what I mean when I say "funnel"

Hey there!

“That’s not really what I mean by funnel.”

I was talking to a service provider about her content strategy recently, when she stopped me after I had used the phrase “sales funnel.”

She didn’t think she had a sales funnel, she said.

“I don’t really want to have things like endless upsells and downsells and stuff like that, and I’m not even sure how they’d fit my business.”

That’s when I explained that how I view funnels…is…not that.

And since I use the phrase in emails and stuff, too, I figured it’d be helpful to give you the schpiel I gave her.

See, I didn’t learn/get into content and marketing through the entrepreneurship/business owner space.

Outside of that industry/bubble, “sales funnel” usually means something much less specific.

(And less cringey. 🙃)

If you ever see me talking or writing about a “sales funnel,” all I mean is a guided, strategic process for turning strangers into customers.

Sure, that can mean a Facebook ad or blog post, leading to a digital product sales page, leading to a checkout page with an order bump, leading to an upsell page.

But that is just one super, SUPER specific example of the general process.

There’s so much more that a sales funnel can be.

It can be an email form followed by a series of emails.

It can be a referral program.

It can be an appointment booking form, plus the reminder emails and appointment/call itself.

It can even be the layout of a retail store.

Really.

Those small, cheap items—like magazines or individual snacks and sodas—that border the checkout lines? Those small "impulse buys" that increase the total order price of someone already buying something?

Tell me order bumps aren't the same thing!

There are tons of different models for a general sales funnel, and the best one to "follow" (loosely, of course) will depend on your offer type and business model.

For example, in SaaS, there's the Pirate Funnel (because the acronym of the different steps is AAARRR 🤣).

But most of them can be mapped to either Eugene Schwartz's stages of customer awareness or Elias St. Elmo Lewis's (what a name!) purchase funnel.

In the stages of awareness model, there are 5 different steps of the buying process or funnel:

• Unaware: where someone usually starts.
• Problem aware: they notice they’re experiencing a problem, but may not know the full scope of it, what’s causing it, or how to solve it. For example, if you’re selling a computer mouse, at this point they notice their existing computer mouse makes their hand cramp after a few hours of use and put some effort into finding out why.
• Solution aware: at this point, they better understand the problem and their general options for solving it. To continue the example, at this point they’ve realized they should get a mouse with a more vertical design, but hasn’t looked at yours yet.
• Product aware: at this point, the person is not only aware of what type of solution they need, but are looking at specific products that offer that solution. In our example, at this point, maybe they’ve looked at a few specific styles and brands, including yours.
• Most aware: in this final stage, they’re not only aware of your product (or service), they know a fair deal about it. They’re considering it seriously enough that they’ve looked into the details, but haven’t made a purchase yet.

The purchase funnel model is pretty similar, just less specific:

• Top of the funnel: this is basically the unaware and problem aware stages, where someone is becoming aware of their problem.
• Middle of the funnel: this is similar to solution aware, when someone is considering their different options for solving their problem.
• Bottom of the funnel: this is like product and most aware, where they’re deciding which solution to go with.

Notice how at no point in those explanations did I use “tripwire,” “bump,” or any other online business jargon, because they’re not necessary for a sales funnel.

They’re part of ONE type of sales funnel for ONE type of business model, hardly the be-all-end-all of sales funnels for all businesses. 🙄

But if you spend a lot of time in the online business / entrepreneurship space, being shown and told that it’s the only thing that can work, it can be hard to remember that.

So here’s a reminder if you need it:

It doesn’t matter what your funnel looks like, what matters is whether it works.

But now that I mention it, I am curious:

What does your customer journey / acquisition process / sales funnel look like? Hit reply and tell me about how it works (and how it's working, if you're up for it)!