal clients’ pain points and buying triggers, and testing your marketing materials can be a daunting task. Implementing these sales funnel tips can take up more of your time than you are willing to give up. At LMNts Marketing we have created an overview of the process, so you can fully understand the work that goes into building a funnel and making it work. We love collaborating with our clients and would love to answer any of your questions. Just send them to us in the comments or via our contact form. 

 

If you would like to get guidance on implementing these sales funnel tips, you can arrange a free consultation by contacting us. 

For more information on Our Latest Hands-off Sales Funnel Tips for SME Growth talk to LMNts Marketing