Conversion Funnel

A conversion funnel (or sales funnel) is a stage model of the path from first contact to purchase. At every stage some prospects drop out and the funnel narrows. Messaging reduces exactly these drop-offs, because open questions are answered straight away in the chat.

What is a conversion funnel?

A conversion funnel, also called a sales funnel, describes a prospect’s journey in stages. The image of a funnel fits because many people go in at the top and only a few come out at the bottom as buyers. Some are lost at every stage.

A common model distinguishes four phases: awareness (the contact notices you), interest (they look into your offer), decision (they weigh it up) and action (they buy). Some models add a fifth phase: retention after the purchase.

The point of the model is to find weak spots. Where do you lose most people? Once you know that, you also know where an improvement has the biggest effect.

Where messaging reduces drop-offs

Most drop-offs come from open questions and hurdles that are too high. That is exactly where messaging comes in:

• Awareness: Click-to-WhatsApp ads lead straight into a conversation instead of a landing page that the user closes again.
• Interest and decision: questions are answered immediately in the chat. Someone who would have left the web shop stays in the conversation. That is the strength of two-way messaging.
• Action: no account, no long checkout. The purchase happens in the conversation, see conversational commerce.

Prospects who still hesitate at the decision stage can be brought back later through lead nurturing. So the funnel is not a one-way street. Lost contacts can come back in.

Example: an office furniture store

An office furniture store in Columbus, Ohio advertises height-adjustable desks. The classic funnel looked like this: 1,000 ad clicks, 400 visits to the product page, 60 baskets, 18 purchases. Almost everyone dropped out between basket and purchase, mostly over questions about delivery times and assembly.

With messaging, the prospect now clicks into a WhatsApp chat. The question “Does the desk arrive assembled?” is answered within a minute. In this scenario the result is 1,000 clicks, 520 conversations and 71 purchases instead of 18. The same ad budget brings almost four times as many sales, because the drop-off at the critical stage disappears. That also lowers the customer acquisition cost considerably.

Improving your conversion funnel with SendSeven

SendSeven is a unified messaging platform for WhatsApp, SMS, email, Instagram, Messenger, live chat, Telegram and browser push. You catch prospects where they would otherwise drop out and continue the conversation in a unified inbox.

AI automation clears up routine questions around the clock, and your team takes over the tricky cases. Automated sequences bring hesitant contacts back. That turns a leaky funnel into a tight one. GDPR-compliant and hosted in the EU (Frankfurt).