The funnel is one of the greatest tools you can use to ensure you get the best out of your marketing efforts.
We’re talking about the marketing funnel.
It’s the process that follows your potential customers every step of the way from the first time they spot your site to what they do after they’ve become a customer.
Here, we’ll go from top to bottom, ensuring you have the funnel-shaped plan you need.
#1. Visibility
It’s crucial. It’s where you get the broadest reach, so messing up here can mean that you have fewer and fewer potential leads to work with.
A site that ranks high on search engines through optimisation, one that keeps active on social media, and focuses on building a community stays more visible.
The more visible, the more people will move to the next step.
#2. Interest
When you get a visitor clicking their first link to your site, that’s when you’re in the interest phase.
This is also a phase that can be brutal in cutting down the numbers of interested customers.
One of the biggest reasons is that the page they click is just confusing. Instead of sending them to front pages full of content and different angles to explore, make use of landing pages.
Businesses like Lyft, for instance, make the genius move of separate landing pages for potential drivers and potential customers in their marketing.
Send people in the wrong direction and you’re only increasing the dreaded bounce rate.
#3. Consideration
Once their interest has been piqued and they stick around, that’s when they start to consider whether or not they should become customers.
In ecommerce sites, this might be down to reviews on the products they find. On service pages, however, it’s a good example to follow the lead and show case studies.
Not only does it look impressive to display the logos of your most prestigious of previous clients.
It gives them a look at your services in action, as opposed to just the marketing of them. They need the proof to move onto the next step.
#4. Decision
When they decide that they do, indeed, want to become a customer, you need to make it as easy as possible.
Nowhere in your purchase process should you have popups jump up to distract them from their mission.
A great example to follow in ecommerce is the breadcrumb navigation bbest highlighted by Amazon’s online store.
Not only will having fewer steps for them to complete reduce the risk of online shopping cart abandonment. Showing them how far they have to go makes them more likely to stick it out, too.
#5. Purchase and Post-Purchase
Once they’ve finished the purchase, you want them to be happy enough with it to keep coming back.
A thank you email and other personalising touches like that are a good start. But to retain them, you should keep them engaged.
Create an email newsletter they can subscribe to and make sure it has real value.
Valve’s Steam service from the videogame industry is one of the best examples. It customises emails to make offers based on preferences, as well as highlighting when something the customer would be interested in is on sale.
Keep adding value post-purchase and see customers keep coming back.
A great online business needs to make sure that every step of the journey is a pleasant one for the audience.
See if there are any steps you’re missing and use the tips above to fix it and see more happy customers.