“Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them” Kevin Stirtz, Author

The conversion funnel breaks down the process of starting with cold prospects – people who have no prior experience or engagement with your brand – and turning them into paying customers. This process is shaped like a funnel because the cold prospect starts at the top and and the idea is that there are five steps that buyers go through before they purchase.

Awareness

To become a choice you first need to become an option. The first thing you need to do is generate awareness – that means grabbing the attention of the people in your target market. This is initial contact, and the first impression your target market will have of your brand. You just want them to know you exist at this stage.

Methods for generating awareness:

1. Leaflets
2. Social Media
3. Word of mouth
4. loyalty program
5. Website

Engagement

Engaging can be any kind of communication with your target audience. This can be commenting on your social media post, phoning you, or speaking to you at an event. The important thing is that they are actively participating in communicating with you.

Ways people can communicate with you:

1. Website
2. Email
3. Telephone
4. Social media – comments and direct messages
5. Face to face in venues

Education

Once someone has heard about your business and has engaged, they need to be educated. You need to let them know why they should choose you. This is where you sell the benefits of classes. Part of our brand ethos is to educate our customers and target audience about the benefits of yoga for children. This should form a large part of your marketing strategy.

Where can we educate?:

1. Videos
2. Informative social media posts
3. Within classes to get repeat customers
4. website

Evaluation

At this stage the potential customer is weighing up their options. They are considering if the benefits you offer outweigh the competition. Remember your business is a high involvement decision, you need to give something extra to ensure people choose you.

How to persuade someone still evaluating their decision:

1. Social media – being consistent
2. Follow up messages/emails
3. send offer/incentive

Sale

Now you’re at the point of Sale, your prospect has decided you are the best option to invest their time and money into. But you need to instill confidence that they have made the right decision. Sales don’t end once someone has paid their money. This is ongoing and customers should always feel valued. When a customer feels valued they can offer so much more than one purchase. They provide you with repeat purchase, returning term after term showing customer loyalty, and referring friends.

Purchase support tools:

1. Social media updates
2. Testimonials
3. Email newsletters
4. Use of private groups – sense of community

Summary

You should now understand each step in the conversion funnel to convert prospects into customers. Now make sure you are using the correct tools at each stage in the process, to reflect the customer journey. your business requires a high involvement decision, this means prospects will spend much longer at the education and evaluation stage. Make this count, make it stand out, show off all of the benefits, shout about our awards and accreditations, share testimonials. You should have more than 1 tool at each stage of the funnel, remember not everyone will see all of your marketing strategy. Keep track. reflect on your previous marketing strategy, think of tools you have used at every stage, where can you improve, where did you not do so well? This could indicate where you have lost prospects.