Are you looking for better ways to increase conversions at every stage of your sales funnel? Well, in this article, we'll walk you through the 4 different ways to make your sales funnel convert better. Before we dive into the ways to make your sales funnel convert better, let's get to know about the sales funnel.
also known as a revenue funnel or purchase funnel or sales process, it's a process where a prospect goes through their first interaction with your business until they become a paying customer or client, in simple words, its a conceptual framework used to identify where your prospects are in the process of making a purchase decision. The widest point is at the top, where all levels of potential customers enter the funnel and the narrowest point is at the bottom, where customers make their final purchase decision are turned into sales and this repeats for each customer.
The central adage of the sales funnel is that attract the audience who are unfamiliar with your business, engage those who now know you exist, educate those committed to making a purchase, convert customers who are ready to buy, and re-engage your core customers who have already made a purchase.
Well, whatever marketing tactics you use to acquire traffic, half of your prospects won't be ready to convert at the initial stages and it's where sales funnel optimization comes in. Without optimizing all the prospects in the funnel you could lose prospects who could have turned into paying customers. That's why it's an important part of the sales and marketing strategy to know how to better each of the stages of the sales funnel.
It gives you an edge over your competitors by allowing you to identify the right marketing strategy for the right audience at a particular stage in their purchase journey.
Typically four stages exist within a sales funnel AIDA(Awareness, Interest, Decision, Action) representing the different mindsets of what prospects go through on the journey to becoming a customer.
Give your audience content that shows off your thought leadership and expertise. Create awareness through blogging, social networking & publishing, PPC campaigns, and offline action.
Have a USP (unique selling point) once they become familiar with your business, engage them by educating or informing them what the perfect solution looks like, and how your offering could meet their need.
Normally at this stage customers will be specifically considering things like the quality of your product or services and price, use social proof to show your customers that they are receiving the most suitable purchase at the best price.
It's the stage where your prospect takes action and makes a purchase from you and becomes your customer. Offer them a demo or trial of your service or product such that the prospect confirms their decision that you are right for them.
Now that we know what's a sales funnel and its importance, let's get to know the 4 ways in which you can optimize your sales funnel to help make it convert better.
Yes, the same old very first step in customer acquisition, without knowing enough about your audience, how you can optimize your sales funnel right. So before you begin to create your sales funnel understand your target audience, the more you know about your prospects, the better you can market to them. Use market explorer to get a better understanding of your market, audience interests, key demographics, and get to know the problems they're seeking solutions for. Also understand your competitors, using traffic analytics tools to get insight into your competitor's traffic sources.
You need to build relationships and earn trust from your prospects to nurture them through your sales funnel and to achieve it you must have the accurate email address of your targeted prospects. If your prospects are willing to share their email address with you it's one of the first signs that they are open to building a relationship with your business and have an interest in your offering. As you will be creating compelling content at both the awareness and interest stages, this can be a great opportunity to capture email addresses using a visible sign-up form with highly effective content, but make sure that you clearly state what they can expect if they sign up. Use Engaging Media to Stand out
Once you get your prospect's attention, you need to work harder to sustain this attention and stand out from the crowd by helping your prospects to know more about your product and by helping them in knowing whether your product is right for them. Use bespoke imagery(images, videos, AR, etc) and content that truly stands out to help your prospects explore, connect, and understand more your products and services using engaging media.
Building any relationship is usually based around trust and trust plays a major role in the success of your sales funnel, you must ease your customers with valid social proof. Nowadays it is easier to collect reviews of your business, use it and display the reviews along with the ratings on all your web presences, as research shows 90% of customers look at ratings before looking into your business. Also, collect written or video testimonials from your customers and add your customer success stories, as this is a trust-building exercise to showcase how you stand out against your competitors.
Implementing these ways could shape your sales funnel towards the betterment for that you must understand what a sales funnel is, how you can improve it, and better your business goal. If you don't then your sales funnel you will unnecessarily lose prospects to your competitors.