This is a guest blog post from contributor Becky DeGrossa (see bio at the end)
Conversion.
That’s the goal, right?
To entice people to your website where you offer a valuable product, sell them that product, and cut the chocolate cake as you watch the incredible metamorphosis that is a sales conversion.
It seems so easy. Step one; step two; step three, and then cake.
But many business owners are missing the mark. Although they offer great products and services, they’re not hearing the sound of virtual jingle-jangle.
The solution is a sales funnel, which will show your potential customers how to get to what they want.
So, here are five tips on how to design one that actually works!
1. Create a Solid Foundation
Since you’re this far in the game, you’re well aware of how important it is to have a firm foundation supporting your online business.
For starters, it’s necessary to have solid landing pages that target specific customers and their needs. Furthermore, each landing page needs to be visually appealing—breaking up text and whitespace.
For a user-friendly experience, collect minimal information from your visitors. And, offer a free product in exchange for their email.
And, of course, watch your competition like a hawk.
2. Personalize It
Personalizing a business isn’t nearly as tough as it sounds. Yes, you have to develop your brand and trademark your product.
But, aside from your product, you should also create a blog, and host webinars, or simply offer your expertise to help establish you as an industry authority.
It’s a way to reach out to people and for people to reach you.
A successful sales funnel not only attracts your target audience but also holds their attention via strategic content and smart SEO.
3. Aim at Nurturing not Generating
A lead generator, also known in some circles as a lead magnet, essentially captures the email of a site visitor in exchange for a free product.
But, it’s been misused.
It’s become far too generic a mold. A cookie-cutter lead generator, if you will.
When it comes down to it, people don’t care about how awesome you say you are, they care about the awesome things you can do for them.
So, give them a quality product and show them just how valuable their email is to you.
4. Offer a Range of the Same Product
Although your customer’s aim is specific, there are still 101 variations of people with that specific aim.
In attempting to convert a visitor to a customer make a product for each visitor. It might seem impossible, but it’s not. The key is variety: offer variations of your product.
What this means is to upsell and down-sell your product. By doing this, you still give them what they want just on different financial tiers.
5. How to Keep Them Hot
After you win over a visitor and transform them into a customer, your goal now is to make them a return customer. A return customer is known as hot traffic.
You could sell your product to a virtual face, close your cash drawer, and view it as a one-time sale.
But why, when you could easily automate the next steps to keeping the traffic hot?
Now that you’ve captured their email and you know what they want follow up with them. Make sure they’re happy with the product and open up that valuable line of communication.
In doing this, you’re allowing yourself the opportunity to introduce more products and show them the best solution.
About the author:
Becky DeGrossa has been contributing to the world of online marketing for therapists since 2007. After earning a degree in Computer Science from Cal Poly and spending 20 years at IBM, Becky pursued a master’s in psychology and became a successful therapist. Now she combines her technical, marketing, and psychology backgrounds to serve the therapy community, and has helped hundreds of therapists in the fine art of website communication.
