DESIGNING THE BUYER CENTRIC FUNNEL
THE CURRENT SCENARIO
Early morning, while rushing to the office, I was searching for a rickshaw. After spending around 15 mins, I failed to find any. This problem might have been faced by most of us in the past. But I believe that every problem has a solution, and if there is no solution then someone is working on building an effective solution. So here is the solution packed in my trousers’ pocket. Uber/Ola app installed on my phone comes to the rescue. Booking a cab and reaching the office easily without any hassle has become a norm and hence millions of users are registered on these apps.
Why are these apps popular?
The answer lies in the fact that the developers understood the inconvenience caused to people while finding suitable rides and developed a user-friendly application to connect riders with local drivers at a reasonable price. Cut to the point, “they reached the bottom of the funnel”.
BUYER-CENTRIC FUNNEL FOR YOUR PRODUCT
Designing a customer-centric funnel will always be one of the most important steps in product development. The sales funnel concept has prevailed since ages.“A funnel in simple words is the path walked by the customer from being a normal visitor for just exploring the product to becoming a loyal customer of the product forever”. Understanding the customer perspective is essential while developing an effective funnel as hundreds of people visit various e-commerce sites daily but there are few which actually do a transaction on the page.
How to design the best funnel for your customers?
Understand the consumer’s attitude
In order to understand the perspective of the customer, it is necessary to address the issues faced by the customer, the loopholes in the current solution which is bothering the consumer, their areas of interest and understanding their concerns and which parameters influence their decision. The base of every relationship is understanding and trust between the two parties involved in it. Similarly, your audience will eventually gravitate towards ideas that solve their pain point and hence understands them. E.g.: LIC’s (Life Insurance Corporation of India) campaign with the slogan “Zindagi Ke Saath Bhi, Zindagi Ke Baad Bhi”.They have rightly sympathized with the customer’s affinity towards their respective families and worked on providing facilities that benefit the family even when the person is no more with them. Building an emotional connection can bring you closer to your customers.
Attract the consumer by grabbing their attention
One can always try some schemes to attract the customer. You need to make sure that your deal is so appealing that the customer is compelled to use your product because this will be the first introduction of your product in the life of your future viable customer. According to forentrepreneurs, catchy advertisements, free trial products, demos explaining the benefits of your products, etc are some of the ways to give a first-hand impression of your content. Eg: Special offers and free products can influence the customer in trying out stuff.
Snatch the opportunity to welcome a loyal customer
Ensure that the customer is fully satisfied by your venture and becomes an ardent customer of the product. This final stage must be carried out smoothly without causing any difficulty to the user while purchasing the product. A happy customer of a company will always be devoted to its ventures. E.g.: While buying TATA salt, no one will doubt the quality as TATA has built a reputed brand name in the market by providing the best quality.
WHAT IS FLIP THE FUNNEL?
This term implies retaining current customers to gain new ones. In simple words, it means to build new customers on top of old customers. Sometimes it happens that in the run of reaching out to more people, you tend to forget the loyal customers which have been part of your family for ages and sooner or later start losing them. This can be achieved by recognizing the valuable customers and providing them with free services or acknowledging them how their absence matters the company. Referral system can do wonders in getting more customers on board. According to Nielsen, 92% of respondents trusted referrals from people they knew.
Analyze the data and behavior of the consumer
If the user is an avid visitor of your product, you can provide him discounts or offers which the customer will spread through word of mouth. This will cause lead generation as more people will become familiar with your product. Investing in a loyal customer will provide good returns in the form of new customers with less expenditure. The Lifetime Value for new referral customers is 16% higher than non-referrals. Try to acquire more information about their choices and build models to satisfy their needs. Flipping the funnel requires patience and calm because you are eying for a long term investment and the right opportunity to flip the funnel will grab more customers to your venture.
CONCLUSION
Building the right funnel requires proper market study and sheer determination towards providing the best to the customer .“When your sales funnel focuses on the betterment of the customer then eventually your customers will always tend to have a strong engagement with your products.”
#Aanchalogy
