What is a Marketing Funnel?
One of the most frequently asked questions in ALL businesses is how the heck do you get paying customers into your business? I totally love to teach on marketing, and it’s by far the most fun for me and totally my jam! Part of a great marketing strategy is having the right sales funnel in place for to turn your audience into paying customers. Maybe this is something you’ve never thought about, heard of, or even considered, but it’s the exact journey every single one of your clients go through before every becoming a paying client. There are lots of versions of marketing or sales funnels out there today, but I’m going to give you a super simplified version of the funnel that only has 3 sections to it and these 3 sections are the journey your customer goes through from not knowing you exist, to considering you as their lash artist, to then becoming a paying client. Those 3 sections are defined as:
- The Awareness Level
- The Interest Level
- The Desire Level
The Awareness Level
If you are your city or town’s best-kept secret… you likely need to spend a lot of your time and energy in the awareness level, especially when you’re in the beginning phases. Awareness level marketing would consist of Facebook or Instagram Ads that target people who don’t know who you are like a “lookalike” audience or a custom audience you create with the Facebook Ads Manager program. SEO would also be a part of the awareness funnel as you are trying to get seen on a search engine results page. Trade shows, direct mail campaigns, radio ads, handing flyers out in a mall parking lot…. All are part of the AWARENESS LEVEL.
Your goal for this level is just getting the word out that you exist, that you are available to solve a problem for someone (i.e. sad lashes), and to introduce your business and brand. You need to make as many people AWARE of your business so that a portion of those people will continue down the funnel.
The Interest Level
Now that people are AWARE that your business exists… you want to start adding value to their awareness so that you become a part of their “short list” to be considered as their place to book an appointment. This stage can take seconds to months to evaluate if your business is the right fit for their needs. INTEREST level is marketing mainly your social media platforms. You can provide
- educational content
- FAQs
- Blog posts
- social media posts about the benefits of lashes
- email newsletters
- before and after photos
- behind the scenes of your lash biz
- a glimpse into your personal life as a mom or an entrepreneur or a women’s shelter volunteer…whatever will help them make a decision to buy
You can even teach people how to choose a solution to their problem, such as how to find a good lash artist, what is normal for lashes and what is not normal, what regulations or minimum licensing or certification in your area are, what should they be looking for when looking at a lash artist’s work, etc.
Your goal for the INTEREST LEVEL of the funnel is to Build a relationship and work on gaining trust… provide value but don’t sell too much. When you start selling too much on your social media pages, this is how your feed starts to look like a yard sale with “sale” or “discount” or $20 off special.
The Desire Level
This is the group who wants what you have to offer, but they just need that final push to commit to becoming a paying customer. They are the ones researching you and your business specifically because they’re considering using your services. This is also where you will lose a big chunk of potential customers if all you give them is pricing as their decision making criteria or pricing as the first factor to consider and you’re not the cheapest in town. Your main marketing platform for the desire level is your WEBSITE! This is where the most amount of information (aside from what’s in your head) should be wrapped up in a pretty branded bow for a potential customer to eat up and get excited about. This is where you close the sale. You’ve spent a lot of time, energy and money leading all kinds of traffic to your website and your website should be the one to close the deal. 
Your Goal in the desire level is to get your customer to take an action like book an appointment, send a message, or call.
- You should be clearly communicating what makes you unique and special, and what value your business/services provide
- You can use this opportunity to subtly sell against your competition
- Include Testimonials as social proof
- and MOST IMPORTANTLY… how you are going to solve their problem!
The value of what we, as lash artists, sell is the problem we solve, not the products or services we sell.
The better you can address how you solve a client’s problem, the quicker they will go through the funnel and the less sensitive to pricing they will be.
What’s Next in the Funnel?
There are two other phases of the funnel I’ll just touch on and not dive into the details of, but once they’ve become a customer in the desire level, you’ll want to next move them into the Loyalty Level where they are committed to you as their lash artist, and then after that is the Advocacy Level where they become a raving fan of yours and do the marketing for you! That is the journey your current and potential clients go on to become a paying client of yours. There are all sorts of strategies and tips on how to market to the various levels of the funnel and guidance. So I can provide content you NEED in your marketing, I’d love if you could answer this quick 1-question survey! It’ll probably take you less than 2 minutes to complete, but will make a huge difference in helping me serve you with relevant content and help pave the path for the future of The Lashpreneur! Please comment, share or subscribe to ensure as a community we are being taken more seriously in our businesses and join me every Wednesday at 1:00pm Pacific time on The Lashpreneur Facebook page for more inspiration, tips, and strategies to start, build and grow a thriving lash business. Have a great one Tara Walsh, The Lashpreneur
Turn That Frown Upside Down!
This Checklist Will Help to Ensure You Are Setting Your Lash Business Up For Success With EVERY. SINGLE. CLIENT.
Subscribe to The Lashpreneur newsletter to receive regular updates and tips about starting, building & growing your lash biz and get instant access to your Client Experience Checklist!
We take your privacy seriously. No spam ever. See our privacy policy for how we use your info.
Turn That Frown Upside Down!
This Checklist Will Help to Ensure You Are Setting Your Lash Business Up For Success With EVERY. SINGLE. CLIENT.
Subscribe to The Lashpreneur newsletter to receive regular updates and tips about starting, building & growing your lash biz and get instant access to your Client Experience Checklist!
We take your privacy seriously. No spam ever. See our privacy policy for how we use your info.
