Maybe it’s the ADHD in me, but I can never remember all the steps of the traditional sales funnel. You know, this one:
If you don’t know, a sales funnel is a representation of all the stages your customer will typically go through from discovery of your business (awareness), through to sales (action). It can be much more complicated than the one above and include stages like post purchase, but the four step funnel is the most common. Any sales funnel acts as a blueprint for your content, ideally you want content for each stage of the funnel with the ultimate goal of moving your customer down to purchasing. But it’s hard when you keep forgetting the stages and what the content should be!
Enter the simplified stage funnel!
This isn’t my idea, I honestly don’t remember where I found it. But it’s stuck in my brain better than the traditional one ever has. Maybe because instead of focusing on what the customer is experiencing, it’s focusing on what the purpose of the content is from the business owner’s perspective.
Content that falls under these categories truly is the only content that you need to grow on Instagram. But what does that include?
Growth Content
Sometimes I think of this content as ‘introductory’ content. Its purpose is to reach new or ‘cold’ followers and introduce them to you and your business.
It can include;
- Reels
- Trial reels
- Story times
- Giveaway posts
- Relatable posts
- Unpopular opinion posts
- Partnering with influencers or other businesses.
- Memes
Nurture content
This content is targeted towards your ‘warm’ audience. They follow you, but they’re not ready to buy yet. They still need some time to trust you and know with confidence that your offer is the right fit for them. The nurture stage is where a lot of traditional ‘value’ based content falls in the sales funnel.
Nurture content includes;
- Content that speaks to your ideal customer’s struggles
- Content that explains the features and benefits of your offer
- Outcome focused content
- Educational posts
- Posts with social proof
- Behind the scenes posts
- Tutorials
- Infographics
Sales content
Finally, we have sales content. If your nurture content has done its job, your audience should be ready to buy! Your sales content tells them how to buy and prompts them to take action. There can be some overlap between nurture and sales content, as you’ll see below.
Sales content can include:
- Content that speaks to your ideal customer’s struggles
- Content that shows the benefits of your offer
- Content that presents your offer as the solution to your target customer’s specific problems.
- Posts with social proof of results
- Special deals and limited offers
The most important part of sales content is that it contains a clear call to action that tells your hot audience the next step they need to take to buy! That can look like a call to DM you, comment a trigger word, or visit your website.
By planning and creating your content around each step of the sales funnel, you’re helping your audience of ideal customers move naturally towards the choice to buy while also building trust and connection.
If you’d like help with your social media strategy including Sales Funnels, or want someone to help you by managing your social media for you get in touch today!
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