Magic marketing and sales funnel?

Some online marketers are currently making just as much of a fuss about marketing and sales funnels as they did in previous years about blogs, then guerrilla marketing, then social media, then videos, then content marketing, then landing pages and so on. And like the aforementioned topics, they also try to sell this as the magic formula or "non-plus-ultra" in marketing and sales. 

Sales funnels" or "marketing funnels" are an old hat that every salesperson knows under the name "sales funnel" or "sales funnel" and which ultimately refers to the bundle of measures with which an organization or a salesperson first attracts the attention and interest of the target customers and then leads them step by step to the purchase decision.

However, the word "funnel" sounds chicer or more modern than the word "funnel" - and is therefore easier to market.

The AIDA formula: The basis of all sales and marketing funnels

Every distribution and sales funnel is ultimately based on the well-known AIDA formula for selling complex products and services that require explanation and are not so-called "fast-moving items" - i.e. products that a potential customer buys as quickly and spontaneously as a scoop of ice cream in summer because they feel like it.

According to the AIDA formula, every customer goes through several stages of the purchase decision before buying a product.

• Level 1: Attention
• Level 2: Interest
• Level 3: Desire (desire to buy)
• Level 4: Action (purchase action)

Each provider should ensure that the (potential) customer goes through this process.

The system is decisive, not the measure

For example, it is of little use to the owner of a store if it has many visitors, so-called "show customers", but hardly any "purchase customers" - for example, because the store offers the wrong products or presents them poorly. In the evening, his till is empty. 

However, it is also of little use to a store owner if he offers a top product for his target customers in his store and presents it in a first-class manner, but is unable to attract enough potential customers to his store. Then he and his employees are left standing alone in the store, and in the evening the till is also empty - because the overall system is not right.

Websites also need a target-oriented structure

The situation is similar with websites. It is of little use to freelancers or self-employed people if their website has a lot of visitors because it is easy to find online and therefore generates a lot of attention, but these visitors quickly disappear again because the content of the website has not aroused their interest or made them want to buy. 

Conversely, however, it is also of little use to a self-employed person if the products on their website are of great interest to their target customers, but the website has hardly any visitors - for example, because it cannot be found in online searches. In both cases, the provider does not generate any inquiries or orders - at least via its website. In other words, he is unsuccessful.

So every freelancer and self-employed person, like all other entrepreneurs, should consider how to lead their customers step by step to a purchase decision. Or to put it another way: They should design a marketing and sales strategy for their company that combines their various offline and online marketing and sales activities into a target-oriented system. This is something that many lack.

Many online marketers are not solution sellers

So far so good. But what is annoying about the current sales funnel chatter is that online marketers are suggesting three things to the self-employed.

1. Marketing and sales funnels are the latest craze. No, they are old hat. The only thing that is new is that some online marketers have finally discovered that, in addition to the website, their customers' other (online) marketing activities are not an end in themselves, but must fulfill a (partial) function in their marketing and sales system.
2. The self-employed would have to integrate an extra marketing and sales funnel into their website. Any website that does not ultimately function like a marketing and sales funnel - i.e. takes the target customer two or three steps further in their purchasing decision process - is simply wrongly designed.
3. When self-employed people integrate a sales funnel into their website and online marketing, they automatically generate orders. The orders then fly into their mouths like roast pigeons, so to speak.

Complex services can almost never be sold online

The latter is nonsense or pure wishful thinking, because this is only possible for products or services that fulfill at least one of the following conditions.

1. The goods ordered can be returned at any time, such as the shoes at Zalando. This is never the case with the services of freelancers such as management consultants, lawyers or architects, or self-employed people such as craftsmen.
2. From the customer's point of view, they are cheap or extremely inexpensive, so that the customer thinks "It doesn't matter if I have to write the three or four euros in the wind", and their possession has no relevance for the customer, so that they think: "It won't hurt if I make a bad purchase". Both of these are also almost never the case with the aforementioned services - which are usually expensive from the customer's point of view and which customers often want to use to solve an acute problem.

The sale takes place in personal contact

Therefore, for most complex products and services that require explanation, based on the AIDA stages of the purchase decision, the website and online marketing activities can maximally arouse the interest of the target customers. If this is successful, they will contact the provider. And only then does the actual sale begin, in a dialog between the provider and their potential customer. 

Most marketing and sales funnel "specialists" among online marketers are apparently also aware that complex products and services cannot be sold via marketing and sales funnels. If you read their advertising texts more closely, you quickly realize that ultimately it's all about marketing and not about sales or distribution. 

Many funnels are pure marketing funnels

Many of the marketing and sales funnels they design are also only aimed at getting potential customers to subscribe to a newsletter, for example. And the number of new subscribers gained? It is sold as proof that the marketing and sales funnel is working.

The additional number of newsletter subscribers or the increased number of followers on social media may be pleasing. But the self-employed person hasn't sold anything as a result. He only has more "show customers", most of whom don't buy anything and whom he has to make happy and look after regularly from now on.