If you are looking to improve your lead retention, conversion numbers, or just overall sales for your eCommerce business, then you have to adjust your company’s sales funnel.

A sales funnel represents the ideal path a business hopes their website visitors take to become paying customers. It is the step-by-step process that lets you lead potential customers one step closer to a purchase decision.

You’ll typically do this using a series of digital marketing actions, like creating videos, sending automated emails, designing landing pages, and writing articles that support the sales process. You can either work to get more people to your site, or you can optimize the sales funnel to ensure more people who come to your site convert and buy your products or services.

Without an optimized sales funnel, you may lose sight of the customer journey, which will negatively impact your bottom line and cause customers to abandon your business in favor of your competitors.

But how do you improve your sales funnel to move customers through and drive sales?

Here are five ways you can adjust your sales funnel to keep customers moving through it.

1.   Earn your audience’s trust with expert content

It’s no secret that your customers need to trust your brand in order to make a purchase.

Content marketing helps you to attract potential clients and bring them on a journey that spans from their first interactions with you to becoming paying customers.

Creating high-quality website content that positions you as an expert in your field is a great way to show you’re trustworthy and will deliver on your promise.

Here are some ways you can create content that helps to move more people through your sales funnel and toward spending money with you:

• Conduct customer research and know your target audience
• Create a lead magnet to attract users
• Write a blog post full of valuable information

To give you some inspiration, let’s take a look at one company that is already publishing great expert content to attract the right people and make more sales.

ScrapingBee provides advanced systems to manage headless browsers and rotate proxies as their customers scrape information from various sites. Since there are lots of proxy solutions and many competitors in the market, ScrapingBee uses educational content to show why their products are superior to other options.

A great example is the company’s round up of sites that offer a great free proxies list. This blog post offers essential information on the top proxy list websites and a benchmark to show how well they perform. This information can help their ideal customers looking for an automated solution to manage their proxies and streamline the scraping process.

Creating different types of content doesn’t just enhance and remove friction from your sales funnel, but it can also help your SEO efforts.

By offering valuable expert content, your target audience will begin to view your brand as one they can trust, which will encourage them to move further through your sales funnel and eventually make a purchase.

2.   Ensure it’s incredibly easy to buy from you

The easier it is for someone to take the next step with your business, the more likely they’ll be to make a purchase. So, make design choices that create a more intuitive user interface to encourage users to convert to paying customers.

Here are some tips for designing a user-friendly purchasing process for the end of your sales funnel:

• Create a mobile app: Having an app for your eCommerce store will allow people to browse and purchase quickly.
• Offer product videos: Customers will feel more confident in their online purchase if they see the product or service in action.
• Allow multiple payment types: Offering multiple payment options will prevent cart abandonment and lead to higher conversions.
• Free shipping: Customers often make it to the end of the funnel only to be discouraged by shipping costs. Offering free shipping will make the purchasing process more comfortable.
• Discount codes: Customers love a good deal. Timely offers and discounts will attract users to move towards the end of your sales funnel.

Intelius, a background check service provider, offers a streamlined user interface that makes it easy for users to enter their information and move down the sales funnel.

They even provide a call to action (CTA) button that allows customers to “skip the line,” which speeds up an already easy purchasing process.

Like Intelius, place all vital information above the fold on each landing page to ensure customers find the details they need quickly and easily. Providing a prominent form like Intelius helps ensure customers know exactly what they need to do from the moment they land on your site and moves them forward in their customer journey.

3.   Stay active on social media

To keep your sales funnel flowing, your brand needs to be visible. So, you need to ensure that your company, products, or services stay on the minds of your prospective customers.

A great way to stay in the spotlight is to engage with your target customers on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

However, you mustn’t flood your audience’s feed with ads and content. You’ll want to take measures to ensure your growth tactics are subtle yet effective.

Here are some organic and paid tactics you can use to consistently engage with your target customers on social media without overdoing it.

If you’re worried that you might not have the time or resources to frequently post on social media, consider using a social media planning tool. Bulk scheduling allows you to schedule multiple social media posts in advance. This way, you’ll ensure you never miss posting content at crucial times when your audience is most active.

4.   Use strong calls to action on your most important web pages

Another way to move visitors through the sales funnel is with strategic calls to action.

A CTA, is one of the most important elements of a web page. They act as signposts to let users know what they need to do next.

CTAs must be strong, direct, and clearly demonstrate the specific path you wish your users to take. Create powerful CTA buttons by using eye-catching colors and simple designs that take the guesswork out of the next steps someone needs to take in their customer journey.

Here are some ways to craft a solid call to action that will move your visitors towards the end of your sales funnel.

• Capitalize on their FOMO
• Give your audience a good reason why they should take the next step
• Use strong, commanding verbs
• Choose words that evoke strong emotions
• Highlight free trials and scarcity to persuade users

Without strong CTAs, you may fail to capture your customers’ attention, causing them to leave your website and continue looking for a product or service elsewhere. Potential customers may also become confused about what to do next and give up on their journey altogether.

Tree planting website ClickATree uses strategically placed CTA buttons in colors that stand out against their website’s background. Plus, they use language like “Plant now” and “Plant that tree” to create a sense of urgency.

ClickATree also uses a pop-up with a countdown clock, letting users know that a special offer is about to run out. This triggers a sense of FOMO and inspires users to continue on their journey.

Choose colors that stand out from your web design palette, as well as language that gives clear, concise directions to your users. This will help move visitors smoothly through your funnel.

5.   Always follow up

If users don’t make it to the end of your sales funnel, it’s not game over. You must follow up with people who were very close to making a purchase previously.

To make the sale happen, you need to find out why they didn’t convert. Take steps to recapture their attention and remind them what steps they need to take to continue with the purchase or conversion.

Following up will boost your sales and increase your conversion rate. Take the time to identify customers close to the end of the funnel and reach out to show them you care about them.

For example, you could trigger an email campaign to remind people about items left in their cart. Consider including a discount code to entice them to complete their purchase, too. That extra discount may tip the scales in your favor, and this could lead to a stronger sales funnel and more conversions.

Summary

Revising your sales funnel strategy is a great way to boost conversions and drive sales when you want to improve your bottom line. Not only will your business benefit, but your customers will appreciate the user-friendly path you provide.

Take the time to ensure your sales funnel is intuitive and that the benefits for the customer are clearly communicated. Use these five tips to bring your funnel to the next level. Before long, you’ll see your ROI spike as users convert to paying customers thanks to your company’s streamlined sales funnel.

Looking for more ways to improve your business? Check out Tweak Your Biz’s business section for more articles and expert advice.