Your ability to create an effective sales funnel is what determines the life or death of your business. It is the foundation of what attracts and converts new customers and keeps them coming back.
While there are many ways to try to capture leads for your ecommerce store sales funnel, Pinterest offers strategic benefits that can’t be matched this year.
The sales power for ecommerce stores that comes from the combination of keyword search, viral sharing and striking visuals found on Pinterest can’t be beat. The increasing cost and lack of targeting with Facebook ads and the time commitment required for most social media makes them less than ideal.
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How to Capture Leads for a Sales Funnel
So how do most businesses go about capturing the interest of people and getting them into their funnel?
Getting people potentially interested in your products and services into the top (the widest part) of your funnel is a key part of growing your business. This can be done a variety of ways.
Facebook ads are an easy way to reach out, especially with “cold” traffic, but this avenue has become very costly and less effective these days.
Other options available include blogging, vlogging, podcasting, online forums, search engine options like Google and YouTube SEO and Pinterest, and social media like the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Your goal is to find targeted leads. The days of aimlessly throwing out a big net in hopes of getting a handful of bites are over. There are two distinct methods of directing traffic to your pages. There is paid traffic and organic traffic.
A lot of ecommerce businesses are active on social media, but many don’t do well because they don’t accept that most people do not log in to their social sites to be heavily sold to. It is important to recognize this fact and the reality that your social media posts don’t stay visible very long.
You Can’t Count on Facebook Ads for Affordable Leads
Most coaches and so-called gurus have been promoting paid Facebook ads for capturing leads for years. Many of them keep promoting this option even though Facebook is not able to provide you with the same type of targeted niches due to legal and political issues.
So as their ability to get your ad in front of just the right audience has withered away, their prices have continued to skyrocket.
Here is the thing you need to know about Facebook advertising – it is auction based. Ever been to an auction? Those with deep pockets generally go home with the prize.
So businesses with bigger advertising budgets get the best prices and pay less for each click. This makes the price you pay higher and your ability to reach your target more difficult.
The days when you could just take a chance and budget $5 per day in Facebook advertising are long gone. Facebook ads used to offer small businesses something close to a level playing field with larger corporations, but it is not so level any longer.
It is not unusual to hear of businesses paying between $15 and $40 cost per thousand (CPM) – a very large increase over just a couple of years ago.
Don’t let someone tell you how easy FB advertising is. There are so many factors to consider, with prices that are seasonally adjusted, different for men and women and between younger and older audiences. It is not for the faint of heart, those without a clear strategy or businesses with a slim bank account.
Pinterest to the Ecommerce Business Rescue!
Why is Pinterest an ideal site for ecommerce businesses? Well, it is a search engine where people look for and find the things they want to buy to make their lives better.
It is more like Google than it is any of the usual social media sites. People on Pinterest use keywords to search for something to learn more about or purchase.
But here’s the main thing – sales increase dramatically when you connect keyword search with striking visuals and an easy and fun to use organization system. That is at the core of what Pinterest offers and it is ideal for ecommerce stores.
Pinterest users are planning for the future, which means they’re in discovery mode. They come to Pinterest to search for a product or service that can help with their problem or opportunity.
They don’t have to be tricked or talked into it, which means you can get more people in your funnel who are motivated to see your product or service.
There are a lot of misconceptions on the size and scope of Pinterest. That’s good for you because they are going to keep growing. Predicted to top $1billion in ad revenue by 2020, Pinterest is still an under-utilized platform that's growing daily.
Pinterest started out nearly a decade ago as a place where handicrafters, lifestyle bloggers and home chefs came together. Not any longer!
Today Pinterest is a dynamic website where people go to research, learn, compare, get inspired and purchase if they find something that delivers a benefit in their lives. A large portion of the marketing world hasn’t yet discovered how Pinterest has evolved to deliver leads and that works to your benefit.
Pinterest is an ideal site for ecommerce stores to increase awareness and sales
- Fifty percent of people on Pinterest make a purchase after seeing a Promoted Pin and 67% say they’ve discovered a new brand or product from content on the network.
- As of last year, 40% of Pinterest users have a household income of over $100k. Your business is missing out if you're not already using this platform to generate qualified leads.
- Around 93% of Active Pinners use Pinterest to plan purchases online. Creating content for various stages of the buyer's journey can help capture these users and nurture them along the sales funnel.
- Given that Pinterest has somewhere around 200 million users this year, the numbers of people you can reach is staggering.
Click to read next: How to REALLY Promote Your Ecommerce Store on Pinterest
The Magic Starts When Your Pinterest Sales Funnel Lead Engine is Ready to Roll
Landing Page: Once the Pinterest lead engine for your sales funnel is ready, you’ll also want to create top-notch landing pages. Think of your landing pages as your potential customers’ first impression of you. A landing page should contain relevant information about your product or service with a clear call to action.
A landing page should be visually appealing and include a few key product or service features to up your chances of capturing customer information or motivate them to go to your product page. It also offers an opportunity to provide them with a lead magnet (or freebie) to capture their email for upcoming communications.
Email Auto-Responder Series: So hopefully you will see new leads coming in and start to feel overwhelmed. It is very difficult to reach out to every lead one-by-one in a timely manner and guide all of them down your sales funnel.
This is where auto-responder emails will save you and keep your leads on that conversion conveyor. It will enable you to send preset emails to leads over a set period of time. You can personalize them to be sent based on certain triggers — actions taken by individuals such as how many times they’ve visited your site or what steps they’ve taken.
Blog Content: Adding blog content with links to actionable landing or product pages is one of the best ways to show exactly how adept you are in your industry. Blogs can help you attract audiences with relevant information, educate them, and guide them to either sign up for your mailing list or go to your product listings.
Whether you are looking to build an active list of email customers (it’s the best way to prepare for the future) or just drive people to your product pages, Pinterest has a lot to offer.
