6 Strategies to Create an Effective Sales Conversion Funnel
For a company to succeed, it needs a sales strategy that converts as many prospects as possible.
An essential component of this is creating an effective conversion funnel. A conversion funnel, also called sales funnel, is the process through which leads become potential customers and eventually clients.
A poorly created conversion funnel can be a real problem for your business. You can attract a low volume of leads, or perhaps worse of all, spend a lot of marketing budget on leads that fall out of the funnel soon after they enter.
To maximize your lead-customer conversion and avoid wasting time and budget on a leaky funnel, here are some of the best techniques to optimize your strategy and avoid common sales funnel pitfalls.
How to optimize your sales funnel for conversions
1. Develop a 360-degree of your customers
Businesses with effective conversion funnels have one main thing in common: a flawless understanding of their ideal customers.
These organizations know exactly who they want to do business with. They can give a thorough explanation of their ideal customers’ goals, pain points and priorities. They understand how their product or service improves their life and fits into their daily routine. Is your business there yet?
To develop a 360-degree view of your customers, make sure you’re having 1-1 conversations with customers, carrying out user research, collecting data, and syncing contact data between your apps for the most accurate view everywhere.
For instance, you can enrich your CRM with data from your email marketing tool and the other way around to have the latest data exactly where you need it.
2. Optimize your primary offer
Even with the best marketing and sales team in the world, you can’t create a winning conversion funnel if your product is a dud.
The best way to convert new customers and get referrals is to make your services as enticing as possible. Make your prospects feel like you are providing the best solution to the problem they are facing.
To maximize your sales and marketing spend, follow our seven steps to get right before scaling your business. (P.S. Pay special attention to the first two steps!)
- Step 1: Understand your offering and the market
- Step 2: Optimize your positioning
- Step 3: Check your finances
- Step 4: Get your scaling strategy on paper
- Step 5: Do key housekeeping
- Step 6: Scale your operations
- Step 7: Scale your team
3. Create a strong first impression with marketing
When people look for a new product, service or experience, good first impressions are worth their weight in gold. This is where marketing comes in.
So, how can you make a good first impression during this step of your conversion funnel? Make your landing pages as attractive as possible!
Make sure that:
- The information on your landing pages matches what is described in your ads. Is your content consistent through every stage of the conversion funnel, from first touchpoint to closing the deal (and beyond)? Are there any unexpected surprises or inconsistencies to discourage buyers?
- The positioning of CTAs are well thought out and speak to your best leads.
4. Invest in communication and CRM
Even in the age of conversational marketing, many businesses underestimate the amount of communication they should have with their prospects.
Live chat is especially effective because it helps businesses to provide a personal experience to anyone who visits the website. Perfecting your CRM is another way of helping your customers by documenting their preferences, engagement history, and company details and providing consistent interactions.
Here are some of the best CRM practices today:
- Synchronize data about your contacts to deliver the most customized experiences to every contact, no matter who they’re talking to in your organization.
- Use segmentation and automation to send the most relevant content at the best time for every individual in your database.
- Try to automate as many CRM processes as possible to optimize your operations and provide the most tailor-fit sales experience.
- Sync your CRM with your other sales and marketing apps to maintain the latest version of your customer data in every app.
5. Create amazing content
What kind of content will win your target audience’s attention? This is the first question you should ask yourself before creating new content.
You also need to remember that different people require different types of content, especially at different stages of your conversion funnel. Customized content for every lead stage alongside segmentation and personalization are your friends here.
Video is also a great content format to positively affect conversion rates. For instance, you could offer an explainer video or on-demand product demo.
6. Optimize your sales and marketing channels
By using a strong mix of channels to reach your audience, you can:
- Increase your chances of generating new leads
- Create a more consistent brand image in your prospects’ minds
- Convert more leads to customers
Start by identifying your community of target customers and understanding how to win their attention. Which channels do they use regularly? What content formats do they prefer? And what value propositions should you emphasize?
