Optimising your funnel for conversions: A deep dive

If you’ve been struggling to turn your leads into paying customers, this episode is for you.

I'm diving deep into a crucial aspect of your sales funnel, which is optimising it for conversions. Tune in as I'll be sharing strategies and techniques to improve each stage of your funnel to get better results.

The first step is to know where you're at right now, so let's go on a detective mission and analyse your results before knowing what to change and optimise.

Tune in now

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This free training is for you if:

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🟢 FACEBOOK ADS PREP SCHOOL: Find out what you need to know and do before spending money on ads. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/prep-school/

🟡 INVISIBLE AD FUNNEL PLAYBOOK: A practical step-by-step guide to making a big impact with a tiny budget. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/playbook

🟠 FUNNEL FUNDAMENTALS: Building effective sales funnels that drive conversions and grow your business. ...

Transcript

Welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast, the place for smart, simple strategies that will amplify your business results. Sharing practical tips, insider knowledge, and actionable advice. Because marketing is something that every business owner can do. Now, let's get started. Introducing your host, Bianca McKenzie, mum, lover of snow sports, camping, horse riding, and in demand launch strategist and Facebook advertising Knowledge bank.

Hey, welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast. I am so excited that you're here. And before we dive in, I would love to pay my respect and acknowledgement to the Palawa people of Lutruwita who are the traditional owners of the land on which my business operates. I pay my respect to their elders, past and present. Okay, how are we doing with our funnels? How are we doing with our traffic and our conversions? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, tune into the previous episode and the one before that, because I've been talking a lot about funnels, about traffic, about conversions, about why your courses are not selling. So definitely listen back to that. Now, today, I want to dive deep into one very crucial aspect of your sales funnel, and that is optimizing for conversions. Now, I've spoken about conversions and traffic in episode 168, so go listen back to that. But in this one, I want to dive deeper. So if you've been struggling to turn your leads into paying customers, this is the episode for you. So tune in. Stay here. Stay the course. Now, I'm going to talk about strategies. I'm going to talk about techniques to really sort of move people from one stage to the next of your funnel so that you actually can start selling your courses. Now, this is nothing new. We've all been here. I've been there, too, where we've got leads, but very few, very few conversions. And it isn't until you dive into the numbers and you actually look through your funnel at each stage to see what is happening and where people are dropping off, and then you can start making updates. So I'm going to share those strategies with you today, and hopefully we can optimize your funnel for conversions. Cause, you know, that's what you're here for, to help people. Now, let's first start with understanding our final metrics. Stay with me. I know some words kind of sound a little bit scary, like metrics, but we need to analyze our funnel. We need to look at where we're at right now, because otherwise, we can't make improvements. So before you can optimize, we've got to start here. We've got to understand what we're at what we're dealing with now let's dive in and really look at where you're actually losing customers. Where are people dropping off and things to track, metrics to track, are your traffic. So one, how many people are entering your funnel, how many people are coming in and you want to look at your landing pages. How many people are actually seeing the landing page versus how many people are opting in for your potentially freebie or low cost offer. Then the next one is how many people are actually becoming a lead from that? How many people are opening the first email? How many people are opening the second email? Like, you really need to look at every single piece of this. Then look at your conversion rate. So we're looking at traffic versus conversion rates. So how many of those are converting at each stage? And by conversions, we don't only mean people that buy, we also mean people that take an action. So a conversion is how many people are opening that first email. That's an opening rate and conversion rate. How many people that go to your landing page, sign up to become a lead, and then look at every single stage and where you are losing potential customers. And look, there is going to be a drop off at every single stage. But you need to find out where the biggest leak is so that we can plug that leak. And some of this looking at numbers is manual, but you can also use tools. So you can look at Google Analytics, you can look at Hotjar, you can look at your CRM, like your email marketing system to like, bring all the pieces of data together. Find out how many people are looking at your landing page from that. How many people are becoming a lead from that. How many people are going into your email marketing database. So lots of different ways. You can look at heat maps so people, so you can find out where people are on your website or on your landing page where they spend the most amount of time. You sometimes find that people are like trying to click somewhere and there's no button. So look at how they are interacting with your pages. Look at session recordings, look at user flow reports. Get a really clear picture of the behavior of someone in your funnel. Like, where are they going on the website? Where are they going on your landing pages? Look at where are people dropping off. Then you need to optimize the awareness stage. So first you need to make sure that you're actually attracting the right audience. There's no point in getting, like, lots of people to go to your website or go to your landing page, but they're not the right people because they're not going to opt in. So you need to make sure that you're attracting the right audience. And you need to look at, you know, buyer Personas, look at who your ideal client avatar is. And I know I'm putting a lot of words in here, but you need to know who that person is and then you can tailor your content. Like you can create specific content for that person. So create your content and your advertising so that you're attracting the people that are most likely going to be interested in your product. Another thing you might want to look at is improving your content quality, because high quality content is essential. It's the key. So focus on creating valuable, engaging content that really talks to your audience's pain points. But not just from a sales perspective. Like it's all from an awareness perspective, because I'm talking about the four stages of a sales funnel. So your first stage is awareness, your second stage is interest, your third stage is desire and your no decision, and your fourth stage is interest. So we're talking about an awareness stage. So create blog posts, create videos, create social media to draw in potential customers, but it has to be an awareness piece of content. Another thing you might want to do is optimizing your content for search engines. So if people are searching for certain answers, that they find your articles, they find your blog posts, they find your content because it will help you attract organic traffic. And then the other thing you can do is you can use paid advertising to reach an even bigger audience. And you can use Google Ads again for people who have search intents, so people actually searching for something. Or you can use Facebook and Instagram advertising to get in front of your type of audience who might not know that you exist and he might not know that you have what they need. So test different ad creators, different targeting segments, and just find out what works best. So this is like you've done your analysis, now you can work out, okay, well, what can I improve at the awareness stage then? The next stage is your interest stage. So what can you do here? So you can come up with engaging content and engaging offers. So for the interest stage, your goal is to nurture, to nurture interest. So you want to be offering valuable resources like webinars, ebooks, potentially free trials, challenges. It depends on what your audience will respond to, what your audience needs that you create. This is why it's so important to know who your ideal client is, know who your audience is, so that you can create for them. So now that we've moved from that awareness stage, now you need to start building that trust, building that authority. So make sure that your content is engaging and make sure that it really talks to the specific needs and their interests. Like the specific needs of your audience and their interests. It has to obviously be aligned with what you offer in the end as well. Another thing is using email marketing. Because once they become a lead on your email marketing list, you need to nurture them. You need to use it to keep them engaged. And you can segment your list to send like personalized content. But most of the time, if you don't segment and you use the whole list, that is fine too. You can use automated sequences so you can get people through the funnel, so you can set up an email. When someone signs up for your ebook or your webinar and you send them an email saying hey, thank you. And this is what you'll find inside of. There's like email templates for this kind of thing. Or work with a really good copywriter and then, you know, a day later they get another email and then a day later they get another email and like you have a sequence. So yeah, nurture them. Guide them through the funnel. Give them value at every single step. And by value, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to give them a all of the answers. It means that you help them on their decision making process. Value could be sharing a case study of someone similar, like to them who has received results. Value could be you explaining what happens when someone works with you and what kind of results. You know, it's the imagine when and you paint that picture that is value. So you don't have to give away everything. You just need to provide value. Another thing at the interest stage, the second stage, I'm aware, is retargeting. Use retargeting ads to re engage people who didn't actually convert. So they may have read a blog post or they may have engaged with your social media content and then they didn't take the next step of becoming a lead and signing up for, for example, your webinar or your ebook. You can use retargeting ads to convince them that they need to sign up for that and why. So show them relevant content or relevant offers based on the previous interaction with you so that you know you're not losing them. Because some people just get busy, they read a blog and then they might not get to the bottom where there's the sign up link. So it's like re engaging. Like once you've gone through the awareness stage, you spend so much time and so much effort at the awareness stage, you need to follow through with that. Now once we've gone from the awareness to the interest stage, then we move into the decision stage. And from there on, you really want to make sure that you have a clear value proposition. Like make it so clear and so compelling and really, really specifically and clearly communicate the benefits of your offer, your course, and why it's the best solution for them. And not just the, you get five videos, you get three checkbooks. You want to really tell them what is the outcome going to be? What problem is it going to solve for them? Like, you really need to have a clear message. Nobody cares how many videos or nobody, like, they want their problem solved. So you need to explain how you're going to solve that problem or like, in a way satiate that desire, because not everyone has a problem. Some people just, you know, might like something. Another one is social proof and testimonials. At this decision stage, you need to build trust, and using social proof will help you build trust. So use testimonials if you can. I know some industries are regulated by this. Use reviews, use case studies and show how other people have actually benefited from working with you. You can offer incentives to really encourage conversions. So it could be like limited time discounts. You can give them bonuses, you could give them free shipping, you could give them, like, they have to sign up before a certain date. Like, that's a little bit of an incentive too, like a little bit of a push because some people will be hesitant. So they need to have that little nudge to go, you need this, you know, you need this and there's a deadline. And then the next stage is really streamlining that action stage. So give them the simple checkout process. Make it smooth, straightforward, make sure that your site is mobile friendly. Give them multiple payment options. And then you need to make sure that you follow through with a thank you. Give them additional resources, give them additional offers. It really helps that to build customer loyalty and, you know, they might take the next step with you and buy something else. And once you've gone through each of these stages, so you've done your analysis, you've looked at, okay, where are my holes? Where can I plug the leaks? Is it at the awareness stage? Is it at the interest stage? Is it at the decision stage? Is it at the action stage? Where are these holes and where can I plug them? And then test it again, like, try to make some changes. And it could, sometimes it could just be as simple as, and I'm saying as simple as updating your email subject line like to make it more interesting for someone to click on. It could be that once you've made some changes, do a test, and we call this a b testing or split testing. And you want to test this to see what has changed and what in a way has improved your conversions. So you want to test different headlines, you want to test potentially different images, different calls to action, sometimes even different button colors, and you want to test them. So you want to go, you've got your current one and that's, you know, a, and then you make some updates. And I generally make the updates on a new site. So like I duplicate it and then I send some traffic to that new site and I have made some changes there. And look at what are the changes like in terms of customer response? Are people responding better to the new version? And then you keep going. It's literally testing and iterating like continuously. So optimization is an ongoing process. So you need to continuously monitor your metrics and then you need to use that data. And this is where they talk about data driven decisions. You need to, you need to use that data to make your decisions to determine your next step, to refine your funnel. And small incremental changes can lead to significant improvements over time. It doesn't have to be like a whole page overhaul. You might just go, I'm going to change my headline, but I'm going to leave everything the same. And then you test it and you see if that improves things. And sometimes it does. So make small changes incrementally over time and keep testing it. So to really optimize your funnel for conversions is to keep constantly, keep tinkering with it, but don't make massive changes because then you don't know what is moving the needle like. Then you don't know what change has actually made the difference. So you make a small change, you test again. You make a small change, you test again. So to recap, optimizing your funnel for conversions, because that's what we're talking about here. It involves analyzing what's currently happening, redefining your target audience, so really getting clear and knowing who your target audience is, then enhancing your content and potentially your offers, improving your value proposition, simplifying the checkout process. And you don't like some of this you already might have in place, but you just got to look at, well, do I need to work on my content? Do I need to work on my messaging and my value proposition? Do I need to work on my checkout process? And then making these small changes at whichever step you know, because your analysis should show where you need to make the improvements. Make the improvements and then test, test, test test test test test test test test test test make another change. Test make another change. It's literally testing and iterating the whole time. So your homework is to start optimizing your funnel by implementing some of these strategies. One, analyze it, write down all the numbers and have a look at where the leaks are. Then make a small change and test it. And I'd love you to share the results with me. I'd love to hear how these tips are helping you, and I'd love to know how your conversions are increasing and changing. Feel free to send me a message through the podcast app. You can do that, which is a new feature, so you can send me a text message through the podcast app. So if you have question, reach out. And as always, thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I hope it was helpful. I can't wait to share more marketing tips with you next week. And remember, if you're ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, make sure that you visit newschoolofmarketing.com where you can download practical, free resources. Plus, remember to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. I can't wait to go on this journey with you. Until next time, take care and market your business every day.