Is your current sales funnel more like a maze, confusing potential customers and leading them down dead ends? A wealth of prospects may be ready and waiting to purchase your products or services. But, if they can’t figure out how to easily contact you or make a purchase, they won’t stick around for long. Here are some tips for developing a more effective funnel to increase sales.
Refine your Content Marketing
According to Inbound Lead Generation Tip: Focus on the Sales Funnel, an essential element of your sales funnel is your content marketing. What is your business’s current content strategy and is it hindering or helping your sales funnel?
Start with honing your site’s content to ensure it’s speaking to the interests of your target market. Determine which key messages must be visible to prospects on your site and ensure that the messages are trimmed to the essential elements. After that content is in place, begin expanding your inbound marketing efforts by developing a blogging and guest blogging strategy, expanding your social media efforts and more.
Tailor your E-Commerce Site
What image does your e-commerce site send to prospects? Is it easy to navigate, with the essential messages displayed in an uncluttered and eye-catching manner? The set-up of your e-commerce site can either help or hinder your sales funnel. While refining your e-commerce pages can be time consuming and costly, the changes are worth the effort and price if they will help increase sales.
Target Leads and Follow-up
How fast do you follow up on lead inquiries and what’s your process for touching base until you close the deal? Your strategy for follow-up with leads is one of the most important elements of your sales funnel and can mean the difference between increased revenue and lost sales. If you don’t yet have a follow-up process, develop one and stick to it.
Track the Data
Are you tracking all data related to your sales process? From monitoring the actions that prospects take on your site to reviewing rates of engagement with your sales emails, every bit of data you review will help you develop a more refined sales funnel.
If you aren’t yet tracking any sales data, start with the basics and expand as you are able. Crucial bits of data to track include increases in website visitors, engagement with your calls to action and average time spent on your site. By tracking these pieces of data, you can review the information and use it to refine your site’s structure and content for better results.
Refine the Process
All your newly implemented data tracking efforts will be in vain if you don’t use that data to refine your sales materials and process. After gathering and reviewing data, let is guide you toward the proper changes. For example, if the data shows that a low percentage of your site’s visitors are engaging with your calls to action, this could signify a rough edge in your sales funnel. Refine what isn’t working well, implement the changes, track the changes and monitor future data to determine if the changes were effective.
Don’t confuse potential customers with a frustrating maze of marketing messages. Develop an effective sales funnel by refining your content, tailoring your e-commerce site, tracking the data and more. By implementing these tactics, you can generate an increased number of leads and drive sales.
