I have a large container of cold-pressed olive oil from Cyprus. This stuff is so good, and I love cooking with it! I keep a smaller container of my olive oil on the kitchen counter to use regularly, and occasionally, I need to refill it. I have to get olive oil from the larger to the smaller container without losing a drop of this liquid gold. What do I use for this? You guessed it, a funnel.
If I pour slowly and steadily and the funnel does its job, all the liquid ends up in the smaller container without spilling everywhere. The exact outcome I want and expect. If the funnel has holes or is cracked, then it’s not doing its job, the olive oil goes all over the counter, I scramble around trying to figure out how to not lose it, and end up licking it off the counter so it’s not wasted…not a great picture, but do you see where I’m going with this???
Side note: Be thankful for my analogy because Leigh wanted to talk about the time a cicada peed on her head at an olive grove in Crete. You’re welcome.
An essential tool
In business, we talk about sales funnels all the time…but conversion funnels are less discussed. Multi-faceted marketing efforts help funnel online users to your site which leads them down the funnel to converting to a lead and then a customer. We also know not every visitor to your site will travel the length of the funnel to becoming a customer. The goal is to figure out where you’re losing them and how to guide them to complete the journey.
A documented website conversion funnel is an essential tool for any online business. It helps you understand the steps that your visitors take as they move from being a visitor to becoming a customer. By understanding this process, you can ensure that your website is optimized to provide the best experience possible and help you reach your business goals. It also helps you see where you maybe loosing olive oil…I mean potential customers, and where you can make adjustments to increase the number of leads.
How does the funnel work?
A conversion funnel includes awareness, consideration, intent and action stages. Awareness is at the top and the widest step where visitors learn about your brand. Consideration is the next step down and not quite as wide where visitors check out your website and consider if they align with your brand or does it fill a need. This is where you need to build trust. Intent is another step down into the funnel and where it begins to get more narrow. Intent is expressed when a site visitor begins to actively seek a solution to their problem and try to understand the benefits of the solution you’re offering. Action happens when this visitor takes a desired action that leads to a conversion.
Funnels & optimization work together
Conversion Rate Optimization works in tandem with the Conversion Funnel. The goal of Conversion Rate Optimization is to increase the number of visitors that make it to your website and eventually convert to becoming a lead. Once they’re a lead that they continue the journey to becoming a customer. Once a customer, they then become a retainer or repeat customer, and finally a customer who refers other visitors and leads to your business. Wins all around!
Conversion funnels speak to your target audience
Focusing on stats, analysis, and data can lead us to forget the target of all this information: people! We do all this because we believe the services or products our businesses offer will serve these customers. Our businesses exist to help, meet a need, or free up our customers to focus on what they enjoy. This data and funnel represent how people experience your brand and business online.
It is important to understand your target audience, and those who visit your website that aren’t converting. In order to understand, we need to ask questions and listen. What are the obstacles they’re experiencing? How can you speak to building relationship and trust with those users? What need or problem is your business solving for them? What are the steps they need to take to become a customer? Are the steps crystal clear or kind of confusing?
Conclusion
By understanding the steps in the website conversion funnel, you can optimize your website to provide a great experience for visitors and most effectively achieve your business goals. With the right strategies in place, it’s easy to create an enjoyable user experience that will help visitors become loyal customers. It’s worth investing time and resources into understanding your website conversion funnel, and setting it up for maximum success. Just like it is a must to invest in a solid funnel for pouring your (liquid gold) olive oil!
