We are here at the end of your Sales and Marketing Funnel… the Purchase stage.
This is the stage where the people you have been talking to, whether via social media or in emails, have made the decision to ‘buy’ something from you.
They are ready to make some sort of commitment or an actual purchase and they do. You now have a customer.
The purchase stage can involve several other stages of the product funnel in terms of your audience purchasing entry level products to try you out. It may also include some or all of the stages we have discussed already. You can view the full list of the stages in this article.
The key to ensuring that you have a successful sale, and potential ones in the future, is in how you communicate with your customers during the Follow Up.
Even if you sell one-time purchase products, never miss following up with any customer who has purchased with you. Once they have made a purchase, no matter which product it is, or even if they bought everything you offer, it’s important to keep in touch with them.
Some of your communication may be to nurture them through the product purchase, ensure they have what they need to ‘use’ it. Sometimes it may be simply keeping them on a newsletter list where you share good information to help them. And sometimes you may have a new offer for them.
Depending on what type of product they buy, you may put the purchasing customer (who can still be a prospect for another product or service) back into your funnel to market the next product in your money mountain when it fits to start this. Some may start right away, (ie. an offer of an upsell on the thank you page), and some may make sense to wait until they have consumed the purchase (ie. Program 101 and once done that, Program 201 will be the next thing to get them in).
You will want to stay on track with your list of products and services in your Money Mountain List so that how you position the new offer, will fit where you have someone in your funnel and that it leads to another item the mountain.
This means if you have Product A that someone has bought, you do not want to offer them a purchase of the same item at half price. Be certain you keep track in your email marketing system of the offers you make and the lists of people getting them.
The offers you share with people need to make sense and be of value to them. This is what will help them make that decision to purchase something else.
It is ideal to build repeat customers, or even have them refer others to you. You will want to get reviews or testimonials from them as well. This can be some of your follow-up too.
And if they are really loyal to what you sell and its benefits, maybe you want to encourage them to become an affiliate or referral partner. This is someone who gets a special link to your programs and when people buy because they shared via that link, you and the partner can tell they made the sale (ie. affiliate programs help you track this info) and they get a commission for that referral sale. No one is more qualified or better at promoting your products than someone who loves them and buys them.
Affiliate and referral programs can help perpetuate the sales and marketing cycle and generate new leads because your referral partners tend to have a different audience than you and will bring in new people to your funnel.
This is why follow-up is so key with purchasers. Follow-up lets your customers know you value their business most importantly, but also that you may have other options to help them or even just good information to share with them. Always make sure you have a good balance of sales and non-sales content going out to them.
So, even though that Purchase stage is the last one in the Funnel… the cycle can start all over again at the top and bring you back to Awareness. A customer can go through your funnel many times.
I hope this series of articles has been helping you with ideas for your own sales and marketing funnel.
You can read the past articles in the series on my blog:
Create an Effective Sales & Marketing Funnel
How to use the Money Mountain Tool to Plan your Marketing Funnel
Can your Lead Magnet pass this 5 Point Checklist?
7 Core Elements to Include in Your Lead Magnet Signup Process
How to get Leads & Prospects to Consider YOU as their Solution!
Ways to Capture the Interest of your Leads and Prospects
Helping your Leads make their Final Evaluation on Working with You
Online Marketing with IMPACT so you Get Clients! My passion is helping to guide people just like you, dietitians, coaches and service based business owners, who are often frustrated with all the advice and ideas out there and all the wasted time spent on marketing that gets you nowhere. Check out all the free resources on my Pepper It Marketing website, especially this guide for Online and Content Marketing. I also offer several self-study training programs to help you get more traffic to your website, more leads on your email list so you can make More Sales!