![\"Customer](\"http:\/\/www.digitalstrike.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Conversion-Funnel-Infographic-410x1024.jpg\")
It\u2019s just the customer\u2019s\u00a0buying process. You\u2019ve gone through the funnel yourself countless times whether you\u2019re aware of it or not. Every time you buy something, you\u2019re in the funnel.<\/p>\n
Even if you\u2019re currently generating sales, it helps to understand the\u00a0buying process\u00a0so you can leverage the basic concepts and guide\u00a0potential customers\u00a0through the funnel in order to\u00a0increase conversions.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n
Explain right now or else you\u2019ll be EXTERMINATED<\/p>\n Since an\u00a0infographic\u00a0can only help you get the gist of a topic rather than a complete understanding, let\u2019s dive into each part of the funnel.<\/p>\n Right now, the customer doesn\u2019t know you exist, which puts you in the ‘awareness stage’. The\u00a0awareness stage\u00a0is packed full of all the different ways a new consumer can come in contact with your brand. This can mean anything from word-of-mouth, to finding your brand through an informative search, or from advertising efforts. With all these different ways a consumer can find your brand, this is the opportunity to create a custom\u00a0marketing strategy\u00a0to best reach your audience.<\/p>\n The goal here is to come up with\u00a0marketing strategies\u00a0that will promote your company to a new audience, thus, creating new brand awareness. This new, sought-after brand awareness can be targeting more consumers in your current audience OR a completely new audience altogether.<\/p>\n This is a little easier said than done, but there are plenty of ways to widen the\u00a0top of the funnel. Your ability to improve the\u00a0awareness\u00a0stage\u00a0of the funnel\u00a0is going to be reliant on a few factors: available marketing mediums, desired marketing mediums, and the available budget to spend.<\/p>\n Every organization is different, and that means the available and desired marketing mediums can change depending on the business. For example,\u00a0eCommerce\u00a0clothing companies have seen the largest margins of success in developing brand awareness through organic and paid\u00a0social media\u00a0efforts, whereas local service-based businesses have historically seen the largest improvements in brand awareness through local search results. Knowing this, there is going to be a combination of trial-and-error and industry data to help guide you in your initial\u00a0marketing strategy\u00a0creation.<\/p>\n So, let’s assume people don’t know about your company, but you do know the consumer is out there, and they need something, something you have! That means we have two approaches. We can let the consumer find us through an informative search,\u00a0search engine\u00a0optimization (SEO), or we can actively seek our consumers and tell them that they need us, digital advertising.<\/p>\n Let’s talk about how we might be in the right place at the right time during a search. Since people don\u2019t know about your company and they just know that they want or need something, they\u2019ll probably start at a\u00a0search engine. By actively working to appear in search results that are relevant to your business and answer a question or need of your target consumer, you put your business in the best possible place to capture more users and improve your brand awareness. Sometimes at greater rates than you even knew were possible. This means that one of the most effective ways you can generate more brand awareness is to improve your\u00a0SEO\u00a0strategy.<\/p>\n A higher ranking increases your chances of getting noticed and more organic traffic to your website.\u00a033% of clicks<\/a>\u00a0go to the top search result on\u00a0Google. In fact, the first page controls 75% of the available clicks.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a lot of clicks.<\/p>\n So if you\u2019ve ever wondered, \u201cwhy are so many businesses\u00a0investing in\u00a0SEO<\/a>?\u201d That\u2019s why.<\/p>\n Now, when looking at digital advertising, or actively seeking out those in your target audience, there are a number of methods you can use. Each method has its ups, downs, and purposes, and depending on your business type, there may be mediums of\u00a0online marketing\u00a0that are more effective than others.<\/p>\n If\u00a0SEO’s long term play seems out of the realms of possibilities now, do not fret, because there is still a way to appear in those desired\u00a0organic\u00a0search\u00a0results with a little media spend,\u00a0Google\u00a0Ads’ Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.\u00a0Google\u00a0Ads are the ads you see at the top of certain search queries before the organic results. Through\u00a0Google\u00a0Ads’ keyword bidding system, businesses can bid on the chance to show at the top of specific search queries and keywords they deem valuable for their business. This form of advertising can put an ad for your business at the top of a search question your business hopes to answer.<\/p>\n Social media\u00a0is another way to generate brand awareness. Not all consumers are looking to buy things on\u00a0social media, but it\u2019s still a great way to introduce yourself and give yourself some credibility. You can use\u00a0social media\u00a0to grow your business through organic posts and continuing to build your audience that way, or you can look into paid advertisement options that most social platforms now offer. Your business’ organic reach may be limited to the number of people that follow or like your page, but with paid social, you can reach significantly bigger and more diverse audiences that otherwise have not been exposed to your business before.<\/p>\n By\u00a0social media\u00a0channels, posting new content often, you can grow your follower list and\u00a0conversion rates. This paired with a paid social strategy is a recipe for success.<\/p>\n If your business needs a little bit more of spread effect marketing, then display advertising might be your desired medium. Think of display advertising as the billboards of the digital world, but with more targeted audiences. When you bounce around the web and see advertisements on the side of your browser or on a website’s scroll bar, that is display advertising. Display advertising allows you to get your ads out to as wide of a range as possible and use large audience lists based on demographics to apply targeting. There are also opportunities to create audience lists based on retargeting to users who have already been to your site, or to create look-a-like audiences based on audience lists you already have in order to expand them. The possibilities here are endless.<\/p>\n Although there are other ways to generate brand awareness, just remember brand awareness comes down to two simple questions: are you able to be found and do you answer a question or need of your target consumer. By taking steps to answer these questions, you are setting yourself up to improve your brand’s awareness and the\u00a0number of visitors\u00a0to your website.<\/p>\n Now that people are a little more familiar with your company and brand, it\u2019s time for the next stage in the\u00a0conversion funnel.<\/p>\n You need to come up with ways to create interest in the products or services you\u2019re offering. Content strategy is going to be important here because you\u2019ll need to use your website to your advantage.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the point in having one if it isn\u2019t going to pull its weight for you? Get\u00a0a\u00a0homepage<\/a>\u00a0and a website that converts.<\/p>\n Your website needs to provide visitors with as much information as possible about your business so that it can answer any questions they might have. That\u2019s how you add value to your website.<\/p>\n If someone is looking for a product or service that you offer, your website needs to tell them all about it and provide any necessary information\u00a0potential customers\u00a0are looking for.<\/p>\n High-quality\u00a0and accurate content on your website will make\u00a0potential customers\u00a0trust your brand.<\/p>\n Which is why\u00a0you need a blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re the one educating them, they\u2019ll be more likely to buy from you over the competition. You\u2019ll seem like you know what you\u2019re talking about, and that air of competence and confidence will work in your favor.<\/p>\n Your collection of content will help guide consumers through the\u00a0conversion funnel\u00a0and hopefully generate interest in your company and eventually leads.<\/p>\n In the brand awareness section above, we discuss how improving your\u00a0SEO\u00a0efforts will help create brand awareness. Blogging is a top\u00a0SEO\u00a0tool, so it helps both parts of the funnel and ultimately can improve your\u00a0conversion rate.<\/p>\n Two birds, one blog.<\/p>\n As people find your website through your blog content or digital advertisements, it will be important for you to continue to connect with your potential consumers while they navigate through the interest stage. The next progression of answering a question a consumer may have is to continue to answer future questions they may have, and stay digitally connected.<\/p>\n This is where\u00a0contact information\u00a0collection is used, and this can be done through email newsletter signups, contact us forms, or even phone calls or chats. These\u00a0micro-conversions\u00a0act as an opportunity to add an interested user to a marketing list that you can use to continue to nurture, inform, and hopefully turn that interested user into a\u00a0qualified lead.<\/p>\n Now, you may be wondering what the best way to convince interested users to give out their\u00a0contact information\u00a0is. Great question. Thankfully long gone are the 2002 days of\u00a0popups\u00a0crashing your internet browser, asking for anything from your email address to your mother’s maiden name!<\/p>\n We have found that the best way to entice users to connect with your brand is through strong calls-to-action (CTAs) on informative, service, or\u00a0product pages\u00a0where that user may have been taking in information, but is not ready to convert to a sale. By providing the promise of quality customer service and an offer, consumers will be more convinced to fill out a form or give you a call. We find that asking for as little information as possible yields the best results (i.e. name, email, phone number).<\/p>\n Consideration is pretty similar to the interest\u00a0stage of the funnel, but with a key difference.<\/p>\n At the interest stage, they\u2019re getting to know you but maybe holding off on buying anything. At the consideration stage, they\u2019re actively considering giving you their money.<\/p>\n This is where you give them an incentive to complete the purchase.<\/p>\n When they\u2019re interested, they may have read your blog posts, signed up for emails, or downloaded your whitepaper. But none of those things generated a profit for you.<\/p>\n This stage is sometimes called \u201cdesire\u201d because you\u2019re trying to make the consumer desire what you\u2019re offering. You have to make your company look more appealing to the customer and show them why they\u00a0need\u00a0whatever it is you\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n The customer is weighing a lot of options while they decide what to buy and from where to buy it.<\/p>\n They\u2019re comparing cost, quality, and the convenience of the product or service. Offer something like a coupon on their first purchase, feature customer\u00a0testimonials, make sure your product spec sheets are comprehensive, offer a free trial, or show a live demo\/webinar.<\/p>\n Give yourself an edge on the competition by giving the customers a reason to buy your product or service over someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n When looking at ways we can improve the ‘consideration’ portion of our\u00a0sales funnel, you need to look at what excites and entices your audience about your brand, and make sure your pages are properly telling them what you want them to do. We often call this part of the process our\u00a0conversion rate\u00a0optimization, or optimization the rate at which we can drive people from the consideration stage to the conversion stage.<\/p>\n The first thing to look at is if your pages are properly telling consumers what you want them to do. Do you want them to fill out a form, buy goods from your website, contact a representative? By having clear and concise directions on your pages, with\u00a0CTAs\u00a0to match, you can make significant improvements to your\u00a0conversion rate\u00a0optimization.<\/p>\n Now, a big concern for most is that if you add sales lingo to your service pages, about us, or blogs, you might take away from the user experience. And you are exactly right! For that reason, we often recommend creating\u00a0landing pages\u00a0for your digital\u00a0marketing efforts\u00a0that are crafted in a way that turns your\u00a0website visitors\u00a0into\u00a0inbound\u00a0lead opportunities.\u00a0Landing pages\u00a0are pages designed to improve\u00a0conversion rates\u00a0and are to be accessible only through\u00a0marketing efforts\u00a0and ads.<\/p>\n Another way for you to consumers through the consideration stage is by creating brand trust. This is where the consumer is no longer curious about who you are as a brand, but the quality of your company. Your blog is a great way to show thought leadership in your industry and build brand trust amongst your audience. Another way to do so is through\u00a0case studies, or examples of previous clients you have worked with and their success stories.<\/p>\n Case studies\u00a0work great for service-based businesses, but if your company provides goods, product\u00a0testimonials\u00a0work great as well. Examples of happy customers often creates peace-of-mind for\u00a0potential customers.<\/p>\n Woohoo! They decided to buy from you! They think you\u2019re the best choice and they want to give you their hard-earned dolla-dolla bills.<\/p>\n But the sale isn\u2019t complete yet. It\u2019s not over until it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say a customer decides they want to buy from you. They\u2019ve added the item to their\u00a0shopping cart. But then they never end up buying it.<\/p>\n What happened?<\/p>\n Figure out why customers are abandoning their cart. Where do they stop? It might be in the\u00a0checkout\u00a0process. There can be a number of factors that lead to\u00a0cart abandonment.<\/p>\n The first reason could be due to the\u00a0product page\u00a0and making sure your customers are well informed on what exactly they are purchasing. This is especially true for\u00a0eCommerce\u00a0businesses. If your customers don’t know exactly what they are purchasing, they might leave their cart with items in it as they are unsure what they are getting in return for their money. The best practice here is always to provide an abundance of information on the product, answering almost any questions you could see arise. That way your customers are making the most informed decision possible.<\/p>\n Another reason could be due to the ease, or lack thereof, in your\u00a0checkout\u00a0process. Your\u00a0checkout\u00a0process should have clearly defined steps and\u00a0desired actions\u00a0to help your customers through the\u00a0buying process. Just like that as a brick-and-mortar store. If the\u00a0checkout\u00a0process is difficult, you risk losing your customers along the way.<\/p>\n Test and refine your\u00a0checkout\u00a0process so that it\u2019s seamless and easy to use. Make it so easy that they don\u2019t have time to think \u201chmm\u2026maybe this isn\u2019t such a good idea after all.\u201d A good way to test\u00a0checkout\u00a0processes is through\u00a0A\/B testing, or testing two\u00a0checkout\u00a0processes for the exact same process. This will help tell the story of which process is working the best, and which one is causing customers to\u00a0drop off.<\/p>\n That way, you get the finalized conversion, and the customer gets the product or service they want.<\/p>\n You’ve finally reached the\u00a0bottom of the funnel!<\/p>\n Many\u00a0conversion funnels\u00a0come to an end at conversion, but the part they are missing might be most important…<\/p>\n Customer retention. It isn\u2019t enough to get a bunch of one-time customers. You want those customers to keep coming back, and then they tell their friends about it, and then their friends keep coming back, and so on.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to come up with additional\u00a0marketing campaigns\u00a0to entice those customers back in the future. It\u2019s a constant cycle, but one that will hopefully get easier as you grow your business and your customer base.<\/p>\n This process is called\u00a0lead nurturing, or continuing to follow each lead until it is complete. Many salespeople look at\u00a0lead nurturing\u00a0before the first sale, but where\u00a0lead nurturing\u00a0becomes ever important is once your customer makes that first initial sale, you nurture them into 2, 3, 10 more sales over their lifetime.<\/p>\n This form of client or customer retention is convincing the consumer that their decision to engage with your business was not only a good choice but once they are going to have to make again. By continuing to give value to your previous consumers, your business can create\u00a0repeat customers.<\/p>\n Two methods of creating customer retention are\u00a0content marketing\u00a0and lead marketing.<\/p>\n Content marketing\u00a0can be found useful at every point along this funnel.\u00a0Content marketing\u00a0is marketing by creating useful and meaningful content for your prospective, current, and previous customers to digest.\u00a0Content marketing\u00a0is also an extremely important part of the\u00a0SEO\u00a0puzzle. So, how does one\u00a0content marketing?<\/p>\n Easy, by creating content! The blog content we have discussed throughout this guide is a great way of\u00a0content marketing. By creating meaningful content that is not only beneficial for people who have not engaged with your business, but also content that is meaningful for those that have, you can give consumers a reason to keep coming back to your website.<\/p>\n Long-form content pieces are a fantastic tool for giving your consumer base extra value. Not only did you buy this widget from us, but check out our list of guides on how to use that widget. Brilliant.<\/p>\n Oh, did we mention, the added value of all this content is\u00a0SEO\u00a0value. Content really is the gift that keeps on giving.<\/p>\n Lastly, we can take a look at\u00a0email marketing.\u00a0Email marketing\u00a0has shown to have the highest\u00a0click-through-rates\u00a0and\u00a0conversion rates\u00a0of all digital advertising methods BUT\u00a0email marketing\u00a0is only effective through extensive drip campaigns on carefully crafted email lists. Deriving your email list is the most important part of your campaign. Many lose sight of the opportunity of an email campaign for those who have already purchased or interacted with your brand. This is where your email list will become the most curated and targeted.<\/p>\n While\u00a0email marketing\u00a0should be a part of your initial sales process, the trust given to a brand from a customer who has already purchased gives the opportunity to continue to offer them future goods and services by staying in contact through email.<\/p>\n Always remember, the lifetime value of one customer beats that of two one-time purchasers.<\/p>\n The customer\u00a0conversion funnel\u00a0is an iconic image in the digital marketing landscape. It\u2019s always on our minds when we\u2019re coming up with comprehensive strategies for our clients. How best can we target each section?<\/p>\n There are many variations of the\u00a0marketing funnel\u00a0and different terms people use to describe each section. But the concepts are virtually the same.<\/p>\n By sticking to the plan, testing each step along the way, and always putting yourself in your customer’s shoes, you too can reach the\u00a0ultimate goal\u00a0of improving your website’s\u00a0conversion process.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve scratched the surface on the basics of the\u00a0conversion funnel, and you can use them to implement strategies to gain more customers and conversions.<\/p>\n![\"Explain](\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/A8NNZlVuA1LoY\/giphy.gif\")
<\/a>Breakdown of Customer Conversion Funnel<\/h2>\n
Brand awareness<\/h3>\n
Generate interest<\/h3>\n
![\"Generate](\"https:\/\/media1.giphy.com\/media\/RhPvGbWK78A0\/giphy.gif\")
<\/a>Consideration<\/h3>\n
Conversion<\/h3>\n
![\"Conversions\"](\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/5fBH6z8aMV1RbA4FaSc\/giphy.gif\")
<\/a>Retention<\/h3>\n
The Takeaway<\/h2>\n