Firstly, if you haven't read our blog Organic Social Media is Dead - What Now?! we suggest you do that now. Marketers and business owners have finally started to realise that most website & web pages have the most crucial & major flaw: they’re not designed to win customers with high conversion rates. In the past, websites were the forefront of any business, and without one – you would be seen to lack professionalism and infrastructure. The simple fact of the matter is that Organic Social Media efforts nowadays simply don't yield results; and in order to be successful one needs to consider branching out towards the realm of Paid Online Advertising. So why is Social Media failing your business? Read our blog Why Social Media Management is Failing your Business in 2020 for more information.
In contemporary times with shorter attention spans & hyper-connected distractions at every beep or notification – websites tend to be overwhelming. While they showcase who your business is, what you do & why it may be important to them – they’re bad at guiding prospects through the client lifecycle. Furthermore, your business may have various products that are specific to various buying persona’s. A website can’t account for the different needs and pain points for each buying persona and for each product. To put it all into perspective – this is why the average conversion rate for websites across the world is 1.87%. Even some of the best conversion optimised websites have a maximum 4.21% conversion rate. Think about how many people you need to attract to your website from social media, Organic SEO & online paid advertising to get clients 1 lead. Keep in mind you may need several leads to land 1 client. For more information regarding SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) read our blog What is SEO & Why you Need it to Succeed in 2020.
First off, as I’m sure some of you are not aware of what a sales funnel is, allow me to explain. In the simplest terms, a sales funnel is a series of landing pages that take the customer through the client lifecycle within a matter of minutes. Landing pages are one-page websites that have no navigational capability. You either fill in the form, or you close your browser/tab. High-converting landing pages optimize your message because they make you come up with a short, to-the-point summary that highlights the most important aspects of your product or service. Sales funnels are the best way for businesses to turn online visitors into either leads or sales; however, while many businesses use landing pages, these pages are under-utilized. If you know what a sales funnel is, you know why you need it and you're just looking to garner better conversion rates - Read our blog on the 5-Crucial Steps To The Perfect High Converting Landing Page.
Why does your Business Need them?
Well, let’s answer a question with another question. What is the number 1 reasons why business fail or succeed? Sales. Without sales, your business cannot make any money and thus cannot grow. Now when it comes to sales, having a telecommunications company and cold-emails promote your products and/or services will only get you so far. These days, consumers have spam filters & caller ID, so getting through to them in the first place is tough. Secondly, consumers hate being bombarded with by pushy email marketers or ‘sleazy’ salesman – they will come up with whatever reason they need to, to get you to stop contacting them. This is why it is extremely important to ensure that you have a well thought out, email marketing campaign that both educates and provides individuals with VALUE. For more information on how to set up your Email Marketing campaign, read our blog The 5 Essential Emails you need in your Automated Nurturing Series.
To take it one step further; in such a harsh economic climate – even networking doesn’t guarantee you new leads & sales. Gone are the days of reaching out to old friends or colleagues through acquaintances. Everyone is on the hustle to make more money while trying to spend less. Fine – then pay for billboards. Do you mean the ones that no one even remembers or looks at in traffic? Everyone too busy on their phones. So, what’s the fix? Well, what if instead of forcefully contacting them, you just had to locate them & if they were interested – they will come to you. Sound like a dream? Well, it isn’t. New Age Explorer has been working on such a method over the past 3 years & we are finally competent & confident in our findings.
These days online advertising has such powerful tools that it can locate extremely targeted ideal customers and put your brand right in front of their face, at the right time – enticing them to take action right then and there. And guess what? You didn’t even need to spend a minute selling yourself. For more information regarding the power of online Ads, read our blog 5 Reasons to Embrace the Power of Facebook Ads.
So let’s say you put out some really amazing social media advertisements that drove interested consumers to your website. Too often, website visitors fail to convert because their click sends them to the homepage instead of a specific landing page that guides them through the sales funnel. An effective strategy can improve conversions by over 50%!
Just as your website contains information that influences a visitor’s decision to take action, a good landing page will do the same. A landing page sets up a clear action for users to take and makes it as easy as possible for them to take that action. As a result, you will see more of that action being taken. Landing pages benefit your business because more conversions typically lead to more customers and more money for your business – and that’s what you and all your competitors need to succeed.
So, a sales funnel is basically lead generation? Nothing makes gathering online leads easier than having landing pages on your website. Links that are distributed through different channels such as social media, email, and search traffic are lost to your website’s homepage. Reclaim those lost leads by steering visitors to your landing pages. Furthermore, when is the last time you visited the second page of search results? Do you remember? More landing pages means more chances to rank higher in searches. When you rank higher, you convert higher. The first five search results account for 67.6 percent of all clicks, whereas positions six through 10 account for only 3.73 percent. It pays to be at the top. Literally.
Last but not least - when you link a landing page to a specific campaign, a piece of content, action, or source, you can see which channels are bringing in the most leads, which topics and offerings are of most interest, or which campaigns are the highest performing. Tracking user behavior is one of the best practices for landing pages that can produce valuable insights. These types of insights can help you refine your knowledge of your target audience and your campaign strategies, and improve your effectiveness overall. In addition, if your landing page contains a form, you can use the information requested in the form to learn more about your visitors, such as their specific challenges, preferred date and time for a consultation, or specific information they want you to know.
Now that you know what a sales funnel is and you know why you need it. How to set it up and start bringing in new qualified leads at the touch of a button for cheaper than any other marketing campaign, becomes the priority. The objective here is to grow and scale your business with measurable results. For more information on how to achieve this, read our blog 5 Ways Lead Generation can help Scale & Grow your Business to 10XROI in 2020.