A funnel is designed to get people from one level of your business to the next. Maybe it’s from not knowing about you to becoming aware of you. Perhaps it’s from being aware of you to becoming engaged with you. Or most importantly, from being engaged with you to becoming a customer.
The reality is that if a sales funnel doesn’t convert, it’s not working at all. So think about creating a conversion funnel.
The Importance of Optimizing Your Sales Funnel
The first thing to ensure that your sales funnel is a conversion funnel is to optimize it at every stage. It’s vital to check the transition points to make sure there are no leaks. If you find some, correct them right away!
There are three basic stages of your conversion funnel. The Contacting or Connecting phase is where you build awareness of your company and reach out to new prospects. The Engagement phase is when you give the prospect an incentive to engage with you by responding to an offer in some way. Finally, there’s the Purchase phase, which includes both the initial purchase and creating a repeat customer through amazing service.
To optimize your conversion funnel, find ways to increase the response rate at every stage. If you can increase your conversion rate from stage to stage by 10%, you can dramatically impact your sales, profits, and company growth.
Your Sales Funnel Must Convert
Part of the mindset of a conversion funnel is that you want as many people as possible moving from one stage to the next, ultimately culminating in repeat customers. Consider what stumbling blocks exist between stages one and two, and stages two and three, that reduce your conversion rates.
Sometimes a poorly written landing page can create significant problems for your conversion. Other times its poor follow-up, or a delay in handing communication. Whatever is keeping your sales funnel from moving people to the next stage has to be cleaned up right away.
Conversely, if you find something that makes a major difference in conversion at one point in your conversion funnel, repeat that throughout your sales funnel. Find what works, refine it, and implement it everywhere you can.
Creating a Killer Conversion Funnel
There are specific steps you can take to turn your sales funnel into a killer conversion funnel. Consider these ideas as you build your conversion funnel:
- Nurture Your Leads. Traffic alone doesn’t give you engaged customers. You need to nurture them, individualize your attention, and let them know that they are more than a number. When you nurture your leads instead of simply trying to herd them through the gates, your results will improve, and you’ll get a lot more conversions. Companies who nurture leads see a huge increase in qualified leads.
- Ask the Right Questions. When you ask the right questions, you’ll see how your customers look at your funnel in a new way. Consider asking questions like, “How do we entice prospects to respond with an irresistible offer?” or “What needs do my prospects have that I can anticipate at every level of the conversion funnel?”
- Grow Your Customers. After you have a sale, you are far from done with the relationship to your customer. Continue to engage and nurture customers. Focus on giving incredible service and gaining repeat sales and referrals.
Automating Your Conversion Funnel
Of course, no one has the time to write personalized emails to each and every prospect. However, your prospects and customers should feel that personal touch. How does that happen? Through automation.
Automation does two things that are vital for your conversion funnel: it allows you to follow up promptly with absolutely every new lead, and it gives a consistent and predictable experience to each lead and customer. When you communicate and follow up with every single customer in the same way, the results will become highly predictable and allow you to analyze and optimize your results.
Use a CRM that makes it easy to create campaigns, personalize emails and segment your lists for a highly-functioning and effective conversion funnel.
Sales funnels are crucial to the success of your business, but if you want to truly ensure a positive ROI, you need a conversion funnel that’s automated. Contact me and I’ll show you how today!