According to a 2013 report by Salesforce, 68% of companies have not identified a sales funnel. In that same report, it says 79% of leads are never converted into sales. Could there be a link?
If you haven’t paid attention to or even understand your sales funnel, it’s high time you did. It basically defines, in stages, the journey your customer makes from discovering you and your product to actually buying it. Each stage is an opportunity for you to ensure the customer progresses to the next one.
What are the stages typically?
- Awareness
- Interest and Evaluation
- Desire
- Action
This is true that for a lot of businesses, leads that enter this sales funnel don’t always make it out the other end. If you don’t have an understanding of the funnel, it can be hard to pinpoint where exactly the problem is occurring.
But with these stages, you can do a better job of finding out where you’re losing your customers the most. This calls for optimizing your sales funnel so that maximum leads turn into sales.
Four Stages of Sales Funnel Optimization
Before we talk about optimizing the different levels of sales funnels, you need to be realistic about it. Not all leads will convert, but those numbers can be increased, giving your business the boost it needs.
Stage 1: Creating Awareness
The awareness stage is crucial, and perhaps the most challenging. With so many competitors, attracting potential customers can be a tedious task. So if your leads numbers are low, you need to optimize this stage of the sales funnel.
High-quality, valuable content can make visitors proceed to the next stage of the sales funnel from the awareness stage. Remember, when users search for a solution to a problem, they will likely go with the option that provides the best solution.
How can you be that option? These are some of the ways to get user attention and have them on board.
- Solution-oriented answers
- How-to videos
- Research-backed reports
- Customer testimonials
Take a look at Brian Dean, for instance. The guy is a Guru in SEO, and all the only thing that earned him such a huge reputation is his willingness to share knowledge. Another magician named Neil Patel needs no introduction when it comes to giving back what he’s earned.
That said, it’s not about implementing sales tactics – discounts, special offers, and the likes. You have to build your reputation as a problem solver, someone who is trustworthy enough.
Stage 2: Retain Interest (Landing Page)
In order to retain your visitors and their interest, you need a solid landing page that provides them the information they are looking for. The kind of content you’re using on your landing page, be it a video or an article or even a simple copy, has to be excellent to retain the visitor’s attention.
Why are landing pages so important? How can you make your landing pages irresistible? These stats offer more than just figures
- 9.7% is the average conversion rate for landing pages
- Of all the mobile visitors, 80% focus on the top of the landing pages
- 90% of those who read your headlines will go ahead to see your CTA
- Businesses with 30+ landing pages generate seven times more leads than those with less than ten landing pages.
- Most top landing pages are optimized for mobile devices. That’s precisely 86%.
- If you reduce the number of form fields, you may boost conversion up to 120%
There are tools you can use to optimize your landing page. It should also be designed in a way that it makes it easy for the visitor to proceed. The balance of the amount of information is precarious. Too little and your visitor goes away. Too much and your visitor is overwhelmed.
Stage 3: Desire to Purchase
In the Desire stage, the visitor is probably on your product page. He evaluates all the aspects to make the final call. He or she needs that final little nudge to go all the way with the sale. The price, the features, and the benefits all should be clear to the potential customer.
One of the best techniques to convince customers is to use testimonials. And why not? 92% of online customers want to read testimonials before they decide to purchase any product.
People respond to testimonials from other customers or even numbers. This is the reason why customer testimonials have an 89% effectiveness rating, which is the highest.
You could add some of the following features to the product page:
- Number of sales
- Number of customers
- Awards or certifications
- Customer reviews
- Video testimonials
Stage 4: Getting the Desired Action
In this stage, your visitor is almost convinced about your product and service. You just need to provide the right signals to take action finally. Your product page needs proper call-to-action to ensure the customer clicks and the lead converts.
You’ll see on most product pages that the buy buttons are perhaps the most prominent. That’s for a reason, as that buy button has a psychological effect. The visitor is already there, and seeing that bold and big buy button just about does it for them.
Obviously, this would depend on your business and what call-to-action is appropriate.
Conclusion
That’s about it; we’ve all the key considerations to optimizing your sales funnel. If you need assistance in creating a sales funnel that converts, Media Mojo is there to help you out.
