5 facebook sales funnel techniques

We sure know the numbers, don’t we?

15 Most Popular Social Networks

Clearly, marketing on social media networks is a great opportunity for increasing conversion rates and sales, something that we all know.

But,

How Good Is Facebook Marketing?

Some businesses have realised that Facebook marketing has impressive ROI. One such business is Gravity Defyer, a wellness shoe company.

With an audience demographic of adults aged from 45 years and above, the business found it necessary to target a broader demographic to raise awareness and increase sales.

After creating targeted ads on Facebook, developing organic content, and testing posts to evaluate effectiveness, the business also opted to use Facebook for its customer service and achieve internal alignment.

What was the result?

The business’s Facebook marketing stint was successful, experiencing an average ROI of 450%, with campaign ROIs ranging from 300% to 600%.

But, watch this:

Unfortunately for some businesses, this lucrative marketing opportunity is not yielding results.

Actually, according to research, 59% of small businesses didn’t see an ROI on their social media activities. Things were not so good either for the remaining 41% who posted returns.

ROI Facebook

Image via: Socialmediaexaminer

17% of them received less than $100 and 57% received less than $1000.

What’s even worse is that 62% of small business owners say that Facebook ads miss their targets.

Are things that bad?

No. Don’t fret.

While most businesses don’t see an ROI on Facebook, at least 53% got the most ROI on Facebook compared to 15% on Google+, 11% on LinkedIn, 5% on Twitter, 2% on Pinterest and 15% on other social networks.

So,

What Exactly Is Facebook’s Problem?

Facebook users have a characteristic that makes it more difficult for marketers to succeed, and even though you might not like it, you probably behave in the same manner.

When you log into your personal account, what do you do? Do you scroll through your homepage to see what your friends posted? Do you like photos? Or do you visit brand pages to see the latest news?

Well, turns out that Facebook users are using the social network for its primary purpose – being social.

They spend their time liking statuses and content, comment on other people’s photos, update their personal statuses, and send private messages, as highlighted in the graph below.

Facebook-Activity

Image via: AaronZakowski

This is unlike Instagram, where users are naturally shoppers, presenting marketers with an audience that’s ready to spend. This is because the platform’s key audience comprises of millennials, an age group that sustains online commerce.

As a matter of fact, 70% of Instagram users have already looked for a brand on Instagram, and 62% of them don’t need contests or giveaways to follow a brand. They simply do so because they love it.

Things get rosier when you realise that Instagram users don’t resent brand intrusion. In fact, 65% feel flattered when a brand likes their post.

Additionally, marketers enjoy better engagement on Instagram, where users engage 18 times more than on Facebook, as shown in the image below.

User Interraction

Image via: Socialmediaexaminer

How attractive!

We know things might be a little tough on Facebook, which means that we need to do business differently on this particular platform.

So now that we have established the problem. What is the way out?

Glad you asked.

It is all in how you use the Facebook sales funnel.

What Is A Sales Funnel?

The Director of CRO at KlientBoost, Olivia, clearly explains what a sales funnel is. Detailed in the screenshot below, she describes it as the process of exhaustively understanding your prospects, getting information such as who they are and what they prefer, in order to develop a well informed marketing campaign.

Here is exactly what she expertly opines:

Olivia Klienboost Quote

Screenshot from: Klientboost

A sales funnel is the representation of a buyer’s journey. The steps that a prospect will take on a landing page or website during their journey which could result in them completing a desired action.

The result of this funnel is your customer buying your product, downloading your app, subscribing to a newsletter, or referring their friends to the business.

Sounds easy, right?

Well, it’s not!

A quick look at the diagram below shows just how much work is put in a conversion funnel.

Conversion Funnel

Image via: Klientboost

The truth is that the Facebook lot is hard to attract, marketwise. This means that heading right for the jugular, a bottom-of-funnel offer, will not cut it.

Instead, you need to build an efficient and creative sales funnel, which will move your prospects from one point to another, psychologically preparing them to click that CTA button.

Bottom line is, on Facebook:

(Marketing – sales funnel) = No prospect knowledge = No useful ads = NO MONEY

So, how do you create an effective Facebook sales funnel?

Let’s look at these 5 techniques.

5 Facebook Sales Funnel Techniques That Will Change How You Use Social Media Forever

1. Attract Using Segmented Content

As highlighted in the sales funnel representation above, the first stage is attracting strangers and turning them into prospects. This is done by using different kinds of content such as blog posts, general ads, webinars, videos, slideshows and infographics among other types of premium content.

In as much as you make sure that the content is high quality, relevant to the product you are promoting and can be found on your website, you need to creatively segment your content.

Why?

Fact is, different people in your audience are attracted to different, specific types of content. While blog posts in the past were all a marketer needed, the evolution of how information is relayed on the internet has also created niche markets for particular types of content, some of which are more popular than others.

What Is The Most Popular Type Of Content In Advertising?

Answer posts

Answer posts promise readers an explanation for phenomena, problems, or challenges.

Now, since human beings are naturally curious, they will engage with your post in order to find answers.

This is because, according to Edmund Burke, as reported in a 1757 study report, Psychology Of Curiosity, curiosity has a very sharp appetite that is easily satisfied, as described in the screenshot below.

Curiosity

It is actually from the same study, authored by George Loewenstein, where the term curiosity gap was coined. Basically, humans have an underlying need to fill their knowledge gaps, a trait that compels us to always find the missing information.

It is no wonder therefore, that curiosity-driven posts on Facebook drive the most engagement. In fact, compared to other similar sites, Upworthy drives the most engagement on Facebook by receiving 152% more likes than the rest, as demonstrated in the graph below.

Best Websites on Facebook

Image via: Adespresso

Let’s look at how another curiosity-driven post performs on Facebook:

Celebrities You Didnt Know

Image via: Adespresso

Do you notice how the blog post title has been crafted? Wouldn’t you want to know what celebrities are father and daughter?

RantHollywood got this aspect right, and their post generated not only likes, but also comments as well as shares.

Infographics

Infographics earn 3 times more engagement than any other type of content, especially when your audience is comprised of professionals.

Why?

  • They are visual content, which is usually shared more times than posts that lack visual elements
  • They save people time by condensing valuable information, which consequently makes it easier and faster for people to comprehend the relayed information.
  • Humans remember 65% of information when it is in form of visuals, making it easier for professionals to remember facts

As you focus on infographics, don’t forget about other types of visual content such as videos, which are responsible for over 74% of total internet traffic.

Research And Data-Backed Content

One blogger at Advertisemint knew that his audience adored posts geared towards advice on social media and marketing.  But out of all his posts, a particular one significantly blew up compared to the rest. Upon further analysis based on reader comments, he realised that his post became popular because it was well-researched and was data-backed.

His observation is bolstered by Neil Patel, who details that research on what competitors have done, and making content better by making sure that it is more detailed and actionable, has made him stay afloat in the business, as shown in the image below.

Neil Pateil Research

Screenshot via: Marketinginsidergroup

Content That Evokes Emotion

A New York Times study revealed that people share a story online for many reasons, such as bringing valuable and entertaining content with other people, to define themselves, self-fulfillment and getting word out on causes they care about.

These actions are triggered by the emotions that the posts they come across exude.

This begs the question, what are the most popular emotions on social media?

The piechart below tells us:

Popular Emotions Social Media

Image via: Okdork

Do you notice the top 3? Make sure your posts evoke awe, laughter and amusement. A great example is quizzes, which are popular because they share people’s identity and ego.

2. Target Audiences

Once you have segmented your content, it is now time to post your content  to the right audience.

The best audience is your warm audience, which comprises of your Facebook fans and people who have already interacted with your brand and who are bound to offer some sort of engagement. To widen your reach, and also test the waters, ensure that you also target prospects in your website retargeting list as an effort to warm them up.

Now, here is the trick:

To be successful, you need to begin analysis at this stage and ask yourself important questions. Yes, you have created different types of content, based on our advice above, which you expect to drive engagement.

But, in your case, which ones have driven the highest levels of engagement? Are they quizzes, videos, blog posts, infographics, or content that was full of research?

Why is this important?

Well, you will narrow down your focus. High engagement also means that your ‘cold’ audiences could be influenced by the actions of the warm audience, which is actively engaging with your post.

After this, move on and target lookalike audiences, a step that is easily done via the audiences section on Facebook. As a result, you will target people whose attributes are similar to the kind of audience you care about.

Reach People who Matter

Image via: netdna

Now that you have their attention:

Promote the best content to them, which is more likely to warm them up. At this point, they will be ready to move onto the next section of your sales funnel.

3. Remarket And Use Creative Lead Magnets

The truth is, your Facebook audience will not convert as fast and as easy as you expect. This means that even after warming them up, you need to remarket to them.

At this point, it is time to get them to your landing page or website and generate leads by getting their contact information. To do this, you will need to offer something of value in exchange.

Make sure that you have a great value proposition and clear call-to-actions, which also highlights the problem, and how to fix it.

You could offer a free webinar, e-book, subscription, or free software download. In case you are in doubt, please learn from these top 7 Facebook ad examples on irresistible lead magnets.

In addition to these creative lead magnets, you can remarket using Facebook pixel.

Facebook pixel

Facebook pixel is a code that you place on your website, in order to track conversions from Facebook ads. Even better, the tool allows you to remarket by helping you show targeted ads to people who have already visited your website.

The beauty is how specific remarketing can be, by showing people the exact ad of a product they abandoned at the shopping cart, for example. Basically, by learning their interest, the Facebook pixel will make your customers literally pick up from where they left off.

Please note:

While you fix this code on your website, make sure that it does not interfere with your original website code. If in doubt, feel free to get a detailed explanation on how to write a Facebook pixel code from Facebook’s dedicated page.

4. Create A Conversion Focused Autoresponder

Have you ever heard the famous marketing quote “money is in the list?”

Well, it’s true! You have warmed up your audience and enticed them enough to give you their contact information – now it’s time to go for the kill. There is no better way of doing it, than by nurturing a relationship via your email list.

To do this, simply use an auto-responder application like Mailchimp, which will send emails based on the criteria you’ve set.

Easy, right?

True, but the difference between the underdogs and experts come in how creatively they use the application.

To learn, let’s see what Neil Patel does.

As you will notice, he still takes it slow with his subscribers. He’s giving them enough time to decide as he sweetens the deal step by step, as seen in the image below:

Neil Patel Launch Series

Image via: Socialmediatoday

Do you notice how he uses time to his advantage? He adds bonuses bit by bit, and also sets an expiry date to make his prospects decide faster.

Once this is done, it is now time to sell.

5. Make The Final Sell

It is now time for the jugular. But the truth is, while you thought this is the easy part, it is actually the hardest. Remember this is a customer who has been wooed by free subscriptions among other offers, to discounts, and bonuses, as well as winning contests.

They are so used to spending so little, yet you now need them do pay top-dollar for your product or service.

What do you do?

Create a tripwire.

Instead of asking a new customer to buy your best products, you repurpose parts of the sale to solve a very specific problem that the buyer has. As you do this, you creatively ‘tease’ the person by showing them how much more their problem could be solved if they spent a little more. Basically, you are introducing them to your core product.

The result?

As much as they will not spend the intended $200 at once, breaking it up into 4 parts costing $50 each will psychologically prevent them from thinking that your product is expensive, and instead focus on the value you add with each purchase.

After this, what’s next?

Repeat all the steps, making sure that each cycle is specific to a particular line of products, for easier focus. You could even have monthly themes, which define your monthly Facebook sales funnel strategy.

Key Takeaways

Selling on Facebook is not easy, but with the creativity and patience, you can see a high conversion rate.

Simply use segmented content to attract the right audience, use Facebook audiences feature to customize your audience and attract lookalike audiences, generate creative Facebook ads with irresistible lead magnets while you remarket, create a conversion-focused auto responder, the way experts do, and then make the final sell, using the tripwire marketing technique.