A sales funnel is an effective marketing strategy. A visitor arrives at your site (cold lead) and eventually is turned into a paying customer. Generally, people arrive at a website looking for a way to solve a problem or fill a need. The sales funnel strategy provides a solution that starts by gaining the visitor’s trust. Once that trust is built and the visitor feels comfortable buying from you, that visitor (lead) is converted to a customer. 

Build a Sales Pipeline 
As an internet marketer, one of the smartest things you can do is to create a sales funnel. To be successful online you are going to need a steady flow of customers who wish to purchase products from you repeatedly. To turn prospects into customers you need to prove that you can solve their problems or fill their needs, and offer value. 

Have the Tools You Need
You should start by doing some market research to ensure your niche is a profitable one. Your passion doesn’t always translate into profits. After you confirm there’s a market you need to determine what will make people want to buy what you have to offer so that you can build a landing page that works. What is it that will make them want to click the buy button? 

The Front End of the Sales Funnel
Some like to sell their product(s) on the landing page. Others like to collect email addresses, build a list, and sell to them later using an autoresponder. You can do both. Every sales funnel is unique to its niche. You decide what you feel will work best. 

The Back End of the Sales Funnel
The back end is where you will sell the most products to customers who are already loyal to you. This is only about 2% of the total people who enter your sales funnel, but this 2% will buy the most products because they trust you and what you offer makes them happy because it solves a problem or fills a need. 

Not all sales funnels are created the same and not all good sales funnels are created quickly. It takes time for you to build those relationships that will lead to success. You need to test the natural progression that your product takes to sell and you should reevaluate this regularly to make sure that your process is still working. When you learn how to convert your visitors from leads to paying customers, you will have a successful online business to enjoy.