Conversion rate optimization 101: choosing the right sales funnel
Surely, you’ve been in a situation when the clickability of ads is high, but the conversion rate is low or zero. You launch an advertising campaign, hit the target audience, bring it to the landing page and … nothing happens. There are no conversions and the budgets are wasted.
There can be many reasons, but more often than not, it’s the lack of warm audience or the complexity of the product. Daria Klokova, Project Manager of the International Department of E-Promo Agency, tells us how not to lose conversions, stimulate interest, and answer all questions about the product during an ad campaign.
In the past 2–3 years, we have seen the digital space fill with increasingly sophisticated offers — brand new services, products with long decision cycles, and B2B solutions. The events of recent years have left no choice to traditional businesses, forcing them to move to the Internet and to look for their customers online.
However, with each new task inevitably comes a new solution, new tools to promote non-standard atypical products. Nevertheless, many people prefer traditional approaches especially when working with the concept of “sales funnel”.
By funnel, we mean the structure, format, and way of presenting information on the landing page. The way a user navigates through a site, moves within a page, or clicks on links.
Familiar tools are still relevant, but…
You can carefully select the target audience, lay down USPs, show ads in the right place at the right time, and lead the buyer to the landing page in the hope that after reading more information about the product, they will click “Buy”.
However, even if the landing page is designed according to all the rules — the page header coincides with the advertising message; the design is carefully thought out; the information is easy to read, and reviews are meant to fend off any objections, — it does not guarantee an increase in sales.
Simple, familiar one-page websites based on the classic AIDA marketing model: Attention → Interest → Desire → Action, suggest that the user goes through a top-down funnel before buying a product or service.
The advantage of this model is the speed of conversion — the user goes all the way down the sales funnel in a few seconds, from awareness to purchase. It doesn’t take much effort to digest information from the page, understand whether the product is needed or not, and buy it. This makes a conversion action, i.e. buying a product, faster.
A typical AIDA funnel includes a succinct and concise description of the problem at the top of the page, easy-to-read solutions, clear product presentation (image and description), and cost and reviews.
This type of funnel works well with simple straightforward products and with a warm prepared audience. FMCG, some types of pharma, household goods — these are the categories, in which decisions are made quickly and additional information only increases doubt, so the traditional funnels on a one-page site work great.
When the traditional approach no longer works
If we’re talking about complex products, e.g. repair products, medical products for complicated diseases, specialist services, education, B2B, etc., such funnels stop working. Complex product purchase decision cycles are usually much longer, and the capacity of the hot audience is often small.
The capabilities of traditional funnels simply aren’t enough to drum up interest, provide maximum information, remove objections, and drive the page visitor to conversion action.
For example, when promoting an online therapy service , we encountered a shortage of in-demand audience. Users would visit the page interested in solving a problem but not ready to purchase a session with a psychotherapist. For them, we had to build an additional funnel to provide additional information and dispel any remaining doubts. We offered such people participation in a free training course that included:
- useful articles;
- free checklists;
- a webinar with a professional;
…and only then again offered paid sessions with a therapist.
We also included a few integrations with influencers and traditional performance marketing tools into the mix to provide as many touch points with the service as possible for potential customers.
Nowadays, a quick purchase decision is more of a rarity and is a non-linear process. It forces people to “go around in circles,” back and forth between ads, forums, social media, website, e-mail, blogs, etc., that is, to get in touch with the brand at different points.
The non-linear user path is depicted in different ways: as a circle or as a formless interconnected process. In the case of the non-linear path, customers can come, go, jump from one stage to another, go back at any level and at any time.
Such arrangement does not fit into traditional funnels, so the AARRR (Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue) model is becoming increasingly relevant. This type of funnel was developed to promote startups — it is assumed that the audience needs more time to get acquainted with the new product and more information to make a decision.
How to make complex products easy to understand
The purpose of this approach is to immerse the user in communication with the brand as much as possible, to reveal the problem from all sides, and to introduce reviews and stories of real people to increase loyalty and trust.
An advanced digital funnel model gives you the ability to track website visitors, measure conversion rates at every stage, and determine the most effective engagement channels for your business. Today’s funnel model doesn’t just imply selling something to a customer, like AIDA, but keeping them and bringing them back again and again.
The physical implementation of the modern funnel is most often presented in the form of a multi-page landing page. The interaction with the user is thorough and divides their entire journey into three stages, for each of which a separate page on the site is developed. The user moves sequentially from one page to another, and the pages may have different domains and be tracked differently in CRM and analytics systems.
Using some examples, we will show you how to implement a multistage funnel on the website.
The first stage — the Landing page — usually contains a first-person story about a problem/experience or a real-life situation for which the product/service is suitable. This is also where the descriptions of the USP and reviews are added. If the LP dispelled all doubts of the user and answered their questions, the probability that they will move to the second stage and make the conversion increases.
We recommend placing a “Buy” button (or other relevant CTA) on this page for those who are already motivated enough to make a purchase or have enough information to make a decision. If the user doesn’t have this option at this stage, the brand risks losing them.
In our example, the Landing Page includes clear information about the product with an attractive CTA, a word from the founder (which adds credibility) and some reviews to build trust.
It also describes the product’s unique properties, proof of efficacy, and FAQ. Between different parts of the main landing page there are buttons which offer the potential client to learn more about the product. When clicked, they take the user to the second stage — the Bridge page or Hop page.
If the visitor is still not ready to buy a product, they proceed to the next stage — the Bridge/Hop page — where they receive a promotional offer that encourages the purchase. We recommend to place a sales countdown timer here. This page also shows the main USPs, reinforced by reviews.
In the example, the bridge page includes a video from the founder who personally describes the benefits of the product, along with client testimonials and a limited-time promotional offer highlighted in red.
The third step, the Checkout Page, completes the buying process.
It includes a payment form, Q&A, and upsale items in the “Recommended for You” section.
We recommend that you pay special attention to upsale offers, because they hold a lot of potential. Moreover, this is a good tool to increase the average order value. However, it is important to make sure that related products are relevant to the main product.
When developing methods of promotion do not blindly copy available solutions. It is necessary to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the product and take into account the following parameters:
- business type;
- the stage of product development;
- purchase cycle;
- user path features;
- the volume of the in-demand audience
If the product is complex or new it’s better to use an advanced funnel with more user immersion in the communication. Do not forget to warm up the audience and interact with the user comprehensively: Build rapport with potential buyers in different relevant media, connect additional tools like webinars or chatbots to increase immersion, and only then you can count on conversions on the site.
However, if the product has been on the market for a long time, there is no need to warm up the audience, and the decision cycle is short, then there is no need to intentionally complicate the user path — the traditional funnel model will do.
Check out more success by E-Promo Group on the website. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments, our team will be happy to answer them!
