The document discusses how the concept of the "sales funnel" was developed over a century ago but seems perfectly suited for digital strategies. It describes the online "buyer's journey" through the funnel, from awareness to purchase, which can now potentially occur entirely within the marketer's sphere of influence online. It then provides details on how the online purchase funnel works, from drawing visitors in through inbound marketing, engaging them with informative content, carefully introducing the brand and shopping experience, and making the purchase process easy and reassuring to build customer loyalty.

1. The "Sales Funnel" Seems Almost
Created for Digital Strategies

2. A tried and true conceptual framework for marketing, the "sales funnel" or
"purchase funnel," has enjoyed a kind of renaissance. Not surprising.
Although articulated more than a century ago, the "sales funnel" feels as
though it were invented to illuminate e-commerce.
The online store potentially exercises control over the "buyer's journey"—
another reborn concept—that no brick-and-mortar store ever achieved. The
"funnel," of course, is a metaphor for the guided steps ("journey") by which
a potential buyer becomes aware of a product or service, becomes attentive
to it, appreciates its value, seeks out additional information, chooses a place
that sells it, and buys it.
(We pause here, but that is not the end of the funnel in
"holistic" or "end-to-end" marketing, which goes on to
ensure customer satisfaction, foster customer loyalty,
and nurture an enduring relationship with the brand.)

3. The "take away" for marketers is that this entire journey through the funnel
can occur online. That means: Potentially within the circumference of
influence of the marketer.

4. A Trip through the Online Purchase Funnel
Some brief comments on the architecture of the
online purchase funnel:
1. "Inbound" marketing, which tends to characterize the Web, means
drawing potential buyers into the funnel by offering information, ideas, a
trustworthy source of advice. The potential buyer is not driven into the
online store of a forceful sales pitch, but drawn into a relationship.
Social media, skillful SEO, a
well-designed "landing page"
on a website: All mediate this
process.

5. A Trip through the Online Purchase Funnel
2. The process continues by
holding the visitor's attention
with genuinely informative
information, credibly
researched and presented,
with the use of visuals (today,
especially, video) to make the
information highly palatable.

6. A Trip through the Online Purchase Funnel
3. Introduction to the brand and the online shopping experience are
carefully handled at every step. For example, the homepage of Netflix is not
about films, per se, but how the reader faces no risk in trying the service.
Clearly, Netflix is convinced that
one step through the tunnel
involves strong reassurance that
you won't be trapped in it by
renewable monthly fees.

7. A Trip through the Online Purchase Funnel
4. Even the online visitor to a website has a choice where to buy the
product. Thus, there is an art to making the act of buying online easy,
attractive, and reassuring. One sales funnel expert, for example, says: Keep
the "buying" page—checkout, the "buy button"—looking like the rest of the
website.
Visitors become uneasy if they
feel they have been sent
somewhere else to make the
purchase when it is the
website that has gained their
trust.

8. A Trip through the Online Purchase Funnel
5. The online art of converting a sale into customer loyalty deserves a
separate article, but, again, the online store has a built-in advantage. When
the buyer has traversed the tunnel—from interest to attention to trust to a
decision to buy—that trust also wins the seller the buyer's email address—
still by far the single most valuable item in the cyber shopping world.

9. A Trip through the Online Purchase Funnel
An impressive arsenal of data-backed insights, useful tools, design principles, and
techniques have evolved to realize the full potential of the online sales funnel.
Since 2009, Real-Time Outsource has been "showing the love" for helping brands,
businesses, agencies, destinations, and non-profit associations maximize every part of
their social communities.