If you’ve ever tried to sell something (or worked for someone who’s trying to sell something) then you’ve definitely come across the term “sales funnel.” This mystical cone of making a sale appears to be the end-all-be-all if you want to nurture your audience so they’ll feel comfortable buying from you. And maybe you’ve even taken a shallow dive into a Google search to figure out what the heck it is, but were met with marketing jargon you A) needed a dictionary to understand and B) don’t really care about that much anyway. You just want to make a sale, dang it.

Never fear! We’re here to break down what a funnel is, why it’s helpful, how to do it, and maybe most importantly, if it’s worth your time to create.

What It Is

A marketing or purchase funnel describes each step of your customer’s journey, all the way from just hearing about your business to actually buying something from you. While each customer’s journey is varied and unique, a funnel acts as a simplified framework to lead them where you want them to go.

How to Make One

There are a couple of different ways to categorize your funnel. Below are two of the most popular.

This is an AIDA funnel. It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

This is a ToFu (top of funnel), MoFu (middle of funnel), and BoFu (bottom of funnel) model. We probably like this one best because its name makes us laugh.

Whichever categories you use, the idea is the same.

1. You introduce people to your product/service and let them know how it’ll solve their problems. You want a lot of people in this part of the funnel—you’re looking for high numbers here.
2. Next, you’re encouraging your audience to identify their problem so they can begin researching what’s right for them. This is where you support them with education and maintaining your reputation as an authority in your field so they know they can trust you.
3. Then things get fun, because next, they become customers. They’ve researched and they’re hot to trot (er, ready to buy). Your job here is to make that as easy as possible, probably through a well-designed landing page.
4. But wait, there’s more. A customer’s journey shouldn’t end after they’ve clicked the Check Out button—after all, they’re way more likely to purchase from you again in the future, so let’s ride that high. Post-purchase nurturing might include loyalty programs, great customer service, or bonus content that supports their purchase. Find what works best for your business and then get out there and make those customers feel special.

Why It’s Helpful

A funnel can help you understand your audience better, find answers to why they *aren’t* buying, and inform decisions about how to change your approach to help them get to the sale with fewer obstacles in the way. How does it do these things exactly? Glad you asked.

Each part of your funnel can be broken down to reveal secret information that’ll help you shape your customer’s journey. For instance, you might notice that your webpage views have skyrocketed (woah, great job on top-of-funnel content release!), but people aren’t actually clicking links to learn more about your products (no sweat, time to put more muscle behind middle-of-funnel education tactics). Maybe it turns out people are making it to your check-out page (sweet!) but then they bounce without giving you their credit card info (definitely a sign to streamline your landing page).

Do You Need It?

We’d bet that even if you didn’t *know* you were doing a funnel, you’re probably already doing a funnel. It just makes sense when you think about it logically, right? You throw a whole lot out there, find people who like what you’re doing, and then cater to them. So good on you for basically being a CMO at this point.

But what we like about getting intentional and strategizing an actual funnel is the plethora of information that comes your way from it. You can see how each part of the funnel is performing, so you can adapt your tactics to make it even more efficient. And if there’s anything we like as entrepreneurs, it’s saving time and energy while pulling in profit. So we say yes, the learning possibilities and ability to streamline is definitely worth your time to develop dedicated funnels.