A sales funnel is the journey a person takes from first discovering you to becoming a buyer, and then a repeat collector. It is called a funnel because many people enter at the top and a smaller number reach the bottom.
The stages, in art terms:
- Awareness: someone discovers your work, usually through social media.
- Interest and engagement: they follow you, watch your content, and connect with your story.
- Owned connection: they join your email list, giving you a direct line to them.
- Conversion: they buy during a print drop.
- Loyalty: they buy again and tell others.
Why it matters to you:
- Each stage leaks. People drop off at every step, and your job is to plug those leaks rather than only pour in more traffic.
- It clarifies where your problem really is. Few followers is an awareness problem; followers who never buy is a conversion problem.
- Email is the crucial middle of the funnel. Capturing emails turns fleeting social attention into an audience you can sell to again and again.
What to do next:
- Map your own funnel: how people find you, how they join your list, how they buy.
- Always give people a next step. When you are not selling, the call to action is to join your email list; during a drop, it is to buy.
- Use time-limited drops with clear urgency to convert the interest you have built.
- Measure each stage so you can see where people fall away and fix that step first.